(TV) Melody Smelody / Semantics?

["Casey, Leo J" <CaseyL@VOLPE.DOT.GOV>]

Mark,

I'm still pretty confused by some of your previous 
e-mails regarding 'melody' and lack of it in 
Verlaine's/Television's songs. (I'll grant that some 
of your arguments have more merit as regards 
strictly the band Television--but even here they're 
too sweeping.)

1) you have presented a very technical and arbitrarily 
narrow definition of melody; if one accepts your 
definition then (of course) everything you 
present/argue from it will then follow;  

2)>I'll just refer to "melody" and we'll understand 
>I mean >"typical vocal melody" or "strong/robust melody" 
(that's not my understanding of melody, or even most 
laypersons);

3) you seem particularly and overly (IMHO) fixated 
on the melody in the singer's voice; I think all 
of us would agree that's not where Verlaine's 
musical strength's or interests lay--but what 
about the melodic content/impact of the 
instruments or other 'non-singing' aspects?  
Even if TV's vocals are not melodic a great 
deal more of his (and to a lesser degree 
Television's) music is more melodic than 
you're giving it credit for;  

*4) MELODY: 
a) "a sweet or agreeable succession or arrangement 
of sounds; tunefulness. 
b) a rhythmic succession of single tones 
organized as an aesthetic whole." [Merriam 
Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition].

Using this definition I would claim most of 
Verlaine's stuff contains melodies and is pretty 
damn melodic. 

5) I think there are more counterexamples of 
music that succeeded commercially despite the 
singer not having a melodious voice or *'the 
singing-part'* not having a strong melody than 
you're willing to admit to. This success can 
happen for a whole slew of reasons (just a 
couple here: because the other parts of the 
song (playing of instruments, or e.g., the 
lyrics [think Dylan]) predominate in a manner 
that's pleasing to the public. 

You and I may actually be just arguing semantics 
and at the risk of boring the other 98% of the 
List, maybe we should continue any future discussion 
on this particular topic off-list?

	Leo
--------------
To post: Mail tv@obbard.com
To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"