noise."March Music Monday 5 (bonus!) · 10:20am April 1st
While it hasn't really come up in the previous blogs, I do love when a band decides to combine instruments or genres that you wouldn't think would work together but in fact they do. For example, there's Eluvite, a metal band that has a hurdy-gurdy and sings in Gaulish sometimes. Or Nanowar of Steel's Valhalleluja, which is a mix of gospel and metal [let's be honest, Nanowar of Steel is the metal Weird Al].
I have a P. D. Q. Bach album on vinyl, and one of his songs combines lute and bagpipes (among other instruments). As Peter Shickle explains in the intro, the lute is so quiet you can't hear it if there's another instrument on stage, whether it's being played at all. And the bagpipes are so loud, when they're being played you can't hear anything else at all. The cool thing about the vinyl is you can see in the grooves when the bagpipes come in.
I don't know what kind of mindset goes into having a band and deciding to pop in an obscure instrument. I would imagine that if you've got a band member who already plays that instrument, you wind up experimenting and the magic happens; that's how you get songs featuring the bassoon like Because the Night.
There's also the idea of embiggening the orchestra with something that isn't technically an instrument. Take the 1812 Overture as an example; while I'm not an experienced musician, I do know that cannons aren't usual musical instruments. Although if you've got one (or several), there's no reason to not use them.
And there's also combining a rock band with an orchestra (often the London Philharmonic); just recently Cypress Hill announced that they were performing a concert with the London Philharmonic, just as The Simpsons predicted years ago.
In this case, it's not even something that the band came up with on their own, it's something that a fan added. I watch lots of epic/soundtrack music compilations while I write (seriously, you have no idea how many cute fluffy low-consequence Slice of Life fics are written to Audiomachine, Two Steps From Hell, Trailerhead, Brand X music, Jo Blankenburg, Globus . . . the list goes on). Anyway, some of them have animation added, usually cut from movies and game trailers, and sometimes the creators, and that's the case with this one. The original song is powerful, but one little tweak from an 'instrument' you'd never expect gives it that extra punch.
Before I say what song it is, I will say that those of us who live in the Midwest US, or the deep south, or some parts of the West (Texahoma and thereabouts) are very familiar with it, and it evokes a visceral reaction in us. And I'll also say that one of my favorite kind of stories to write revolves around ponies who would know this sound, at least after their time on Earth.
When you're thinking about what kind of 'instrument' you could add to your song, why not a tornado siren? Or an air-raid siren, for those of you with different life experiences?
As a bonus, here's a video of one style of air-raid/tornado siren:
That wasn't the only style; in fact there was at least one version that was powered by a Chrysler big block.
People of a certain age are very likely to have certain reaction to 99 Red Balloons?
Every day, just after noon, someone sets off a tornado siren locally. Used to be just once a month, or weekly.
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After watching "Grosse Pointe Blank" the song acquired an entirely new association for me.
(And, of course, "The Rain is gone" also)
This year I heard them too, used as an earthquake alarm. Creepy stuff. Ground shaking doesn't make it better : )
What I found odd with Pinkie's musical instrument playing was that she all of a sudden became bad at them when she first found a flugelhorn. Before that she seemed to be able to play any instrument she was given, and well. After that(like with the yovidaphone), not so much.
Nice music. I too have known the ever-present whine of "the siren" from personal experience. That lady desperately needs some skin cream.
Nanowar of Steel is awesome :D
I love carefully crafted synergistic combinations* in almost all art, not just music.
I've only heard those sirens in real life once. I was in Dallas for a job, in my hotel room when they went off. Of course I had heard them before in movies and such, but there is no comparison to the real thing. Raised the hairs on the back of my neck! Added to the memorable moment was the subsequent hail storm that broke windows and made my rental car look like someone had worked it over with a ball-peen hammer. I swear that for a second after it hit, I thought someone had opened up on the hotel with a 50 cal.
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* Dunno if there's an actual term for that, but I want to make the distinction between what you're writing about above and the non-esthetic "garbage stew" that's all too common nowadays.
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I'm either not of that age, or missed that particular societal moment--either is equally possible.
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Maybe they're just making sure it works.
Our town stopped testing it, 'cause people complained. Then when the storm came, they discovered that it didn't work any more . . . now they test it at least monthly.
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Never heard of using them for earthquakes, but if you've got them, why not? I'm not sure how much advance warning you'd get with an earthquake; still, any warning might be better than none.
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Hmm, I hadn't really noticed that. Then again, I never watched all the episodes, so there's some stuff I surely missed.
Maybe it was a cursed flugelhorn?
I will say that I loved in one of the Equestria Girls shorts, she was playing a Theremin. That's a fantastic instrument.
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It's chilling every time that it's not a test . . . you just know by the clouds, and the odd stillness, and then the siren starts. . . .
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Yes, they are
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There's a lot skilled artists can do when they're not scared to combine things nobody has ever combined before.
I've heard them more than once, and every time it's been haunting and terrifying. Like, not counting the tests, you get used to those, but when the sky's a weird color and the clouds are doing strange things, maybe even starting to circle, and everything is weirdly silent and you can feel the storm in the air and then the sirens start . . .
I've never seen real bad hail, but I've been through windstorms and severe straight-line winds, storm fronts that flipped trailers, lightning so frequent it was like a strobe light, the backside of a tornado (it formed less than a mile from where I was). Weather can be crazy.
Hope you'd opted for the extra insurance on your rental car.
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It was on the company card!
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Ooh, that's nice, I bet that saved you a lot of potential headaches.