Nowadays, despite the appearance of different musical genres, melancholic music and songs are by far not abandoned. Maybe this is due to the fact that people who are able to sing or compose melancholic music are those individuals who are more mature and are more capable of feeling the pain of the world. For me, the phrase about melancholy being the sign of a superior individual, of someone who is mature and capable of deep feeling retain its relevance (Libbey, 2010). I enjoy listening to Madonna’s songs and feel that her music instills me with a light sorrow for many injustices of the world. Her music often makes me ponder on different problems and, at the same time, strengthens my desire to challenge and resolve them.
I believe the madrigal ‘Flow, my tears’ by John Dowland is, in essence, a melancholic kind of music. I believe this music contains the elements of word painting when the ascending musical line serves to portray the singers’ feelings of sorrow and melancholy. The music contains drones to make the melody more expressive. The fact that several music voices sing different musical lines makes the melody resemble church music and creates the impression as if the listeners were listening to the songs of angels (Dowland). Moreover, church music is often melancholic and has similar high pitches found in the melody. The fact that sometimes singers start earlier than the accompaniment supplements the impression since this feature is characteristic of church singing. The chorus consists of soprano and bass voices, which adds to the melancholic character of a musical piece strengthening the impression that all people are sad. I like the music piece despite its melancholy character because it is beautiful and makes one think about the sinister events in the world of today.
References
Dowland, J. Flow, my tears. [Song] YouTube. Web.
Libbey, T. (2010) John Dowland’s art of melancholy. NPR. Web.