Joy, Sadness, Belonging and Gender

 Belonging

In my opinion, for something to truly belong there must be several things that, although may be different, can create something beautiful. It should have a feeling of togetherness despite the differences. While I was thinking of this particular part of the assignment I started to think of songs with the word belong in it; such as Tonight You Belong to Me, but that would be too easy. Then I finally thought of my icon, which is the fact that belonging is like being in a band. In my musical experiences, listening to several different types of bands and genres, I came to the conclusion that The Minutemen, a Post-Punk band, are a full representation of how I describe belonging. If you were to listen to a song by The Minutemen, but only listen to the drums, vocals, guitar or bass individually, you would probably just brush it off as nonsense. Once you put the pieces back together it will make perfect sense.  To many this particular song would sound abrasive, but to me it sounds chaotically together.

 

Gender  

Me as a person, lets start there (because that is after all the interpretant). My index in this process is the memory of only yesterday, when I was told that the adjectives I chose to describe my chosen color were actually adjectives that describe my personality. This is how I consider myself in my own being. The adjectives I chose were strong, soft and pleasing. When thinking of those colors I start to think of a song that has these qualities. It needs to be soothing yet intense and must have the quality to please the ear (these qualities are the icons). Then I come to the perfect song for this, Under the Northern Star by viking metal extraordinaire Amon Amarth.  

 

 Joy

Joy, as an interpretant, always brings me to a remembrance of a time spent with my dad.  We were on a vacation in France, around Saint-Lô, we decided that  we needed some music to accompany us on the long drive to Paris; so we found the closest music store and found a collection of Jazz cd’s. Among the cd’s was one by Louis Armstrong, long story short, we listened to only that cd for the entire trip, especially the song You Rascal You. This song; Despite having questionable lyrics (wanting to kill a man for messing around with Satchmo’s wife) has always since reminded me of that joyful romp through France.

 Sadness

Sadness will always automatically make me think of broken hearts. Broken hearts will always make me think of the saddest character of all the saddest operas; that sad person is Pagliacci, the sad clown. The story of Pagliacci is that he is a circus clown who finds out that his wife has been cheating on him with another man. He found out about the affair before his big performance. He is overcome with sadness, but he must put on the show, here is when he sings Vesti la giubba (Put on the costume). In this aria he sings about how he must laugh and be a clown, as all clowns do, yet he is crying on the inside about the infinite demise of his relationship. He sings Ridi, Pagliaccio,sul tuo amore infranto! Ridi del duol, che t'avvelena il cor! Which is translated to Laugh, clown, at your broken love! Laugh at the grief that poisons your heart!