Salve Festa Dies
I love being surprise when it comes to music. That's why I love clicking on random videos. You never know what you're going to find. So I clicked on Salve Festa Dies and stopped to listen.
Those voices are beautiful. There is something about men singing together that just makes sense. The blend, the depth, the way the voices move together. And yes, there is a certain degree of eroticism in those masculine voices.
I'm not going to lie: the thought of being surrounded by all those men isn't exactly ruining the experience. I'm just happy I don't understand the Latin. Understanding the lyrics might distract me from all that testosterone I can almost touch.
But underneath all that, there is something about the music itself that really grabs me. The melody is beautiful. Really beautiful. What strikes me most is how little it seems to need. There is no orchestra, no elaborate accompaniment, no pile of musical tricks trying to impress me. Just voices and a melody.
When I compose, I spend plenty of time putting notes together, adding things, taking things away, wondering whether a passage needs another voice, another chord, another little something to make it work. Then I hear something like this and think, Maybe I should stop adding shit.
There is something else about this chant that I find fascinating. It doesn't seem to care about time. This melody has been around for centuries, and here I am, listening to it hundreds of years later and thinking, Damn. That's beautiful.
The thing is, music doesn't care who you are, where you came from, how old you are, what language you speak, or what century you live in. A melody can cross hundreds of years and land in the ears of someone who has absolutely nothing in common with the person who first put those notes together. All that is very inspiring. Music doesn't give a shit about your résumé,
As a composer, I sometimes make things more complicated than they need to be. I add another chord, another line, another idea, because I think the music needs something else. Then I hear a piece like Salve Festa Dies and get reminded that sometimes a melody doesn't need much help, all you need is adding one more man in the choir. Besides, who am I to argue with a good-looking melody?