Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2012 November 12

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November 12

Lyricless compositions with vocals?

What are compositions which feature vocals with a melody line but no lyrics classified as? Are these instrumentals or are they not?

The above is my immediate question, but this is part of a deeper issue. It seems to me as if there is a continuum between unambiguously instrumental compositions and prototypical songs (with clearly understandable lyrics in a particular language): There are instrumental pieces featuring human voices or vocal effects (usually taking up only a small part of the piece), such as coughing, laughing, babbling – analogous to non-vocal non-musical noise effects or samples – but no sung melodies nor Sprechgesang; there are instrumental pieces with whistled melodies (which may take up a significant part of the composition, or may not); there are pieces with vocals performing only a melody, using a vowel such as schwa, [a], [i] or [u] as support; there are pieces with nonsense syllables (la la etc.), scat, (usually ad-libbed) gibberish; there are pieces using random syllables sounding vaguely like a particular language but only there for effect (Adiemus come to mind); there are pieces using random syllables sounding intentionally like a particular language (Era with pseudo-Latin monk chants); there are pieces with vocals singing lyrics in "invented languages", however without any clear (intended) meaning attached; there are pieces with vocals singing lyrics in developped invented and in principle translateable languages such as Klingon (or Elvish languages, which Enya is known for having used); and there are lyrics in extinct languages from Sumerian to Latin or even more exotic languages whose meaning may have become unclear. Where do instrumentals stop being instrumental? (Presumably, the main criterion revolves around the question if voices act or are used like instruments or as conveyors of meaning, but precisely this may be contentious and difficult to decide in some cases.) Is there an accepted boundary line? Have any definitions been attempted? Is the issue only relevant in popular music, or is the delimitation of vocal music or song from other forms a problem in art music too? --Florian Blaschke (talk) 00:26, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

This is really a request for opinion, and hugely complicated. Can you ask one or two simple questions seeking factual answers? As for an example of voice instrumental music, see The Great Gig in the Sky by Pink Floyd, or listen here. μηδείς (talk) 00:49, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

• Some good articles to read would be Non-lexical vocables in music and Scat singing. --Jayron32 01:40, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

I'm really surprised that article has no mention of Vocalise. -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 04:33, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

That might be the longest question I've ever seen here. I'm thinking Vocalese might qualify also. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 23:46, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

There's also Songs Without Words but they're instrumental pieces (piano solo), believe it or not. Some people have put words to them and sung them as songs, but that seems to fly in the face of Songs without Words. When you think about it, Songs without words with words is the same as just Songs, and that seems a pretty dumb thing to call, er, songs.  :) -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 11:02, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Also, songs implies singing. Musical compositions with only instruments are given other names (i.e sonata, symphony, or simply Instrumental). But they aren't songs, per se. --Jayron32 14:42, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

No, not per se. But then, a symphonic poem has only music and no words, so it's not a poem per se either. But that's what we call them. -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 19:39, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

And then there are things like The Song of Bernadette and similar, which contain no music at all. -- Jack of Oz ^[Talk] 22:36, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

You might find an answer in Category:Glossaries of music.

—Wavelength (talk) 17:00, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Since there haven't been any definitive answers, probably because none exist, allow me to descend into the realm of the individual example: the 2002 Grammy award winner for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon (Utopia Planitia), includes pitched wordless vocals. So at least the Academy didn't view the presence of a human voice as disqualifying the piece as an instrumental (or at least they didn't when they considered the category worthy of individual recognition (which they no longer do)). Regards, Orange Suede Sofa (talk) 17:21, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Slovenian books

Hello, where in NY can I find/buy printed books of Slovenian authors? Bennielove (talk) 00:52, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

If you are in NYC I would go to The Strand at 12th and Broadway, and go to the basement (down the stairs or ride the elevator) and ask one of the people at the help desk where to look. Barnes and Noble used to have a foreign language bookstore in the West Village but it closed half a dozen years ago. So many good bookstores in NYC have close since 2000. The clerks at the Strand should help. There are plenty of Russian bookstores in Brooklyn. Some may have books in other Slavic languages. I would go visit them in person and ask a clerk there as well. μηδείς (talk) 02:41, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

Myself neeraj singh rajawat s/o mr. Dhanraj singh rajawat

Vill. Rawanjana doongar Dist.= sawai madhopur' — Preceding unsigned comment added by Neeraj singh rajawat (talk • contribs) 04:59, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

Hello, and welcome to Wikipedia. This is the Reference Desk. Do you have a question for us? - Karenjc 15:58, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

If you don't speak English, please post your question in Hindi or your native language. (यदि आप अंग्रेजी में बात नहीं करते, हिन्दी या अपनी मूल भाषा में अपने प्रश्न पोस्ट कृपया.) StuRat (talk) 23:19, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

This might be something about Sawai Madhopur district in the Indian state of Rajasthan. We have articles about four towns in the district, but the village of Rawanjana doongar is not one of them. Astronaut (talk) 19:39, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Although there are some pictures at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Sawai_Madhopur_district of 'Rawanja Dungar' railway station. I believe the OP is introducing himself as Neeraj Singh Rajawat, the son of Mr Dhanraj Singh Rajawat of the village of Rawanjana Dungar in the district of Sawai Madhopur. I'm not sure what we should do with this information. - Cucumber Mike (talk) 22:18, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

I think he's asking the distance from he village of Rawanjana Doongar (also spelled "Dungar") to the city of Sawai Madhopur, not the district named after it. StuRat (talk) 22:31, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

fundraising for the same cause

I remember All My Children having a storyline. It was a Mardi Gras-themed masquerade ball. While it was airing, some cast members made pleas to viewers for donations to the American Red Cross. I also remember the cast of One Life to Live recording a compilation album called One Life, Many Voices. Both projects were for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. How much money has been raised through each project?142.255.103.121 (talk) 06:22, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

The leader of the project blogged some of the stats on the proceeds - http://robinstrasser.net/sweetnotes.html - There's also a link to a thank you letter from VH1 thanking them for a $17k donation. Foofish (talk) 19:45, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

Great! But how much money has been raised through the aforementioned All My Children storyline?142.255.103.121 (talk) 19:58, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

I still can't find actual donation amounts. A little more Googling tells me there was also an effort called Operation Soap Hope featuring folks from all the ABC soaps answering phones for donations while on The View. I think this was separate from the Mardi Gras thing. I can't find anything about it other than press releases. Foofish (talk) 17:49, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Unless the all my children studio collected the donations and passed them on it's going to be hard to figure out whether any given donation is associated with it or not. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.75.47.131 (talk) 17:22, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

I vant to sock your blodd!

Did Bela Lugosi ever say that? (It's hard to imagine a context in which Dracula would say it rather than do it.) —Tamfang (talk) 19:58, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

Pretty sure he never says that in the movies. There is a line about never drinking wine or something, but fairly sure the line comes from parodies. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.189.106.4 (talk) 23:23, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

It's not in the [http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/d/dracula-script-transcript-bela-lugosi.html script for Dracula], just the never drinking wine part. Martin Landau says "I'm going to drink your blood!" as Lugosi in Ed Wood according to IMDb. Clarityfiend (talk) 00:03, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Cinema in Western_Sahara

Are the any films that are set or filmed in the African country Western_Sahara? Neptunekh94 (talk) 20:38, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

Pierre-Yves Vandeweerd has made several documentaries there.[1] Javier Bardem partnered to make the documentary Sons of the Clouds about the country. Two more documentaries, Song of Umm Dalaila: The Story of the Saharawis (1996) and Beat of Distant Hearts (2000) by Danielle Smith[2] cover the struggle of the Polisario. Clarityfiend (talk) 00:25, 13 November 2012 (UTC)

Song with skateboard sounds?

I'm looking for songs that use recordings of skateboards as elements in their music. I know there is a Propellorheads track that does this, using the sounds of trucks on concrete as a percussion instrument, but I'm thinking there must be more? Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.189.106.4 (talk) 22:46, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

OPM (band): Heaven is a halfpipe - Cucumber Mike (talk) 22:52, 12 November 2012 (UTC)

That's the kind of thing I'm looking for - not necessarily songs about skating, just songs that use skate samples in them - of course this is both! Thanks! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.189.106.4 (talk) 22:59, 12 November 2012 (UTC)