"Joan of Arc" by Arcade Fire

Fall break was god-sent. I counted down the days until it happened, because college has not been an experience I’ve enjoyed for far: I missed my house, I missed my city, I missed my friends, my dogs, everything. Yet when I got home, I felt empty too. Wary. Mostly, because I knew it was only for a week and then back to college.

My fall break has been prominently relaxing and feeling bad and nothing too adventurous. I hung out with my two best friends, both who live in our city still, going to the University of South Carolina, but other than them, no one else had fall break and in regards to the people I used to know from high school, Columbia is like a ghost town. Everyone’s moved on.

During my time of sulking on the couch, binge watching The Walking Dead on Netflix (and at first, I thought of writing this entry on the opening theme of this show, it fit with the melancholy theme, but no), an album leaked. Arcade Fire’s new album Reflektor. It was exciting. Arcade Fire’s songs are some of my biggest inspirations for my writing. Their songs “Ready to Start” and “Wake Up” made me experience things more boldly than any other songs before.

I liked these new songs, I enjoyed the Greek mythology themes of the figures Orpheus and Eurydice, but most of all I latched onto their new song “Joan of Arc.” The title instantly grabbed my attention first. I was raised in Catholic school from age 4 to sixth grade. My childhood idol was Joan of Arc, Jeanne d’Arc, Jehanne d’Ark, etc. The fourteen-year-old peasant girl who said she heard angels telling her to led France against Britain during the Hundred Years’ War. She dressed in traditional male clothing, cut her hair, and led several victories for France until she was burned at the stake at nineteen for crossdressing. So, Joan of Arc has always been an important figure to me up with my other favorites, Pallas Athena, Marie Antoinette, and Hua Mulan.

I hoped that this song would be the best on the album and it is. It starts off frantic, a completely different beat than the rest of the song. It accelerates quickly and then the main beat comes in, decelerating. The main vocals are male who is speaking as a follower of Joan of Arc. He talks about how many people in France hated Joan and even sent her to her death, but now in France, Britain, and around the world she is regarded as a martyr, a saint, and a heroine. As he criticizes the others, he says he’ll follow her truly even when the others are over her, though in actuality he only wants to know her personally. Whenever the male vocalist sings “Joan of Arc” a woman follows with “Jeanne d’Arc.” Then comes in a second singer, the woman this time. She sings the part of Joan of Arc herself. Her lyrics are in complete French:

“Tu dis que tu est mon juge

Mais je ne te crois pas

Alors tu dis que je suis une sainte

Mais ce n'est pas moi

J'entends des voix

Mais ce n'est pas moi

Je ne suis pas Jeanne d'Arc.”

This translates into:

“You say that you are my judge

But I do not believe you

So you're saying I'm a saint

But it is not me

I hear voices

But it is not me

I'm not Joan of Arc.”

This changes the meaning of the song a bit and the tone to an extent. It seems that the woman is not actually Joan of Arc, but a woman this man idolizes and is in love with. This changes the tone to perhaps a certain uneasy, stalkerish vibe. The song is upbeat, but the lyrics are dark, making an obvious contrast.

Despite the dark texture of the song, it helped bring a bit of excitement and cheer to my week.

The song:

http://erinraspberry.tumblr.com/post/64980844539/joan-of-arc-arcade-fire-reflektor-2013

Fieldwork Proposal

            As someone who sees herself as a writer and who plans to major in Creative Writing, I thought I would like to do my fieldwork project relating to this subject. In my musical background project I explained how music was important to me in regards to my writing—that I almost always write to the sound of songs, particularly tracks that come from the original scores from films and television series. This had me wondering—do other writers do the same thing?

 On 8tracks, a music sharing website that allows you to listen to music mixes that people created towards different themes, there are many mixes that revolve around “music to listen to while writing.” Also worth nothing, my Introduction to Creative Writing professor stated that she listens to music when she writes while some of my fellow classmates expressed that they could not, or at least could not with songs that involved lyrics.

            Therefore, what I propose to do for my fieldwork project is an incorporation of music and creative writing. Basically, to collect the information of whether or not most writers listen to music when they write, and if they do, what kind? Does it depend on the type of writer that they are? What I plan to do is collect data from my Introduction to Creative Writing class and my Brevity: Short Stories class—in both of these classes the students focus on writing prose, poetry, and memoir. And so, I would like to pass out a sheet of paper around during these two classes, asking the students and the professors, to jot down their names, the type of genre they mostly write in, if they listen to music when they write, and what artists/genres they listen to including the name of at least on song example. Then I plan to listen to each of the songs my classmates and professors chose, reflect on whether or not listening or not listening the music while writing depends on the type of writers, if certain types of writers have similar tastes in music, etc. I might even try writing to these songs myself as a test run.

“Waslah in Maqam Huzam” by Nidaa Abou Mrad and the Ensemble of Classical Arab Music

The music sample this weekend is called “Waslah in Maqam Huzam” by Nidaa Abou Mrad and the Ensemble of Classical Arab Music. Upon doing research, I am not completely positive where this type of music originates from. A possible answer is Egypt, though this country is in Africa it is considered Middle Eastern. I read that it is played by “a takht in Egypt.” A takht being a representative musical ensemble, the orchestra, etc, of Middle Eastern music.

The start of the song could be considered improvisation or it could be the beginning of the song. To my ears, it could go either way. If it is not the beginning, then the beginning is fifteen seconds in when the music is toned down and takes on a different sound. It repeats the same pattern over and over again. At fifty seconds it becomes quieter, the instrument is one and made simpler in sound. Around one-fifteen I believe the improvisation starts. I think this is improvisation, because there is no pattern. It is a random bunch of sounds and strokes, though it sounds well enough to pass for planned. After this, a singer starts to sing, beginning a new aspect to the song. The improvisation stops there and begins the pattern again. Contrasting instruments start to play, more than one type, in company with his voice. At three-fifty improvisation starts up again, this time more chaotic and with a different instrument. The “true” ending is immediately after the singer stops singing and then there is an add-on of improvisational strumming. All the singing, however, seems to be to the same tune, a strophic form. The way he sings I could imagine a story is being told as well as a slow dance to go with the scheduled music and a picked-up in speed dancing for the improvisation. This could be why it’s structured the way it is. In regards to a story, it makes me think the calm music is for the setting of the story, the drawn out explanation, and the improvisation is for the action, perhaps the emotions of the characters such as rage or despair or ecstasy. The long drawn out bit in the song struck me as distress, lostness, or confusion.

When researching this style of music, I found out more information such as that Arabic maqam is the system of melodic modes of which is used in traditional Arabic music. Arabic music is known to be mainly melodic. Maqam means place, location of position. It is also a melody type, being a technique of, yes, improvisation--improvisation that defines the pitches, patterns, and development of a piece of music. This is known to be unique to Arabian art music. It is subject to no definite organization, no "established, regularly recurring bar scheme nor an unchanging meter. A certain rhythm does sometimes identify the style of a performer, but this is dependent upon his performance technique and is never characteristic of the maqam as such." As for “waslah”--this is a set of pieces in Arabic music of which comprises eight or more movements.

As for my opinion of this music sample, I enjoyed it. It was pleasing to the ears and I think I really enjoy Middle Eastern style of music, there is something whimsical and fun about it. I liked the improvisation--is the music does belong to a story, this improvisation definitely works for storytelling.