No Sun, November!

I'm attempting to score Gloomy Sunday for string quartet...and triphop drum machine. And there's the first stumbling block, because the song is written in 4/4 triplets, and there's aren't many triphop beats that work in triplets.

So the choices are to (a) drop the drums, (b) find a drum sequence that fits or (c) use a conventional triphop beat and change the music and vocals to fit. My instinctual inclination is towards (c), because I think there's no point in covering someone else's song if your cover sounds like theirs. If you're going to cover it, do something with it the original artist wouldn't have thought of. But I'm experimenting with all three approaches.

The version by The Associates uses a straightforward rock beat, with chaotic synth lines, and modifies the vocal to fit. Billie Holiday's version is rhymically all over the place - to the extent that the time signature is ambiguous - while Sarah McLachlan's cover is rhymically very strict and avoids triplet phrasing in a way that's almost perverse, but it sounds more fluid simply because there's no drums or distinct bassline - and there's a version by Johnny Hauser that's the exact opposite. I've been unable to find Sinead O'Conner's much-praised cover.

Anyway, at least I'm pretty clear on how to pronounce the Hungarian lyrics, and I should be getting some more help on that tomorrow evening.

Oh yes, the other stumbling block is that it's written in C minor, in the Hungarian mode, which has the usual the usual flattened third and sixth, but a sharpened fourth (a tritone) and an unflattened seventh. Somehow it's typical that Hungary, a country with it's own mad language almost completely unrelated to any other, should have it's very own musical mode. They also sell drinks by the deciletre, and peel their bananas from the wrong end

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I managed to miss tonight's meeting, but the simple and honest method of being soundly asleep at the time. This is one of the few meetings I was looking forward to, as the speaker was Johnathan Neal, who I've admired for years.

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Minge wants to know my top ten party playlist. Well, if I was putting together a mixtape, it might look something like this...in no particular order:

Philip Glass - Knee Play 1 (from Einstein on the Beach)
New Order - Subculture
William Orbit - Barber's Adagio for Strings
Peter Gabriel - Games Without Frontiers
Matt Bianco - Wap Bam Boogie
Kronos Quartet - Autobahn (Kraftwerk cover)
Queen - Football Fight (from the Flash Gordon soundtrack)
Trans X - Living on Video
Hooters - Satellite
Paul Hardcastle - Just for Money

Part songs that made me sit up and take notice the first time I heard them, part tracks I really shouldn't like if I had any taste, and part tracks included because no one else would think of them.

Runners up:
Laurie Anderson - Language is a Virus
Itchy Fingers - This Morning
Hoodlum Priest - Caucasian
Nu Shooz - I Can't Wait
2 Unlimited - Workaholic

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Ah, it seems part two of the challenge is to answer some questions about yourself in song titles:

Are you a man or a woman?

Johnny Cash - A Boy Named Sue
(but not: Chaka Khan - I'm Every Woman)

Describe yourself

Alexander O'Neal - Fake
(but not: U2: Even Better than the Real Thing)

What do people think when they are around you?

The Who - Who are you?
(but not: Madonna - Who's That Girl?)

How are you feeling?

New Order - Confusion
(but not: Glenn Campbell - Like a Rhinestone Cowboy)

How can you describe your last sentimental relationship?

REM - It's the End of the World as We Know It
(or: The Carpenters - I'll Never Fall in Love Again)

Describe your new relationship with your partner or suitor(s)

Lou Ried - I'm Waiting for My Man
(but not: Sinnita - So Macho)

Where would you like to be right now?

Snow Patrol - In Bed
(or: Freddie Mercury and Monseurat Caballe - Barcelona)

How are you with regards to love?

Vangelis - To the Unknown Man
(or: Samantha Fox - You Keep Me Hanging On)

How is your life?

Art of Noise - A Time for Fear
(or: Beegees - Stayin' Alive)

What would you choose if you had only one wish?

Bill Bailey - Kill the Trolls
(but not: The Avengers - Kinky Boots)

Write a quote or a famous sentence

The Buggles - I am a Camera
(but not: Little Richard - Good Golly Miss Molly)

Now letÂ's rap it up...

Public Enemy - How Low Can You Go?
(but not: Culture Beat - Mr Vain)