Topic: Word painting

[popcorn]

Wikipedia sez: "Word painting (also known as tone painting or text painting) is the musical technique of composing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song's lyrics. For example, ascending scales would accompany lyrics about going up."

Shite term. But I'm a sucker for a good bit of word painting. Here's a corker: the key change just as the gospel choir sings "change!" in Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson.

Missed opportunity: no crossrhythm when Cyndi Lauper sings "the drum beats out of time" in Time After Time. Shame, it could have been a hit song.

[Twed]

That would have been too on the nose. Also it means she's implicitly saying "but not the drums in my band, Motherfucker. We keep our shit tight".

[daf]

This sort of thing ?

XTC - Love on a Farmboys Wages - Andy sings the line 'Milks the Herd" with herd sounding like a cow moo-ing ('Uuuuuuurd')

[mrpupkin]

Another XTC one, in Beating of Hearts you get an aeroplane noise when he sings “louder than bombers in flight”…although I suppose if you start including sound effects the list is endless. Can you clarify is an aeroplane noise an acceptable word painting thanks

[Flouncer]

'Wake Up and Make Love to Me' by Ian Dury springs to mind - when he sings "sliding down your body" there's a legato slide on the bass, then later he sings "roll against my body" and there's a sort of rolly drum fill.

[SteveDave]

In "Turning Tide" by Super Furry Animals:

"The service was so slow
My eyes began to grow
Into telescopes"

Something slowly descends that sounds (to me) like eyes extending into telescopes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPzGILufC2k

[Better Midlands]

Cole Porter - Every Time We Say Goodbye

During the lyrics "change from major to minor", Porter begins with an A♭ major chord and ends with an A♭ minor one, matching the mood of the music to the words.