Left-field women

[TheH]

Very unusual Prog Metal

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

^^ Wow, what a great voice!

I note that the drummer frequently wears the classic Zappa "this is boring" expression.

[Yaman Aksu]

Oh ok, let's see:

The correct vocal melody (at the beginning, by listening to the Elvis recording) is
d a d e f# g f# e a b c# d e f# g f# e d

Here it instead starts with f. So, for the vocal melody to sound correct, it would need to be sung as
f c f g a a# a g c d e f g a a# a g f

but it's being sung as
f c f g g# a# g# g a# f e f g g# a# g# g f
(i'm not 100% sure about the 2nd a#)

Jazz? Quite possible, because interestingly the singing here is the exact same wrong way twice. First low then high.

Or just plain bad singing? Considering this seems to be a competition, quite possible. One could learn the notes wrong and still be able to sing it wrong twice I guess.

Or both?

Dunno.

[Yaman Aksu]

Oh ok, let's see:

The correct vocal melody (at the beginning, by listening to the Elvis recording) is
d a d e f# g f# e a b c# d e f# g f# e d

Here it instead starts with f. So, for the vocal melody to sound correct, it would need to be sung as
f c f g a a# a g c d e f g a a# a g f

but it's being sung as
f c f g g# a# g# g a# f e f g g# a# g# g f
(i'm not 100% sure about the 2nd a#)

Jazz? Quite possible, because interestingly the singing here is the exact same wrong way twice. First low then high.

Or just plain bad singing? Considering this seems to be a competition, quite possible. One could learn the notes wrong and still be able to sing it wrong twice I guess.

Or both?

Dunno.

Only now realized what this thread is about: listing unusual female performances where music is secondary at best. Had I known, wouldn't have bothered with my previous post about the musical analysis. Totally uninteresting thread. But enjoy I guess. :-)

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Oh ok, let's see:

The correct vocal melody (at the beginning, by listening to the Elvis recording) is
d a d e f# g f# e a b c# d e f# g f# e d

Here it instead starts with f. So, for the vocal melody to sound correct, it would need to be sung as
f c f g a a# a g c d e f g a a# a g f

.........

The main thing to note is that she's moved it into a minor key, a typically Russian move.

[Yaman Aksu]

The main thing to note is that she's moved it into a minor key, a typically Russian move.

The original Elvis version is already a moody ballad, that screams 'Minor!'. The original vocals Verse has the full set of 7 distinct notes (shown in my first line of notes) needed to together define a particular Minor scale, B Minor in this case, whereas the video Verse only used 5 distinct notes not 7, therefore by themselves are not defining any one Minor scale, and, so, if you mean the vocals here were actually intentionally going for a particular Minor scale yes it is possible but it ain't gonna be one of the "standard" ones but rather something like a "harmonic minor scale" or "blues minor scale" and we'd have to know what the intended missing other 2+ notes are…
But, I haven't bothered to transcribe the instrument/non-vocal notes here in the vid, and, doing so, one might find out those scales are out of the picture / being ruled out by the instruments' choice of notes. It's not worth spending further time on, for me.

The fact that the vid hasn't bothered to maintain the definitive good amount of (5-6) note separation that (originally, definitively) exists between the "only fools" bit and the "can't help" bit is plain annoying -- dynamic range thrown out the window. Also, from "I" to "Can't", the original goes to the adjacent higher note whereas the vid goes to adjacent lower note, which is unusual for sure – one doesn't need that sort of thing even if the aim is to switch to a minor key – some would call it "melody bastardization".

But as I say above, not worth spending further time on, for me at least. :-)

[Dana5140]

Actually, the true original version was in minor key, but then Elvis moved it into major. "It was written by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss and published by Gladys Music, Inc.[1] The melody is based on "Plaisir d'amour",[3] a popular French love song composed in 1784 by Jean-Paul-Égide Martini."

Stop overthinking Diana's performance. It is indeed a competition show, and she is demonstrating her vocal range here, since she is a contralto. Her command of English is growing, but this explains why she elides some of the words. She did 9 songs over 9 weeks and won. And if anyone thinks this is "bad singing," I do not understand. You know any 18yo female singers capable of this?

[TheH]

^^ Wow, what a great voice!

I note that the drummer frequently wears the classic Zappa "this is boring" expression.

Yes it is very interesting to hear a more R'n'B and Soul oriented singer doing Prog Metal, and she does it in an awesome way

[TheH]

Goosebumps..

[Yaman Aksu]

Actually, the true original version was in minor key, but then Elvis moved it into major. "It was written by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss and published by Gladys Music, Inc.[1] The melody is based on "Plaisir d'amour",[3] a popular French love song composed in 1784 by Jean-Paul-Égide Martini."

Stop overthinking Diana's performance. It is indeed a competition show, and she is demonstrating her vocal range here, since she is a contralto. Her command of English is growing, but this explains why she elides some of the words. She did 9 songs over 9 weeks and won. And if anyone thinks this is "bad singing," I do not understand. You know any 18yo female singers capable of this?

Oh I didn't overthink the melody being sung wrong, it was immediately clear to my ears from the second I listened to this. Made 2 points to even specify/clarify why it's wrong…"I" needs to be about 5 notes lower than "fall"/"only", and the "can't" right after "I" needs to be higher than "I" not lower…And those same points are correct for also that pre-Elvis Peretti et al version published by Gladys Music (says "as performed by Ingrid M"), I checked its sheet music, but if there's an earlier printing just bring it so we can see if it surprisingly has a different vocal Verse melody, one that matches her notes. To understand why this could be bad singing, the part of my comment to think about, rather than underthink it, is all that. Yes how far apart the vocalist's lowest and highest note on this particular performance are a measure of "range" *but* obviously you're supposed to be correct enough while you're singing *within* that range because obviously that's where the song is (unless it's deliberate jazz or something, hence my initial *acknowledgement*/respect of what *might* be going on here with the melody being wrong…). The melody is such a simple one here that compromising is just plain strange to me – certainly doesn't have to be done to demonstrate the frequency range you're capable of. Jazz range? Perhaps :-) She may very well be all that, winning competitions and so forth, fine sure never had any problem with that, but I also know that I too know what I'm hearing in this one *particular* performance :-) Since this thread doesn't seem to be mainly about vocal range and skills, not a thread about such technical side of things, I actually don't really want to discuss those things here – I simply noticed the strange melody and pointed it out and only gave the list of music notes (technical things) to only make that point. Not really keen on this thread, as mentioned above :-) So yeah anyone can go ahead and enjoy this performance if it's their thing. Not me.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

Goosebumps..

Indeed. Like a hybrid of Bjork and the young Sinnead O'Connor. In a good way.

[Dana5140]

Sincere comment here: "Made 2 points to even specify/clarify why it's wrong…" I am not sure what qualifies as being "wrong," in any choice made by any artist for what they wish to do. You can say, this is not the choice I would make, and I could support that even if I think it is the right choice- we could discuss. But to simply say something is wrong, that's hard for me to understand, music theory or not. Everything in this performance was a choice made by the artist and the people she works with (notably Igor Krutoy, which carries significance in Russia). You would not make that choice, but she did. And I am not parsing language here, I am trying to make a larger point. This is kind of a reader-response v. authorial intent argument, and I generally fall strongly on the side of the reader, but in this case, find I need to support the artist.

[Rarebird]

Goosebumps..

Goosebumbs indeed.

[aith01]

Oh I didn't overthink the melody being sung wrong, it was immediately clear to my ears from the second I listened to this. Made 2 points to even specify/clarify why it's wrong…"I" needs to be about 5 notes lower than "fall"/"only", and the "can't" right after "I" needs to be higher than "I" not lower…And those same points are correct for also that pre-Elvis Peretti et al version published by Gladys Music (says "as performed by Ingrid M"), I checked its sheet music, but if there's an earlier printing just bring it so we can see if it surprisingly has a different vocal Verse melody, one that matches her notes. To understand why this could be bad singing, the part of my comment to think about, rather than underthink it, is all that. Yes how far apart the vocalist's lowest and highest note on this particular performance are a measure of "range" *but* obviously you're supposed to be correct enough while you're singing *within* that range because obviously that's where the song is (unless it's deliberate jazz or something, hence my initial *acknowledgement*/respect of what *might* be going on here with the melody being wrong…). The melody is such a simple one here that compromising is just plain strange to me – certainly doesn't have to be done to demonstrate the frequency range you're capable of. Jazz range? Perhaps :-) She may very well be all that, winning competitions and so forth, fine sure never had any problem with that, but I also know that I too know what I'm hearing in this one *particular* performance :-) Since this thread doesn't seem to be mainly about vocal range and skills, not a thread about such technical side of things, I actually don't really want to discuss those things here – I simply noticed the strange melody and pointed it out and only gave the list of music notes (technical things) to only make that point. Not really keen on this thread, as mentioned above :-) So yeah anyone can go ahead and enjoy this performance if it's their thing. Not me.

You sure are spending a lot of time on a topic/thread that's supposedly not worth your time.

[TheH]

[TheH]

Big fan boy :-)

[davis]

Joy Von Spain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW0At_HZu14

[davis]

Stolen Babies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oag2MAx9-cg

[interbellum]

Jonathan Coe wrote about her in his Notes from the author at the end of his latest novel Bournville: Dos Floris and a song from her album The Widowed Earth from 2017, Silence.
Ordered the CD from Bandcamp and I'm quite impressed by this mysterious music.

[IncogNeato]

OK, so I saw Anna Von Hausswolff mentioned.

I'll add:

Jarboe


Lingua Ignota


Chelsea Wolfe

[IncogNeato]

Also:

Emma Ruth Rundle

[Progbear]

Shocked that I failed to mention Lainey Schooltree up till now. A modern progressive female artist who really needs to be more well-known.

Sidsel Endresen I don't think was mentioned, either.

[interbellum]

Through a site dedicated to David Sylvian I discovered the Belgium musician (with Italian roots) Melanie de Biasio and her recent album Il Viaggio (a double album featuring the discs Lay Your Ear To The Rail and The Chaos Azure.

I can understand why it was mentioned on a Sylvian-related site: the ambient-pop with a lot of whisperings and field-recordings tell the story about De Biasio's return to her roots "to retrace the route of immigration from Italy to Belgium taken by her father's parents. Co-produced by David Baron (known for his work with another left-field woman Sarah Fimm), who also plays Mellotron, synthesizers and Wurlitzer. Most pieces were co-written by multi-instrumentalist Pascal N. Paulus.

Here's a clip that comes with the song We Never Kneel To Pray (De Biasio published some more youtubes on her channel):

[pissdoggy]

... a gal pal o' mine from Toronto way who can't even get arrested...

[Progbear]

Ofcourse the macho guys on this site won't include Wendy Carlos which I think is rather unfair but whatever.

Really, the female pioneers of electronic music need to be canonized more. Not only Wendy but also Pauline Oliveros, Ruth White, Alice Shields, Laurie Spiegel, Suzanne Ciani, Eliane Radigue, Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire and Glynis Jones, among others.