I actually completed this song before "To South", but I was so displeased w/ it at first that it has only lately resurfaced. I figured since there're enough of the other songs, this one can make a humble appearance! The order of the songs are now officially scrambled! Oh well. This song was the hardest to make to date, though this gloomy song was made when I was in a quite happy mood. Do you think that had anything to do with the difficulty?
In addition to the challenge of putting in lyrics (I've no idea how I came up w/ "Oblivion's Well of time"--so fancy!), this song was also one of the hardest to sing to. It starts off very low, but the refrain has a really high note. Obstacle after obstacle. I'm not sure why I chose to work on this song!
Some points to consider: the "sea" motif appears in this song. I came across Kate Chopin's "The Awakening" one day, and its passages on the sea really struck a familiar chord w/ the end part of this song. It felt really strange. I wonder if women in the early period, before feminism came into being, had a common fixation on the sea and its great capacity to do various things? It is a chilling thought. Anyway, hope this mosaic of a piece sounds tolerably coherent to you. And I'm not planning on inserting those weird singing symbols anymore from here onward. Not unless I need them myself. I guess it'll be better for everyone involved!
Website: Garnet Sea
E-mail to Athena
Monday, January 05, 2004
Sunday, January 04, 2004
making of To South!
GC's "For South" is the b-side to "Nakenai Yoru mo". The arrangement is almost cartoonishly fun. I really liked the fact that this song focuses on the internal conflicts of the singer--what really matters to him/her, regardless of the priorities of other people. At least that was how I saw it. In terms of Azuki Nana's "death scene", I sometimes think that "south" really means "hell". In other words, the speaker is in a mode of "to be or not to be", to put it poetically. :) Of course, I may be wrong. Allusions to Hitchcock's "Vertigo" and low-tech DOS-style computer adventure games inevitably came to my mind. Mom liked this one, probably because there's more rhyming than usual? Nevertheless, I really liked the pentatonicism of this song.
Website: Garnet Sea
E-mail to Athena
Website: Garnet Sea
E-mail to Athena
Saturday, January 03, 2004
making of Sky Blue
After wish*, I began to redirect my interest towards the lesser known songs of GC. Sky Blue must be one of them, since it only appears on the album. However, it's part of the title of the 2nd album! So in a way, there must be some significance there. By this time, which is September of '03, I was getting pretty used to doing the lyrics, so this song was made without much incident.
What I liked was the rhyming I did in the refrain and the weird fact that I always sang "Sunday" when I wanted to sing "Monday". Sometimes, your self just doesn't do what you want it to do! So I put in "Sunday" in the end. This song also reminded me of a poem I wrote when I was in 6th grade. The whole class went on a boat trip to sample the water, and then we camped outdoors and looked at different plants. Each of us had to come up with image words to share w/ the class, then write our own poems based on the shared list of words. I remember one line in my poem: "Boat people sway". That swaying motion from Sky Blue's refrain just brought that up!
Website: Garnet Sea
E-mail to Athena
What I liked was the rhyming I did in the refrain and the weird fact that I always sang "Sunday" when I wanted to sing "Monday". Sometimes, your self just doesn't do what you want it to do! So I put in "Sunday" in the end. This song also reminded me of a poem I wrote when I was in 6th grade. The whole class went on a boat trip to sample the water, and then we camped outdoors and looked at different plants. Each of us had to come up with image words to share w/ the class, then write our own poems based on the shared list of words. I remember one line in my poem: "Boat people sway". That swaying motion from Sky Blue's refrain just brought that up!
Website: Garnet Sea
E-mail to Athena
Thursday, January 01, 2004
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
Serenade on the Rooftops
So I'm sitting at my desk today, gazing out the window and marveling at the clear blue sky and weightless clouds. Then I see a familiar sight--a small flock of birds perched on top of a orange-tiled pointed roof not too far away. Every once in a while they'd rise gracefully, fly around ceremoniously in grand circles, all in perfect formation, and settle back again. I call it serenading.
At this point, phrases of a certain melody would come rushing in. Know the simple trumpet tune from Miyazaki's Laputa? Pazu playing the trumpet with his flock of doves around him...there's an air of stateliness that seems to pay tribute to the beautiful day and world. This is exactly what Sheeta sees as she climbs up the ladder to the roof, and this would always be one of the defining moments with Pazu in it.
The birds seem to have so much fun! And they're perfectly in sync w/ each other. And they're just birds! If God is gracious to the birds, I'm pretty sure He'll be gracious to us as well. Okeee, gotta go, got work to do.
Website: Garnet Sea
E-mail to Athena
At this point, phrases of a certain melody would come rushing in. Know the simple trumpet tune from Miyazaki's Laputa? Pazu playing the trumpet with his flock of doves around him...there's an air of stateliness that seems to pay tribute to the beautiful day and world. This is exactly what Sheeta sees as she climbs up the ladder to the roof, and this would always be one of the defining moments with Pazu in it.
The birds seem to have so much fun! And they're perfectly in sync w/ each other. And they're just birds! If God is gracious to the birds, I'm pretty sure He'll be gracious to us as well. Okeee, gotta go, got work to do.
Website: Garnet Sea
E-mail to Athena
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