Music Appreciation: Word Painting!

One of the more fun and appreciated music writing techniques out there is something called “word painting.” Word painting is, essentially, when you make some kind of musical effect that directly reflects the meaning of the lyrics. The effect can be general and poetic, or it can be short and quite literal. For example, in Garth Brooks’ famous song “Friends in Low Places” Brooks sings a very deep, low sound on the word “low” at the beginning of the chorus.

This is a concept that has been around since at least the beginning of the 17^th century. One of the first and most famous classical composers known for using this technique is the Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643). Monteverdi is known for both sacred and secular vocal music, as well as for being the composer of the first opera masterpiece, L’Orfeo (1607).

While L’Orfeo is filled with examples of word painting, we can listen to the short secular song called “Si ch’io vorrei morire,” which translates to “I truly want to die.” Songs like this one, known as “madrigals,” are also filled with word painting. This capricious love song shifts suddenly between joy and sorrow, and you don’t have to understand the language to hear how the music rises up with energy and intensity for the joyful moments, and sinks down with the sorrowful ones.

Sometimes song writers use word painting with double meanings for an extra entertaining twist. The R&B artist Ella Mai performs a fun example of it in the song “Boo’d Up.” Boo’d up is a slang term that generally means “being in a romantic relationship,” but it is also an onomatopoeia for the sound of a heartbeat. When Mai sings “You make my heart go, ba-dum, boo’d-up” she is referencing both being in a relationship and how her heart leaps because of it. The drum beat also imitates a heartbeat with a quick double-tap of the kick drum.

An English composer named John Farmer (1570-1603) did something similar when he wrote the song “Fair Phyllis” in 1599. That song is about a shepherd and shepherdess sneaking away for some alone time on the mountainside. As the lyrics go, “Up and down, he wandered, whilst she was missing,” the melody leaps up and down very quickly, with male and female voices jumping over each other. One meaning is that the shepherd is searching the mountainside looking her the shepherdess. The other, well, I’ll leave that for the listener to decide. But the piece does conclude with “then they fell a-kissing.”

A great musician will find ways to communicate the message in more ways than just words, and there are all sorts of ways to make that happen. If you have any examples of word painting that you have heard somewhere, please let me know in the comments!