Congruity and Poignancy in Music

In reading our assignments, I was thinking of examples of so many songs that fit into the topics. At first, even before getting more than 3 pages into one of the readings, I was already thinking about how wordless music inspires emotion. I then thought about how classical and orchestral music (such as new age or soundtracks) have names that communicate certain emotions - Danse Macabre, Moonlight Sonata, Star Wars: Duel of Fates, and compared them to equally powerful music that evokes emotion, such as Beethoven’s Fifth, or Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2… Does knowing the name of the piece communicate or affect our perception of the emotion it’s communicating?

I was glad to keep reading and learn about congruity and incongruity in music. I’ve sometimes thought that “villain songs” in musicals must be so fun to produce, and specifically because they can be so incongruous and funny due to the juxtaposition between the lyrics and the music. It’s almost as if the writer is allowing the audience to laugh at how horrible the villain is because the music is toe-tapping. It communicates that the villain is also incongruous - their ideas are bad but to them they seem fun or good. A great example of this is from the song “You’ll Be Back” from Hamilton:

Doesn’t this song sound FUN? Oh, but he wants to “kill your friends and family,” Hmmm…

Another example is from Disney’s Tangled in “Mother Knows Best.” It has an upbeat 2 step beat about how a mother knows what’s best and cares so much about her child, and yet the lyrics and implications are those of control and narcissism.

Every so often there are reddit threads that ask “What song is actually way more sad than people realize?” followed by hundreds of comments talking about the incongruity in famous songs. Popular answers seem to include “Hey-Ya” by OutKast, and “I Will Always Love You’ By Whitney Houston (originally by Dolly Parton). There is a trend in which musical artists do sad covers of songs that otherwise seem happy, and they are usually really effective at delivering the message of the lyrics more fully. A particularly interesting one to me is Judy Garland singing “Over the Rainbow” live. It’s the same song in almost every way, except we (the audience) know about her personal life and trials, and the song becomes more meaningful and heartbreaking.

One of my favorite examples is Robyn’s Dancing On My Own, with a cover by Calum Scott. I love them both. In Robyn’s version, the music is pulsing, pounding, get-up-and-DANCE music, about the singer dancing on her own when she sees her crush with another girl. It’s saying “I’m dancing anyway!” (Interpretations are up for discussion!)

Then there’s Calum's version. The only lyric change is the pronoun of the singer. The music is way more melancholy, wistful, and the lyrics stand out as a tragic and poignant message of the sadness of being passed over. The LGBT+ longing for love and acceptance is also a huge part of the song’s newly created message. 

Another common Reddit question is “What covers are better than the original?” There are always many comments, but I want to ask the same thing: What song covers do you think are better than the original? Does it communicate a more congruous message? What makes it better, in your opinion?