Christina's comments on Melina's entry:

At my bugging, Melina's asked me to submit a classical song, Oedipus Rex, inspired by an excerpt from the Greek tragedy Oedipus the King, by Sophocles. It's a sort of a simulated symphonic poem & choir. She's playing all the instrumental tracks and singing all the voices. Naturally, there is no symphony orchestra, so it's all done using the keyboard's various instruments and effects.
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What all this means is that she may help me with some reviews, now that she's on vacation and no longer has an excuse not to LOL
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And then again... NOT

JUDGE

RATING

COMMENTS

06-Alex Calvo

6.5

I never liked classical greek literature. Actually, I really never gave it enough of a chance. That being said, I didn't like this song. However, you're obviously extremely talented. It's just not my style.

03-Joe Huettner

6

It's extremely hard to put a poem to music, and I commend you for even trying it, because I very often try and stay away from doing so! The vocals had very nice moments. Good sequencing of all the parts.

08-Don Lyman

7

Melina, brave Melina, how noble an endeavor to put classical verse to music! Seriously, nice job. The MP3 kept rebuffering every few seconds, so it was hard to listen to, but I got the general idea. Your vocals sounded great. Not my genre, but thought you did a good job with a difficult task.

10-Jeremy Haynes

5.5

A little too Avant for my tastes. Very unique vocals which reminded me at times of Annie Haslam.

09-Robert Field

5

Great vocals, very talanted musician...Just not to my style of liking.

05-David Tallent

5

Well written and sang, just not my cup of tea. I am definitely not the best one to judge this song, as some of the traditional attributes don't apply here.

11-Joro

6

The arrangement is very good but,the medley of melodys seems too familiar to me to be original. I am a long time fan of Greek literature and have read and re-read the classics over the years.... This is a great presentation for the right audience but, it is not what I would call commercial or for "the masses" at all. I give you credit for your unique presentational "twist" on a classic... You have a great voice and the harmony vox seemed cool for the melodys. Production wise I would push the music more than the vox on the mix...your choice of sounds is very good...people should be able to hear them a bit better.

04-Mike Tricker

6.5

I have jeard melinas stuff and she really is talented.
This is an off day.

91-Christina

I won't rate Melina's song since she is my daughter and it would be improper to do so. I will however explain it.

This is a piece designed to perhaps one day be part of a theatrical production of the Greek tragedy bearing the same name by Sophocles, hopefully with the full complement of a symphony orchestra and a large choir. Thus the musical style is more operatic, classical, rather than the more usual Broadway musical or rock opera. Even less so could it be deemed pop. So keeping in mind that the target audience is that of a theatrical production of a serious timeless classic, I believe Melina has fully captured the spirit of the lyrics extracted from the original play. Her style of music displayed in this piece is, at least to me, reminiscent of Queen. For some who feel it cannot be original, rest assured that it is, but, like every other piece of music, it reflects inspiration from others of a similar genre. You don't dance to it, you don't hum to it, you listen and you visualize the scene depicted.

07-Nancy G. Brundrett

9.5

I admire you very much. You are not only young and beautiful, but your musical gift blows my mind. I listened to your song for 4 time. I must admit, it took the 3rd or 4th time to feel it. It is different and unique.
Your sound soothes me and that is what I need right now.
Your song holds me in my heart...

Thank you for blessing me with your song,

Nancy G.

01-Lee Alexander

7.75

I hear that Oedipus is one bad mother*@#!ker . Sorry for the Fruedian/Shaft pun.
:)
Anyway, if Oedipus were adapted to a musical, I could see this song being sung by the cast of the Chorus (I'm assuming it's written from their perspective). I think it is a clever musical number. But please ask Melina not to write a love theme for Oedipus and his mom - That would just be sick and wrong!
;)

12-Hazelglow

6.25

This song is a good example of why I think we need to choose a specific category of song for each of our IFC's! It's very hard to compare this one in the same field against the other stuff I've heard here, because it's such a vastly different concept and isn't really what I would call a 'song'. Not in any conventional sense anyway. But still, auite an impressive project and I'm sure it must've done well for the purpose it was conceived. Vocals are quite stunning, and the multilayering texture is delightful, drums/percussion are a rather naff [probably more a factor of the quality of the fake instruments used]. Structure-wise I really wanted it to hit certain chords/highs to suit the theme but it didn't; kept veering off instead into less dramatic territory, so I was left a little unsatisfied as a result.