Enigma's Usage Of Different Styles - Research Paper Example

This research is conducted to explore the trends exhibited by music in the world. The truth of the reflection from music is interpreted with appreciation of music in the context. Music is a passion which can influence one in depth. The voyage through the music of Enigma to reach up with the motivation expected by them in the contemporary American society is achieved through the investigation. The expressions of the emotion and theme behind the enigmatic music are unveiled here. History of music can be traced to the ancient age. The healing with music has been in various societies during antique times till this date. Music is “the art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre.” (Music para 1).The magic brought about by this union of notes is recognized worldwide without a second thought. The cultural traits prevailing in many parts of the world have considerable persuasion from the part of music existing in that community. Music is something that can create magic in the real life in nature. The histories of its success are dated back to ancient times of out of records. The world of existence has bowed in front of the spirit of music from the start date of humans on earth. There are different sectors in the music field as well including the eastern and western; within those there are sub categories as well. In the field of music, we can find a number of troops. The contemporary world has all facilities due to the rapid development in entire sectors of science and technology. But, unavailability of a moral quality underneath is seen worldwide. Music has the real power, often considered as divine, to conquer the hearts and minds of people. The messages through music are given much importance due to this fact itself. Enigma is an identified group of musicians started successfully during the year1990 with the leadership of three people, namely Michael Cretu, David Fairstein and Frank Peterson. It was Michael Cretu who acted in two roles of composer and producer which became a real support to the project along with his beloved wife Sandra who was a very good singer identified for sweet voice. The initial works were based on studio at Spain where Cretu and his crew successfully launched many of their initial album songs. Actual start of the musical project cannot be gummed to the year 1990 as one of the founders Cretu had his homework started from 1970s. The initiative of the project Enigma was introduced only by the end of 1990. The album named “MCMXC a.D” was launched during December 1990. This was a collection of four songs namely “The Sadeness", "Principles of Lust", "Mea Culpa” and "The Rivers of Belief". The single named “The Sadeness” was a real success at that time which emphasized on setting the chants from Gregorian and sexuality facts side by side with the help of musical notes that existed above the lowest harmonics. Those tones turned out to be widely accepted music for dance and such other performances. The victory of “The Sadeness” gave an effective start for Enigma which gave a series of hits for all times. The major peculiarity of music from Enigma is its unique mix of harmonics giving an outstanding finish for each song. Also, the themes selected for their music are really appreciable. They try to keep up the moral values for the public in their music. Each song from Enigma tries to reflect humanity and a call for human morals. The analysis I am intending to do is on the songs named “Return to Innocence” and “Mea Culpa”. As the name indicates, “Return to Innocence” edifies on the matter of identifying innocence in one’s self in order to live in this contemporary world of nuisance. The song named “Mea Culpa” shows a person self expressing the guilt feel in him. The meaning of “Mea Culpa” is said as “I am guilty” which as well explores the minds of people. Those themes selected by Enigma caught the attention of public. The reason that made me select the songs is tuned to the necessity for Americans to get a call for humanity and inspiration. In the contemporary world of competition, people are often forgetting those which are inseparable from peaceful life on earth. Enigma believes in belief in God and divinity. “The cross of changes” is an album from Enigma launched on 4th January 1994 under the label Virgin/EMI with new age genre. The album was recorded at a studio based in Ibiza named as A.R.T. studio. The songs were written by the producer Michael Cretu which grabbed top positions in the world music. It achieved a Gold certification of excellence and the song “Return to Innocence” was the best identified among all songs in “The cross of changes.” The song “Return to Innocence” is the reflection of the name. The innocence residing in the world is not with certain groups but within oneself. The humankind is born with innocence; it is hidden because no one is ready to seek it out from the depth within. The song was of 4 minutes and 3 seconds duration with an excellence of musical notes in it. The song is traced to the recognized voice of Andreas Harde, usually known as Angel X. As usual, even this song from Enigma was peculiar with the collaboration of indigenous Taiwanese hymn and "Jubilant Drinking Song". The frequency of the song matches the Jubilant drinking song but the style and set up was up to the chants. This mix actually had much to do with the success of the song. Another fact about the song is that it has depended on many other songs to get the background for itself. The introduction of American touch to the song was identified from the sampling of the music by Michael Cretu from the songs sung by two singers named in an artistic concert arranged for public. The actuality is inside the truth that both of them were from American Musical Instrument Society (AMIS). The frequency and harmonics of “Return to Innocence” thus got a history of American music. "When the Levee Breaks" was a song from the English musical band named Led Zeppelin. The sampling of drum beats for “Return to Innocence” was performed from single named above. Thus, the song is identified as a collaboration of American and English notes, exhibiting the accumulation, plan, form, representation and utilization of both the cultures. The song starts with the naming of the values essential, probably lost in this contemporary world, namely love, devotion, feeling and emotion, hopefully making the listener to remind about those and taking him through the facts of life which he might have not recognized. Motivation is given to make the listener strong, if at all he is in despair. It even declares that no one is superior in this world, so never be proud in anyway. These are explained clearly with the fact that all have the same inner setup of innocence. The listener is made to think about himself and seek out the innocence from beneath. The song describes each and every human to be good but are seen different due to the failure in identifying oneself. Once recognized, the truth of life and humanity prevails in the world as a whole. The current societal traits of guilt are being made to get converted oppositely for the well being of humanity in the world. It says that hiding one’s feeling should never be entertained but should be expressed explicitly without hesitation as it helps to remain as one is. The thoughts and worries in life should be focused only on one’s destiny without fail. With strong determination and avoiding the concerns about the comments while in track of life to destine, it is claimed that no opportunities should be neglected. The necessity for being successful always returns to the fact of being innocent that can be achieved by knowing oneself. May be the fact they unveiled is the existence of God within each individual, most often not recognized. The song gives stop to the reciting with speaking about the factual matter that returning to the exploration of oneself is not a new start, but just knowing oneself often identified as the success in worldly life. The song ends up with instrumental music than words which is hopefully seen in many of the songs from Enigma often said to be borrowed from American notes. The plot of this song as video displays visuals starting from the death of a person back to his birth. The video may be describing that return to oneself is the return to his birth which had only his inner innocence which will kill all his current ‘achievements’. “Mea Culpa” was a single in the first album of Enigma “MCMXC a.D”. The song was recorded in 1990 but introduced to the public on 17th April 1991. It was labeled as Virgin/EMI of new age genre with 4 minutes 30 seconds duration. The lyrics of the song were compiled by Michael Cretu and David Fairstein which reflects the values of being honest in life. The name is in Latin saying that “I am the person who did wrong”. “Mea Culpa” unlocks through a gloomily ringing bell greater than the reverberation of downpour. The march of drum beats precursor the comeback of the Gregorian chanters, and subsequent to a small number of blocks the profound drums revisit in a rapid, directly in advance beats. A small amount of dealings of flute showed the way into the songs "rhyme", completed by Sandras undertone of French vocals. The intermissions from flute and the effect of chorus are kept hand in hand. A destroying insertion of guitar numbers makes the song more acceptable in the public. The distant drum beats are the ending notes of the song making a cool stop to the song. The song starts with the complaint saying due to some reason the person is not able to sleep at all. He hopes something is going to happen to him and desires to conquer it. He says that these feelings are vibrating because he is culpable. He says that he had already performed a huge number of prohibited matters and was insane for life and lively pleasures forgetting the purpose of life on earth and now after doing many mistakes he is truly insane. The guilt feeling in his mind makes him develop such an attitude to himself. Truly, the song makes to think of the situation in which each and every person performs his activities of life. The time which asks us to think about the past will arrive at the dawn which may be too late for the human life. I hope this demands a second thought to mankind including Americans who live in the contemporary world of competitions and rivalry. The call for leading a life with minimized wrong activities is identified in the song. The run for sustenance always makes humans blind towards softer thoughts of humanity. The corrupt world in which the life is maintained makes the humankind equally corrupt. The developed nation like America has the most opportunities for dishonesty and aggression; so the importance of the song becomes clear and forward. The song can be seen as a promotion for rethink of the dirt in the life performed by the humans. The songs from Enigma appreciated through this investigation identify the influence of American style of music. The songs always exhibit a multiple cultural setup which makes Enigma unique in the world of music enchantment. The values expressed through their music are worth for all the cultures prevailing in the world of diversity, so the same for America. Extremely, they are peculiar in all aspects! Works Cited Music. The Free Dictionary by Farlex, 2009. Web. 18 Dec. 2009. . Read More