Music and Literature

[BentonGrey]

Howdy guys!  I am teaching World Lit 1 this semester, and I'm super excited about it!  I'm having a blast already, but I thought y'all might be able to help me out with something.  I always play music before class from my Pandora stations, but I was thinking that it might be fun to start or end with a song that has some kind of connection, thematic or otherwise, to the text of the day.  I don't mean for this to be anything serious, but just something fun which might expose these cultureless barbarians (read, kids) to cool music, just as they're being exposed to cool literature.  For some things, I already know what I'm going to do.  For example, I'm DEFINITELY going to play them Blind Guardian's "Skalds and Shadows" when we do Beowulf, but we'll have multiple days for many texts.  There are also many for which I'm not sure what to play.  So, I thought that the FR community are the perfect folks to help me find the right song for the right story!

I have a few ground rules for suggestions:
No rap.  This genre is like nails on a chalkboard to me.
No country.  I like some country, but on the whole I'm not a big fan.
Try to focus on classic music that "kids these days" won't have heard but should.

We're currently reading the Iliad, and we've got two more days for that.

Up next is Plato's "Apology."

After that we've got Ovid's Metamorphoses. 

What do y'all think?

[HarryTrotter]

Dragonforce maybe?

[detourne_me]

Maybe some Rush?

[daglob]

It's probably not available but Bernie Kraus' "Citadels of Mystery" might be interesting, and I have a fondness for Bo Hasson's Lord of the Rings album. I used to listen to those when I studied.

[OrWolvie1]

well, you could always play Rush's "Rivendell" or a Farewell to Kings for some older, grittier stuff, or if you are looking for something more modern and upbeat, try Roll the Bones or The Garden from their Clockwork Angels album

[BWPS]

For The Iliad
Lorde - Glory and Gore

For Apology
Vampire Weekend - The Kids Don't Stand a Chance

never even heard of the other one.

[Shogunn2517]

Well, Benton, if you're anything like me you might have a Basil Poledouris Station in Pandora.  His music from the Conan Duology was pretty epic.  Classical, mysterious and not slow and monotone.  One of my favorites of course being "The Orgy".  These tunes definitely get me in the mood to Skyrim some more.  Of course that very station throw in a lot of Hans Zimmer, which ain't a bad thing.

And by the way, in defense of rap, since the majority of it is based on sampling of tracks from other genres and mixing of other elements, not all of it is explicitly scratching,  which can be a bit of a jarring sound to an untrained ear.  Digable Planets "Rebirth of Slick" is a HEAVILY influenced Jazz song with a extremely catchy chorus(you'll know it if you Google it, trust me).  Others include softer songs like Ice Cubes "Today Was A Good Day" that samples a soulful song from the Isley Brothers. 

Lastly, though it isn't rap, listening to Trumpeer Herp Alpert's Rise, those "Clueless Barbarians" would never know they are listening to the sampled original to one of the most "notorious" hip hop songs ever.  While you may not like rap, it's understandable.  But this song is easy listening.