(Barthes) "The Steward of Gondor" by Howard Shore and Billy Boyd

Barthes says that it is difficult to speak about music. We each interpret music differently and generalizing music by saying that we all must love it, then commentary comes in. We can relate this back to what Greil Marcus said about his own commentary on different types of music. He didn't have any certain credentials to speak or condemn any other persons work of art; he wasn't even musical himself. He just wrote about his opinion and people found it interesting and wanted to listen. Barthes talks about how when music enters language then it "thrusts itself forward, it is the intruder., the nuisance of music" (Barthes 283).This is where the meaning comes into the music. The first song that came to mind when I thought about this was the song "The Steward of Gondor" by Howard Shore and Billy Boyd. There is a long lead in building up the suspense before there is a change in the melody and Billy Boyd starts to sing. We draw meaning from this first part because of the dramatic intro and it is unexpected to hear someones voice, but when we do it only adds to the dramatic setting. Now the dramatic intro is given context and the music breaks through into language.