Settling it over a cup of tea

by Pieter Dolmans

Whenever I hear new music that I like, the frst thing I do is share it with my friends. Partly because I hope they’ll like it too, and partly to check that my taste hasn’t gone completely of the rails. Usually they’ll like it, but every now and then there’s something that’s just too strange, even for their fucked-up tastes. Last time the song in question was Beautiful and Tragic by Adam Neely, Ben Levin, and Justice Cow. One friend told me they didn’t know whether they liked it or found it extremely annoying. This was mainly because of the vocals, which were slightly arhythmic and out of tune, and sounded like the singer was crying. I do think this was all intentional, to highlight how emotional the singer is, but it does present a bit of a conundrum.

Music is a form of artistic and emotional expression. What if you want to express something ugly? Will the music have to be ugly too? Do you need a singer to sound like she’s in anguish to make a song that expresses it? There are several diferent ways musicians handle this problem of emotional expression.

An easy way to avoid the problem is, of course, by only expressing positive emotions. Some genres have lyrics that only concern themselves with how much fun it is to play music and to dance to it. Look at how many funk and disco songs contain the word ‘funky’ within their lyrics. This is not to say that funk and disco are easy to make or play, but their main challenge is certainly not emotional expression.

It is also possible to work the emotional expression into the composition. For reasons that aren’t even entirely clear to experts, some ways of writing harmony will evoke certain emotions. Music that’s in a minor key will often sound sad (at least for people who are used to western har mony). By writing music that is made to sound sad, you leave more room for the musicians to put their technical skill to use without having to exude sadness throughout the entire performance. I be lieve this approach is the most common.

The fnal approach is to make the singer act out the emotion the mu sic is supposed to express, like done in

Beautiful and Tragic. This might turn of some listeners, since it’ll sound ugly or annoying to them; someone who is acting overexcited, bored, or whiny is probably not going to sing with the most beautiful delicate voice. But this approach is certainly not unprecedented, as it’s frequently employed in musicals. It’s only natural, as musicals contain elements of both music and theatre, and acting is presentthroughout their entirety. The existence and popularity of musicals does show that audiences are able to deal with music that is a bit ‘ugly’ just fne. And perhaps my friend just needs to shut the fuck up.

For All Vegans on Campus: We Have Been Blessed by the Frikandel Spirits

by GastronomyCo

ed to try, but was never able to. I saw it in the stores. I saw it in people’s hands. They called it “frikandelbroodje”. This mysterious meat-and-curry-flled pastry really intrigued me, there was just so much to it. When Albert Heijn released their vegan frikandelbroodje, it made my eyes sparkle. Finally, my opportunity to try some more Dutch food has come. And oh boy was it good.

So good that I made it a habit to study at the city centre library just so I could fll my lunch breaks with an Albert Heijn frikandelbroodje.

Let me tell you all about it. The vegan frikandel, which is a type of deep-fried sausage, is wrapped nicely into a puf pastry. This roll is cut at its surface, which creates a beautiful braided pattern almost resembling a fshbone. But then someone came up with the marvellous idea of flling the space in between the frikandel and the pastry with curry ketchup. It tastes so good it makes me want to cry. Anyways, I think you should give it a try. Sometimes it's even on sale, what a blessing.

Now, I can just sit and patiently wait for Albert Heijn to release their vegan saucijzenbroodje, another strangely flled Dutch pastry.