Meaning and Music Without Lyrics

[Squilookle]

I was wondering if there is any music that you find meaningful that has few or no lyrics. I really like orchestral music and feel like some of it is very meaningful even without lyrics in which I usually find meaning.

Just out of interest, are you left handed?

If so- there's a reason you find meaning in music without lyrics...

I want to call bullshit on this, but as I actually don't know anything about it, is there any evidence to back up your claims?

You know what? I could give you examples of how widely this is understood, the studies that first discovered it in the 1960s, the whole REA/LEA thing... but why should I even bother? You want to call bullshit on the whole thing even when you acknowledge that you know nothing about it.

There's plenty of evidence out there. Go find it yourself.

 

[Mojo]

Mass Effect 3's "An End Once And For All" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5JvbD2Zc9I] - a sad but epic score to accompany the tragedies in ME3's ending, and the Normandy's final push

Beat me to it. This was the first thing that came to my mind as I read the first post.
Imma just post the YouTube link here for great justice!
EDIT: No, actually it was this one, but they are very similar

 

[Kontarek]

Can't believe I posted in an instrumental music thread and almost forgot to do my obligatory plug for Sakamichi no Apollon:


Just a killer, killer jazz soundtrack produced by Yoko Kanno, and a great show too.

 

[vgmaster831]

I was wondering if there is any music that you find meaningful that has few or no lyrics. I really like orchestral music and feel like some of it is very meaningful even without lyrics in which I usually find meaning.

Just out of interest, are you left handed?

If so- there's a reason you find meaning in music without lyrics...

I'm not left handed, but of what reason do you speak?

 

[SomeLameStuff]

I'm not left handed, but of what reason do you speak?

Just the science of left-handed people using their right-side brain more often, the right side being the creative side.

OT:


The Persona series is just FILLED with music like this.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Trent Reznor has always made wonderful instrumentals.

I especially love how he works in that theme to another song on that same album that I can't remember the name of now. The Fragile really is pretty much a masterpiece.

I believe it's also in 'Into The Void', and I think it's in another one too. I love the way he does that also, it makes the album feel strangely cohesive. He did the same on Downward Spiral too, the descending piano run at the end of Closer shows up in 3 or 4 songs.

Most obvious example would be The Frail/The Fragile. And yeah, that album is a masterpice

 

[Peithelo]

Basically everything from Vangelis is music that usually has no lyrics at all, which is something I often prefer. I tend to find this kind of music more involving than music that does have lyrics. And I do happen to find a lot of meaning in the next composition, for example.

 

[AnarchistFish]

Don't get why so many people listen to soundtracks

I've never thought they worked outside of the media they occupy

 

[Old Father Eternity]

Don't get why so many people listen to soundtracks

I've never thought they worked outside of the media they occupy

For quite a lot that holds true but not for all. One of the most recent ones from gaming for example, to me at least, is the ost for Journey, I have never played the game but damn do I like that music.

From movies/animation there is also "The Assassination of Jessie James" and "Skycrawlers" I have seen them but the music holds up on their own as well even without the context of their respective works of media.
Perhaps it has something to do with how people associate things.

 

[thejackyl]

One song that stands out for me (It has lyrics, so deal) is In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (off of the album with the same name by Coheed and Cambria), but since this is music WITHOUT lyrics, I'll just point to the intro.

I'm not good with music terms so I don't really know how to explain it. But it starts off with a rather somber sounding riff, and than it escalates to a much more frantic sounding riff. Not frantic as in intricate, but it's a shift in the tone. And it paints the picture before the lyrics come into play.

If the music was a movie instead, It would be of a young boy who is standing in a graveyard mourning fallen soldiers and wanting to "Be the hero", and the scene fast-forwards to him facing the horrors of war, or is a flashback to the life of the soldier who's tombstone he is looking at.

Of course that last paragraph is taken form both the music and lyrics but the music itself sets the tone of the whole song.

 

[Able Seacat]

Hard to know what you mean by meaningful but here's a few pieces that I like and are lyric free*

Spoiler: Coyote Kisses - Acid Wolfpack

Spoiler: Helen Jane Long - Echo

Spoiler: Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP soundtrack - Lone Star

Spoiler: Ludovico Einaudi - Nuvole Bianche

Spoiler: sigur ros - untitled #1 (vaka)

*This one does have lyrics but it's 'Hopelandic' which are non-literal lyrics sung by the band.

There are probably a few others but that's enough to be getting on with.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Before the 1900s, the large majority of music had no lyrics so I guess lots of of that could count...

 

[Elemental]

Anything Burial, seriously.
he's my favorite
Would definitely recommend checking out all of his work