Seven Veils

Modern music has a variety of repeating themes that can be found in classical pieces from the early-twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Women and the representation of women is an example of one of these reoccurring themes. The Weeknd’s “Six Feet Under” from his latest album, Starboy describes a woman in a way that Richard Strauss’s “Dance of the Seven Veils” depicts a seductress in the play Salome. The Weeknd’s voice is very iconic. Its high-pitched quality makes his sound easily noticeable in any song. “Six Feet Under” begins softly with a repeating collection of electronically produced sounds. A heavy bass is introduced which gives the song a dark timbre. The song itself has a polyphonic texture because of the heavy bass line, the accompaniment …show more content…
Strauss’s piece portrays the character Salome as a woman who uses her beauty to seduce men. She uses this power to gain a favor from King Herod, a powerful man, who cannot deny her because of how strong her seduction spell is on him. “Dance of the Seven Veils” has a dark timbre in my opinion, similar to that of “Six Feet Under”, but with much more intensity in the middle of the piece. The music builds towards the end, but ends abruptly with all instruments ending on the same note. “Six Feet Under” decreases in intensity towards the end, but ends abruptly too. Both songs have a build of intensity and reach a peak at some point in the piece and decreases towards the end. Like the women that are of focus in each piece, the music is as intense and dark as the characters. Seeing how “Six Feet Under” can relate to “Dance of the Seven Veils”, my appreciation for music and musical themes has increased. Modern music seems to reflect themes of twentieth century music in a way that can connect two different time periods. Both pieces are interesting because of the dark tone colors and intense builds. These pieces also reflect a type of character that personally fascinates me because of the appeal and character