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sophia_sol) wrote2013-02-22 06:12 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2013-02-22 06:12 pm
Entry tags:
Les Miserables Original French Concept
What I did today: Listened to La Faute A Voltaire wayyyyyyyyyy too many times. Um.
So, if you are familiar with Les Mis recordings, you might be able to infer from this that yesterday I introduced myself to the Les Miserables Original French Concept album. And I just can't do the same sort of Thoughts about it that I've been doing for the other cast recordings I listen to, because it is SO VERY DIFFERENT that I get all caught up in that and cannot give my opinions of any of the character portrayals.
IT IS SO DIFFERENT OMFG. I just have no opinions whatsoever right now, because I'm too busy going WHAT IS GOING ON???? I need to read the English translation of the lyrics to make sense of things, it is clear. (I think I have the translations open in one of my tabs right now? I'll get to it. Sometime.)
So most of my thoughts, actually, are on the subject of my reaction to the fact of it being in French. Because it was weirdly less weird for me to listen to than the Spanish! When I listened to the Japanese Red Cast, it was all nonsense syllables to me, so I could ignore the words entirely in favour of paying attention to everything else. When I listened to the Madrid Cast, it was juuuuuuuust recognizable enough as being Almost Actual Words that I kept on having my brain getting tripped up on it.
But listening to the OFC? It was actually pretty much just like listening to something in English for me, even though I don't actually KNOW French. Here is why: I'm not actually very good at keeping my attention focused on the lyrics of songs I'm listening to (thank you, ADHD), so generally speaking when I listen to songs in English they osmose into the back of my head but I couldn't tell you what's going on unless I'm working really hard at Paying Attention. So I catch the odd word or phrase here and there but mostly my brain is like OH HELLO TANGENT I AM GOING TO WANDER DOWN, WHAT, I'M NOT LISTENING TO MUSIC WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. So pretty much what I hear is YEP THEY ARE DEFINITELY SAYING WORDS.
And as a person who lives in Canada and has thus studied the requisite years of French in elementary school and high school, I have heard enough French in my life that my brain parses French as YEP THEY ARE DEFINITELY SAYING WORDS. It sounds like entirely familiar language to me. So. I listen to the OFC and even if I am paying very close attention by brain comfortably feels the same as if I were not-really-paying-attention to a song in English. Because I catch the occasional word or phrase and the rest of it is just YEP WORDS.
It's kind of disconcerting how not disconcerting it is.
(okay I have to mention one other thing, which is that pilferingapples' Disco Amis were what inspired me to finally get around to listening to the OFC and wowww yep I started giggling when I reached the line "Lamarque est mort". That is QUALITY ART DEPICTING QUALITY TRUTHS ABOUT A CERTAIN SONG ON THIS ALBUM OMFG)
So, if you are familiar with Les Mis recordings, you might be able to infer from this that yesterday I introduced myself to the Les Miserables Original French Concept album. And I just can't do the same sort of Thoughts about it that I've been doing for the other cast recordings I listen to, because it is SO VERY DIFFERENT that I get all caught up in that and cannot give my opinions of any of the character portrayals.
IT IS SO DIFFERENT OMFG. I just have no opinions whatsoever right now, because I'm too busy going WHAT IS GOING ON???? I need to read the English translation of the lyrics to make sense of things, it is clear. (I think I have the translations open in one of my tabs right now? I'll get to it. Sometime.)
So most of my thoughts, actually, are on the subject of my reaction to the fact of it being in French. Because it was weirdly less weird for me to listen to than the Spanish! When I listened to the Japanese Red Cast, it was all nonsense syllables to me, so I could ignore the words entirely in favour of paying attention to everything else. When I listened to the Madrid Cast, it was juuuuuuuust recognizable enough as being Almost Actual Words that I kept on having my brain getting tripped up on it.
But listening to the OFC? It was actually pretty much just like listening to something in English for me, even though I don't actually KNOW French. Here is why: I'm not actually very good at keeping my attention focused on the lyrics of songs I'm listening to (thank you, ADHD), so generally speaking when I listen to songs in English they osmose into the back of my head but I couldn't tell you what's going on unless I'm working really hard at Paying Attention. So I catch the odd word or phrase here and there but mostly my brain is like OH HELLO TANGENT I AM GOING TO WANDER DOWN, WHAT, I'M NOT LISTENING TO MUSIC WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. So pretty much what I hear is YEP THEY ARE DEFINITELY SAYING WORDS.
And as a person who lives in Canada and has thus studied the requisite years of French in elementary school and high school, I have heard enough French in my life that my brain parses French as YEP THEY ARE DEFINITELY SAYING WORDS. It sounds like entirely familiar language to me. So. I listen to the OFC and even if I am paying very close attention by brain comfortably feels the same as if I were not-really-paying-attention to a song in English. Because I catch the occasional word or phrase and the rest of it is just YEP WORDS.
It's kind of disconcerting how not disconcerting it is.
(okay I have to mention one other thing, which is that pilferingapples' Disco Amis were what inspired me to finally get around to listening to the OFC and wowww yep I started giggling when I reached the line "Lamarque est mort". That is QUALITY ART DEPICTING QUALITY TRUTHS ABOUT A CERTAIN SONG ON THIS ALBUM OMFG)