> Stephen's "movie silence" thread and a CD of my dad's that he loaned me have brought to mind a subject I would like your opinions on (boy, that sentence was really awkward...).
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> This CD is called "Mantra Girl" by a woman or female group (I'm not sure which) of the same name. They sing ancient Hindu mantras only to a modern format - techno music.
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> So. I got to thinking of the VeggieTales Silly Song where they sing 'Larry's High Silk Hat' to the tune of an opera by Verdi, I believe (Verdi, BTW, happens to be my favorite opera composer of all time, although I obviously don't listen to his stuff as much as I should, or I'd know whether the VeggieTales people used one of his operas or not). Anyway, on the tape my family owns that has this song (a Silly Songs countdown tape), during the ending credits they play all the silly songs to a techno remix, including the opera song.
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> And I was furious. The original "Larry's High Silk Hat" song has a *real* orchestra playing the (beautiful) music, and then they *besmirch* it with this unattractive techno remix (it didn't help that the rhythm of the remix seemed to be off-kelter). I didn't even mind they gave new lyrics to the song, because they were clever and entertaining, but when I heard this remix I felt like the original composer had been insulted.
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> I am getting to my point now. Hearing 'modern' interpretations of classical music (especially opera) always makes me mad, so I was wondering: How would Hindus feel if they know about this 'Mantra Girl' deal? Would they be upset that ancient mantras have been done to techno music, of all things? I've heard of Welsh musicians setting old Welish lyrics to new music (and old music to new words), and it's the same thing. What's your opinion on this? I'm not talking about simply giving a song a new *arragement*, I mean putting it to a different style of music altogether. If a song's old enough, does that mean it's in the public domain and anybody can just do whatever they want to it? If that's the case, it doesn't seem right at all to me.
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> I was also wondering if it's even ethical to listen to this CD, because techno or not, they are hindu mantras that I don't understand and are most likely religious. Of course, I listen to my Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack all the time and I don't speak Elvish, but they're not real and don't seem to have a different religion (in fact, Tolkien's Elves don't seem to have *any* religion, but that's another subject, and I've only just started 'Two Towers' so I'm no expert on Tolkien anyway). I can't help but feel that it's somehow wrong for an 'outsider' to listen to a certain religion's music. Or does it just not matter again, and anybody can listen to anything they want?
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> Qua "The CD's much better than it sounds, by the way" rtz

Hey, I heard "White Christmas" in the mall the other day. It was done by some modern group that I didn't recognize. Anyway, they sang the whole song off key. I've listened to that song for a lot of years and I think I know how it should sound. I kept thinking about the voice teacher who said to his pupil, "I play on the white keys, I play on the black keys, but you keep singing in the cracks!"
Howard