Re: Enya in Quenya (and other conlang music)?

In the art/concert music field, I can think of one sterling
example and one interesting footnote:

Kurt Schwitters' _Ursonate_ is for rhythmic spoken voice,
and makes use of phonetic material (but not words, at least
on purpose) from German. For example, (This will only look
good in a monospaced font!)

Dedesnn nn rrrrr,
                            Ii Ee,
                                    mpiff tillff toooo,
Dedesnn nn rrrrr,
    desnn nn rrrrr
         nn nn rrrrr
         nn rrrrr
                          Iiiii
                               Eeeee
                                   m
                                   mpe
                                   mpff
                                   mpiffte
                                   mpiff tilll
                                   mpiff tillff
                                   mpiff tillff toooo,
Dedesnn nn rrrrr, Ii Ee, mpiff tillff toooo,
Dedesnn nn rrrrr, Ii Ee, mpiff tillff toooo, tillll
Dedesnn nn rrrrr, Ii Ee, mpiff tillff toooo, tillll,Jüü-Kaa?

The score can be found at
http://www.ubu.com/historical/schwitters/ursonate.html

And a recording from the 1930's of Schwitters himself
performing it at
http://www.ubu.com/feature/sound/feature_schwitters.html

The interesting side note is Stravinsky's dramatic oratorio,
_Oedipus Rex_, for which the libretto is composed entirely
in Ancient Greek (adapted, of course, from the tragedy).
I've always found it interesting that Stravinsky used this
dead version of a language not his own, despite its obvious
topical appropriateness.

Paul Edson

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Constructed Languages List
> [mailto:CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU]On
> Behalf Of Markus Miekk-oja
> Sent: Friday, April 12, 2002 10:19 AM
> To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
> Subject: Re: Enya in Quenya (and other conlang music)?
>
>
> > Slaam!
> >
> > I've been meaning to ask this for years, and
> finally I'm doing it now.
> What
> > artists/bands have ever made up a language, or
> part of a language, or at
> > least just plain jibberish (Zappa comes to mind
> here) for lyrics for their
> > music?
>
> For the real jibberish stuff, Mike Patton's
> "fantômas" really is the bomb,
> 45 minutes of avant garde rock with no lyrics,
> just various noises and
> growls and shrieks and utterances of no meaning.
> (iiieeeck!! jarr jarr!
> arrib!) ( iicheeech!
> mamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamamama iicheech! ha ha
> ha ha .... ha ha ha). Really showcases what human
> vocal chords and mouths
> are capable of.
>
> Then in Mike Patton's "Mr Bungle" there's a song
> "ma meeshka mow skwoz"
> which contains imitations of imaginary animal
> sounds and some utterances
> similar to "ma meeshka mow skwoz", probably some
> kind of nonsense.
>
> His "Adult Themes For Voice" is another extreme
> example, though most of that
> is just a thick layer of voice, but at some
> places, what would sound like a
> language does emerge from the total mindnumbing
> assault of overlayered,
> distorted, pitched, etc. voices.
>
>
> There are som icelandic bands that have songs in
> conlangs, (though I bet
> they're simple relexes/mixes of English and icelandic)...
> though I can't recall their names.
>