H2O in music

Note : the image is a copyright free one that I found and edited. It depicts a drop of water into which I added a musical note clip-art and is also used as the O in the H2O formula representing a water molecule. 

Water is essential to Life as we know it. Water surrounds us, in rivers, lakes, the oceans. They have inspired many authors of fiction and, for this blog's needs, lyricists. So, I thought to share music in regards to this very topic of water, but expand to allegorical uses as well. 



You'll recall that I shared last year an entry about Hélène Grimaud's album Water . This is its trailer  
You can listen to the album on youtube  but I really suggest you get the CD and play it on a decent Hi-Fi for best experience and to support the artist. 

I'm a bit surprised that Hélène didn't use Strauss II's famous blue Danube, though maybe it's precisely it's so famous, and limited to one river. Either case, I love this waltz, for itself as well as a soundtrack to Kubrick's 2001 a Space Odyssey. The original piece was composed in 1866.

The Danube inspired many others, mostly for movies and books, as you can see on wiki (scroll to cultural significance). 

Classical music isn't the sole source of pieces about water, lakes, rivers, oceans and other bodies of water. We find the topic very present in pop, rock, oriental and electronica alike. 

Schiller's 6th album Atemlos has a bonus track called Wasser, (Water, in German).This 
19'12" long piece is only available on the dvd in either Deluxe, Super Deluxe, or Ultra Editions of this album, this latter version being the most expensive and difficult to get as it dates 2010.

I cannot offer a youtube preview or anything anymore, it must have been taken down. It's a very meditative long, instrumental piece, accompanied by images of Earth, and focuses, guess what? on Water. 

Waters have been also used as metaphors to emotions. Not only in Anglophone songs. 

This is the case for Poliker's Maym Shketim (Still Waters) taken from his 2-cd best off, released in 2003 and where heavy tears suffocate and still waters run deep, in this pop-rock mellow song (one of Poliker's mellowest, actually), and describes post break-up tears and sorrow.

Yuval Dayan's pop-acoustic mix in Tishal et ha-maym (ask the waters) was just released as a single, a few days ago. In the lyrics, she addresses a man, telling him to ask the waters how transparent she is, in a very allegorical set of lyrics. 

Oceans have inspired just as much, if not more, songs about love, mostly, it seems. 

LTN features ZOYA (that I presented previously) for Oceans away, that is precisely about this very topic. 

Tori Amos' 1000 oceans uses them as metaphors (and part of lyrics) to tears, and has extensive use of water in the clip.

One cannot be exhaustive in listing songs and albums containing water, tears, oceans and other bodies of water as there are literally thousands of them in all genres and decades.  I may get back to this topic in future posts, but for now, shall bid you good listening with the current selection.