By The Landlord
“How art thou out of breath when thou hast breath
To say to me that thou art out of breath?” ~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
“The air of ideas is the only air worth breathing.” – Edith Wharton
“Deep breathing changes the chemistry of the body by bringing oxygen into the tissue. Breathing exercises produce brain waves.” – Wim Hof
“Oh my baby, baby, I want you so it scares me to death
I can't say anymore than I love you, everything else is a waste of breath.” – Elvis Costello
We do it thousands of times a day, mostly without thought, and when it comes out in music, subconscious, natural, vulnerable, it can be magical.
Some singers, or players of wind or brass, have the purest of sounds, whether that’s like some nightingale singing out in full-throated passion, or timidly and quiet like a tiny, perfectly formed bell tinkling through an Alpine mountain breeze, or sounding like transparent icy water from some Norwegian glacier. And other voices, or wind-based playing, can be muddy, gravelly, all cack and coughing, dirty and grumbling, sounding like some old leaky bucket of rusty nails churned up in some cement mixer and smothered in smoke.
But whatever the quality of that voice, sometimes we hear, perhaps faintly, perhaps sharply or heavily, an intake of breath before that voice begins a line or phrase, and at others, outside of the note within or towards the end of it, extra sounds of exhalation mixed in. That could be sigh, a wheeze, a whisper, a gasp, a puff, perhaps a put-on or involuntary sexual pant, perhaps a gentle, sensitive push of air, but always something of another tone, a sound that is not any note of the melody at all, but a colourless clear movement of air, something another hue entirely, strictly unmusical, but yet often expressive, breathing, natural and involuntary.
And so this, oh wise and wonderful Song Bar punters, is what I'm puffing and panting about this week, because the topic is not about breathing, or breath per se, but the actual sounds of inhaling, or exhaling, before, after or during when a note is sung, or a phrase is spoken, or in between when, perhaps a growling saxophonist or trumpeter, or the purest flautist for example, make their actual instrumental note, catching a sharp breath to power their sound. It can be the height of expressivity, or peculiarity. It is the singing or air-passing playing equivalent of when a guitarist's fingers move up or down the acoustic fretboard in between chords.
But in addition to that, because this topic is about air passing through objects, the very definition of Aeolian sound, named after Aeolus, the Greek god of the winds, it would also be fun to add in songs in which there is the sound of wind, or other sources of air within the song or music itself, making a bigger breath between musical phrases. In general an Aeolian tone is produced when air passes over an obstacle, resulting in trailing vortices with oscillatory behaviour. Mathematical formulae exist for those those vortices, but in music they are most often teeth, tongue and lips:
Barry Gibb especially, as well as his brothers from Bee Gees. Modern gods of breathiness
So whether singers or instrumentalists, acoustic sounds or artificial effects, inhaling or exhaling, this week it's very much about the sounds, involuntary or otherwise, of air passing through, before, after or even sometimes during notes. It's time, in a sense, to catch a breather.
So this is an aural topic, not a lyrical one, though if mention of air, wind, breath comes into that too, all the better. After all previous lyrical topics have already come up including songs about breathing, songs about wind, and songs about storms, so we've no need to blow any more trumpets about that. This week is all about those often intimate moments within a song where we hear a moment of human vulnerability, a performing audibly breathing as part of the effort.
In ancient myth there are many gods and spirits of breath and wind, from the Ancient Greek Aeolus to Boreas of the north wind, Notus for the south wind, Zephyr for the west and Eurus for the east, as well as the Japanese Kama-itachi wind spirit, or god of wind Shinatsuhiko (Kojiki: 志那都比古神), Stribog and Dogoda in the Slavic pantheon, god and spirit of winds, sky, and air in the Scandinavian, Kajsa, or Algonquian Gaoh, and many more. But who are the deities of breath when it comes to delivery in song?
Of course there are some performers for whom breathiness is part of their style, and this may indeed come into the same breath of this topic. And the relative quietness of their music might make their breaths more audible, but that's not always the case. Digital production, such as with Pro Tools software, often remove the sound of breaths, gulps, sighs or more between phrases, but older recordings, or perhaps more imaginative producers leave them in. This might be to emphasise the close-mic, intimate inhaling and expressive emphasis, or help stir up the emotions of the song from gentle breeze or whip up a stormy force-10 gale.
Here are a few well-known examples, some of which take the breath away. Possibly the most iconic breathy, and sexually charged performance was Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday for President John F Kennedy on 19th May 1962 in that skintight dress. Even in this bad recording you can hear her breathtaking performance, that as well as being famously erotic, is also rather spooky, eerie, and ghostly. She died just two weeks later.
But perhaps more controversial is Jane Birkin’s part in Serge Gainsbourg's on Je t'aime, moi non plus:
Of course topic is just as much about wind and brass players taking a breath between phrases. Many great instrumentalists use circular breathing, inhaling through the nose while their blow out through the mouth, which is incredibly difficult without years of practice. Occasionally you might hear, for example, a jazz saxophonist such as Charlie Parker taking a huge breath.
Meanwhile Chet Baker is a prime example of breathiness in both his distinctive trumpet sound, but also his singing:
Not all heavy breathing is so contrived as that last example. In the Beatles close harmony singing on Girl, there’s a wonderful sighing moment which happily George Martin and the lads decided to keep:
Stevie Wonder’s early recordings are full of loud inhalations, adding the fresh, vibrant energy of his extraordinary youthful talent. Listen out on You Met Your Match:
Breath-filled songs don’t have to be intimate. Here’s Steve Miller’s Jet Airliner, where his inhalations are audible even with a loud rock band:
And now let’s enjoy one of the gods of breathiness, Barry Gibb, god of gentle wind in the Bee Gees with that distinctive sound that passes through big teeth and lips. It’s back again on a new rendition of country versions on a recently reviewed album here on Song Bar. Listen to his delivery on Too Much Heaven, duetting with Alison Krauss.
Tori Amos is a supreme singer of intimate breathiness and there are many other solo artists who use breath for effect or expression, from Kate Bush to Norah Jones. Here’s Tori then. The studio recording is just as breathy as this live version of Icicle:
Are these sounds consciously made? Often not then there’s the strange, downright odd breathing of the great pianist Glenn Gould, who mumbles, signs, wheezes and hums his way through his otherwise immaculate recordings of Bach:
But this topic can also take a second wind in the form of wind or air sounds outside of musical tones. Here’s a zedded example Hawkwind’s famous Silver Machine:
So then, that’s enough hot air from me. It’s time to turn you over to this week’s guest guru, our very own Japanese wind spirit and a person who is always, without fail, a wonderful breath of fresh air in the Bar, the lovely Hoshino Sakura !!! Place your songs in comments below in time for deadline last orders at 11pm UK time on Monday for playlists published next week. Turn up your speakers, listen and … breathe!
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