Something about that Martina McBride song “God’s Will” (written by Tom Douglas and Barry Dean) gives me chills, but it’s not the lyrics, interestingly enough. I find the lyrical story a bit of a turnoff, actually, since I’m not a believer. But that chorus melody and the cadence and internal rhyme resulting from the repetition of words like: “I’ve been searchin’, wonderin’, thinkin’, lost and lookin’ all my life” and “I’ve been wounded, jaded, loved and hated, I’ve wrestled wrong and right” — it just gets to me. I love well-placed prosody, and I love me some good-sounding words, even if what they mean as a whole doesn’t grab me.
Edit: the very end of the audio clip on Amazon.com has the very beginning of the section I’m talking about.
Prosody and God’s Will
The good-sounding-ness is one of the things that always gets me (in a good way) about Heinz Rudolf Kunze’s stuff. He knows what words to choose for interesting prosody, and so often they’re words no one else would choose, so they really stand out.
There’s an English-language song that got me with something similar to this recently, but I can’t remember what it was. If I remember, I’ll poke you again.
-J
that’s one of the reasons i love musicals – some of the best prosodists i’ve seen work in the genre.