Vocal Coach/Opera Singer REACTION & ANALYSIS Nightwish "The Greatest Show on Earth"
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- Опубликовано: 2 июл 2020
- Brace yourselves. You, the viewers, have recommended this song a LOT over the last month. I've been waiting for the right moment, because whelp, it's a long song. Recording it alone took an hour. But it was worth every minute.
I particularly love the way that Tuomas has composed this epic nod to evolution. It hearkens back to so many phases in nature and humanity, and even calls-out to different musical evolutions.
Join professional opera singer Elizabeth Zharoff, as she listens to Nightwish and this is going to be her longest reaction yet - and THE GREATEST (Show on Earth)!
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Performed by Nightwish - Composed by Tuomas Holopainen and Marco Hietala
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The video shown is from a live performance in Tempere, Finland.
I definitely recommend watching the original video without interruptions, here's the link:
• Nightwish live @ tampe...
Show Nightwish some: / nightwishofficial
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Elizabeth Zharoff is an international opera singer and voice coach, with 3 degrees in voice, opera, and music production. She's performed in 18 languages throughout major venues in Europe, America, and Asia. Currently based somewhere between Los Angeles and Tucson, Arizona, Elizabeth spends her days researching voice, singing, teaching, writing music, and recording TONS. She also plays Diablo and Dungeons & Dragons.
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Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
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Have you heard Manowar
Dimmu Borgir, Gateways - ruclips.net/video/XGoak4ISCPU/видео.html.
Around the time that the song has the Bach reference the song also references electronic music in general and the song "Enter Sandman" i thinknits meant to show like an evolution in music. Its really cool.
@@danielvilllareal9726 She doesn't understand metal. She didn't get the "We Were Here" meaning either
The opera singer is really cool and very extraordinary, thank you friends for sharing the excitement, the reaction video is entertaining, the spirit of success is always for you, I hope you have a great day
I think that the metal community is trying to turn every vocal reaction channel host into a metalhead. I strongly approve.
And we are really good at this ;)
Agreed!
@Interstellar Traveler My mother is music teacher at school and she listen metal and classic/opera music.
@@edfdsfsddsgfdsgsd5525 I've always described nightwish to first time listeners as bach with electric instruments, so I totally get it. Bach and bitzet are my two favorite classical composers, and I think in modern times they would both be in metal bands lol
Metal is heart
If this Nightwish reaction has taught me anything, it's that you should find someone that looks at you the way Elizabeth looks at Floor.
If that ever happens to you let me know. See her reaction to Pearl Jam 'Black'
Edit. I look at Floor that way too lol
There was a girl that looked at me like that and I looked at her the same way too, but that was it, she was already married.
@@Jurgen_Ibro I share your pain bro. In my case we were friends for over 10 years before she got married.
Yup.
You mean like .... 😍🤩🥰
Lol
The bass part of this song is not simple. The fact that Marco can sing so well, AND play bass at the same time is freaking mind blowing.
Can I just point out that most of the time Marko doesn't look down at his fretboard while he is playing? Him doing that on point while singing in key everytime is absolutely fantastic.
So sad he left
If you're impressed by Marco, check out pretty much anything by Esperanza Spalding.
Its been a downgrade in term of vocals after marco left. The dynamics are lost. He need to come back to nightwish
Ever heard of Sting?
Only Tuomas Holopainen could write a 23-minute song about the theory of evolution and, along with his Nightwish band mates, make it rock! When they did this show it was a big deal for them to play here. It was a big accomplishment for them. Floor's mom and dad were in the audience so it was an emotional night for her. For all of them really. You can see the pride, gratitude, and amazement on Tuomas's face as the song ended and they walked the stage. He is so humble. After all this time he is still amazed at the following they have. The classy way they ended this show was just beautiful. I wish I had been lucky enough to attend this show. You are correct that the readings and music at the end are part of the song on the album. I'm seeing your video quite a long time after you made it, but thank you for your appreciation of this phenomenal band and this epic song.
If I remember correctly (heard it in some interview I think), the initial version of this song by Tuomas was about 43 minutes long and they shortened it to about 18 minutes plus the outro as a whole band.
@@MikkoRantalainen 43 minutes.. that's just great! Will we ever hear the 43 minutes, as a special edition or so
@@nicoxWTxTH I think it was mentioned in some interview only. I guess it was just band-internal demo version and will never be published anywhere.
This is the best comment i have ever read on the whole of the internet! You have sumed up everything brilliantly!
Right before Bach at the very end of Tuomas' piano part you can hear the Dies Irae melody, the medieval, original one. And when the full band comes in, the theme on the keyboard is the fugue theme from the D minor Toccata and Fugue. A few bars later on the guitar you can hear the main riff from Metallica's Enter Sandman. Basically in less than a minute they go through a thousand years of musical history.
That’s so awesome, and well-composed!
The sound of metallica's riff reminds me Michael Jackson.
And after Enter Sandman there's also a bar or two of TR-909 bass drum for electronic dance music from 90s onwards. Just astonishing work.
I suspect that is not a coincidence. The reason it takes "forever" for us to get from the melodic part to any semblance of real vocals is because that is the perspective of time that the Earth has existed and the parts pertaining to Humanity are a very short afterthought. If the Earth's entire existence was a single day with 12 o clock being "right now," civilization has existed for about ten seconds.
And before guitar there is short tune played with mandolin.
Nightwish: the only band to make a 21 minute song and at the end of it, listeners are asking, "is it over already?"
And thus I end up listening to some of their songs... Albums... On repeat.
HA!.... Octavarium... The Odyssey... The Theory of Everything.... Nightwish is great, but nah... not the only ones and not the best of all
DT?
Dream Theather's Change Of Seasons is 23 minutes long and you also end up asking yourself the same question
Iron maiden are similar. Empire of clouds isn’t not long enough
31:25 Not only was that Bach, but they then transition right into a variation of Bach's famous Fugue (at 31:40), and manage to even sprinkle in a few notes of Metallica's Enter Sandman at 32:00. The progression of music through the centuries in 30 seconds! Brilliant! Just brilliant!
Yes, I was looking for someone like you. You got it.
At 31:25 we heard "Menuet in G major" by Christian Petzhold. It is indeed in the Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook. Petzhold was a friend of the Bach family.
There's some banjo in there and techno (?) kick drum at the end, too.
I think I read somewhere that there is one minute of music references, some of which you have mentioned. Does anyone know the others
@@WanderlustWarrior46 Tuomas mentions it in the fabulous Nightwish book!
Tuomas is absolutely genius in both his composing and his musicianship. Now imagine how lucky he is, to be able to write whatever he wants, and Floor can sing it.
this is becoming a channel called "how a vocal coach became a metal head" :D welcome sister ;) *dark embrace*
Yet another one :D
Come join the dark side. We have -cookies- Floor. And Nightwish.
@@BadGirlFan it's TRUE. The rum, dont forget the rum.
@@warhammer5690 you mean ruclips.net/video/iLdaSAZVszA/видео.html ?
I'm only here for the metal reactions :D
Disclaimer : this is going to be a looooong read but if you've fallen in love with this song, it may be worth the 5 minutes.
The Greatest Show on Earth is simply a masterpiece, first from a purely musical standpoint, and second when you look carefully at how well it tells us the story of life on Earth. It takes quite a few listenings to extract all the substance from it but here's a rundown what it means :
The bangs are most likely meant to represent asteroids bombarding the Earth in its early moments. That's how scientists think the basic organic components were brought to Earth, thus enabling the apparition of life.
The first actual singing couplet is about how Earth is in a perfect spot to harbor life.
The cosmic law of gravity
pulled the newborns around a fire = planets (newborns) orbiting the sun (fire) under the drive of gravity exerted by the mass of the sun.
A careless cold infinity in every vast direction = reference to the vastness and emptiness of space.
Lonely farer in the Goldilocks zone = the Goldilocks Zone is the area of any solar system where water can appear as a liquid (because the temparature at the surface of planets within this area is adequate), which is an essential parameter for the possibility of life. The lonely farer is Earth, sole planet orbiting in the sun's Goldilocks Zone.
She has a tale to tell = obvisouly, the tale of life itself.
From the stellar nursery into a carbon feast = carbon, which is a fundamental part of living organisms, is fabricated in stars (the nursery) because the fusion reaction that leads to carbon happens in the core of massive stars.
Enter LUCA = LUCA stands for Last Universal Cellular Ancestor aka the "mother of all" that is spoken of later in the song. All lifeforms on Earth are believed to descend from it. Which makes that amoeba in an obscure water pond a (very) distant sibling of ours.
The chorus (from "the tapestry" to "mother of all") is a reference to the periodic elements table, and the writing in the garden may very well be an allusion to nucleic acids which are the base of genetic codes.
The second part of the chorus is a general reference to early lifeforms that inhabited Earth's oceans hundreds of millions of years ago (Scions of the Devonian sea, the Devonian being a geological period that took place between 420 and 360 millions years ago).
The second couplet is about the apparition and development of living cells.
Ion channels welcoming the outside world to the stuff of stars = reference to how cellular nuclei (the stuff of stars) exchange matter with their surrondings (through molecular channels that are controlled by a difference in ionic potential on both sides of the membrane they go through). Without them, cells would'nt work.
Bedding the tree of a biological holy = these channels and nuclei are the core components of living cells. Nuclei contain the RNA or DNA material that is the driving force between evolution, the diversification of all species being represented as a tree.
Enter life = well, that's pretty obvious.
The third couplet ("We are here to care for the garden") has no evident scientific meaning.
The fourth couplet, which marks the beginning of a new section in the song, is about a quick summary of the late stages of evolution which led to the modern human, with a reference to an early humanity spreading all over the Earth from Africa, and of course Lucy is one of the most famous of our ancestors. She was an australopithecus, aka an ancient form of pre-human prior to our species gaining its upright stance. The lady's a few million years old.
The fifth couplet is a reference to early human culture and achievements. The birth of imagination, religion, and war. The God of gaps is most likely a reference to how religious ideologies always see God where science has no answers (which is fine, some of the foremost scientists of the last century believed in the existence of God specifically because science can't explain everything).
The sixth couplet is about the times where humanity really took off as the dominating species of this planet, thriving to master its environment. That's also the period of History where philosophy grew, because asking himself about the universe, man also asked himself about his own nature.
The seventh couplet is about the more recent stages of our history (notice how at this point, history has replaced evolution and the intervals of time between the periods described in each couplet have tightened dramatically, giving a sense of acceleration). And the outlook isn't very bright : greed, destruction, and the emergence of ratkind (maybe a reference to how we will destroy ourselves and the next most likely candidates to replace us as the dominant species are rats, given their intelligence, numbers and resilience).
And then it's time for the outro chorus, describing how we as a race appeared, rose to power, and will fall eventually.
After the singing concludes, the words spoken are indeed from Richard Dawkins and carry an emotional power that just hits like a truck.
What you missed in your video though is the very end of it, which concludes with a whale's song. As if this song was not powerful enough already.
Oh and yeah, that was Bach that you recognized just before what you called the industrial revolution part. There are several more musical references around that time, including a nod to Metallica's Enter Sandman.
Yep, masterpiece.
Masterpiece is absolutely appropriate!
Oh god! I love your comment. The little nerd in me laps at your words eagerly!! Me kid you not
Wow! Thank you for that interpretation and information! I absolutely love the complexity of it.
This comment made me watch many documentaries. Thanks for this interpretation. ❤️
Thank you for researching and writing this! Should be top voted comment ;) I was already a fan of Richard Dawkins, his parts fit perfectly into this f-ing awesome masterpiece!
This is my favorite Nightwish song. It is a huge anthem to evolution and the story of life. The "We were here"-part is my favorite, especially when I'm deep into the lyrics. It feels like a message to someone in the future, maybe a new form of life, discovering our planet after we are long gone. It is bitter sweet and poetic. I love it.
"We were here" will, in some aeons hence, humanity long passed into oblivion or transcendence, be inscribed on the doors to the entrance to the Last Library of Man. Underneath it will also be inscribed "Forget nothing"
The ending makes me cry and almost become religious.
And I can tell you, having seen them in Paris, being in the audience and screaming "We were here" felt incredible. I felt like I was a part of something very special in this huge universe we live in.
My favourite thing about this song is that I get to exist in the same timeline with it.
"Will you sing with us?" ***Hits G5 that likely nobody in the crowd could dream of*** 70 000 people wake up the next day wondering why they can't speak.
I believe the group in the audience from Kepler-186f were able to sing along.
YEESSS!! 🤘🏼🤘🏼
Floor: Sing with us!
And then hit a note that only Floor and aliens can do
Aliens like Simone Simons, Tarja Turunen, Liv Kristine, Elina Slirala and Annette Olzen?
@@BurningmonkeyGTR yes all of them are aliens!
We are surrounded! :oD
That's why we have octaves.
Hahaha, spot on
Haha damn floor
32:00
ha-ha! It is like
Floor: "Enter life!"
Marco: "Enter Ionica!"
Emppu: "Enter Sandman!"
she didn't notice the enter sandman part, well well..
@@jontangenes9275 I'm not sure if she knows it at all) but that's ok
Haha, this was the first "prefrance" heard in this song :-)
You, sir, deserve my like.
I was wondering if anyone else caught the Metallica reference!
The amount of musicianship, artistry and talent on the stage is staggering.
It goes without saying that Floor's voice is amazing, but let's not forget how good she is at the theatrical side of things. Gestures, facial expressions, inflection..
stage presence!
Yes she is the complete package.tuomas takes nightwish further and further.And floor is perfect for that because she does the same to herself.Her range from growling to opera.she is super nice and down to earth.She is a beast on the stage and a mom at home.This lady does it all.That makes her the most complete singer on the planet for me.
Yeah her stage presence is unrivaled. There are singers that are more animated and energetic than her in metal, but it's like she also tells the story with her movements. She truly is a once-in-a-generation talent.
She's so emotional and just always seems to be totally enjoying herself, it is pretty amazing.
Thats becouse the dutch water
What a treat. Back to back Nightwish, Elizabeth you have to be the most funloving / Diversified / master Communicator, to ever walk the planet. you're just a natural girl :-) I’m speaking for most of us, big hugs..
Agreed, she is so precious and friendly
shanialover Hi sweet Shania, big hugs back at you girl..
Yes, shes so dedicated, so passionate, so communicative, so sweet.
@@shania-antonio6425 I also like just listening to her voice, so smooth and warm... and the giggling💓 :D
András Kovács Yess, very elegant. Both logical and empathetic. Not crude and judgemental, and an actual vocal coach hehehe as there are so many on youtube saying vocal coach reacts when we get no proof they can even sing.
Floors parents were in the “front row” for this show, which is in Finland and she was very emotional throughout this performance. There is a great ‘Dutch rock academy reunion show’ on RUclips which follows her and includes this show in it, and Floor gets very emotional as she discusses her ”journey”. Subtitled but very revealing and enjoyable.
Her parents?
OMG, can you even imagine watching your "little girl" perform that?!?
My heart would burst!
I am so happy to see Marko getting recognition for his voice. One sad thing though is that all the reactions I have seen for Nightwish omit one of Marko's most critical attributes: His 100% Mountain King beard!
I don't think he really cares, the whole band are incredible, but they give front stage to floor for two reasons. They know they're incredible, and they know that Floor leads the stage show immaculately
Yes, Marko is incredible. Any member of this band could step on me and I would thank them 😂😂🥰💀
That part with Bach's Minuet (with the harpsichord) is actually a retelling of human history through the evolution of music. It's more evident in the album version. It starts off with tribal drums, then a low monk-like chant, then Dies Irae, then Bach's Minuet in G (the one you caught), then Bach's BWV 565's fugal subject, banjo music, Rock Around The Clock, Enter Sandman, then finally EDM beats.
Simply one of the best moments in contemporary music ever.
I hadn't noticed all the details until I read your comment. Thank you so much.
And yes, it really is.
Rock around the clock? I never noticed that one!
Isn't there a little rift from The Nutcracker in there too? The sugar plum fairy bit. I'm musically illiterate so I don't know more than that, sorry.
Also, if I'm not mistaken, when the full heavy band enter on 15:30 thats the "main riff" from Megadeth - Symphony of Destruction that they're vamping over
@@adimeola Very similar, but not identical. It could still be an intentional homage.
Nightwish two days in a row ? is it Christmas in July ? :D
Or as we say in Norway, "Jul i Juli" :-)
Why not a year, with Tarja ... incredible, this analyse... 🇧🇪
@@faltrion å jula varer helt til påske :D
ruclips.net/video/Od_qcbw3f5Q/видео.html
@@faltrion Funkar bra i Sverige också 😀
I've seen this on release two years ago.
I still come back to see this reaction every now and then just to see 08:30 "Oh.. Hi Floor"!!! ❤
I do the same with Ghost love score to see the floorgasam
I do the same, hehe
"Hi Floor! =)" is my reaction every time too! And I fist bump Marco. Tuomas gets 3 nods of deep respect.
I've watched a few Nightwish concerts today, and it struck me how Floor is such a chameleon. If you see her interviewed she is quiet, well spoken, and almost shy. She lives on a farm in Sweden and is very much a "farm girl." Mending fences, feeding the animals, riding horses, but you put her on stage and she becomes a "Singing Goddess" who can play the crowd like no other. She is amazing. Fanboy here. haha.
Well observed
She explains it in one interview somewhere; I think it's the one where she is interviewed by Dutch TV in her home. She basically sees herself as an actress playing the role on stage, that's how she gets over her shyness.
@@beardedgeek973 actually in this interwiew she said that the diifference between her and an actress is that she doesn't act on stage but shows a different side of her but she is very much herself..
And she speaks so elegantly and eloquently, she also is a great listener. Her smile is everything.
Me too
When Tuomas is done with his solo piano intro, a normal song would already be over ...
ruclips.net/video/iT9DC5G9oVM/видео.html
Nightwish forever!!!
Yeah but, Nightwish isn't a normal band and Tuomas is not a normal composer.
over... and forgotten but no one will forget this!
When this album was released, Finnish Science magazine did break-down of these lyrics. Packed lots of science and facts
2015 endlles worms most beautiful..See they live on Joensuu 2015 first concert of world tour..
No song ever has put me in a state of awe like this song never have i felt so lucky, powerless, humbled and unique and too many other opposing adjectives to list all at the same time for so long. The definition of "masterpiece" is "the greatest show on earth - nightwish"
Here I am quoting a Nightwish fan FV 623:
He dedicates his feeble effort here in memory of The Mother of the Nightwish Army, Ann Waychoff:
"The Greatest Show On Earth"
(Spoken parts are in quotations)
[Part 1: Four Point Six] (4.6 billion years ago)
Archaean horizon (part of the Precambrian period, in which there was no life on the earth. Earth's history is divided into four principal Eons: the Hadean, the Archean, Proterozoic, and the Phanerozoic. The Hadean is the Eon during which the Earth and Moon formed; in the Archaean, primordial life appeared. )
The first sunrise
On a pristine gaea (Greek personification of the Earth as a goddess)
Opus perfectum (the perfect work, the perfect creation, a masterpiece)
Somewhere there, us sleeping (the DNA and carbon for life was in the space dust)
"After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with colour, bountiful with life.
Within decades we must close our eyes again.
Isn't it a noble and enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it?" (Dawkins refers to the birth of the earth as a planet and mankind's brief geologic time on earth to understand how we came to be here at all)
[Part 2: Life]
The cosmic law of gravity
Pulled the newborns around a fire (Planetary gravity aligning the solar system around the sun)
A careless cold infinity in every vast direction (space)
Lonely farer in the Goldilocks zone (the earth moving on its own in the exact place for life to thrive - mother bear’s porridge was just right for Goldilocks)
She has a tale to tell
From the stellar nursery into a carbon feast (the condensing big bang dust clouds into planets and the earth and all life is carbon based)
Enter LUCA (Last universal common ancestor - a simple life form that all life carries a genetic marker for, LUCA was not the first living organism but the sole survivor of previous types)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_universal_common_ancestor
The tapestry of chemistry (The periodic table of the elements and combinations)
There's a writing in the garden (DNA and the garden, earth)
Leading us to the mother of all (the trail to our beginnings)
We are one (having a common DNA marker and we are all made from the galactic space dust and condensing gas. All the material from the big bang is still here, state might have changed for some things, but it is here.)
We are a universe (This is the natural conclusion to draw from the fact that life shares common origin, that all life is built with the same blocks, and that all life on Earth is interdependent (gaia hypothesis). The multiplicity of beings on Earth are one, just as the cells in a body are one. Lately it has been shown that we are indeed made of star dust material from the birth of our universe)
Forebears of what will be
Scions of the Devonian sea (419.2 to 358.9 million years ago from rocks found in Devon England, scion is a young shoot of a plant, the land grew plants and the multitude of fishes started to come ashore and walk on fins briefly)
Aeons pass
Writing the tale of us all (The DNA and evolution branching out into other forms)
A day-to-day new opening (The continuity of evolution)
For the greatest show on Earth (a poetic reference to life developing and evolving)
Ion channels welcoming the outside world (Google Ion channels, protein molecules that span across the cell membrane allowing the passage of ions from one side of the membrane to the other. )
To the stuff of stars (the original star dust everything came from and still is.)
Bedding the tree of a biological holy (the start of the tree of life)
Enter life
The tapestry of chemistry
There's a writing in the garden
Leading us to the mother of all (The periodic table of elements does look like a sort of patchwork tapestry, but this can go further. The historical function of tapestries was as "nomadic murals," pictographical histories which moving people could pack up and revisit wherever they went. The "writing in the garden," in nature, is not only the stone murals left by dead animals in the form of fossils, but is also this chemical writing that encodes the relatively nomadic DNA molecule with the instructions for life. The scientific investigation of this information leads us back to LUCA)
We are one
We are a universe
Forebears of what will be
Scions of the Devonian sea
Aeons pass
Writing the tale of us all
A day-to-day new opening
For the greatest show on Earth
We are here to care for the garden
The wonder of birth (the odds of us being born at all is 400 trillion to one)
Of every form most beautiful
Every form most beautiful (Forms Most Beautiful - Charles Darwin)
We are one
We are a universe
Forebears of what will be
Scions of the Devonian sea
Aeons pass writing the tale of us all
A day-to-day new opening
For the greatest show on Earth
[Part 3: The Toolmaker]
After a billion years
The show is still here
Not a single one of your fathers died young (our prehistoric fathers must have been old enough to breed or we would not be here at all)
The handy travellers (the first tool makers)
Out of Africa (from whence we all came)
Little Lucy of the Afar (Lucy was discovered at Afar in Ethiopia, an upright hominin, so called because the Beatles Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was being played at the time, Lucy is considered to be the missing link from apes to humans and believed to be about 13yo at the time of death)
Gave birth to fantasy
To idolatry
To self-destructive weaponry
Enter the God of gaps (God of the gaps is a theological perspective in which gaps in scientific knowledge are taken to be evidence or proof of God's existence. The term "gaps" was initially used by Christian theologians not to discredit theism but rather to point out the fallacy of relying on teleological arguments for God's existence)
Deep within the past
Atavistic dread of the hunted (relating to or characterized by reversion to something ancient or ancestral)
Enter Ionia, the cradle of thought (Ionia is accepted as the cradle of thought and philosophy)
The architecture of understanding
The human lust to feel so exceptional
To rule the Earth
Hunger for shiny rocks (Diamonds being suggested)
For giant mushroom clouds
The will to do just as you'd be done by (A reference to Mutually Assured Destruction)
Enter history, the grand finale (when we will become extinct too)
Enter ratkind (this suggests after mankind has perished/killed itself, the rats will become dominant and sentient life, then they hypothesise how we became extinct. It is a fact that the first life forms returning to nuclear test sites are rats living in radiation levels lethal to us, this hypothesis is from Dawkins also.)
Man, he took his time in the sun (us now)
Had a dream to understand
A single grain of sand
He gave birth to poetry
But one day'll cease to be
Greet the last light of the library (the cessation of mankind and the ending of our recorded knowledge)
Man, he took his time in the sun (us now)
Had a dream to understand
A single grain of sand (in this second iteration, the first two bars of Metallica “Enter the Sandman” are played as a nod to them, one of the the first HM bands to work with an orchestra and the sand reference. Metallica is rather a favourite of Tuomas too)
He gave birth to poetry
But one day'll cease to be
Greet the last light of the library
Man, he took his time in the sun
Had a dream to understand
A single grain of sand
He gave birth to poetry
But one day'll cease to be
Greet the last light of the library
We were here!
We were here!
We were here!
We were here!
[Part 4: The Understanding] (From Richard Dawkins)
"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones.
Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara.
Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people.
In the teeth of those stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred"
[Part 5: Sea-Worn Driftwood] (original text from Charles Darwin read by Dawkins)
"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
Awesome break down of the lyrics. The only thing I would add is to the "Stuff of Stars" line may have been inspired by Carl Sagan's quote from Mysteries of the Cosmos where he said "we are made of star stuff" when talking about things like the iron in our blood came from the iron as a result of a supernova of a star.
@@Lebrawlski Thanks for adding to our information
@The Charismatic Voice Please pin this comment at the top. Thanks. Great job!
How did you make the comment that long ^^
I struggled to do mine in one part... ^^
@@jadamcak Thank you for your kind words and of course the big thanks to FV 623 to make this possible.
I don't usually comment but I have to say this. I thought I already noticed everything in this masterpiece. I was wrong. Your knowledge makes me notice more things, which makes it even better. For real, thank you! definitely is a pleasure to watch your reactions. I can't wait to keep learning from you, and can't wait to hear your analysis of the new album.
Greets from Chile.
Stay safe
I also love reading through comments, because I learn so much more!! Thanks for being here with us.
Valentina, I highly recommend Chase Carneson also for analysis if you enjoy hearing these songs in a new way. He has an unbelievable ear and musical understanding. If you've not watched his Nightwish reactions I think you'd appreciate them. He's building up to the greatest show.
I agree. Im always amazed at the things she points out and mentions. You can just tell she has such a love of music......and brilliant. Amazing
One thing I noticed this time through but not mentioned, was a few bars of Metallica in the "industrial revolution" section, shortly after the Bach..
@@peccatumDei YES!!! I finally found someone who commented it!!!
This is the piece that made me lookup and learn som basic evolutionary biology 🧬 Toumas is a genius, and they’re all completing the group like no one else I’ve seen! “WE WERE HERE” give me chills and make me cry EVERY TIME!!
LOOK UP THE DEVONION SEA
same, its this big outpouring of emotion that swells up when that bit comes
A couple of neat anthropological references to our early relatives: "Handy travelers out of Africa" refers to Homo habilis, which means "handy man". Elizabeth also noticed the lyric "Little Lucy of the Afar", who was of course the famous fossil specimen of the species Australopithecus afarensis.
This song shows Tuomas' genius, not only as a composer but also as a lyricist. However, I feel like we don't talk often enough about how skilled a musician he is. His performance on the keyboards in this song is simply spectacular.
🤘🤘💯
Tuomas doesn't even dare to use Floors full range cause his songs are half poppy/half metal. He simply can't handle her true power.
Realeyesrealizereallies I do not fully understand what your point is. Do you mean that Tuomas is not as good as he seems because he doesn’t dare to use Floors’ full range?
Well, to be fair lots of these lyrics belong to Richard Dawkins.
@@kellyhh1371 Only the spoken parts are from Dawkins works. While the lyrics are inspired by biology and evolution, they are entirely Tuomas'.
That was Richard Dawkins himself doing the reading parts! :D
You should totally do "Music" next, from their new album. It talks about, well, the history of music! Such a beautiful and intricate song, you can find the lyrics video on their channel :)
I love "Music". Btw, talking about the new album, it also has an evolution song on it "Procession" which tells it from a very interesting point of view. I think it's the most emotional song on the album and it's simply beautiful.
@@giselavaleazar8768 Yes, Procession comes with a nice plot twist at the end.
When I saw Nightwish at the SSE Arena in London in 2015, Richard Dawkins actually came out on stage to do the reading live at the end of the show! I think it was the first ever arena show in the UK for Nightwish actually. :D
I just remember Tuomas saying "I almost fainted as Richard Dawkins walked in here" ^^
Their new album is magnificent
I like how Elizabeth reacts, sometimes it's like a child opening up Christmas parcels. Oh! Ahh! 😆
I agree. Thought so many times too :)
Elizabeth is a great singer herself. Listen to her "Lux Aeterna", amazing!
Watching a reactor like Elizabeth is like hearing it for the first time all over again.
The performance of this at Wembley wad awesome too. Richard Dawkins comes out and speaks his last part after the bows. It was truly amazing!
Well I don't think that 43 minutes have ever passed so quickly before
This is the best reaction to this song I've seen so far. The honest joy in your reactions is golden and I love how much you've gotten out of it on the first time listening ~ not only musicially but also scientiffically. After years of knowing this song and many reactions, you still brought something new to my attention (Bach). Thanks for that. And as far as I know, the fireworks at the beginning represent the "late heavy bombardment", a time of heavy asteroid impacts bringing all the necessary elements for life to the earth.
Thanks, Pascal Dittrich!
@@TheCharismaticVoice When Elizabeth says "Hi Floor", I remembered when Aro sees Alice in the Twilight finale...
Yeah, that Bach piece is definitely Minuet in G famous to every classical piano beginner! And the following riff I think is actually a rearranged part from the Toccata D minor. Well, probably every metalhead also noticed a brief Metallica reference at 32:00 )))
I couldn't agree more. I enjoyed the reaction as much as the music.
@@AntonNidhoggr The rhythm/riff of the guitar at 15:30 also sounds quite a lot like Megadeth's Symphony of Destruction
The most ancient instrument found is a flute made from the bone of a cave bear found in Slovenia in 1995 dated to about 55,000 years ago.
She has the BEST face expressions on her face. Hands down best reaction channel for that
I know! I'm optimistic and excited about her hopefully checking out Igorrr - Le Petite Moineau one day.
I love the fact that instead of only focusing on the singing you look at the song as a whole. On top of it all you seem educated in plenty of other areas (the Prometheus reference was on point).
Also, love your reactions and facial expressions to go with it, the passion with which you're doing this is enchanting
! Keep up the good work!
Thank you!!
@@TheCharismaticVoice You're like a kid on Christmas morning.. 😘
personally i love how they made a song about a scientific topic getting one of the leading scientists in the field to narrate the song even for the live show and having thousands of people cheering science.
The song introduced me to the book that inspired it and I'm grateful for that
@@AussieGoblin618 Just bought his book solely because of this song. Can't wait to read it
This song is one of those piecea that helps me work through my depression. Doesn't cure it. Doesn't make me forget about it. But instead, reminds me of it and forces me to look at the problems of it and allows me to see we ait all that bad. In need of some work sure, but, capable of some amazing things that are worthwhile chasing.
Nightwish is one of the greatest band in the world! When hearing this masterpiece, tears are rolling into my eyes❤️!
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G work! The song it's 20-ish minutes long but it doesn't feel like. This video is 40-ish minutes long and it didn't felt that long. I was so into it. They were so many parts that I was "yes, yes, you got it", it felt like I was talking to a friend 🤣🤣🤣🤣. Superlike!
Yes! I didn't want this reaction to end!
Amen
Exactly so, Jose :nods:.
Thought the exact same thing
And this is what Tuomas calls his masterpiece as a composer
Until "All The Works Of Nature Which Adorn The World" from Human :||: Nature.
I find the "we were here" part one of the most thrilling things ever! I always want to cry when I hear it :3 Thanks for your reaction... if there is something more exciting than this song, it is to see someone as musically trained as you enjoying it! Totally awesome!
seeing nightwish live, being on front bar chanting we were here. a moment that is etched into my soul. Utterly epic
I've watched this live performance dozens of times, and the "we were here" part makes me literally cry every time. I've studied a lot of philosophies in my life, from determinism to solipsism to nihilism, and very little has touched me quite as much as this. We were here, shout it into the void whether anyone is listening or not.
Makes me feel very sad, "We were here!" - like the last words humans will utter as we close the door on a ruined earth. So very beautiful, but ultimately so very sad.
Every time. It's hope that we, each of us in our own way, leave a legacy mingled with the knowledge and sadness of an inevitable end.
And in that moment, when you stand there in the crowd with everyone screaming "We were here", you actually feel like the words will echo eternally. It's an amazing high.
Me too. Every time.
Luckily the evolution bllsht isnt true and based on nothing scientifical speaking. But well in some way humans are ruining a lot.
"Was that...Bach?" Yes, yes it was. You might have missed the Metallica reference soon after (Enter Sandman) by the guitar part. I love this song and this band.
actually when she referred to the bach part and the harpsichord, i didn't pick up something i associate with Bach. But the keyboard riff at 31:12 is definately from Bach, toccata and fugue d minor to be precise, 32:00 you're absolutely right with Metallica. :)
@@michaelschneider5655 It's this piece: ruclips.net/video/2TobXjDXF0s/видео.html so technically not Bach but often attributed to him.
I totally thought I heard that! Thanks for confirming!
And before the harpsichord part, the Dies Irae
I would also like to thank you for the confirmation of the Metallica spot.
Did you know that at their Concert in Wembley, Richard Dawkins HIMSELF came on stage and spoke the lines at the end? Also, the lyrics are so so deep, this song always reminds me of how lucky I am to actually be on this Earth. Tuomas is one genius composer, one of the best of our time in my opinion.
It's hard to describe but every time I hear this song I feel simultaneously melancholic and yet happy, existentially insignificant and yet optimistic of the time I've been given, and somehow all this cognitive dissonance harmonizes beautifully in my mind.
I could not have put that better! Love your work!
It is indeed Bach's Minuet in G major, also the riff from Metallica's "Enter Sandman" is incorporated and a bit of an electronic beat. 'A little evolution in music'
It's not the Minuet, it's the fugue theme from the D minor Toccata and Fugue. Also, shortly before that, at the very end of Tuomas' piano part you can hear the first notes from the medieval Dies Irae chant. Nobody seems to notice that one.
There is also another Bach piece in there. When the band comes back after the harpsichord bit they play a piece of Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.
This section for me signifies the evolution of music.
@@ferencercseyravasz7301 It's hard to hear in the live performances, it's easier to pick out in the studio recording.
@@ferencercseyravasz7301 ruclips.net/video/o9sKRAgE4mo/видео.html this is the Minuet in G major though
I write here just to keep things a bit together. The "music evolution" part sadly went a bit in the background in the live version. If one's listening the studio version, you will hear much more. Including (ruclips.net/video/n499M4pgc5o/видео.html here as example from minute 13:50 on) a tribal part, a Country-like part and a disco/techo beat at the end.
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssss. This song is an EXPERIENCE. I'm sure you'll have loved it!!!
Your Enthusiasm and love of music is addictive. Well done
This song makes me cry every single time. Nightwish has been one of my favorite bands for 20 years and Richard Dawkins is my favorite writer of popular science. Reading Dawkins' earlier books strongly influenced the way I view life and I went on to study Evolutionary Ecology. I cannot describe my excitement when this album came out and I heard Dawkins' voice quoting excerpts from his books in songs by Nightwish inspired by what he's written, and the emotion that I feel at the end of this song with a quote from Darwin himself with Tuomas' beautiful music on the background after that magnificent and bittersweet climax is beyond words.
That “hi, Floor” was hands down the cutest thing I’ve seen all week. I said it on the Wembley vid and I’ll say it again: I can’t carry a tune in a bucket or play an instrument outside air guitar, but I will listen to every single thing you say because it’s just an absolute joy learning from your master level of knowledge. It’s so much fun to see you close your eyes to bask/grin/gape openmouthed/explain on a level that truly no other reactors, even classically trained or certified voice teachers, do. And that you also break down the composition and explain in these wonder terms the elements that make up this incredible music experience, makes you absolutely one of my fave reactors. I don’t care that this was 45 minutes; I wanted more and at this point would probably listen to you explain the alphabet or something. So, so awesome. Thank you so much.
ETA: You’re right that the Lucy reference was to a fossil, but she is classed as Australopithecus Afarensis, not Homo Neanderthalis, Science nerd out. ☺️
100% agree with you!
When Elizabeth says "Hi Floor", I remembered when Aro sees Alice in the Twilight finale...
I so agree with you wholeheartedly!!
I agree..it was so cute.
If you're that into Marco and Floor voice blending, maybe you should listen to "the islander" from this concert. There Marco is leading and Floor is in the back. Interesting as well
And a great showcase of Marco's clean singing.
Yes - absolutely a must listen/watch - Marco wrote that song. You know you're in the right place in the Universe when you are single handedly entertaining tens of thousands of fans while playing a double neck bass/guitar and Floor is singing backup for you. Marco doing High (Pink Floyd cover) Hopes is also a chilling demonstration of how amazing his voice is (even after almost being destroyed by vocal surgery gone wrong.)
I love how they basically used the fireworks not only as a visual display but almost as percussive instruments in themselves. Never seen that before
I believe Beethoven used cannon fire in one of his symphonies \m/ badass
@@garethlagerwall Tchaikovsky. But Beethoven is still a badass too
@ realised that after posting 🙂
This song always makes me cry at certain parts.
In my opinion, there is no more complex, loveable, gigantic, emotional, powerful and so much more... Song.
I would t cared IF it went on for three hours... I love each and every note. And each and Everyone in the band are at absolute best here.
A truly classical.
And also, after the "Bach thing" there is a small part of Metallica "enter sandman"...
Love from Sweden.
I recommend "Ever Dream", "Storytime", "Song Of Myself" and "Romanticide", all from Wacken 2013 :)
All the YES
Great list! That show is non stop excellence!
Yes!
Ghost River
We can add last ride of the day too
The work as a whole is a masterpiece, but the "we were here" bit gets me right in the feels every time. Damn those onion ninjas. Elizabeth, thank you for your insightful commentary - it's a real delight watching your reaction videos.
Same thing here, I don't understand why they've got to do it whenever I listen to Nightwish though, they seem otherwise absent..
lets turn every vocal analyst into a METALHEAD
Ever since I saw your reaction for Ghost Love Score, I have been hooked on Nightwish! FLOOR is incredible
The reactor is such an incredible DORK, but she wears her emotions on her sleeve, and her musical knowledge/analysis is impeccable. It's quite beautiful to watch her do her thing, especially with the greatest Rock song of this century in front of her ❤
I LOVE dorky people. Coolness never did anything for me.
Being called a dork is a compliment in my family. It means that you are passionate about something and are working to become better at it. Definitely good traits, I think :)
Haven't seen the word dork in a minute, lol. Shows how dorky we all are down here in the comments enjoying great analysis and music. Dorks rejoice.
She may be a "dork", but she's a damn pretty one. And it's the dorks who make the world run. Bill Gates is a dork. Steve Jobs was a dork. Zuckerberg is definitely a dork. Edison was a dork. So was Ford. Cool people just sit back and reap the benefits that "dorks" provide.
You own your dorkyness, Elizabeth, and go on with your bad self!
Dorks unite! Dork Power! Dorks 4ever! :P :)
Yes, it from Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor", and there is also part of the main riff from Metallica "Enter Sandman". The spoken narration is indeed by Richard Dawkins, he appears on stage with the band at the end of the Wembley 2015 gig.
Actually, i think it's Bach's minuet in g major from the notebook for anna magdalena (like she said in the video)
I caught the Metallica riff too. I was hoping I wasn’t alone.
Marinka Balou , both of them, in fact. First the menuet and then Toccata and fugue.
There's way more than just Bach and Metallica. There's also some gregorian song (Dies Irae IIRC), and some more as well. It's a part where Tuomas try to show the evolution of music, as a parallel to the evolution of life.
Yep but after the menuet, T&F is by far the most prominent and also the reason that "Industrial Revolution" part is in minor. I was surprised she didn't catch that.
Really nice reaction to this masterpiece! ❤️ 😍 Every time I watch this I'm getting goosebumps and tears in my eyes at the end! ❤️ We where there in a front row with my sister and her husband, my brother and his wife, and my friend! ❤️ 😍 Never ever gonna forget that show, it was so amazing! ❤️ 😍 What a memories! ❤️ 😍
Love to see them. In Australia may be one day
The first instrument Troy was playing was an Irish Whistle, the next was the Irish Pipes (Uilleann pipes). Troy is basically an orchestral section in 1 person.
ItsMeAgain 1 plus now he plays the cello part at the beginning on a guitar with a sustainer... and he sings. Another great addition to Nightwish in my opinion!
@@steevelecointe954 Yeah, loved his use of the E-Bow in 'Kiss while your lips are still red'. His voice gets a good workout on the new album Human:||:Nature!
@TheCharismaticVoice
@@steevelecointe954 I agree. He's the kind of multiinstrumentalist I aspire to be (even though I play a different type of bagpipes).
"Ever Dream", "Storytime", "Song Of Myself" and "Romanticide", all from Wacken 2013 :)
Better yet - do a reacction/analysis of the entire NW Wacken 2013 concert, or the Buenes Aires concert. It is worth watching the whole performance to get the feel of just how incredible they are live.
+1 on Storytime! My favorite from the Wacken performance. The choir part is just.... Mind blowing.
She's got to do Seven Days to The Wolves, too...if she hasn't already.
I just saw nightwish live OMG what a show what a singer what an experience what a Band what a feeling
Love the song, love watching you love it more. You are a real performer and I have no doubt that you bring a TON of awareness to music that many of us wouldn't normally get to!
That reading is not just from Richard Dawkins, it is the man himself reading it. And the last bit is from "The origin of species" by Charles Darwin.
Yes it is, isnt it. Hearing his voice gave me a sudden urge to lose myself in a Dawkins youtube trip. Its been a while.
At least I can safely bet, it isn't Darwin reading his part. 😁
@@chrisjung7139 that would be scary hahahaah
When Nightwish perform in London, Richard Dawkins comes out on stage to perform his lines live.
The 1st 2 are from "Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder"
Really late to this, but Tuomas actually really wants to write scores for movies. In the album prior to this one, Imaginaerum, Tuomas actually decided to just have a movie made (by the same name) so he could score it. He is crazy, crazy, crazy talented, both as a composer and a lyricist, and I'd love to hear his scores in blockbuster movies in one day.
That bagpipe solo really packs a punch. I had to hold back tears it's such a beautiful yet powerful instrument.
Bagpipes (and that sound) always make me feel homesick for a place i've never been. Makes me emotional as well :D xo
My word, you're the dream princess of my dreams. The exquisitely focused, fine-tuned analysis of music is what I loved and will always love - your hand movements, eyes raising, flushing blushing cheeks. Oh lord how I miss my wife, she displayed it all😢
The most impressive thing is how intense and involved this song is both vocally and musically and its at the end of 2 hour performance. That's not easy.
The Greatest Show on Earth is about the history of Earth and life itself. It has 5 sections:
1. Four Point Six (ends with the first spoken part by Richard Dawkins) - Earth as an empty planet, all rocks, lava etc. and the first life, the title refers to the estimated age of Earth, 4.6 billion years.
2. Life (begins when the guitars kick in, ends with the break after the drum solo) - evolution and life, references to LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor), the Devonian era (also known as the Age of Fish, when amphibians started evolving to go on land), the Goldilock Zone (the ideal distance from the Sun, which allows water to exist in a liquid state) etc.
3. The Toolmaker (starts with Floor's high notes and the primate grunting, ends with the "We were here" segment) - humans enter the stage, references to Lucy (the primate that seems to be our earliest ancestor), migration out of Africa, atomic bombs etc. and there are musical snippets from other musicians and composers, such as Bach, Mozart and Metallica (just before the second chorus you can hear the riff from Enter Sandman)
4. The Understanding (the two spoken parts during the outro of the show) - quotes by UNWEAVING THE RAINBOW by Richard Dawkins and ON THE ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES by Charles Darwin, narrated by Dawkins.
5. Sea Worn Driftwood - not that present here, but it is the soundscape after the last spoken part, with animal and ocean sounds to play it out.
Spikerpet I purchased the download and didn’t have the breakdown of sections. Thank You.
I got to see them live in 2016, and that big moment "WE - WERE - HERE" to close the show was so incredibly magical and dynamic in the shared connection among the crowd, it gives chills just to remember it.
We sprang for VIP, and I was able to tell Floor that I'd already considered her the best vocalist in her prior work, but with this Nightwish album, she pushed herself to be even better.
Thanks for doing these, especially reviewing Floor/Nightwish, it's so pleasant to see your joy.
you are sooo in the moment. so respectful of all the artists too. watching you enjoy the musicians is so pure. your enthusiasm and knowledge is unmatched ! I’ve seen your videos and think your voice is spectacular...
It's actually Richard Dawkins himself that does the narrating/reading.
Did he record something special for them or did they take that from something he did?
Wow, that's a really interesting fact man.
@@mn6334 recorded specifically for this. There are a few interviews in which it's being talked about, and Dawkins himself does the last bit on stage in Wembley.
@@mn6334 Recorded special, I believe. He appeared on stage at the Wembley Arena gig.
@@mn6334 It's just taken from his audiobooks which he reads himself. Dawkins did read end the part live with them in London a few years ago ('15).
15:16 "Oh, fire!" - Elizabeth's best caveman impersonation.
It's great to go back and watch this inspirational piece . It's not a song ,, it's an experience. So jealous of those of whom got to experience this live , a lucky moment in time . 👍🇦🇺
Floors parents being at this show….How proud they must be to see the positive and joyous effect their daughter and this incredible band has on thousands of people must be almost overwhelming for them.
Sensory overload… Nightwish style.
They band that can call it “The Greatest Show on Earth” and deliver on all points both artistic and philosophical …just an incredible adventure in songwriting and performance
That giggle when Floor started head banging was priceless.
In reality Elizabeth would really love to join in with Floor... now that would be some superior content :-)
Yeah, and very cute 😊
Me seeing this title: "Oh boy, here we goooooooooooo. Time to grab some food, a drink, and kick back."
I laughed when she said it, cause I had paused the video at the start and grabbed a Dr. Pepper and a snack, LOL
I'll have what she had 😂🤘
Every time I hear this song it moves me almost to tears, I get goosebumps, and the hair on my neck stands up. Great to see your first time reaction to it.
I'm writing again: If Carl Sagan were alive with Nightwish in same time, he would have uploaded this song to Voyager!
When I saw these guys in Lisbon, during the “We were here” you can’t help at feeling your whole body just SHIVER. It’s such an emotional song. Such a powerful composition and NIGHTWISH just DEMOLISH IT live. For someone who contemplated suicide several times for 28 years, this song helped me in ways Nightwish will never know. Thank you for your reaction. It’s exactly how I felt the very first time.
When were they in Lisbon and how the fuck did I miss them? I wish I was there, it must have been amazing!
And I understand what you mean, when I was depressed what really prevented me from even contemplating suicide what that excerpt that Dawkins reads. How lucky we are to be alive, the wonders of the Universe, the limitless potential for what the future brings, no matter how dark it got I could never end it too soon.
@@Luumus No comment here. Just wanted to say I hope you and OP are both okay atm.
A form of bag pipes called Uilleann pipes. They are much more musical and have a haunting tonality to them. Tuomas loves Celtic music and incorporates it into Nightwish's music. The primal chant is earth coming into focus "From the stellar nursery into a carbon feast, Enter LUCA". Floor is the master of head banging. She does a circular one that we refer to as windmilling. She is Dutch after all? The tribal drumming represents the coming of mankind (The hunter). I love Carmina Burana! "The hungry traveler, out of Africa, Little Lucy of the Afar". Lucy is the oldest human ancestor ever found by archaeologists. Yes, Bach's Toccata en Fugue in D minor and ends with Metallica "Enter Sandman". The evolution of music from Classical to metal! You really understand the depth of Tuomas' compositions. Tuomas also composed the ending orchestrated part with arrangements from Pip Williams and the Orchestre de Grandeur
. You will notice how long the beginning 3 sections were compared to the section where humanity arrived on the scene. 4.6 billion years of evolution and we have only been around for a tiny portion. Can you imagine bringing a song concept like this to your band mates and telling them. Hey guys, I have an idea for a short little 20 some minute song about 4.6 billion years of the evolution of our solar system, the earth, and all life on our planet". What do think? Then creating a way to tell this story with depth and artistic vision. Once you discover the lyrical content it will add another layer to the artistic genius of this composition. If you look at the lyrics to the final chorus, you will see the idea of the end of humanity in the future. See below, (2nd and ending Chorus lyrics).I loved your reaction and analysis once again. You have so much enthusiasm and deep level understanding of music, it makes it a pleasure to take these journeys along with you. You are obviously an intelligent and sophisticated woman with a beautiful soul and intense love of great music. Be well lovely lady. Peace.
Floor's 1st vocal part🧬🎹🎻🎤🎶🎶🎶
Archaean horizon
The first sunrise
On a pristine gaea
Opus perfectum
Somewhere there, us sleeping
1st Chorus🎹🎸🥁🎼
We are one
We are a universe
Forbears of what will be scions of the Devonian sea
Aeons pass, writing the tale of us all
A day-to-day new opening
For the greatest show on Earth
2nd and ending Chorus🎼🎼🎼🎶🎶🎶
Man, he took his time in the sun
Had a dream to understand
A single grain of sand
He gave birth to poetry
But one day'll cease to be
Greet the last light of the library
.
Wow! Thank you for this informative and thorough post! I learned a lot, and hope others will also learn a lot from reading it.
4.5 billion years that’s just Earth.
@@T1hitsTheHighestNote I interpret it more that the poet dies (and Tuomas used to like that reference on dead poetry a lot - e.g. the ending of Gesthemane), rather than the humanity will cease to exist. :3 And poetry dies as we grow and we lose our innocence.
I come back to this from time to time- your reaction brings me as much joy as the performance. Thanks!
Thanks for this video. I’m from Finland and always loved Nightwish but your analysis helped me understand even more of their ingenuity.
I just realized: The sudden shift into metal during the intro might represent the Cambrian Explosion, ans explosion in numbers of early life forms on Earth !!
FANTASTIC reaction, possibly my favorite yet, (and you, like Nightwish, set the bar VERY high). I'm extremely impressed by the references that you caught within the song. Something that you may not have caught was that the spoken male voice in the middle and at the end was actually Richard Dawkins himself.
Also, Nightwish is absolutely pro-technology, and uses it masterfully (as you've noted), but they're also VERY in touch with nature, its' plight, and the influence that humanity has had upon the natural world since the rise of the anthropocene. They are very much about balance, making use of the tools you have to make existence better for EVERYONE and everyTHING, not JUST humanity.
As such, the industrial revolution is technologically so, SO important, but also the source of unfathomable destruction all over the world, a pattern we have yet to break out of. That may be why they took the path of using a minor key there.
Additionally, you may not have heard, not long after the industrial revolution part, banjos in the background, then, modern music. The guitar riff is definitely from Metallica, pretty sure it's Enter Sandman. In addition to a WEALTH of lyrical references, they also make references in their riffs, Kai (drummer) makes at least one clear reference to the band Toto in Human :||: Nature, and Empuu (guitarist) frequently will make references to other bands, (like Pantera in Song of Myself).
When you start to crack into the new album: Human :||: Nature, you'll see a LOT more of their commentary about humanity, the good, the bad, and its' place in existence.
Also, you may not have seen, Troy (the man playing the woodwind - btw, it's a low whistle) actually sings as well here. He's not featured so prominently, but he DEFINITELY joins Marko and Floor in the new album, and it is absolutely spectacular. You'll love the new album. It's mind-blowing.
I love learning more about these details. Thank you!!
@@TheCharismaticVoice Nightwish have officially partnered with the NGO World Land Trust and dedictated a video on their new album to showcase the goals of the organization, and species on the brink of extinction.
On point, @John Cobb. One of the reasons why I am pushing for reactions to the new mateial on Human:|:Nature although there are no live recordings available yet (and I don't see that changing any time soon)
Great review. It's probably my favorite song of all time. Just a masterpiece. If you see it live, it is so powerful that at the end, when the band and audience are singing "We Were Here"....I just bawl like a baby. It's so intense and beautiful. They are genius.
The thing with a Nightwish performance is it isn't just a show; it's an experience. You have bands and groups that come on stage and just perform their songs, but Nightwish always gives their fans more.
Love the reaction!
FYI: The lower one is a Korg Kronos 88 key with a real hammer mechanics, so it reacts 99% like a real piano and it has the same feeling and weight as piano keys. Additional you can adjust the key responses and the dynamics via software. So you can make it react like a Seinway or, if you prefer Bösendorfer, like this.
The Kronos at nightwish is a working horse. It does almost all piano and orchestral sounds, also the backing track and the 'click' for the other musicians is handled bei it.
And yes, it's a part of Bach's Fugue in D Minor :o)
Greetings from Austria
Woody
Notice Floor's posture when she is windmilling, leaning forward usually with hands on knees. It lets you use you shoulders/spine as much as your neck muscles. Just using your neck can make you very sore if your not use to it.
I think you are really going to love the new album hopefully we can get some good live recordings of it once this pandemic thing goes away. Until then if you want a sneak peak check out "How's the Heart" from the Planet Rock acoustic session. It is very stripped down just Troy with a guitar and harmony and Floor singing but it is quite possibly better than the studio version.
Thus have I learned!! Now I’m going to go try it, and then sing. Will report back.
@@TheCharismaticVoice I agree with the original poster - next time you wish to analyze a Nightwish song, "How's the Heart" acoustic would be an awesome choice (after you are done practicing headbanging of course!) . That is probably the only live recording we are gonna get from the new album for a year at least. In that song you can actually hear Floor in her more natural tone, she does sound a bit like Loreena McKennitt. She also uses a lot of staccato notes so it is quite different from her earlier material.
Thank you for the recommendation. I think that might be the most beautiful thing I have ever heard.
@@TheCharismaticVoice The key is to totally relax. If you tense up, that's where you run into trouble. :)
that acoustic version is the only Nightwish I don't like...ever! Floor is amazing as always but Troy's drone ruins it for me. Sends the wrong shivers down my spine. To me it is just clear they hadn't had the chance to practice and refine their mix. Nemo, from the same session sounded fine but they had been doing that for Decades (me so funny!)
I've seen a few different reactions to this song. And I LOVE how you break down and really point out little details others have failed to point out. You know exactly what you are talking about. I love it and your appreciation of the masterpiece.
I always enjoy viewing Elizabeth's reaction to Nightwish. She is so enthusiastic.