The Song Fight Bulletin Board

ROUND FOUR of the NUR EIN is on!!

Title: What Once Was Grand
Non Optional Challenge: Lyrics in Sonnet form
(Note- Rhyme scheme achieves, Rhyme + Meter excels)
Songs are Due on: Monday, May 18th @ 12:01 AM EDT
Send your MP3 to nurein.sidefight@gmail.com

Four bands will eliminated at the end of this round.

Andrew Reist
Frankie Big Face
Jon Eric
Nouveau Pavre
Paco Del Stinko
Ross Durand
Signboy
Swilington
Tiny Robots
Todd McHatton
WreckdoM (Immune)

STREAM ALL

Hm, I'm a bit confused. In this post you said:

Niveous wrote: ...
In rounds 1, 2 & 3, the jury's favorite song gets immunity.
...

But now you're saying the winner of round 4 can win immunity too? I feel like this has been a point in Nur Ein that's been a bit vague to me every year, unfortunately.

Title: Silver Tongue
Non Optional Challenge: Guest appearance. Guest must rap in your song.
Songs are Due on: Monday, May 11th @ 12:01 AM EDT
Send your MP3 to nurein.sidefight@gmail.com

Four bands will eliminated at the end of this round. The winner of the top song in this round will earn the final immunity of Nur Ein IV.

Did you just cut and paste and change the titles and challange info?

Rone Rivendale wrote:

Title: Silver Tongue
Non Optional Challenge: Guest appearance. Guest must rap in your song.
Songs are Due on: Monday, May 11th @ 12:01 AM EDT
Send your MP3 to nurein.sidefight@gmail.com

Four bands will eliminated at the end of this round. The winner of the top song in this round will earn the final immunity of Nur Ein IV.

Did you just cut and paste and change the titles and challange info?

Absolutely!

Well first let me say how honored I am to be moving on.

And I know that Challenge clarifications are a pain in the ass - but I am going to go ahead and assume that any of the common sonnet forms are acceptable, and that you'd say if that was wrong.

I really like this challenge! I look forward to trying to pull it off well

So I guess since the mention of immunity has been removed from the first post in this thread that answers my question: the winner of round four does not win immunity in round five.

Ross wrote:I am going to go ahead and assume that any of the common sonnet forms are acceptable, and that you'd say if that was wrong.

You assume correctly.

Lunkhead wrote:So I guess since the mention of immunity has been removed from the first post in this thread that answers my question: the winner of round four does not win immunity in round five.

It was a dumb cut and paste mistake. I was supposed to take that part off and simply forget. The pains of multi-tasking.

Was the sonnet challenge part of either last years NUR EIN or a regular fight? Does anyone amember? I seem to recall trying this pattern before and fudging it, I'm sure it was here somewhere.

So should the lyrics be 100% sonnet? "Lyrics in sonnet form" seems to imply to me that the lyrics should be a sonnet, but 14 lines is a pretty short song.

The challenge does not state, "the lyrics of the song must in their entirety comprise a sonnet" ...
I assumed it implied that (for example) each verse would have the length and rhyme scheme characteristic of sonnets.

Good point, but one of the defining features of a sonnet is its length. 14 lines: no more, no less. So I thought it was worth checking.

Yeah, 14 lines seems really short. I intend to go the way of a "sonnet cycle"

oh, I made it! Teplin, Tex, Adam and John - sorry to see you go - good music from you guys all around. Nur Ein is brutal and cold.

I love the challenge, partially because I'm an english major and had to spend a few weeks with sonnets alone. Good old iambic pentameter, right? I'll probably go with shakespearean form too, but I guess we'll see how the song goes.

ps - this is the furthest I've ever made it in nur ein!
Nur Ein I - round 2 (with no round 0)
Nur Ein 2 - round 3
Nur Ein 3 - round 2
Nur Ein 4 - at least round 4

To check the box for challenge fulfillment only the rhyme scheme is necessary.
However speaking only for myself I will be much more impressed if I hear 5 stresses in a line.

Reïst wrote:oh, I made it! Teplin, Tex, Adam and John - sorry to see you go - good music from you guys all around. Nur Ein is brutal and cold.

I love the challenge, partially because I'm an english major and had to spend a few weeks with sonnets alone. Good old iambic pentameter, right? I'll probably go with shakespearean form too, but I guess we'll see how the song goes.

ps - this is the furthest I've ever made it in nur ein!
Nur Ein I - round 2 (with no round 0)
Nur Ein 2 - round 3
Nur Ein 3 - round 2
Nur Ein 4 - at least round 4

See there, if you can dream it, you can be it. Now if you will excuse me, I have maidens to save.

It bears mentioning that, in spite of my protests about the length of a sonnet, this has been done before.

For instance. On their 2003 album Reconstruction Site, The Weakerthans did a trio of sonnets with the same melody.

(Manifest)
(Hospital Vespers)
(Past-Due)

All of them Shakespearean sonnets.

Oh, and also, in the vein of sportsmanship:

There are three major types of sonnet. All are characterized by their length of exactly 14 lines, and a change in mood at a set point near the end, called a "turn," or "volta." The three forms are as follows:

1.) The Italian (or Petrarchan) Sonnet, as popularized by poets such as Dante and Petrarch. The rhyme scheme of an Italian Sonnet is ABBA ABBA CDE CDE, with the turn falling after the second quatrain. In an Italian Sonnet, the turn is often presented in the form of the two quatrains setting up a problem, which the two tercets then answer. This formula is less common, however, in Italian Sonnets written in English. The two tercets are also sometimes written as CDC DCD.

2.) The English (or Elizabethan, or Shakespearean) Sonnet, as popularized by you-know-who. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, with the turn falling in the final couplet. Turns in English Sonnets, as might be suggested by their shape, are more sudden than those in Italian Sonnets, and usually more clear-cut.

3.) The Spenserian Sonnet, which was invented by Edmund Spenser, combining the basic structure of the English Sonnet with the interlocking style of the Italian terza rima. The rhyme scheme of a Spenserian Sonnet is ABAB BCBC CDCD EE. As in the English Sonnet, the turn occurs in the couplet at the end.

There are other forms, though if I were a judge, I'd be skeptical to hear any of them in this fight. In modern poetry, where free-verse is far more common than formal, most critics tend to regard any poem with 14 lines as a sonnet of some kind. And some that have more or fewer lines than 14.

And if anyone tries a Pushkin Sonnet, they'll get a huge e-hug from me.

Love,
The English Major

NUR EIN!!!!

I've written the Italian-style sonnet though I have no idea how to turn it into a song that anyone will want to listen to.

question(s) to the judges:

1. does the entire song's lyrics have to be in sonnet form or can there just be a sonnet in there amongst other lyrics?

if so,

2. can there be more than one sonnet?

3. are the last lines allowed to be repeated by themselves as a chorus?

What about a Curtal sonnet? It's not 14 lines... rather 10 1/2.

Generic wrote:The rhyme scheme of an Italian Sonnet is ABBA ABBA CDE CDE

And of course there is the Swedish Sonnet, which is ABBA ABBA ABBA ABBA.

Italian, English, Curtal, Caudate, Spenserian are all fine. I supose Pushkin too.

You must have a full sonnet within your lyrics. I think any rock and roll or pop phrasing will be fine. Even repeating things will be legal too. However when trying to judge between 2 awesome songs of equal awesomeness I would most likely lean towards the purer sonnet structure.

For me anyway the priorities are as follows:

1) How good is the damn song, catchy, hooky, awesome, etc.
2) How well was the challenge met
3) How was the performance, pitchy, bad notes, rhythm issues
4) How is the production, can I hear everything, drums too soft, etc.

My point is, worry about writing a really good song first and foremost. Embrace the challenge, don't fight it.

Good luck all, I'm looking forward to this fight!

EDIT: Judge discussions- you may use a sonnet as your verse, while your chorus does not have to be in sonnet form.