Pro Vocal Coach’s DEEP ANALYSIS-Nightwish ‘Élan’
Added 2025-04-21 15:20:17 +0000 UTCWow,
I’m loving doing these deep analyzes of Nightwish songs. This one had such a beautiful message as well as ‘How’s the Heart?’ which I just uploaded over on the main channel. https://youtu.be/udxfoxK__r4
Élan will live over here for you all here at the $5 tier and up. ALSO…I just updated my collections so I now have one for my exclusive Nightwish Patreon reactions here https://www.patreon.com/collection/1457007
ALSO ALSO…come join me at 2pm EST today for the B-SIDES ONLY livestream listening party on Twitch. https://www.twitch.tv/timwelchvocalstudio
Lots more stuff cooking too, stay tuned! Thanks as always for your support.
Cheers,
Tim
Comments
Oh yes, and you mentioned wanting to potentially hear a little more Marko. For this, and demonstrating the wide range of styles that Nightwish encompass, you have "The Islander Live at Tampere". It's so great to hear him sing a lot cleaner, and it shows that he truly has a great voice too. The song is in English, but he speaks to the crowd which is subtitled. There is one part in the middle which has no subtitles, but I've been reliably informed that at this point, he is inviting the crowd to sing along to the chorus.
Kurt Sharp
2025-04-23 15:41:30 +0000 UTCHi Tim, I'm in complete agreement with Elena. One quick point. I notice in the Wacken 2013 reaction, you wanted to go back a few seconds, but because of the length of the video it made it very difficult. If you pause the video and then press the left arrow key then it rewinds the video back 10 seconds with each press, which makes life a lot easier :) I also agree with Elena that Shoemaker is a great song when it comes to interesting vocal patterns and stressing different syllables. Probably your best bet for this is the official lyric video. If you should decide to give this one a try, I can highly recommend reading the Wikipedia Article for "Eugene Shoemaker" whom the song is in tribute to, if you do, you'll catch a lot more of the references including the meaning of the spoken word in the song.
Kurt Sharp
2025-04-23 15:35:56 +0000 UTCElan is a vigorous spirit or enthusiasm according to the Webster dictionary. You were correct about the meaning of the song. It’s an ode to the endless possibilities of existence and finding individual key to happiness without being held back by others’ norms or opinions. From the press release: “According to Holopainen, the starting point to write the song was a quote from the poem by Walt Whitman: “‘Oh, while I live to be the ruler of life, Not a slave To meet life as a powerful conqueror, and nothing exterior to me will ever take command of me”. He commented: “The underlying theme of the song is nothing less than the meaning of life, which can be something different for all of us. It’s important to surrender yourself to the occasional 'free fall’ and not to fear the path less travelled by.” The music video for the song features several famous Finnish actors and was “inspired by the untold stories of abandoned places around Finland”. Nightwish has an uplifting song about death too. It’s called Harvest with Troy being the main vocalist.
Elena
2025-04-21 21:43:30 +0000 UTCIn short, Tuomas writes vocal melodies for Floor, Troy, and Marco (in the past). He states that he can hear Floor’s voice in his head when he writes the songs. She does offer suggestions for different vocal techniques and does a lot of vocalizing on her own (the ending of Ghost Love Score is one example. That does not exist in the studio version). But the main melody is done. Sometimes what Tuomas wants is very challenging but he knows Floor can always nail it. There is a song on Human Nature called Shoemaker where Floor said that when she first heard it she wasn’t sure. She asked Tuomas when she was supposed to breathe due to its unique rhythm. It was probably a joke but still an interesting insight. There is a series of short videos about the recording of their 2015 album (Imagenarium) on YouTube where Tuomas talks about his writing process, how it gets to the band, their rehearsal and recording process. He writes all songs on the piano, the band listens to the demos, then they get together and start rehearsing which is where each musician offers up certain accents or other changes, and then they record. This is what this series is about. I would start with episode 2: https://youtu.be/lIhsFClj0U4?si=FMROCwVNjJ2Ifr_B Episode 3 is all about Tuomas’ writing process.
Elena
2025-04-21 21:16:38 +0000 UTCI think it’s on the actual YouTube video, thanks for copying it over here! I may share it on YouTube at some point if people are really clamoring for it.
Tim Welch Vocal Studio
2025-04-21 17:27:48 +0000 UTCWoohoo! See you soon.
Tim Welch Vocal Studio
2025-04-21 17:27:06 +0000 UTC2 pm EST is 8 pm CET, so I'll be there!
Hans Reese
2025-04-21 17:16:53 +0000 UTCThe comment I placed yesterday on this analysis didn't come with this song when it was moved here so I, of course, am going to copy it here. Good choice. People always say that Nightwish is better live, but that doesn't mean that their videos aren't fantastic, also. Just a couple quick things. The actors in this video are all well-known and well loved Finnish actors that most of the Finnish members of Nightwish would remember from their younger days. The owl is kind of the Nightwish symbol. You'll see the motif repeated several places in their history. This particular snowy owl is from a wildlife center that Nightwish has known, and I would guess supported for many years. I read someplace where filming him was a challenge, as he was not cooperative at all. I think you're dead on about the message being one of enjoying life to the fullest and taking the least traveled road whenever you can. I'm not sure if there is any particular symbolism in where the individual band members are performing. I know whenever I see Marko on that bridge with all of the pyro, I'm always reminded that he is often compared to Gandalf in his looks, and the bridge and flames could be a representation for where Gandalf met and ultimately defeated the Balrog. This is the only place where I can remember seeing Marko with a cello when he is in Nightwish, though outside of Nightwish he does noodle with one every now and then. I think he is much more comfortable with the guitar and bass.
Gaye McCullough
2025-04-21 16:20:36 +0000 UTC
