YTSEJAM Digest 7185 Today's Topics: 1) Octavarium: The meaning? by Bruce Duesterhoeft 2) Octavarium Impression by "Zachary Gemmill" 3) Shameless plug by "Damon Fibraio" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 07:16:23 -0700 (PDT) From: Bruce Duesterhoeft To: ytsejam@torchsong.com Subject: Octavarium: The meaning? Message-ID: --0-1784308100-1122560183=:4746 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 >>>By the way, what the F is an Octavarium, anyway?<<< Found the below from google, rather interesting. -Bruce Speculation on the title Due to its unusual name, many Dream Theater fans speculated on what they believe to be the meaning of the album's title. Some thought that the title referred to the Octavarium, which was a book of Catholic liturgy referring to a period known as the Octave. Others theorized that the title came from Latin words meaning "Various Eight", since it has eight tracks and the band has said that the eight songs on the record are all of different styles. However, this is incorrect Latin; the Latin word for eight is "octo," not "octa," and "varium" is singular when it would need to be plural. This theory may have come from the fact that Octavarium is the band's eighth album, since "octavus" is Latin for "eighth". Yet another interpretation was that the "-arium" suffix is used to denote a place where something is held, in this case musical octaves. This turns out to be the closest to the truth, when the lyrics from the title track ("Trapped inside this Octavarium") are considered. It is also interesting to note that Octavarium follows a pattern started in Dream Theater's 6th studio album, Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence, which had 6 tracks and the word six in the title. The next CD, Train of Thought, contained 7 tracks, and Octavarium follows both of these apparent "trends" with 8 songs and a title related to the number eight. Whether this is intentional or not will remain unknown until either Octavarium is released or a member of the band addresses it publicly. Every song of the album is in a different minor key, starting with F, then G, A, B, C, D, E, and returning to F. This is evident by the treble clef staves in the liner notes. Many fans have made observations about the recurrances of 5's and 8's in the album art. The name Octavarium itself has 5 syllables, while connotating 8. The use of 5's and 8's stems from the number of natural notes (white keys on a piano) and incidentals (sharp/flat keys) in an octave. It may also refer to the number of members in the band from its inception in 1985 to 2005 and Octavarium being the band's 8th studio album. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com --0-1784308100-1122560183=:4746 ---YTSEJAM FILTER: Rest of message skipped because of attachment ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 17:19:28 -0700 From: "Zachary Gemmill" To: ytsejam@torchsong.com Subject: Octavarium Impression Message-ID: This is a multipart message in MIME format. --=_alternative 0001C85D8825704D_ charset=us-ascii I like it. One of their best. Besides I&W and Awake, this is the one album that I keep coming back to, getting constant rotation. Since I listen to music 99% when I am driving, however, the slow parts of the title track really annoy me. Yeah, edit this one down at least 5-7 minutes, or just start it at around 9 minutes. I do like the Genesis-sounding stuff there. Like all of you, I also skip track 2. Sacrificed Sons could also have done with 3-4 less minutes, but it eventually gets really strong. TRoaE is a great song, but merely good for DT. I am liking it more the more I listen. These Walls... and here I am at a loss why some people don't like this one, is awesome. My only wish is that they had extended the instrumental at the end. It is really a strong finisher. Great stuff. Not complicated, but powerful. I Walk Beside You is a great rocking ballad minus the cheesiness of Innocence Faded. This is a good one. Could be a radio release, but then they would get pegged wrongly if it became a hit. Panic Attack is just great, great DT balls and chunk. Never Enough is probably my favorite track. It has personal, "heavy" subject matter (is this biographical of someone in or close to the band?), with an interesting vocal style by James... restrained, yet serious, as a nod to the lyrics. It has a neat driving rhythm that reminds me of Afterlife. Great song. Speaking of NE, I let my friend, who stopped liking DT SfaM, listen to this song. He said the instrumentation was good, but seemed almost gleeful that "James has lost his voice! He's lost it!" I was trying to explain to him that it was sung like that on purpose and that he was an idiot, but he wasn't buying (one listen to the first track and it is obvious that James hasn't "lost it."). *Sigh*. I have to say that I really like James on this album. At least 50% of the time, he grates me on the other albums, but I like him 100% here. Good job. Please take it as constructive criticism, if anyone is listening.... -Zach (jammer from the olde, olde, olde days) --=_alternative 0001C85D8825704D_ ---YTSEJAM FILTER: Rest of message skipped because of attachment ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 20:34:20 -0400 From: "Damon Fibraio" To: Subject: Shameless plug Message-ID: Anybody in the NY area... My Dream Theater tribute band, erotomania, which not only can I not spell, but has me on keyboards, is playing at Brooklyn Music Terminal in New York tomorrow night. We have a solid 75 minute set that I may or may not fully get through with all my keyboards. So, if you aren't going to see gigantor or can't afford to, come out to Brooklyn Music Terminal and check out 5 guys trying to be Dream Theater and not doing that bad of a job, if I say so myself. Some web sites you may be interested in: Brooklyn Music Terminal's temporary web site: http://www.myspace.com/brooklynmusicterminal Erotomania's web site: http://hometown.aol.com/DTJFAN/erotomania.html Our alter ego, Visions: http://www.visions692000.com Queen of the Ryche, the queensryche tribute I also play in: http://queenoftheryche.com/ And if anybody cares, Queen of the Ryche will be playing Sunday night at Crash Mansion in the Village, located at 199 Bowery (at Spring Street) NYC, 212.982.7767 I know all of you east coasters will show up, because you all love me. If not, I will juggle razor blades, sharp side down while playing space dye vest on a casio sk1. Now, back to your usual silence. Sorry for the slightly off topic post. ------------------------------ End of YTSEJAM Digest 7185 ************************** === Contributions to ytsejam: ytsejam@torchsong.com === === Send requests to: ytsejam-request@torchsong.com === === More information at: http://www.dreamt.org/local/ytsejam.php === === Brought by the ghost of ytsejam@arastar.coms past === === Reach the owner of this list at: ytsejam-owner@torchsong.com ===