Sigma Music

A voyage into the unusual unknown

It’s challenging enough to correctly identify the SSH category of a song, much less the songwriter, since songs are just a snapshot of an individual’s feelings at a moment in time. This doesn’t mean it’s impossible, just that some songs and some musicians are harder to categorize than others, especially in light of the way in which a lot of music is a collective endeavor.

And since Sigmas are rare, it’s even harder to articulate what might qualify as Sigma music. But if there is one historical Sigma of note whose qualifications would imposssible to deny, it would be George Gordon Byron, more commonly known as Lord Byron, who was famously described as being “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.”

Byron didn’t write songs, he wrote poetry. However, he wrote poetry that scans very well, and which can therefore be set to music quite easily. The problem is that poetry usually lacks one of the more important elements of a song, which is of course the chorus. Enter Sigma #2. I took the liberty of writing a chorus for what I consider to be one of his better poems, When We Two Parted. I leave it to the reader/listener to decide how well it works with the verses.

But regardless, at least we have one way of determining what Sigma Music sounds like. Read the poem first, then listen to the transformation of it. Extra points if you can identify the couplet that most underlines Byron’s ability to truly describe the experience of being a Sigma Male.

When we two parted
In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted
To sever for years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
Colder thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold
Sorrow to this.

The dew of the morning
Sunk chill on my brow—
It felt like the warning
Of what I feel now.
Thy vows are all broken,
And light is thy fame;
I hear thy name spoken,
And share in its shame.

They name thee before me,
A knell to mine ear;
A shudder comes o'er me—
Why wert thou so dear?
They know not I knew thee,
Who knew thee too well—
Long, long shall I rue thee,
Too deeply to tell.

In secret we met—
In silence I grieve,
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?—
With silence and tears.

How should I greet thee?