The Austrian composers shared a taste for earthy, countrified dance idioms; a keen interest in setting poetry; and a generosity in pouring out sheer, glorious melody.
Celebrated by everyone from Popjustice to Pitchfork to the indie world's chosen pop musicologist Owen Pallett, it became that rare thing; a pop juggernaut that seemed to transcend criticism, uniting fans of all genres through sheer force of melody.
In any case, Winterhorde's sonic path twists from symphonic melodies to sheer straight-up metal intensity, melding these two extremes with elegance and professionalism.
Powers is at his best when he writes about this dream, about the modes, the melodies, the sheer bravura of making song: "We gave them Dallapiccola," Joseph recalls of one competition performance, "which impressed but did not delight.
There's the sheer melancholic beauty of the melody in the flute and bassoon, but there's also what Tchaikovsky does with it, or rather doesn't do with it.
In Rolling Stone, Stephen Holden lauded the song for its "strong, short-phrased melody whose lyrics are sheer exhortation", and declared the single "every bit as good as 'My Sweet Lord'".
John Wilkinson's Effigies Against the Light (Salt Publishing £11.15, pp199) for its sheer verbal inventiveness and unheard-of melodies made much contemporary poetry seem straightforwardly pedestrian.
As I basked in the sheer loveliness of graceful, long-lined melodies whose very structure seems to promise a settled domestic life with a bright future, I pondered the temptations and pitfalls of that dream.
The book argued that some bird species had evolved the ability to appreciate melody and sing for the sheer pleasure of it, a notion that continues to intrigue zoological scientists.
Now you have become entranced by the sheer beauty of this particular branch of melody, reach for the stars!
