Colin Blunstone's "Beginning"

Last night I listened to Colin Blunstone's Journey and noticed a small thing about "Beginning."  The choral background doubles the "surrounds you in the night" in the line "Oh, self-doubt surrounds you in the night."  The choral background surrounds Blunstone's lead vocal just like the self-doubt in the lyric.

Mel Tormé's "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling"

I just wrote about this in "The Four Winds and the Seven Seas," but Mel Tormé's "I've Got a Feeling I'm Falling" also features Wagner's wedding march from Lohengrin (popularly known as "Here Comes the Bride") on - I think - celesta.  Here, when the "Say, mister parson, stand by" verse is repeated, it starts halfway through the first line, and variations on it continue through the next line: "'Cause I've got a feelin' I'm fallin'."  It's not directly stated in the lyrics, but that musical quotation indicates that the singer/speaker is thinking about marriage.

Mel Tormé's "The Four Winds and the Seven Seas"

I just started listening to the last disc in a four-disc set of Mel Tormé titled Jazz and Velvet.  I noticed that after the lines "We vowed and said someday we'd wed / In the church in the vale" in "The Four Winds and the Seven Seas," the first four notes of the "Here Comes the Bride" wedding march (from Wagner's Lohengrin) are played on what I think is a celesta.

Additionally, there's an-other hint of wedding accoutrements with the vale/veil homophone.  It actually took a bit of thinking before I sussed out the line.  It's "vale" as in "valley."

Jefferson Airplane's Jefferson Airplane Takes Off

This morning I listened to Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, the first Jefferson Airplane album.  This was only the second time I've listened to it, so while I noticed some obvious things, they're novel because I'm not very familiar with the album yet, not because I haven't been paying attention.

"Bringing Me Down"

The "down, down, down" in the backing vocals at the end is sung to a descending phrase (F, E, D in octaves, I think), so there's a descent in the words and the music.

"Don't Slip Away"

The last "away" in the line "Don't slip away, oh, no, don't slip away" have melismas.  The first two syllables are sung to C# notes, but then there's an extra third syllable sung to a B.  So the "away" slips from one pitch to an-other.

Ivan & Alyosha's It's All Just Pretend

Last night I listened to Ivan & Alyosha's It's All Just Pretend and found a couple Biblical references.

"Bury Me Deep"

Here, there's the line "I'm learning that the sins of the father will trickle down," which I think is just a rephrased version of a phrase in Exodus 20:5-6:  "You shall not bow down to them [carved images] or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments."  I don't think the contexts for these two phrases are the same, but the phrases themselves have a certain similarity.

"Drifting Away"

The phrase "the least of these" in the line "I guess that I'm the least of these with my empty cup" comes from Matthew 25.  The whole section (verses 31-46) is too long to quote in full, but either caring or not caring for "the least of these" is an important distinction between the blessed and the cursed.  Again, the contexts are different, but here the phrase matches exactly.

The Kinks' "Where Have All the Good Times Gone"

I'm currently listening to a compilation album of the Kinks (and transcribing some of them), and I noticed something about "Where Have All the Good Times Gone."  The first line in the last verse is "Well, yesterday was such an easy game for you to play."  I'm pretty sure this is a reference to the Beatles' "Yesterday" and its lines "Yesterday / Love was such an easy game to play."

The chronology works out.  The index of release dates in Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions lists the release date of the Help! album (with "Yesterday") as 6 August 1965, and the liner notes to the deluxe edition of The Kink Kontroversy list the release date of the "Till the End of the Day" b/w "Where Have All the Good Times Gone" single as 19 November 1965.

Kooks' "Seaside"

This afternoon I listened to the Kooks' Inside In/Inside Out.  I noticed something about the bridge of "Seaside" that should have been obvious.  The "away" in the line "But I find it hard to love you, girl, when you're far away" has a melisma (as does the single "away" after that line).  They're both sung to a Bb Bb Ab Gb Eb phrase, which helps to portray distance.

Argent's In Deep

Last night I listened to Argent's In Deep, and I noticed two small things about two songs.

"God Gave Rock and Roll to You"

The first line of the first verse is "Love your friend and love your neighbor," and the "Love your neighbor" part is a quote from the Bible.  I think it's actually in a couple places, but this is the first one I thought of:

But when the Pharisees heard that he [Jesus] had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.  And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.  "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?"  And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:34-40)

For what it's worth, last year, I wrote about what I think are some more Biblical references (to the Sermon on the Mount) in "It's Only Money, Pt. 1" and "It's Only Money, Pt. 2" (a lot of the lyrics are the same in both songs).

"Losing Hold"

I'm surprised I hadn't noticed this before, but "slide" in the line "Let my fingers slide" has a melisma.  Instead of being sung as just one syllable, it's sung as two, and the note changes from an A to a B, so the word "slide" is itself sliding between those two pitches.

The Moody Blues' "House of Four Doors (Part 1)"

Yester-day I listened to the Moody Blues' In Search of the Lost Chord, and I discovered two things about "House of Four Doors (Part 1)."

I'm not sure to what degree, but it seems that the inscription on the last door bears some resemblance to the Gate of Hell in Dante's Inferno.  In "House of Four Doors (Part 1)," there are the lines "Enter in, all ye who seek to find within / As the plaque said on the last door."  It seems to be the opposite of "All hope abandon, ye who enter in!" (Canto III, line 9).

The other thing I noticed is the melody to which the middle section ("House of Four Doors / I could live there forever...") is sung.  When I first listened to this album two years ago, I wrote about a piano part later in this song that I thought took a phrase from George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.  This "House of Four Doors / I could live there forever..." section uses the same melody, and it has more of a resemblance to Gershwin's.  The piano part has just the three note diatonic ascent and octave fall, but the vocal melody - like the phrase in the Rhapsody in Blue - has a diatonic ascent after that octave fall.  While they're in different keys and the note values are different, the intervals are the same.  I still haven't been able to find the Rhapsody in Blue score (I've found a lot pieces that quote it but have been unable to look at the original notation to see how they all compare), but here's some notation I made for this particular section of "House of Four Doors (Part One)":

(click here for a larger image)

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's "Promise"

I just listened to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's Howl, and I noticed the line "But tread softly, you tread on my dreams" in "Promise."  I knew this was a reference to a poem, but I had to look up which specific one.  It's Yeats' "Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven," specifically the last two lines: "I have spread my dreams under your feet; / Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."

On Christmas Music

This is more of a general thing, but I probably wouldn't have been thinking about this were it not for this project, so it makes sense to post it here.

This morning I listened to an album of Herbert Howells' church music and then an album of some music from the Home Alone movies (I don't think it really qualifies as a soundtrack, but it's pretty close), and I knew that later to-day I was going to listen to a Bach cantata and an album of Hildegard von Binden canticles.  All of this made me think about sacred music, and it occurred to me that Christmas music occupies a sort of liminal space with regard to that.  At its core, Christmas music is kind of religious because it's about a religious observance, but on the other hand, there's often not very much about that religious observance in Christmas songs.  Take "White Christmas" or "Blue Christmas" as examples.  Both are (literally) nominally about Christmas, but there's nothing about Christmas in them.

The Rip Chords' "Here I Stand"

I listened to an album of the Rip Chords a couple days ago, but this afternoon I was thinking about "Here I Stand" and realized something about the bridge.  The "so" in the first line ("I love you so") has a melisma, which emphasizes the degree of the loving.  The "so" is drawn out to various pitches to represent the greatness of singer/speaker's love.

In the first and third iteration of the bridge, the "I love you" is all sung to an F, and the "so" is sung to a G F G F Eb phrase.  In the second iteration, the "I love you" is sung to a Db, and the "so" to Eb F Eb Db Eb.  The specific melismas are different, but the idea behind both is the same.

The Fratellis' "Stragglers Moon"

I just listened to the Fratellis' Here We Stand.  At the beginning of "Stragglers Moon," there's a sort of chant of "She can't help it; the girl can't help it."  I think this might be a reference to Little Richard's "The Girl Can't Help It," which also has this recurring line.

I don't know much about the Fratellis, so I couldn't say if Little Richard had any influence on them, but the lyric matches exactly and the music is sort of similar.  I think the notation for it is still above my skill level (and I don't want to spend a lot of time trying to figure it out), but - musically - the phrases are based on the root, fifth, and seventh (either dominant seventh or major seventh).  Little Richard's "The Girl Can't Help It" is in C major, and the phrase "She can't help it; the girl can't help it" sung to G C B C; G C C B C.  If I have "Stragglers Moon" right, it's in E major (at the beginning, it alternates between E major and F major, which doesn't really establish a key).  There, "She can't help it; the girl can't help it" is sung to B E E D; B E E E F.

Like I said, I don't know much about the Fratellis, so I don't know if Little Richard's "The Girl Can't Help It" influenced their "Stragglers Moon," but the phrases are pretty similar.

The Decemberists' Her Majesty

I just listened to the Decemberists' Her Majesty and noticed a couple things.

"The Gymnast, High above the Ground"

The "light brigade" in the line "Waiting out this long light brigade" is a phrase from Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (I'm not sure if he coined the phrase, but his poem is probably the reason it's well-known).  I don't think it's used the same way in the song though.

About a year ago, I found an-other instance of the same phrase in "Cavalry Captain" from What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World.  There, it's "we'll away on the light brigade."  Again, I don't think it's used in the same sense in which Tennyson used it, but it is the same phrase.

"Song for Myra Goldberg"

This is just a minor point, but the line "Listen in as shin-kicked Jim relates his story sad" could be parsed two different ways, hinging on the "sad" in "Jim relates his story sad."  It could be either inversion ("his story sad" instead of "his sad story") or a flat adverb ("Jim relates his story sad" instead of "Jim relates his story sadly").  Either it's a sad story or Jim tells it in a sad manner; it's grammatical hair-splitting, but there is a slight difference.

The Monkees' "I'll Spend My Life with You"

To-day I listened to the first disc of the deluxe edition of the Monkees' Headquarters album, and I noticed an ambiguous word in the chorus of "I'll Spend My Life with You."  The last two lines could be rendered as "And if you want me to / I'll spend my life with you" or "And if you want me too / I'll spend my life with you."

The first rendering is an example of elliptical phrasing.  Because the same phrase is repeated in the second line, it's omitted from the first, lest there's the lengthy "And if you want me to [spend my life with you] / I'll spend my life with you."

The second rendering indicates a reciprocity with the "too."  The "if you want me too" implies that the singer/speaker also wants the girl he's addressing.

Because the chorus is repeated (the first chorus has some different lyrics, but the iteration with these "And if you want me to(o) / I'll spend my life with you" lines is sung twice), both renderings could be understood in turn.

The Small Faces' "Lazy Sunday"

This morning I listened to the second disc of a two-disc set of the Small Faces.  I'm pretty sure I hadn't previously noticed that at about 0:50 in "Lazy Sunday," a phrase from "Colonel Bogey March" is whistled in the background, and I'm certain I hadn't previously noticed that at about 1:45, the riff from the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" is whistled too.

Grieg: Norwegian Folk Tunes and Dances, Op. 17

Last night I listened to some excerpts from Grieg's Norwegian Folk Tunes and Dances, Op. 17, and I found some melodies that sounded familiar to me.  The melodies in pieces XXIII and XXIV are also in the fourth of Grieg's Symphonic Dances on Norwegian Themes, Op. 64.

The melody for Op. 17: XXIII is worth picturing in its entirety since all of it is used on Op. 64: IV.

(notation found here)

I've actually found the melody from measures three to six in two different Grieg pieces, and I've written about them before.  It's in the Symphonic Dances on Norwegian Themes, but it's also in Nineteen Norwegian Folk Tunes, Op. 66: VI. Cow-call and Lullaby:

(click here for a larger image)
(notation found here [Op. 64] and here [Op. 66])

Of course, there are some differences, but the melodies are all very similar.

There's more of a resemblance between Op. 17: XXIII and Op. 64: IV than with Op. 66: VI though because the melody in measures eleven to fifteen is similar to the melody in measures eleven to twenty in the section marked B of Op. 64: IV:

(click here for a larger image)

I haven't thoroughly studied the fourth Symphonic Dance, but I've listened to it enough to become fairly familiar with it.  I'm pretty sure it's in sonata form, and - as occurs with sonata form - these two melodies come back for the second A section.

The B section of the Symphonic Dance shares a melody with Op. 17: XXIV:

In the Symphonic Dance, a very similar melody is in the clarinet and oboe beginning at the Più tranquillo:

(click here for a larger image)

When I originally found the melody that Op. 66: VI. and Op. 64: IV have in common, I was reading a book of Grieg's letters.  I referenced the index of works in the back and found that, as the opus numbers would suggest, they were written around the same time.  The book says the Symphonic Dances, Op. 64 are from 1896, and that the Folk Songs, Op. 66 are from 1896-1898.  Again, as the opus number would suggest, the Folk Tunes and Dances, Op. 17 are much earlier; the book says they're from 1870.  I think Grieg is pretty well-known for using folk tunes in his music, so I find it interesting that he used the same ones almost thirty years apart.

Grieg: Lyric Pieces X, Op. 71: VII. Remembrances

This morning I listened to some more of Grieg's Lyric Pieces for piano.  The seventh piece (Remembrances) in Book X, Op. 71 sounded a bit familiar, and I realized that it's very similar to the first piece (Arietta) in Book I, Op. 12.

I intended to look up the notation for both and compare them, but when I lookt up the notation for Op. 71: VII, I noticed an asterisk after the title:

which lead to a footnote at the bottom of the page:

It's in German:  "Vergl[eich] Lyrische Stücke Heft 1 No. 1 (Arietta)."  Translated, this is "Compare Lyric Pieces Book 1 No. 1 (Arietta)."

I'm glad that footnote was there because the notation is still above my skill level.  I did notice though that Arietta and Remembrances are both in the same key: Eb major.

Most of the books of Grieg's Lyric Pieces that I have are incomplete; I have only excerpts.  This is the case with Book X.  I lookt up the complete book and discovered that Remembrances is the last piece in the book.  Since Book X is also the last book of Grieg's Lyric Pieces, there's a sort of bookending going on.  He starts and ends his Lyric Pieces with a similar-sounding tune.

The Turtles' "She's My Girl"

This morning I listened to a compilation album of the Turtles (Happy Together: The Very Best of the Turtles).  I used to listen to this a lot seven or eight years ago, so I'm fairly familiar with the songs already.  I'd noticed before that one part of "She's My Girl" sounded different, but it wasn't until listening to it this morning that I realized why it sounds different.

The song is in 4/4 time, but at about 1:23, it switched to 3/4 for the "She's my girl; took her away last night" section.  The 3/4 section lasts only briefly before the song switches back to 4/4 time at about 1:38.  To some degree, that brief 3/4 section illustrates the transcendence of the singer/speaker's relationship with his girl (it's different from everything else) or perhaps even her incomparability, which - like the 3/4 section - can be comprehended only fleetingly.

Argent's "Pleasure"

I just listened to a compilation album of Argent (Greatest: The Singles Collection).  I'd previously noticed the melisma'd "rain" in the line "Falling rain to cool my aching face" in "Pleasure," but I'd failed to realize that - because the notes are descending (F# E D# C# B, I think) - the melisma helps to convey that the rain is falling.

Rod Argent's Classically Speaking

This morning I listened to some excerpts of Grieg's lyric pieces for piano.  I'm most familiar with the first piece of the first book (Op. 12: I. Arietta) via Rod Argent's recording on Classically Speaking.  Although this was an album entirely of Grieg pieces, after the Arietta, I expected to hear Chopin's Etude in C minor, Op. 25, No. 12 because that's the second track on Argent's Classically Speaking.  I started wondering about the transition between the two pieces and thought there was something more to the relationship between them than just my familiarity with that particular sequencing.

I lookt up the notation for Grieg's Arietta and discovered that it's in Eb major.  As the title of the Chopin piece would suggest, it's in C minor.  C minor and Eb major are relative keys.  Their scales contain all the same notes; they just start in different places.  My expecting the Chopin piece after the Grieg piece revealed a clever bit of sequencing on Argent's part.  There's a relatively smooth transition between the two pieces because they have similar tonalities.

Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode"

I'm currently listening to a compilation album of Chuck Berry (The Great Twenty-Eight).  Some of these songs are ones that I've started transcribing, so I'm making some progress on those.  I discovered something about a line in "Johnny B. Goode."  I'd always understood the last line of the first verse as "But he could play a guitar just like a-ringin' a bell," meaning that Johnny B. Goode could play guitar with the same ease with which anyone can play a bell, an extremely easy instrument to play.  However, in looking over my transcription, I realized that it could also be "But he could play a guitar just like a ring in a bell," meaning that he has an inherent ability.  Both are grammatically viable, but I think I actually like the second parsing better, since that inherent ability seems to be what the rest of the song is getting at.

The Lemon Pipers' "Through with You"

I just listened to an-other compilation album of the Lemon Pipers.  Because I wrote about "Through with You" back in February, I thought I should transcribe the lyrics, and in doing so, I found something else:  the melody (of both the lead and harmony vocals) for "My yellow sun has gone down, has gone down" descends:

(click here for a larger image)