Sufjan Stevens' "All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands"

Yester-day I also listened to Sufjan Stevens' Seven Swans.  It's just a minor point, but I noticed an interesting melisma in "All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands."  The "away" in "And I am throwing all my thoughts away" is sung to the phrase G# F# E C#, so there's a musical representation of that throwing.

This morning when I drafted this post, the title sounded familiar to me, so I did some research and discovered that it's from Isaiah 55:12:  "For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."

Sufjan Stevens' "Eugene"

This morning I listened to Sufjan Stevens' Carrie & Lowell and noticed something about a recurring line in "Eugene."  It changes a bit every time it's repeated, but it's some variation of "I just wanted to be near you," "I wanna be near you," or "I just wanna be near you."  In all of them, there's the interval of a sixth between the "near" (F#) and the "you" (D#).  This interval does two things.  First, it implies distance between the singer/speaker and the "you."  Second, because of the musical distance covered in singing that sixth, it shows the effort that the singer/speaker is willing to exert in order to "be near you."