Mendelssohn: Athalia Incidental Music, Op. 74

Earlier to-day I listened to Mendelssohn's incidental music for Athalia, Op. 74 (I recently got a three-CD set of some Mendelssohn incidental music, and this was the first time I listened to it).

The beginning of the overture sounded familiar, but I had to look up the notation before I realized why it sounded familiar:

(notation found here)

Initially, I thought it resembled the melody of Handel's "See the conqu'ring hero comes" from Judas Maccabaeus (I know it as a melody, but I've never heard Handel's oratorio).  After I lookt up the notation for "See the conqu'ring hero comes," I realized that Mendelssohn's overture sounds familiar because it starts with the same rhythm, not the same melody:

(notation found here)

Both have a half note, a dotted quarter note, an eighth note, and then two half notes.

After I discovered this similarity, I did some research to see if this was actually Handel's influence or whether it was just a coincidence.  I referenced R. Larry Todd's Mendelssohn: A Life in Music, which I read last year.  In the index, there are a dozen entries for "Handel influences."  I lookt up Judas Maccabaeus specifically, and - while I couldn't find anything about its influence on the Athalia overture - I did find some things that evidence Mendelssohn's familiarity with it.  In Chapter 5 (1825-1826), Todd writes that "Felix extracted themes from the oratorio and dexterously wove them into an improvisation, 'thoroughly Handelian' yet with 'no pretension to display.'"  Later, Todd mentions Judas Maccabaeus among other Handel works that Mendelssohn conducted in Düsseldorf in the 1830s.  So it seems that the rhythm from "See the conqu'ring hero comes" could very well have influenced the rhythm in the overture to the Athalia incidental music.

The Zombies' "Play It for Real"

I'm listening to the Zombies' Breathe Out, Breathe In.  I remember reading something (I think it was around the time the album came out) that compared the piano riff in "Play It for Real" to that in the Beatles' "Hey Bulldog."  I'd sort of dismissed this as, "Yeah, they sort of sound alike," thinking that the big similarity was just that they were both piano riffs.  Listening to it this time, that similarity was very obvious tonally (probably because I learnt how to play the riff from "Hey Bulldog" back in November and haven't listened to Breathe Out, Breathe In since last May).

Because I already knew the riff from "Hey Bulldog," I learnt the riff from "Play It for Real" in order to compare them, and I was surprised by how similar they are musically.  The riff in "Hey Bulldog" is in B minor where the riff in "Play It for Real" is in A major, but - as far as scale degrees - the riffs are exactly the same (up to a point at least; the riff in "Play It for Real" is longer and more developed than that in "Hey Bulldog").  I tried notating them, but they're beyond my notational skills, so I'll just have to describe them.

Both riffs start with two tonic notes (B B in "Hey Bulldog;" A A in "Play It for Real").  Then there's the third note of the scale (a D in B minor [a minor third] for "Hey Bulldog;" a C# in A major [a major third] for "Play It for Real") before going back to the tonic.  That third starts a skipping between sequentially higher notes and the tonic, and that skipping figure is capped with an ascending half-step from augmented fourth to a perfect fifth.  So - in full - it's B B D B E B E# F# in "Hey Bulldog," and - as far as it matches "Hey Bulldog" - A A C# A D D# E in "Play It for Real."

The rhythms start to differ near the end of that first phrase, but tonally, they're very similar.  The only differences are the key each is in and that one has a minor third where the other has a major third.

Rod Argent (the Zombies' keyboard player) has talked about the Beatles' influence in some interviews, so I think this is a likely instance of influence even if it was a conscious influence.

Bach: Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende?, BWV 27

This morning I listened to Bach's Wer weiß, wie nahe mir mein Ende?, BWV 27.  A couple musical phrases at the beginning of the third movement sounded familiar:

(notation found here, although there seem to be some problems accessing it now; if you're that interested, you might have to search through the revision history)

The first eight notes in the oboe da caccia part are what first caught my attention (the same phrase is also in the vocal part later in the movement).  It took some research, but I eventually found the other work I knew this from; it's in the first movement of Vivaldi's Spring concerto from The Four Seasons (Concerto No. 1 in E major, RV 269).  Specifically the phrase that bridges the seventh and eighth measures, starting at the forte marking:

(notation found here)

I did some research, and Vivaldi's concerto is from 1723 where Bach's cantata is from 1726, so it seems that Bach took that phrase from Vivaldi.

There's also a six-note phrase in Wer weiß... that sounded familiar to me.  It's the one that bridges measures four and five in the oboe da caccia part.

I didn't recognize this immediately (because that part in BWV 27 is in alto clef), but that phrase is actually the exact same (save for the rhythm of the last two notes) as a phrase in Bach's Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645.  In that work, it bridges measures seven and eight:

(notation found here)

The only date I could find for BWV 645 is 1748, so it seems that the seven-note phrase there is derived from the six-note phrase in BWV 27.

Bob Dylan's "Visions of Johanna"

This morning I listened to the first disc of Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde (and I'm listening to the second disc now).  I found something in "Visions of Johanna" that both excited and confused me.

At about 3:49, there's a short guitar riff:

This is the fifth song I've found that riff in (which is the exciting part), but now I have even less of an answer to questions of influence (which is the confusing part).

I first found that riff in the Zombies' "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)" (there are two versions on Into the Afterlife, but that riff is only in the second version - the one with fuzz guitar).  Then I found it in the Moody Blues' "So Deep within You" from On the Threshold of a Dream.  A few months later, I stumbled across it in the Tremeloes' "Hello World."  And then I also found it (albeit on piano) in Colin Blunstone's "Caroline Goodbye" from One Year.

"Visions of Johanna" predates all of those though.  It's from 1966.  "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)" is from 1968 (but wasn't released until 2007).  "So Deep within You" and "Hello World" are both from 1969, and "Caroline Goodbye" is from 1971.

I'd postulated that there was some influence between "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)" and "So Deep within You" because the Zombies and Moody Blues knew each other, and there's almost certainly some connection between "Telescope (Mr. Galileo)" and "Caroline Goodbye" because Rod Argent was the leader of the Zombies and played piano for Blunstone (who was also in the Zombies).  I'd had trouble fitting in the Tremeloes though.

Finding that same phrase in this Dylan song still doesn't clear up everything, but it does introduce a new line of influence.  The Tremeloes covered Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" at the end of 1968, so they were familiar with him, possibly including that particular riff in "Visions of Johanna."

A strumming pattern in "Visions of Johanna" also stuck out to me.  I'm not sure if I have the chord phrasing right, but it's something like:

There's an Asus4 that modulates to an A major.  With a slight difference (modulating to A minor rather than A major) that same rhythm is in the Zombies' demo of "Call of the Night":

"Call of the Night" was later re-workt into (and put into a different key for) "Girl Help Me," but that feature is present there too.

I'm not sure if any of this really provides evidence that any of these musicians were influenced by an-other, but their songs at least share some similar features that I thought interesting.

Joey Dee & the Starliters' "Peppermint Twist, Pt. 1"

I just listened to Billboard Top Rock & Roll Hits: 1962, and I noticed something about Joey Dee & the Starliters' "Peppermint Twist, Pt. 1."  Starting at about 1:36, there's a vocal tag, and one of the phrases in it is:

These are the same intervals that I noticed in three songs by the Isley Brothers just over a year ago ("Twistin' with Linda," "Respectable," and "Shout"):

As in "Shout," after the lead singer sings that phrase, it's repeated in the backing vocals.

"Respectable" and "Shout" are from 1959; "Twistin' with Linda" is from 1962; and "Peppermint Twist, Pt. 1" is also from 1962 (as the title of the album would suggest).  Chronologically, it's possible that the Starliters took that phrase from the Isleys, but I don't know anything about them, so I wouldn't argue that influence too strongly.

The Lemon Pipers' "Catch Me Falling"

An-other thing I noticed while listening to The Best of the Lemon Pipers is some more panning in "Catch Me Falling."  (It's really obvious, so I don't know how I'd never noticed it before.)  After the lines "I'm slippin' through" and "Stop me from fadin' away," the vocal track moves from side to side, reflecting the inconstancy.

The Lemon Pipers' "Through with You"

This morning I listened to The Best of the Lemon Pipers, and I noticed something about "Through with You."  At about 7:45, the drums, which had been in the left channel, pan to the right, and the bass, which had been in the right channel, pans to the left.  The first line after that is "My world takes on a different form."  That panning illustrates that musically.

The Guess Who's "Hang on to Your Life"

Earlier, I listened to The Best of the Guess Who and the spoken part at the end of "Hang on to Your Life" sounded sort of familiar to me:

They gaped upon me with their mouths
As a ravening and a roaring lion
I am poured out like water
And all my bones are out of joint
My heart is like wax
It is melted in the midst of my bowels
My strength is dried up like a potsherd
And my tongue cleaveth to my jaws
And thou hast brought me into the dust of death

I had to do some research, but I eventually found the source.  Translations may differ, but it's Psalm 22:13-15.

The Cowsills' "Gotta Get Away from It All"

An-other thing I noticed while listening to The Best of the Cowsills is that there's a descending trumpet part after the line "But I can't win; I just go down" in "Gotta Get Away from It All."  It emphasizes the "down-ness."

The Cowsills' "Meet Me at the Wishing Well"

This morning, I listened to The Best of the Cowsills and noticed a couple places in "Meet Me at the Wishing Well" where the melody emphasizes the lyrics.  After the line "I sense that love will someday have it's way" in the third verse, there's "So I'll stay" in the backing vocals.  The "stay" there lasts for about four measures; there's a considerable amount of time in the music, just as the words say in the line itself.

At the end of the fourth verse, there's an "away" where the first syllable is sung to an F and the second syllable is sung to an E, so there's almost a whole octave between the two syllables, illustrating distance.