||* Finding Da FaiRytaLe MeLody

Sunday, October 8

Analysis 1/2

Sorry about my previous analysis. There's a correction I would like to make is that previously I said that there's contrary motion in the 1st 2 bars. And so the correction is that both in solo and the soprano is the same throughout the piece and that both the tenor and bass are moving in parallel motion. In bar 22, the soprano, alto and tenor tends to move downwards but the bass in contrast, moves upwards. This helped in giving a melodic line, often said by Dr. Chong in class. ;)

The piece is in D major.
I've noticed that most of the bass are being doubled. I wondered if it's regular in pop music.
From bar 8 onwards (highlighted yellow), the piece suddenly moved from C# and A# to C and A natural. From bar 10 onwards, it went on to G#, but C is back to C# and A is still natural. And from bar 19 onwards, the A becomes Ab, B becomes Bb! The change in sharps and flats makes the piece even smoother. It also helped in building up the peak of the piece as it goes on to the chorus.

There is a tonic expansion from bar 1-5 (ie. T-PD-D-T). There's a IV-vi-ii progression from bar 7-9. Is it a kind of PD expansion? Well, at bar 11-13, the harmonic progression I-V-I states that the PD is omitted and thus having (T-D-T). This as we learnt in class that it is totally okay for us to omit the PD progression. In bar 18, V53 moved to 64 and 75. I think that is considered a neighbouring 64. In the chorus (bar 19), I guess it moved back to the tonic expansion (I-ii-V-I).
Also, there are no ornamentations in this piece except in grace note put in 4th bar. But amazingly the tune can still make an impression in everyone's head!

*Da Princess;
10:08 PM

1 comments

Wednesday, September 6

*First Analysis~

Sorry to keep you waiting!
Alright, so this is my first analysis.

ABBA - Thank you for the music

Hmm... so let's sit back and enjoy the music first.

And peeps, that's the lyrics.

I'm nothing special, in fact I'm a bit of a bored
If I tell a joke, you've probably heard it before
But I have a talent, a wonderful thing'
Cause everyone listens when I start to sing
I'm so grateful and proud
All I want is to sing it out loud

So I say
Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me
Mother says I was a dancer before I could walk
She says I began to sing long before I could talk
And I've often wondered, how did it all start?
Who found out that nothing can capture a heart
Like a melody can?
Well, whoever it was, I'm a fan
So I say
Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me

I've been so lucky, I am the girl with golden hair
I wanna sing it out to everybody
What a joy, what a life, what a chance!
So I say
Thank you for the music, the songs I'm singing
Thanks for all the joy they're bringing
Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me

Here's the flute scores for your reference...

Fig. 1

Sypnosis:

ABBA (1972-1982) was a Swedish pop music group.ABBA remains the most successful act ever to come from Scandinavia and one of the most successful acts in the history of popular music.

The group topped worldwide charts during the mid-to-late 1970s and gained widespread airplay during the early 1980s, selling many hit singles and albums.

Indeed, the group sold "more than 350 million records, all but one being self-penned."

They were the first act from the European continent to become a regular fixture on the charts of the anglophonic world (the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand), and their success subsequently opened the doors for many other European acts.
Their lasting legacy is the legitimisation of the Swedish music industry as a mainstream player. (Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABBA)

The song "Thank you for the music" is written and composed by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus. The lead vocal singer is Agnetha (2nd from the left). Recording commenced 21 July 1977. It was then published in part c of the album "The Girl With The Golden Hair". The video shown is a live performance on 1977 concert tour.

*Thoughts...

This piece uses a time signature of 4/4.
It's smooth throughtout the song, with the 1st and 2nd part of the vocal lines moving in a contrary motion. They started off with a slow and moderate tempo for bar 1-19 in Fig. 1.
There's a repitition for chorus for 5 times in the song. It's no doubt that it can be a little boring but if we were to look carefully in bar 19 and bar 29, there's a slight difference in the notes from a C to a D for 1st flute.
The peak for this piece is almost at the end (from bar 81 onwards in Fig. 1).
For the flute version, it's written in F major scale.
However, for the choir ensemble, it's written in E major scale (Fig. 2).

More details would be added &

feel free to give any comments for my analysis...

Thanks.

*Da Princess;
4:22 AM

2 comments

Wednesday, August 30

*Da Princess;
1:59 AM

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And they say, she's so lucky, she's a star, but she cries cries cries in her lonely heart, thinking...

Argh! Finally this is done. After spending 3 hours of clicking on the mouse and straining my eyes to the links, I finally have a blog! Well, this blog is dedicated to my music class for the analysis of songs. So please bear with me for the bad English used and stupid comments that I've given or going to give in the future. It's 1am and my eyes are closing.

But this Taiwan Xiao Long Bao is making my eyes go *Bling Bling*!

*Da Princess;
1:06 AM

0 comments