Monday 8th February – Luther Vandross appraisal document

About the artist and the song

-Luther Ronzoni Vandross (April 20, 1951 – July 1, 2005) was an American singer- songwriter and record producer. Throughout his career, Vandross sold over 25 million albums and won 8 Grammy Awards. This included Best Male R&B Vocal Performance which he won 4 times. ‘So Amazing’ is one of the most beautiful love ballads ever written.

What can you hear?

-The main vocal was sung by a male but there were female backing singers too.

-Instruments which played the accompaniment were keyboards, a synthesizer (this is an electronic musical instrument which adapts the sound of things), bass and drums.

-There is no solo in this piece of music.

-We can hear a hook which repeats in the chorus of the lyrics ‘It’s so amazing to be loved…’

-The texture of the music is quite thick throughout the piece as there are instruments playing all the time and the backing vocalists weave in and out of the music.

-The tempo of this music is quite slow throughout although the dynamics get louder in the chorus as the emotion of the song becomes more intense.

What is the style of music?

-This piece of music is a Pop Ballad.

-The style indicators of this type of music are that it is a gentle love song that is full of emotion. It is slow and has gentle backing. It uses instruments such as strings and acoustic guitar. Both the mood of the words and the music match each other to as they are calm.

How is the song put together?

-Introduction

-Verse 1

-Verse 2

-Chorus -Introduction

-Verse 3

-Verse 4

-Chorus

-Introduction

-Bridge

-Bridge repeated

-Verse 5

-Chorus

-Outro