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Hearing Meter from Different Angles: Interactive Vocal Meter and Hypermeter in Selected Songs and Their Covers by Kristi Dawn Hardman B. Mus., University of Manitoba, 2013 B. Ed., University of Manitoba, 2013 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Music) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) March 2016 © Kristi Dawn Hardman, 2016 Abstract A vocal melody is a setting of poetry to musical rhythms and pitches. The poetry and the musical melody have distinct accentuation patterns, yet as musicians we too often only analyse the musical events of a vocal melody in order to determine its rhythmic structure and meter, while ignoring the meter of the poetic text. This thesis examines how the meter of the poetic text interacts with the meter of the musical melody to inform our overall perception of the vocal melody’s meter. Through comparison of popular songs with cover versions that adopt a different meter, it investigates how the same poetic meter interacts with different musical meters, and studies the resulting effects on vocal meter and hypermeter. The methodology can be applied to a wide range of popular music genres, so each chapter examines an original song and cover versions representing different genres. The first chapter establishes the new methodology developed in this thesis. The concepts of poetic meter, melodic meter, and the resulting “interactive vocal meter” are introduced and applied in the analysis of three versions of Hank Williams’s “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” This chapter also explores some novel ways in which we can interpret syncopations and hypermeter. Interactive vocal meter is further explored in chapter 2 through the analysis of two versions of the Beatles’ “I’ll Be Back.” The change in meter, from the 6/8 of the demo to the 4/4 of the single, offers a fascinating opportunity to study the rhetorical and musical impact of subtle changes in accentuation. The complex phrase structure of “I’ll Be Back” also introduces interesting issues and questions regarding our perception of hypermeter. ii The third chapter focuses on Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit.” Holiday’s transformations of the poem’s unusual metric contours provide a vivid demonstration of her uniquely eloquent idiom. The vocal metric interpretation of “Strange Fruit” challenges the view that beats 1 and 3 are always strongly accentuated beats in 4/4 measures. This chapter also explores issues of rhythmic and metric transcription in connection with Lori Burn’s recent study of Tori Amos’s cover of the song. iii Preface This thesis is original, unpublished, independent work by the author, Kristi Hardman. iv Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Preface ........................................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... v List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... vii List of Examples ......................................................................................................................... viii List of Symbols ............................................................................................................................. xi Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... xii Dedication ................................................................................................................................... xiii Chapter 1: An Introduction to Interactive Vocal Meter and Hypermeter through the Analysis of Three Versions of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” .............................................. 1 1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Poetic Feet as Rhythmic Durations .................................................................................... 5 1.3 An Introduction to Interactive Vocal Meter and Hypermeter: A Rhythmic and Metric Analysis of Hank Williams’s “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” ................................................. 9 1.4 Interactive Vocal Meter and Hypermeter in Two Covers of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” .......................................................................................................................................... 39 1.5 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 60 Chapter 2: Exploring Interactive Vocal Meter and Hypermeter in Two Versions of the Beatles’ “I’ll Be Back” ................................................................................................................ 62 2.1 The Form of the Beatles’ “I’ll Be Back” ......................................................................... 62 2.2 Interactive Vocal Meter in The Beatles’ “I’ll Be Back” .................................................. 64 v 2.3 Asymmetrical Phrase Structure and Non-Isochronous Hypermeter in “I’ll Be Back” .... 75 2.4 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 91 Chapter 3: Metric Ambiguity and Malleability in “Strange Fruit” ....................................... 93 3.1 Transforming Poetic Meter into Melodic Meter in Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” ...... 94 3.2 Mixed Meters vs. Common Time: Transcription Issues in Tori Amos’s Cover ........... 118 3.3 Interactive Vocal Hypermeter in “Strange Fruit” .......................................................... 124 3.4 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 127 Chapter 4: Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 129 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 135 Discography ............................................................................................................................... 139 vi List of Tables Table 1.1: Examples of poetic feet ................................................................................................. 8 Table 2.1: Text of “I’ll Be Back,” form and poetic meter ............................................................ 65 vii List of Examples Example 1.1: Text of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” and poetic meter .................................... 11 Example 1.2: Metric analysis of the first strophe of Hank Williams’s original 1949 version, ..... 18 Example 1.3: Phonological phrase stresses in the first strophe .................................................... 26 Example 1.4: Poetic, melodic and vocal hypermeter using one-bar hyperbeat in Williams’s original .......................................................................................................................................... 30 Example 1.5: Two-, four-, eight-, and sixteen-bar hypermeasures in Williams’s original ........... 34 Example 1.6: Poetic scansion of the first strophe and the placement of strong syllables in the music ............................................................................................................................................. 40 Example 1.7: The second phrase of Green’s version, mm. 7-8 .................................................... 43 Example 1.8: Metric analysis of Al Green’s 1973 cover of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” .... 49 Example 1.9: Metrical shifts in Green’s version, mm. 11-14 ....................................................... 51 Example 1.10: Metric analysis of Ray Bonneville’s 2014 cover of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” ............................................................................................................................................... 53 Example 1.11: Double backbeat ................................................................................................... 53 Example 1.12: 5:1 proportions in the cover versions ................................................................... 55 Example 1.13: Hypermetric analysis of the covers of “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” ............ 58 Example 2.1: Comparison of stressed syllables in “I’ll Be Back” ............................................... 67 Example 2.2: Analysis of melodic meter and vocal meter of verse in both versions ................... 69 Example 2.3: Analysis of melodic meter and vocal meter of first bridge in both versions .......... 73 Example 2.4: Quatrain versus sestet verse structure of “I’ll Be Back” ........................................ 76 Example 2.5: Motives in “I’ll Be Back” (single) .......................................................................... 77 viii Example 2.6: Phrase structure in the verse of “I’ll Be Back” (single) ......................................... 78 Example 2.7: Phonological phrase stress in the first stanza of “I’ll Be Back” ............................. 82 Example 2.8: Hypermeter in the Verse of “I’ll Be Back” (single)