Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 1

Harmony and Voice Leading in the Music of The Four Freshmen, 1955–19611

During the high point of their popularity in the mid-1950s, the Four Freshmen possessed a rich sound that went on to inspire many musicians of the following generation, most notably Brian

Wilson of the Beach Boys.2 Despite this, or perhaps because their popularity was not sustained after the cultural shift of the early 1960s, little analytic research on their music has been undertaken. In this paper, I investigate the vocal harmony and voice leading in the music of the Four Freshmen from 1955–1961, the first seven years during which they released albums. I have looked at five albums from the period: Voices in Modern (1955), Four Freshmen & Five Trombones (1956),

Freshmen Favorites (1956), Voices in Love (1958), and The Freshman Year (1961; see Table 1 for the track listings of all five albums). I will begin with a discussion of three notable chords that frequently appear in their arrangements, helping to create the signature “Four Freshmen Sound.” I will then examine their voice leading techniques (in other words, the way they move from one chord to the next) in order to see how this horizontal parameter interacts with the vertical parameters of spacing and range. To this end, I have chosen three songs to analyze by tracking the pitch intervals between the voices in each chord, and between adjacent notes in the top voice. After a brief consideration of how the group’s different arrangers affected the construction of the final product, I close with an analysis of the song “Graduation Day,” comparing the Beach Boys cover to the Freshmen original.

Through these techniques, I will highlight some of the exceptional features of their style, suggesting

1 This research has been sponsored by a generous grant from the Four Freshmen Music Foundation. Dave Bentley, the treasurer of the Foundation, was kind enough to let me borrow from his vast collection of Four Freshman charts, which allowed this project to extend far beyond its originally conceived scope. 2 “[T]he most profound influence on Brian Wilson’s early musical development [was] the music of the Four Freshmen.” Philip Lambert, Inside the Music of Brian Wilson: The Songs, Sounds and Influences of the Beach Boys’ Founding Genius (New York: Continuum, 2007): 4. Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 2

further research about the Four Freshmen not only with respect to the Beach Boys but also to

twentieth-century popular music at large.

Table 1: Track Listings of Four Freshmen Albums Under Consideration

Voices in Modern (1955) Four Freshmen & 5 Trombones (1956) After You Angel Eyes Over the Rainbow Love Is Just Around the Corner My Heart Stood Still Mam’selle The Nearness of You Speak Low Holiday The Last Time I Saw Paris Stormy Weather Somebody Love Me Street of Dreams You Stepped Out of a Dream We’ll Be Together Again I Remember You Circus Love Mood Indigo Love Is Here to Stay It Happened Once Before You Made Me Love You It’s a Blue World Guilty

Freshmen Favorites (1956) Voices in Love (1958) Day by Day I’m Always Chasing Rainbows It Never Occurred to Me There Is No Greater Love Graduation Day Moonlight Poinciana It Could Happen to You Love Turns Winter into Spring Out of Nowhere The Day Isn’t Long Enough In the Still of the Night In This Whole Wide World I’ll Remember April Charmaine While You Are Gone

Lonely Night in Paris Warm Seems Like Old Times Time Was (Duerme) Now You Know You’re All I see I Heard You Cried Last Night (and So Did I)

The Freshman Year (1961) The Freshman Year Fools Rush In Where Do I Go from Here I’m Getting Sentimental over You It Happens Every Spring Show Me the Way to Get Out of This World Their Hearts Were Full of Spring If I Knew Then My Funny Valentine It’s Only a Paper Moon But Beautiful Dream Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 3 1a: 1b: 1c: "Peg chord" Inverted sixth "Money chord" w w w w w w ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ & w w bbw ‹ w Example 1: Prominent Chords in wthe Music of The Four Freshmen ∑ ∑ w ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ While there are& many stylistic traits of theirw music that associate them with other jazz vocal ‹ w groups from the 1950s, in his 1995 book Now You Know: The Story of the Four Freshmen, founding

Freshman Ross Barbour writes about what he calls the Freshmen’s “peg chord,” a distinctive sound & ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ that set them apart from‹ their competitors. He states, “If you’re a student of music, it is not that difficult to communicate. We had the fifth of the chord in the top voice, the ninth in the second, the & ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ major seventh in the ‹ third part and the third of the chord in the low part.”3 This description corresponds to a MM9, assuming that the root will be sounded in the double bass (see Example 1a).

This is because each of& the Freshman∑ plays∑ an instrument,∑ one∑ of which∑ being the∑ double∑ bass, ∑ ∑ ∑ ‹ which carries out the bass line. This voicing can be heard in “Time Was” (0:12 “time was”). In “Love is Just Around the Corner” (0:23 “just waiting for you”), and “Day by Day” (0:30 “by far than any & ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ocean”), the chord is voiced‹ not as a MM9, but rather as subsets of a Madd6 and a mm7, respectively.

While the voicing of the peg chord is not terribly difficult to locate in their repertoire, the added & ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ constraint of the chord‹ functioning within a specific harmonic context significantly limits the number of appearances. Although Barbour’s writing suggests a strong connection to particular

9 add6 harmonies (such as the& MM or the∑ M ), and perhaps∑ specific functions,∑ I suspect that∑ he would ∑ ∑ ‹ aurally associate the prototypical instance of the voicing with particular songs, solidifying its importance in his mind.4 & ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ‹ 3 Ross Barbour, Now You Know: The Story of the Four Freshmen (Lake Geneva, WI: Balboa Books, 1995): 32– 33. 4 “There wasn’t a song we sang that didn’t use the peg chord.” Now You Know, 33. This claim is far from true, especially if he is only referring to the voicing when used in a MM9 chord. Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 4

Shortly after discussing the peg chord, Barbour notes, “When the two middle parts of the peg chord go down a whole step, you’ve arrived at another distinctive Freshmen sound, an inverted sixth.”5 By this he simply means a major add6 chord in first inversion (without taking the double bass part into consideration; see Example 1b). This voicing appears in “Time Was” (0:16 “when we had”), “We’ll Be Together Again” (0:00 “Oo-oo…”), and “Guilty” (1:28 “like I do-oo”). Similarly to the peg chord, this voicing acts as a subset to other chords, in this case the mm9 and MM9. Major add6 chords are quite common in cadences for the Freshmen,6 but they often appear either with a different scale degree in the top voice, a different spacing, or with an added ninth.

Former Freshmen Brian Eichenberger (active 1996–2014) is surely familiar with the two prominent chords discussed by Barbour; nonetheless, he identifies yet a different sound as being their “money chord”: the MM7. Specifically, the chord is in close position with the fifth in the bass and the seventh in the first tenor (see Example 1c).7 It is the result of lowering the baritone and bass voices of the Madd6 by a semitone. This chord can be found in “Angel Eyes” (1:12 “so drink up”),

“Lonely Night in Paris” (0:15 “love of yesterday”), and “Poinciana” (2:50 “soon my love”). It is frequently part of a mm9, making it more closely related to the Madd6, which also acts as a subset for this harmony. It is notable that all three voicings feature a third (i3 or i4) in the middle, and a perfect fourth and fifth between adjacent inner and outer voices. According to Morris’ five basic spacing types, these chords can be labeled as “focused,” meaning that smaller intervals are between

5 Ibid., 33. 6 “Angel Eyes,” “Graduation Day,” and “It’s a Blue World,” among others. 7 “[The] ‘money’ chord in the frosh=>maj7 chord with 2nd inversion triad on the bottom, maj7 on top. i.e. F maj7 from the bottom up would be spelled C F A E. That thing always works.” Brian Eichenberger, e-mail message to author, October 25, 2017. Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 5 the central pitches, while larger intervals separate the extremes from their adjacent notes.8 This helps account for the thick sound that comes across in their recordings. But their vitality is also the result of singing technique: “We tried to always apply pressure to the listener with the chords, to put enough energy into the chords that it would be transmitted to the listener. In short, we sang loud!”9

To aid in this discussion of spacing, I have recorded the pitch intervals between adjacent voices in each chord of the songs “Day by Day,” “It’s a Blue World,” and “Angel Eyes.”

Additionally, I have cataloged the ordered pitch intervals between adjacent notes in the top voice.

From this data, the range of each chord as well as the voice leading of the lower three voices can be extrapolated. Charts created from this data can be found in the appendix.

The “range breakdown” charts demonstrate that the spacing of the large majority of chords in each of these songs fall within an octave. To anyone familiar with their music, this should not come as a surprise, but it does slightly run counter to Barbour’s claim that the close-position voicing

(i.e., voices packed as closely together as possible) was “too tight” for the Freshmen.10 A notable example of close voicing is at the opening of Poinciana (see Example 2). The open sound he describes most notably plays a larger role in contrasting sections (such as the B section of “Angel

Eyes”) and at the end of songs (as it does in “Day by Day”), as shown in Example 3. Therefore, while their signature open sound set them apart from groups like the Pied Pipers and the

Modernaires, by using these open chords sparingly the Freshmen were able to generate textural contrast within arrangements, allowing the expansive harmonies to achieve their full effect.

8 Robert Morris, Composition with Pitch-Classes: A Theory of Compositional Design (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987): 54. 9 Now You Know, 33. 10 “We’ve talked about the close harmony of the vocal groups with the big bands. Often all four or five parts were arranged to be sung within one octave. We grew to love the chords but not the sound. It seemed to be too tight for us.” Now You Know, 32. “Poinciana,” Opening

Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 6 U U U œ j œ C bœ nœ ˙ ˙‰˙ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ bw w &‹ œ œ œ w w u u u J Oh Poin- ci - an - a, your branch- es speak to me of love U U U j C œ bœ ‰ œ œ œ &‹ œ œ œ ˙ ˙ œ œ œ œ œ œ w bww u u u J Example 2: “Poinciana,” Opening

Example 3: “Day by Day,” closing material (treble clefs, 2 sharps)

The “range distribution” charts in the appendix show that the “focused” spacing of the peg

chord, add6, and money chord does not apply to the majority of chords in a given arrangement. The

ratio appears to be much more normalized, with the middle spacing typically accounting for close to

one-third of the total range. Given the previous observation about range in their music, this is simply

a consequence of a texture predominantly composed of close-position voicing. This ratio of one-

third of the total range between adjacent voices, however, does not seem to undergo much change at

the end of the songs, even though the ranges extend beyond their typical octave.

With regard to voice leading, the “voice leading in all parts” charts provide an overview of

motion of each part in comparison to the rest. Bearing in mind the top-down construction of these Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 7 arrangements, the voice leading of the lower three voices is highly dependent on the first tenor, resulting in a good deal of similar, and even parallel, motion. The opening of “Poinciana” demonstrates this characteristic elegantly, as the accompanying voices follow the arch of the melody

(see again Example 2).

While on the topic of parallel motion, their use of unison textures is also notable. According to Barbour, this was a very intentional choice: “Don and I, being brothers, had many of the same vocal qualities, nearly identical word pronunciations and that special family blend. So rather than all four of us doing the unison parts, usually it was just the two of us who handled it. The unison portions of our songs served to give Bob [Flanigan] a break from his high register work, and it provided a pensive and restful contrast to the aggressive full sounds of our four-part blend.”11

Similarly to their use of close-position voicing, the Four Freshmen’s unison textures (perhaps just the close position taken to its extreme) were used strategically to serve the form and trajectory of the arrangement.

The principal aim of this paper is to investigate the Four Freshmen’s use of vocal harmony and voice leading as separate parameters, but it is also worth considering how they interact with one another. The “melodic contour vs. range” charts attempt to draw out a connection between the voice leading in the first tenor, and the range of the chord to which it is leading. “It’s a Blue World” is an interesting example: when switching from a unison texture to (close-position) chords, the leap in the first tenor typically accounts for the vast majority of the range increase. This particular chart does not fully account for the inner voice motion, but it does show a lack of motion in the lowest voice, meaning that the expansion takes place much more in one direction (ascending) than the other.

“Day by Day,” however, features an increasing range towards the end of the song that has little to do

11 Now You Know, 31. Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 8

Example 4: Original Manuscript of “Love is Just Around the Corner,” mm. 53–56 with the range of the top voice. In this case, the final spike (index #110) is facilitated largely by a leap of a tritone (-6) in the bass, which when in combination with Flanigan’s soaring falsetto, creates an expansion in both directions simultaneously. Given the extremely limited corpus for these charts, none of these findings can be viewed as conclusive of larger trends. Nevertheless, they demonstrate one possible method of analysis capable of giving detailed information on arrangement technicalities.

One understated factor in the creation of the arrangements is, ironically, the arranger. The

Four Freshmen had, and continue to have, multiple arrangers, all of which construct slightly different versions of the “Freshmen sound.” While Dick Reynolds and Pete Rugolo are referenced often (especially the former),12 it is less commonly known that Four Freshmen member Ken Albers

12 “Brian’s interest in the Four Freshmen, specifically the arrangements of Dick Reynolds and Pete Rugolo— how they made four voices converge on the same note and then diverge to four notes—had become obsessive. (Brian later said that ‘Dick Reynolds was practically a god to me.’)” Mike Love and James S. Hirsch, Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy (New York: Blue Rider Press, 2016): 29. Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 9 would edit and craft arrangements for the group. Although a thorough examination of this parameter of difference is beyond the scope of this paper, it is related to the larger tradition for modifying arrangements at the recording session. It is likely that Albers role as editor and arranger was an outgrowth of these working condition. One example of such an alteration (though before

Albers time) can be seen in Don Barbour’s session copy of “Our Love is Here to Stay” (see Example

4). It was often that arrangers (in this case, Rugolo) would write adventurously, hoping that the group would be able to perform the devilish sections, composed out of a desire to learn more about the technical capabilities of the ensemble. In m. 55, “same as 23” is scrawled beneath the second tenor part, referencing the instance of the same musical material, albeit with quarter notes instead of the triplet eighth notes. In the end, it was decided that the chromatic neighbor notes were not worth the trouble, and Albers would later go on to make many similar editorial decisions, simplifying the ambitious turnarounds written by a hopeful Reynolds.

While the primary goal of this paper is to explore the music of the Four Freshmen during a very specific period of their career, I will close by focusing on the group’s impact on musicians of the next generation—in particular, their influence on Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Musicologist

Philip Lambert notes that the Beach Boys’ “rich vocal harmonies, declaimed by voices moving rhythmically together, were directly inspired by Wilson’s close study of Four Freshmen records during his teenage years, up through about 1961.”13 Regarding Four Freshmen and Five Trombones

(1956), Wilson writes that the album “triggered something in [his] brain” and “started a year-long obsession.”14 Lambert, trained as a music theorist, has published some of the most music-analytically rigorous research on the Beach Boys’ indebtedness to the Four Freshmen, mostly considering

13 Philip Lambert, “Brian Wilson’s Harmonic Language,” in Good Vibrations: Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in Critical Perspective, ed. Philip Lambert (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2016): 68. 14 Lambert, Inside the Music of Brian Wilson, 5. Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 10 harmonic progressions and modulations. In contrast, I will look at the relationship between the music of these two bands through the lens of vocal harmony and voice leading, undertaking an analysis of both groups’ versions of “Graduation Day.”

“Graduation Day” was released on Freshmen Favorites (1956), one of the records known to be a favorite of Wilson’s.15 The tune was quickly covered by several groups and solo artists, including the Lennon Sisters and Tommy Sands as well as the Beach Boys.16 Instead of being written by Dick

Reynolds, Peter Rugolo, or another of the Freshmen’s typical arrangers, the song was composed by

Joe and Noel Sherman, a composer-lyricist pair of siblings. Despite this, “Graduation Day” possesses most, if not all, traits of the “Four Freshman sound.” It is only one of two songs performed by both groups (the other being “Their Hearts Were Full of Spring”) and thus allows for direct comparison.17

From the opening of the tracks, a few differences are discernable. First, the Four Freshmen version begins with two held quarter notes, delaying a regular pulse until the beginning of the first full measure. This is a common trope for the Freshmen; one only needs to recall the classic “It’s a

Blue World,” though several more of their songs have similar openings.18 The Beach Boys opt instead for a brief instrumental vamp before entering in tempo. Second, on a related note, the difference in instrumentation between the two versions has compositional consequences: the Four

Freshmen are accompanied by electric guitar, double bass, drum set, and, on occasion, muted

15 “He heard the opening of ‘Day by Day’ and ‘bolted forward,’ demanding to know the name of the group and, ultimately, pleading for his mother to buy him an album [Freshmen Favorites].” Inside the Music of Brian Wilson, 4. 16 The Beach Boys version being analyzed can be found on U.S. Singles Collection: The Capitol Years 1962– 1965 (2008). 17 Though the Four Freshmen version is in A-flat, and the Beach Boys are in B-flat (keys were adaptable to the vocal ranges of the performers), examples will be in B-flat for the sake of comparison. 18 Other examples include “After You,” “Lonely Night in Paris,” “Love is Here to Stay,” and “Poinciana.” Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 11

trumpets. The Beach Boys, on the other hand, are supported by a lone electric guitar.19 This alone

may be the reason that the Beach Boys are played in by an alternation of I7 and ii7, instead of the I7-

ii7-iii7-ii7 progression heard over a tonic pedal in the Four Freshmen version; hand positions only

allow for so much variance when the guitarist is also (temporarily) responsible for playing the bass

line. Regardless, it seems to be clear from the outset of the track that while Wilson desires to pay

homage to the Four Freshmen, he also seeks to create a distinctive sound for the Beach Boys.

One of the ways in which Wilson separates his sound from the Four Freshmen original is by

simplifying the harmonies. Wilson occasionally strips the song of its jazz features, substituting

“Graduationinstead harmonies more familiar to the pop -Day,”music listener. In themm. first A section ,13–16 (both versions of

the song are in AABA form), the first change in vocal arrangement occurs on the word “graduation”:

™ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ ™ bb Œ œ œ œ œ œ nŒ˙ bœ œ œ œ ˙™ Œ &‹ œ ˙ Four We'll re- mem-ber al- ways gra- du - a - tion day Freshmen b &b Œ œ œ œœ œ œ œ b˙ Œ œ nœ œ ™ Œ ‹ œ œ b ˙ œn œ œ œ œ ˙ Iadd6 ™ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ ™ bb Œ œ œ œ œ œ nŒ˙ bœ œ œ ˙™ Œ &‹ œ We'll re- mem-ber al- ways gra- du - a - tion day Beach Boys b œ œ œ œ œ &b Œ œ œ œ œ œ b˙ Œ œ nœ œ œ ™ Œ ‹ œ b ˙ œn œ œ ˙ I (in octaves) Example 5: “Graduation Day,” mm. 13–16

19 It does sometimes sound as if there are two guitars playing ([1:13]–[1:23]). “Graduation Day,” mm. 23–24

Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 12 ™ ™ ™ 3 b œ œ œ œœ œ œ nbœ ˙œ &b œ œ œ œ bœ œ ‰ ‹ 3 nœ bœ 3 Four Freshmen Know- ing we'll ne- ver walk a- lone When the 3 ™ 3 b b œ™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ bœ ‰ &‹ œ œ œ œ œb œ œ œ œ 3 3

™ ™ 3 œ™ œ œ œœ œ œ ˙ bb œ œ œ nœ œ bœ œ ‰ &‹ nœ bœ 3 Beach know ing we'll ne- ver walk a- lone When the Boys ™ 3 b œ™ œ œ œ ™ &b œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙™ ‰ ‹ œ b˙ œ œ 3

Example 6: “Graduation Day,” mm. 23–24

eighth notes in beats 3 and 4 are removed, eliminating the composite eighth-note rhythm executed

by the Four Freshmen (see Example 5). Even more striking is in the second ending of the A section, where instead“Graduation of achieving a full cadence viaDay,” a Iadd6, Wilson mm. closes the17–20 section with the tonic scale degree in octaves.20 As the B section retransitions into the conclusion, rhythm and harmony are

simplified once again, this time jointly (see Example 6): as triplets give way to duple quarter notes,

the second tenor descends chromatically while the other voices together sustain V7. Ó œ bœ n˙ ˙ ™ bb ∑ œ b œ ˙ n ˙ ˙ œ ‰ &‹ Ó Four Ooo Freshmen ™ ‰ bb ∑ ™ Ó ™ œ bœ ™ ˙ œ &‹ œ œ œ œ ˙ b˙bœ œ œ˙ w Œ œ œ J J ‰ J Jœ Iadd6 o' we leave in sor row all the joys we've known

(Only bottom line present in BB version)

Example 7: “Graduation Day,” mm. 17–20

20 Given that the Freshmen eighth-note stepwise descent in the bass smoothly prepared ˆ3, Wilson’s compositional decision could be intertwined with his rhythmic decisions. Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 13

In both arrangements of “Graduation Day,” four voices collapse into a single line at the beginning of the B section (see Example 7). A single Freshman voice carries the melody in that version, while all five Beach Boys sing in theirs.21 This has a notable consequence as the bridge continues: with three of the Four Freshmen available to accompany the melody sung by the bass, they join in with chromatically descending “oohs” to provide a warm accompaniment in mm. 18–20 as the song tonicizes the global subdominant, E-flat major. The Beach Boys, however, are all singing the melody in unison, leaving no one to provide a complementing vocal line. This could have been because Brian Wilson found the vocal accompaniment of the original to stray too far from his tastes in other pop musics;22 for example, in the Freshmen’s version the cadence at m. 20 leads to a Iadd6 chord, a harmony that isn’t typically associated with cadences for the Beach Boys.

The closing section of “Graduation Day” provides a prototypical example of the stylistic differences between the two versions. After a foreboding tonicization of the supertonic, both versions of the song move into a new a cappella setting of the refrain lyrics, “We’ll remember always

Graduation Day” (see Example 8). The Four Freshmen begin this section with the largest vocal range heard in the entire song, followed by contrary motion between the upper and lower voices as they reach a close-position harmony on “always.” The Beach Boys achieve a similar sound, but deceptively so; the highest and lowest parts move identically to their counterparts in the original, yet the inner voices are changed so that the upper three voices are grouped together in an overall descent in contrast to the bass’s ascent. It seems as though this change is motivated by a conception of a bass

21 “The Beach Boys on The Tonight Show,” YouTube video, 5:36, December 13, 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q72y52p7IM. 22 “A general survey of top-40 radio during this time would probably portray an accurate sense of Brian’s musical awareness—asked in 1961 about his musical tastes, he replied ‘top 10[.]’” Inside the Music of Brian Wilson, 11. While Brian was heavily influenced by the Four Freshmen, he also kept his finger on the pulse of what was popular to the public at large. “Graduation Day,” mm. 33–37

Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 14

rit. U œ œ w w b œ œ œ œ œ ™ œ œ œ œ #œ w w &b œ ˙˙ Œ œ œ ‹ u Four We'll re- mem - ber al- ways Grad- u - a - tion Day Freshmen U b ™ w w &b œ œ œ ˙™ Œ œ œ œ œ #œ ‹ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ œ œ œn œ w w u

U œ œ œ œ ™ œ œ #œ œw n˙™ w bb œ œ œ œ ˙˙™ Œ œ œ œ œ &‹ u Beach We'll re- mem - ber al- ways Grad- u - a - tion Day Boys U b ™ w w &b œ œ œ œ œ ˙™ Œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ ™ ‹ œ œ œ ˙ œ œ œ œ œn œ ˙ w u Example 8: “Graduation Day,” mm. 33–37

voice that is quite distinct from the Four Freshmen’s usual mode of operation. Instead of working

from a “top down” construction, Wilson, a bass player himself, shows signs of hearing the bass voice

as distinct from the others in the texture, even in a passage when it seems unnecessary to do so.

Following this diatonic contrapuntal passage, the arrangements become increasingly

chromatic, heightening the tension as the song nears its final cadence. Both versions are identical in

vocal arrangement in these final few bars, right up until the last chord. The Four Freshmen end with

their signature Iadd6, unsurprisingly. The Beach Boys sing this chord, but only sustain it for a quarter

note before moving to a root-position triad. Of course, Wilson’s choice to have the bass leap down

from ˆ5 to ˆ1 could be because the Beach Boys do not have a bass instrument (acoustic or electric) to

confirm the root-position tonic arrival at the close. Still, it is fully possible to have a Iadd6 with ˆ1 in

the bass, especially with five voices at one’s disposal. Wilson is a composer of the generation Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 15 following the Four Freshmen, and therefore even when covering the music of his teenage idols, he is inclined to arrange in a style that will appeal to the youth of the Sixties.23

In conclusion, this research project could continue in a few different ways. First of all, the corpus could be expanded to include all of the Four Freshmen albums released from 1955–61, and could extend even further to analyze their output until the present day. This would allow for a comparison of early albums with later ones, where new arrangements are almost entirely written by band members. As demonstrated earlier, practicality factored considerably into the edits imposed on the arrangements, making this a variable with consequence, despite their attempt to keep the “Four

Freshmen sound” throughout the decades. Second, a more rigorous voice-leading analysis in the line of recent work by Ian Quinn and Panayotis Mavromatis could give more insight into the nuance of the different arrangers’ styles. The chord usages, spacing, and voice leading discussed throughout this paper all occur on a spectrum within each song, and it is possible that each arranger has a unique

“peg chord,” or prefers to place them at certain formal junctures. Lastly, this repertoire could be incorporated into the aural skills curriculum, lessening our field’s reliance on the Classical canon.

Furthermore, this would give incentive for collegiate a cappella group members and other recreational singers to take courses in music departments, an urgent endeavor as the field seeks to become more inclusive at the undergraduate- and graduate-student levels.

Concerning Beach Boys scholarship, this study provides further evidence of how exactly

Brian Wilson interacted with the music of the Four Freshmen. Rather than attempting to re-“fresh” their tradition, a task that the Freshmen themselves have undertaken for over half a century with

23 Referring to Beach Boys songs written between 1961–1965, Lambert writes, “The general style and harmonic progressions in these songs are adapted from Top 40 radio, but their rich vocal harmonies, declaimed by voices moving rhythmically together, were directly inspired by Brian’s close study of Four Freshmen records during his teenage years, up through about 1961.” “Brian Wilson’s Harmonic Language,” 68. Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 16 limited commercial success,24 Wilson seems to take only what he considers to be its essential components, leaving the rest behind as he joins the countercultural revolution of the 1960s. Lambert has substantiated this claim with regard to harmonic progressions, and I seek to supplement his work with these analyses. In connection with popular music scholarship at large, the relationship between the Four Freshmen’s music and the genres of jazz and barbershop could be explicated by continued research. In particular, it is curious how this style popular with white, middle- to upper-class, college-aged men has roots in genres that originated in the African-American community.25 How this history could be traced through vocal arranging technique is of interest to me. In addition to recent efforts by fans to “perpetuate appreciation and understanding of the historic music and unique harmonies created by the Four Freshmen” may be motivated primarily by nostalgia, I believe music academics have much to gain by continuing to look into their musical and cultural legacies.

24 Barbour recalling the first days of Group #18 (1992–1994): “When these ‘new Four Freshmen’ were rehearsed and ready to hit the road, word got out to the fans that the money to cover new uniforms, instruments, arrangements, publicity photos and other start-up costs just wasn’t there. Guess what? Over $50,000 was donated by Freshmen fans!” Now You Know, 268. 25 See Lynn Abbott, “‘Play that Barber Shop Chord’: A Case for the African American Origin of Barbershop Harmony,” American Music 10 (1992): 289–325.

Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 17

Bibliography

Barbour, Ross. Now You Know: The Story of The Four Freshmen. Lake Geneva, WI: Balboa Books, 1995. Everett, Walter. “Voice Leading and Harmony as Expressive Devices in the Early Music of the Beatles: ‘She Loves You.’” College Music Symposium 32 (1992): 19–37. Harrison, Daniel. “Extending Harmony to Extended Chords.” Presentation at the Society of Music Theory Annual Meeting, Milwaukee, WI, November 4, 2014. Lambert, Philip. “Brian Wilson’s Harmonic Language.” In Good Vibrations: Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys in Critical Perspective, edited by Philip Lambert, 63–101. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2016. ———. “Brian Wilson’s Pet Sounds.” Twentieth-Century Music 5, no. 1 (March 2008): 109–33. ———. Inside the Music of Brian Wilson: The Songs, Sounds and Influences of the Beach Boys’ Founding Genius. New York: Continuum, 2007. Love, Mike and James S. Hirsch. Good Vibrations: My Life as a Beach Boy. New York: Blue Rider Press, 2016. Malawey, Victoria. “Ear Training with the Music of Radiohead.” Indiana Theory Review 30, no. 2 (2012): 27–64. Morris, Robert. Composition with Pitch-Classes: A Theory of Compositional Design. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007 Quinn, Ian and Panayotis Mavromatis. “Voice-Leading Prototypes and Harmonic Function in Two Chorale Corpora.” In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference of the Society for Mathematics and Computation in Music (2011): 230–40.

Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 18

Appendix

"Day by Day," Melodic Contour vs. Range

24 21 18 15 12 9 6 3 0 -3 -6

Ordered Pitch Interval -9 -12 1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 111 Index (each chord in the song)

Tenor 1 Voice Leading Range

"Day by Day," Voice Leading in All Parts

18

15

12

9

6

3

0

-3 Ordered Pitch Interval -6

-9

-12 1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 111 Index (each chord in the song)

Tenor 1 Tenor 2 Bass 1 Bass 2 Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 19

"Day by Day," Range Breakdown

24 21 18 15 12 9 Pitch Interval 6 3 0 1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 111 Index

T1-T2 T2-B1 B1-B2

"Day by Day," Range Distribution

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 111 Index

T1-T2 T2-B1 B1-B2

Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 20

"It's a Blue World," Melodic Contour vs. Range

21

16

11

6

1

-4 Ordered Pitch Interval -9 1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 Index

Tenor 1 Voice Leading Range

"It's a Blue World," Voice Leading in All Parts

15 12 9 6 3 0 -3

Ordered Pitch Interval -6 -9 1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 Index

Tenor 1 Tenor 2 Bass 1 Bass 2 Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 21

"It's a Blue World," Range Breakdown

21

18

15

12

9

Pitch Interval 6

3

0 1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 Index

T1-T2 T2-B1 B1-B2

"It's a Blue World," Range Disribution

100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

0% 1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 Index

T1-T2 T2-B1 B1-B2 Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 22

"Angel Eyes," Melodic Contour vs. Range

21 18 15 12 9 6 3 0 -3

Ordered Pitch Interval -6 -9 -12 1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 111 121 131 141 151 161 171 Index

Tenor 1 Voice Leading Range

"Angel Eyes," Voice Leading in All Parts

12 9 6 3 0 -3 -6

Ordered Pitch Interval -9 -12 1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 111 121 131 141 151 161 171 Index

Tenor 1 Tenor 2 Bass 1 Bass 2

Clifton Boyd (November 2018) 23

"Angel Eyes," Range Breakdown 21

18

15

12

9 Pitch Interval 6

3

0 1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 111 121 131 141 151 161 171 Index

T1-T2 T2-B1 B1-B2

"Angel Eyes," Range Distribution 100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0% 1 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 101 111 121 131 141 151 161 171

T1-T2 T2-B1 B1-B2