Song Structure MUSC-21600: The Art of Rock Music Prof. Freeze 24 August 2018 The Rock Window • Pane 1: Musical Text • Timbre: What instruments are playing? • Rhythm: What beats are emphasized? What instruments emphasize the beat? • Vocal style: How emotional? How articulate? How would you describe the vocal quality? • Structure: How are repeating and non-repeating sections of music arranged? • Pane 2: Lyrical Text • Structure: how are repeating and non-repeating sections of lyrics arranged? • Story themes: romance, sexuality, alienation, in/justice, introspection, story, other? • Message: is there an explicit or underlying political or cultural message? • Pane 3: Context • How does the song reflect broader social, political, and cultural forces like race and ethnicity, sexuality and gender, social class, generational identity? • How does the song reflect an artist’s personal history, identity, musical influences, career? • How does the song reflect the conditions shaped by the music industry? Song Structure: The Foundations • Song structure/form = pattern of repeating and contrasting sections of music and lyrics in a song • Both dynamic (experience in time) and architectural (formal diagrams) • Both aesthetic and practical • Backbone of song structure = time • Precise timing on recording (e.g., 0:19) • Beat = regular pulse that can be inferred from a song’s musical events • Meter = regular pattern of strong and weak beats that can be inferred from a song’s musical events • Measure (bar) = one iteration of the meter’s essential pattern of strong and weak beats • Rhythm = a particular pattern of long and short musical events (not inferred, but heard!) • Most common meters • “Rocket 88” = 4 beats per measure (SwWw = quadruple meter = 4/4) • “Goodnight Irene” = 3 beats per measure (Sww = triple meter = 3/4) • “That’s All Right” = 2 beats per measure (Sw = duple meter = 2/4) Song Structure: The Basic Patterns • Simple verse = one section of music repeated many times, with different words (= verse) or with no words (= instrumental verse) • “Rocket 88” (Jackie Brenston, 1951) • 12-bar blues • Common structural pattern for a song section • Distinctive coordination of measure length, harmony (chords), phrasing, and lyrics bar: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 chord: I I I I IV IV I I V V (IV) I I phrase: Phrase 1 Phrase 2 Phrase 3 lyric: Question Question Answer Song Structure: The Basic Patterns • Simple verse-chorus = one section of music repeated many times with different words (= verse) and with recurring lyrics (= chorus) • “Hound Dog” (Elvis Presley, 1956) • Contrasting verse-chorus = two sections of music, one that repeats with different words (= verse) and one that repeats with the same lyrics (= chorus) • “Rock and Roll Music” (Chuck Berry, 1957) • AABA = two sections of music (usually 8 bars each), one of which is stated in full or part three times (A) and one that occurs once (B) • “Great Balls of Fire” (Jerry Lee Lewis, 1957).