Chapter 14 Flashcards
Melody Intervals Motifs and Phrasing
It’s an interesting quirk of music that, while interval dissonance is something that can be mathematically measured and ranked, it has nevertheless been subject to fashion.
‘Blue Jay ‘Way
We have already described the Lydian flavour of ‘Blue Jay Way’, while these other two songs emerge as essentially Mixolydian in terms of their overall collection of notes. As we prepare to delve deeper into our exploration of the structure of Beatles ‘ tunes’ , the real songwriting lesson here is that it is not the scale itself that matters - it’s what you do with it.
As we know, critical to the use of dissonance in pop is resolution, something that the tritones of ‘Blue Jay Way’ and ‘Within You Without You’ lack, leaving these songs to meander through prolonged dissonance - thereby distancing themselves from conventional notions of pop music.
b) Motifs as melodlc sequences
c) Disguising and developing motifs
d) ‘Call and response’ and complementary’ motifs
e) ‘Story’ type melodies
A crucial point here relates to the harmony. Compare these blatantly ‘flagged’ phrases, which repeat over the same chord progression, with those motifs whose repetition is disguised by a shift in the underlying harmony.
listen to ‘Mean Mr Mustard’. The lyrics may have changed , but the bite-size motif appears three times, with the first repeat appearing a minor third higher, creating a ‘sandwich’ effect. As in ‘Bungalow Bill’ this has the profound effect of highlighting the
motif as a definite hook with its own momentum.
The repeated unit could be anything from a three -note figure (‘Little Child’) to one - and two- bar motifs (‘No Reply’). In both these cases the motifs are developed to form a complete sentence with this ‘tailing’ approach.
The repeated unit could be anything from a three -note figure (‘Little Child’) to one - and two- bar motifs (‘No Reply’). In both these cases the motifs are developed to form a complete sentence with this ‘tailing’ approach.
Repeating a motif, perhaps once, twice - or even three times - is a great way of establishing a melodic foothold, but at some point the idea must be developed or resolved. Dozens of Beatles melodies demonstrate how this can be achieved by briefly tweaking the initial fragment. ‘No Reply’ shows another common Beatle approach - the thematic development of a given motif where, on its second (or even third) appearance it is restated with subtle variations.
You can see it in songs of all eras, including ‘From Me To You ‘, ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’, ‘And I Love Her’, ‘Glass Onion’ and ‘Her Majesty’.
d) Complementary motifs
Developing from this are melodies that abandon any element of repetition in favour of new material, but which still complement the original motif (perhaps being based on a similar rhythmic pattern). This approach to melody in pop originates from the blues concept of ‘call and response’, whereby an opening ‘cry’ is answered by a new melodlc idea.
Middleton highlights The Who’s ‘My
Generation’ as a classic example in rock where an opening cry is answered by the masses (as represented by a two- part backing)
d) Complementary motifs
Developing from this are melodies that abandon any element of repetition in favour of new material, but which still complement the original motif (perhaps being based on a similar rhythmic pattern). This approach to melody in pop originates from the blues concept of ‘call and response’, whereby an opening ‘cry’ is answered by a new melodlc idea.
Many variations on this have developed, with ‘Hey Bulldog’ seeing a twin vocal ‘call’ phrase , answered by an elaborating ‘response’ from a single party
d) Complementary motifs
Developing from this are melodies that abandon any element of repetition in favour of new material, but which still complement the original motif (perhaps being based on a similar rhythmic pattern). This approach to melody in pop originates from the blues concept of ‘call and response’, whereby an opening ‘cry’ is answered by a new melodlc idea.
But the general principle of two, complementary melodic ideas can be seen in settings as varied as the hard rock of ‘Back In The USSR’ and the gentle ballad of’ A Day In The Life’. Both open with melodies that consist of an initial 2- bar motif that is turned into a 4- bar phrase in precisely this way.
d) Complementary motifs
Developing from this are melodies that abandon any element of repetition in favour of new material, but which still complement the original motif (perhaps being based on a similar rhythmic pattern). This approach to melody in pop originates from the blues concept of ‘call and response’, whereby an opening ‘cry’ is answered by a new melodlc idea.
But the general principle of two, complementary melodic ideas can be seen in settings as varied as the hard rock of ‘Back In The USSR’ and the gentle ballad of’ A Day In The Life’. Both open with melodies that consist of an initial 2- bar motif that is turned into a 4- bar phrase in precisely this way.
d) Complementary motifs
Developing from this are melodies that abandon any element of repetition in favour of new material, but which still complement the original motif (perhaps being based on a similar rhythmic pattern). This approach to melody in pop originates from the blues concept of ‘call and response’, whereby an opening ‘cry’ is answered by a new melodlc idea.
Even George Harrison’s ‘Something’, which might appear to be merely repeating its opening motif at a higher pitch (given the
reappearance of the title lyric), in fact introduces new intervallic relationships which complement the original motif with similar rhythmic phrasing.
e) ‘Story’ type melodies
Our gradual move away from repetition illustrates that melodic construction exists on a continuum. At one extreme are ‘Good Day Sunshine’ -style repeated phrases and at the other are those melodies that dispense with both repetition and direct development of a motif and display more of a pure ‘sentence’, or ‘story’, construction, with new directions in every phrase.
These are melodies
involving more of a ‘stream of consciousness’ as seen in another vast category of songs including ‘Yesterday’, ‘Here There And Everywhere’, ‘Sexy’ Sadie’, ‘Penny Lane’ and ‘Hey Jude’ (excepting the coda, obviously!). Each of these verses unfolds far less predictably than those structured on repeated motifs, bringing in new material that leads the listener in the antithesis of a sing-a-long melody.
Melodic contour or ‘shape’
‘There was a period when I thought I didn’t write melody … Paul wrote those and I just wrote straight, shouting rock ‘n’ roll: John Lennon’s famous quote raises interesting questions as to our perception of the very term ‘melody’, which, as we already know, we cannot take for granted.
Here is an extreme example of counterpoint, as various elements move in opposite directions in a manner that dates back to Bach
and his famous ‘Bourree’.
The final ‘ square ‘ category is less popular with songwriters, who are perhaps instinctively aware of the ‘textbook’ notion of melody as a ‘gradual’ melodic contour that precludes too many sudden jumps and changes of direction. But The Beatles proved that there are no such rules , with tunes like ‘Because’, for all its gentle ambience, featuring intervals that leap up and down as if on a trampoline (although admittedly the slick harmony and sustained notes smooth out the rough edges). In ‘You Won’t See Me’, a clearly ‘square shape’ melody with awkward, wide- interval change s in direction is highlighted by the clipped edges from the staccato delivery
The final ‘ square ‘ category is less popular with songwriters, who are perhaps instinctively aware of the ‘textbook’ notion of melody as a ‘gradual’ melodic contour that precludes too many sudden jumps and changes of direction.
This might be an obvious case, but even the most mellow ballad settings of ‘In My life’ , ‘I’ll Follow The Sun’ and ‘Sexy’ Sadie’ also
feature a series of unusual jumps that could be seen as falling into the ‘square ‘ category.
They demonstrate that, in practice, most melodies combine elements of the ‘linear’, ‘circular’ and ‘square’ categories.
‘With A Uttle Help From My Friends’ is a good example. The verse opens with Ringo on vocals, initially in a melodic ‘straightjacket’ from which he is released in the phrase ‘do you need anybody’, when the full octave range makes for a powerful
contrast.
Range contrast between distinct sections can be seen to account for the melodic interest in many Beatles compositions which, at first sight, might be assumed to operate within narrow bounds.
‘Help!’, ‘Come Together’ and ‘Good Morning, Good Morning’ all explore a much wider range in their respective choruses in
contrast to their ponderous, mantra -like verses. Meanwhile, ‘Sgt. Pepper’ turns the principle around with (the hardly grand) range of a 6th for the verse, being effectively halved for the almost monotone chorus
Again, if we’re looking for some kind of Beatie trademark in this area we’re going to be disappointed - the group’s real secret was to create contrast both within songs and between songs.
At the opposite extreme, George Harrison’s ‘ If I Needed Someone ‘ is a rare example of a melody where the rhythm is almost exclusively syncopated. Try singing the line while tapping your foot to hear how the tune shuns almost every downbeat, preferring to go against the grain (in typical Harrison style), by favouring off - beats (i.e., the ‘and’ within the eighth- note count of ‘1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and’).
Ultimately, it is far more important to appreciate the way in which The Beatles graduated to a whole range of bizarre song forms, as the result of the first process suggested above: novel melodlc phrasing.
Breaking away from the 8-bar rut through phrasing:
Rhythm primer: time signatures and the beat
‘Good Golly Miss Molly’ - Cueing the chorus in straight 4/4 time
Again we can take the mystery out of the cold calculations by suggesting that The Beatles could easily have rested for that extra beat to maintain a 4/4 rhythm.
Meanwhile, the quirky chorus of ‘Good Day Sunshine’ demonstrates how mixed metre can be dictated not merely by beat counts but by the rhythmic emphasis of a particular lyric. Certainly we could notate the famous refrain in straight 4/4 time - some songbooks do just that , with the eight beats of the basic refrain split equally between two bars.
But to do so requires awkward treatment of the word ‘sunshine’ : it is forced to unfold ‘over the bar -line’ rather than starting a new bar on the first strong downbeat, as we instinctively feel.
By the time of the White Album, The Beatles truly overdosed on multi-metre machinations - most famously in the sprawling structure of ‘Happiness Is A Warm Gun’, which captured Lennon’s collage approach to songwriting in all its glory
Nor should we forget that McCartney and Harrison were also vital contributors to The Beatles’ metric minefield. Among the many
highlights is the way Paul throws listeners delightfully off the scent in ‘Martha My Dear’ with an opening ramble through 3/4, 2/4 and 4/4 in the first three bars alone. And how about George’s extreme 2/4, 3/8, 5/8, 4/4 interludes in ‘Here Comes The Sun’, which give guitarists so much more than just a finger-twisting arpeggio workout?
