Kate Bush Flashcards
1
Q
Context of Kate Bush and work
A
- Born 1958 and is a performer and composer of progressive rock
- Music contains Irish elements sometimes which come from her family connections
- The album Hound of Love was released in 2985 and draws on vocals and piano played by her, Balalaika, string sextet, bouzouki and uilleann pipes
- Album was produced by Bush in her own studio
- Could be classed as a concept album as first side of the original vinyl record consists of 5 prog rock songs and the second side is closely based on Tennyson’s poetic work Idylls of the King
- Cloudbusting is the last of the progressive rock songs on side one of the vinyl. It is based on incidents in the life and career of the psychologist Wilhelm Reich
- The first two songs from the original side 2 ‘And dream of sheep’ and ‘Under Ice’ depict the thoughts of a drowning girl
2
Q
Describe the sonority in Cloudbusting
A
- Vocals, Fairlight CMI, and drums play a major role in this piece
- The most distinctive timbre is the string sextet (relate to Eleanor Rigby
- There are also occasional appearances of balalaika ( Russian stringed musical instrument)
3
Q
Describe the sonority in ‘And Dream of Sheep’
A
- Most conventional popular music timbre of the three songs with voice and piano dominating
- Additional parts for bouzouki (a plucked string instrument used in Greek and modern Irish music) and whistles
- The sound is further intensified by the use of dubbed voices
4
Q
Describe the sonority in Under Ice
A
- Unusual atmospheric timbres are created through the use of synthesised strings and a low vocal tessitura
5
Q
Describe the texture in Cloudbusting
A
- Persistent detached chords
- Fragmentary patterns on keyboard
- Counter-melody in octaves in the violin
- Expansion of texture with the three lowest strings and keyboard 3 providing sustained semibreves
6
Q
Describe the texture in And Dream of Sheep
A
- Broken chord figures
7
Q
Describe the texture in Under Ice
A
- Lean sound is created by the fragmentary vocal line supported by bass octaves and two-part synthesised string motifs, mainly in 4ths and 5ths: a soft synth sound pad sounds throughout
8
Q
Describe the tempo, metre and rhythm in Cloudbusting
A
- This song is in a moderate, rather strict time. Mainly quadruple time signature with occasional changes (to 6/4 and 2/4)
Rhythmic features include:
- Constant crotched beat established at the start by the strings
- Steady, reinforcing crotched drum-beats from bar 11
- Backbeat
- Mechanical patterns in the violin (bar 3)
- Effective halt to the mechanical rhythms at the key words “I won’t forget” (bar 50)
- Semibreves in the lower parts (bar 95) combined with a strong rhythmic figure in the upper string parts
- Longer note values in the violin counter-melody beginning in bar 34, and in the additional synthesised line at bar 65
- Syncopation e.g. keyboard 2 (bar 69-70)
9
Q
Describe the tempo, metre and rhythm in Dream of Sheep
A
- This song uses a moderately slow quadruple metre with occasional changes
- Rubato, rits and fermata (pause) are used
- Use of dotted rhythm, triplets and scotch snap
10
Q
Describe the tempo, metre and rhythm in Under Ice
A
- tempo speeds up from 65 beats per minute to 108 and then slows at the close
Rhythmic features include:
- A two quaver-crotchet pattern, first heard in strings and taken over in the voice
- two-note figure with longer second notes (vocal part bars 12-13 ‘so white’)
- Long-sustained synth pad which enters in bar 2
- Scotch snaps (bar 27)
- Triplets (bar 50)
11
Q
Describe the melody in Cloudbusting
A
- Modal based in C# aeolian minor
- Lead vocal is a minor 10th
- Word setting is predominantly syllabic with occasional slurred pairs
- Opens with leaps of 3rds, 4ths and 5ths but then narrows the range
- Portamento (similar to glissando)
Other melodic features include:
- The violin’s opening narrow-range motif, featuring some chromaticism
- The violin’s later counter-melody with step-wise descent
- An additional melody line in keyboard 2, starting at bar 65
- Bvoc vocalisation with leap of minor 7th (bar 111)
12
Q
Describe the melody in And Dream of Sheep
A
- E Major
- Vocal range is a major 9th
- Distinctive 5ths in the opening phrase
- Repeated notes
- Word setting is mainly syllabic with brief melismas at phrase-endings
- Repeated thirds on ‘if they find me racing’
13
Q
Describe the melody in Under Ice
A
- Vocal range is a minor 10th
- Characterised by a mainly step-wise two-pitch figure
- A more lyrical phrase occurs at ‘The river has frozen over’ with leaps of a 4th and 5th
- Word-setting is mainly syllabic
- Descending chromatic portamento at close
14
Q
Describe the harmony in Cloudbusting
A
- The song’s mechanical feel is intensified through the use of a limited number of dissonant added-note chords
- All chords contain both B and C#
- Harmonic rhythm is varied: e.g. at the opening the C# and B chords have two beats whereas at bar 95, the cords are allotted four beats
15
Q
Describe the harmony in And Dream of Sheep
A
- Functional harmony in the key of E major
- Typical chords include I,IIb,V,V^7, IV with added 9th
- Tonic pedal at ‘If the find me racing’
- A chord of perfect 4ths played on whistles at bar 41
