Queen Killer Queen Flashcards
Date and Genre
1974 and is a rock song
What style of performance did they adopt?
Glam Rock
What is glam rock?
Male performers with big hairstyles, flamboyant clothes, glitter and boots with platform soles
Which parts does Freddie Mercury do?
Lead vocal, backing vocals, piano and the overdubbed 3 and 4 part harmony in the chorus
What is a honky-tonk or jangle piano and how does Freddie use it?
A piano with tacks in the hammers to create a tinny retro effect, it overdubbed the piano part playing the same thing
What range does Freddie have in this song?
Two octaves and a third
What is falsetto?
A high male vocal
Who plays what?
.Brian May on electric guitar
.Roger Taylor on drums
.John Deacon on bass guitar
What two unusual percussion instruments are present?
.A triangle and windchimes
The piece wasn’t scored down then played, how did it get written down then?
Transcribed from the recording
What is vibrato?
Continual small fluctuations of pitch to warm the sound of a note
What is an ottava sign?
a direction that the notes sound an octave higher than written
What is tremolo?
A rapid repetition of a note, indicating cymbal roll in bar 26 and a drum roll in bar 28
What is a pitch bend?
A small slide in pitch away from a note and back again
What is a slide?
A smooth glide in pitch from one note to the next
What is palm mute?
Dampening the strings with the side of the hand while plucking to produce a dark, dry sound
How was the sound effect on ‘laser beam’ created?
A phase shifter with a flanger, it is word painting
What is overdubbing?
The layering of tracks playing the same thing
Where is overdubbing used?
To produce the multiple guitar tracks and the four-part vocals in the chorus
Where is reverb used?
Lead vocal
Where is distortion used?
The lead guitar part in the solo
Where is the wah-wah effect used?
The guitar parts at a certain point (bar 62)
Where is panning used?
‘anytime’ is being panned hard right in bar 19
What is the form?
Verse-chorus form
State each section
Verse 1 Chorus 1 Instrumental Verse 2 Chorus 2 Guitar Solo Verse 3 Chorus 3 Guitar Solo
What do the six finger clicks at the start do?
Set the tempo - they are too insubstantial to be called an intro
Describe the melody
Initially moves by step and small intervals but the leaps gradually get wider
How does the verse start?
A two bar vocal phrase that is repeated with a changed ending so it can finish on a top G rather than a C
How is bar 10 different?
It’s in 6/8
Where is bar 12 repeated?
It’s repeated in a modified rising sequence in bar 13 and the same falling 5th motif is used to create a modified falling sequence in the chorus
Where is portamento used?
The word ‘queen’ in bar 15
How is there unusual phrase lengths in the chorus?
8 bars are split into 5 followed by 3
What is the chorus followed by?
A 4 bar instrumental bridge of link
What does every verse and chorus begin with?
An anacrusis
What is an anacrusis?
An upbeat
What is the outro based on?
The link that follows the choruses
What is the word setting?
Mainly syllabic with occasional spoken text
What do the backing vocals sometimes include?
Vocables
What are vocables?
Nonsense syllables like’ooh’
Give 2 examples of word painting
.Upward slide on ‘queen’ to emphasize the sarcastic use of the word
.The phaser effect on ‘laser beam’
What is the meter?
Compound quadruple which gives a swing feel
Tempo
Moderately fast (112 bpm)
What rhythmic feature is frequently used?
Syncopation
Describe the tonality of the piece
The song is in Eb major, but the tonality is sometimes ambiguous. Verses start in C minor and choruses in Bb major but both quickly modulate
How does the piece end in terms of tone
A perfect cadence in Eb major and fades out on the tonic chord of the key
Describe the use of chords
Mainly root position triads with occasional inversions and 7th chords
Mainly diatonic with occasional use of chromatic chords
What is there some use of in bar 11
expressive dissonance
Where is there use of pedals
Tonic pedal in C minor at the start of each verse and a dominant pedal in the instrumental links following the first two choruses
What sort of harmonies do the overdubbed backing vocals create
Parallel harmonies
Where is there a descending chromatic scale?
Lead guitar, bass guitar and left-hand piano in bars 7-9 (from tonic to dominant of Eb major)
Where is there a circle of 5ths?
Bars 20-21 (A-Dm-G7-C)
What is a bell chord?
The notes are sustained in a downward succession instead of being played together
Where are bell chords present?
Bar 55 of the guitar parts
Describe the overall texture?
Homophonic and it gradually thickens over time
What is the texture of the vocals at the start and end of the chorus
Chordal
How are the guitar parts played in the link following the first chorus?
In parallel thirds
Where is there brief contrapuntal fragments?
In the accompaniment, in bar 62 guitar 4 imitates the lead vocals
