Release Flashcards
Context
· By group called Afro Celt Sound System.
· This album was released in 1999.
· Release is the name of the song and album.
· Sinéad O’Connor is the singer on this track.
· Members of the group were brought up in different musical traditions: Irish Folk Music, West African Music and Western Dance Music. This track has features of all three.
Structure
- Verse form
- Intro – Starts in free time and builds; pulse established at 50 secs
- Verse 1 – Female vox
- Verse 2 – Male vox
- Solos – Uilleann pipes, whistle
- Verse 3 – Female vox with Hurdy-Gurdy and U. Pipe solo; then Male vox with fiddle solo.
- Build
- Outro – ‘Reach out and you’ll touch me’ fade out.
Texture
- Texture constantly changes through introducing instruments/patterns and removing them.
- Uses layering of different patterns and loops.
- Overall texture is homophonic
- Outro is heterophonic.
- Sometimes polyphonic.
- Loops
Tonality
- C modal minor (folk)
- Diatonic
Rhythm
- Syncopation – feature of West African music
- Triplets (cross rhythms)
- Sextuplets
- Accents
- Rhythmic ostinatos (repeating patterns) (2 or 4 bar phrases)
- Slightly swung semiquavers – feature of Irish Music
- Continuous semiquavers in solos - Irish music
- Grace notes – Irish music
Metre/tempo/dynamics
Tempo:
* Start:
* Free time (no fixed pulse)
* Then what happens:
* 50 seconds in – 100bpm (established by ostinato)
Metre:
- 4/4
* Good for dancing!
Instrumentation
Irish Folk:
· Hurdy-Gurdy – plays melodies and drone
· Uilleann Pipes – like the bagpipes, plays melody and drone
· Bodhran – large drum
· Fiddle – violin (often played away from the chin)
· Accordion – plays chords and melody
· Whistle – plays melody (it’s a low whistle in this recording)
Western Dance:
· Male Vox; Female Vox
· Synthesisers: string pad, soft pad, bells, string bass
· Breath samples
· Drum machine
· Electric Piano
· Shaker
· Tambourine
West African:
· Talking Drum
· Kora
Melody
- Uses some nonsense lyrics
- Some parts spoken
- Short phrases
- Repetitive
- Limited range (female); Male larger range
- Syllabic
- Conjunct
- Pentatonic
Irish features:
* Instrumental melodies (solos):
* Fast moving (semiquavers)
* Continuous
* Use of repeated notes
* Uses glissandos (slides)
* Uses ornamentation (acciaccatura)
* Based on patterns
* Often doubled on other instruments
* Mainly based on pentatonic scale
Western dance music:
* Sampled (not performed live)
Harmony
- Modal
- Diatonic
- Repetitive chord sequences
- Uses extended chords such as (7ths and 9ths)
- Some chromaticism
- Slow harmonic rhythm
- C Drone used (establishes the tonality)
FX - Western feature
- Low pass filters – used to sweep through frequencies (at start)
- Panning – left and right
- Delay – used on bass loop (12)
- Samples
- Looping
- Reverb
- Breath samples
