Stevie Wonder Flashcards

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1
Q

Superstition main points:

A
  • Released in the album ‘Talking Book’ in October 1972
  • Combination of strong rhythmic grooves using the hohner clavinet keyboards with soulful melodic contours makes the piece funk in genre (Clavinet keyboards is an electrically amplified clavichord which produces a bright and staccato timbre and used in funk and soul music)
  • More focus on rhythmic electric bass groves rather than harmonic changes
  • Piece based around a verse-chorus form with intro, bridge and fade outro with a short linking section to return to the verse
  • N.C bars - (No Chord) a bar or more where no chord is played and the accompanying instrument are silent which affects the texture of the piece
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2
Q

Superstition main points continued:

A
  • Opens with a short rhythm on the snare, starting on the third beat of the bar
  • ^This is based on crotchet-quaver-two semiquavers which essentially propels the music forward to the 1st beat of the next bar where the groove starts again with bass drum and hi hat cymballs
  • Hi hat has an intricate and changeable rhythm using quavers and semiquavers, where the bass and snare just play on the beat
  • Variety in the verse is achieved by changing the various ostinato figures that make up the overall texture
  • ‘Thirteen year old baby’ - Semiquaver ascent in the bass creates the effect of briefly being in double time giving greater rhythmic drive to the section
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3
Q

Superstition: HARMONY

A
  • The electric bass adds short syncopated fills at the end of each second pair of bars
  • The electric bass and first clavinet part is based around an Eb minor pentatonic scale, 2nd clavinet outlines Eb major chord, thus providing the harmonic palette with an Eb-b7-#9 chord which enharmonically employs both the major and minor thirds of the chord - hence the G naturals and Gb’s in the same bars
  • Context - a pentatonic scale is made up of 5 notes which commonly include the root, 3rd, 4th, 5th and flattened 7th
  • Often use of extended chords and enharmonic
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4
Q

Superstition: MELODY and TONALITY

A

(MELODY)
-Prominent Gbs given to both the clavinet ostinato of the intro and the vocal line
-Melody line moves very conjunctly, phrases often not ranging further than a 3rd of 4th
(TONALITY)
-Eb minor tonic - heavy use of Eb minor pentatonic scale
-Large use of enharmonic chords - false relation
-Large use of altered and extended chord making overall tonality ambiguous

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5
Q

Superstition: TEMPO, TEXTURE, METRE, RHYTHM

A
  • 3 distinct layers in texture:
  • The rhythmic anchor provided by bass drum, snare and electric bass
  • The syncopated rhythmic ostinato of the 1st clavinet part and hi-hat
  • Chordal filling from the second clavinet part
  • Bar placement - verse starts on the third beat of the bar to allow the 1st beat to be given greater emphasis
  • Clavinet riff is rhythmically freer than the rest, starting the bar with 4 constant quavers, concluding with a dotted rhythm centred on a Gb
  • Use of quavers at the entry of the vocal line and synocpation provided by tied semiquaver Gb’s at the end of the bar
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