The bass clarinet and clarinet play a riff at the start
Especial use of trumpets on the phrase 'cannonballing...'
Imitation between instrumental parts
The strings play tremolo and harmonies to the melody
2 of 7
Structure
There are 6 main sections:
1-Intro: vamp bars, repeated riff
2- A Section: 2 main melodic ideas + repeat
3- B Section: 3 main melodic ideas + repeat
4- B1 Section: 3 main melodic ideas with no repeat
5- A1 Section: 2 main melodic ideas with no repeat
6- Outro: no cadence
3 of 7
Melody and Word-setting
There are 3 main melodic ideas:
'Something's due....' - push rhythms, syncopated, repeated riff idea, syllabic word-setting, rising and falling melody, use of 7ths and tritones just before 'who knows', blues note at the end of the melodic idea (jazzy feeling)
'Cannonballing...' - repeated note idea, syllabic word-setting, un-syncopated (unlike the rest of the piece)
'Around the corner...' - longer note values, straight rhythms, syllabic word-setting, higher tessitura (pitch), arc shaped melody line
4 of 7
Texture
The texture is mainly homophonic. There are 3 main ideas in the accompaniment:
The repeated riff that opens the song.
The short, syncopated chords.
A fast, um-cha accompaniment.
5 of 7
Rhythm, Metre and Tempo
Metre changes between 2/4 and 3/4.
Changes of metre, a fast tempo and the use of a lot of syncopation maintains a feeling of excitement and anticipation.
Use of cross-rhythms throughout (for example in the intro).
Accompaniment is made up of an off-beat bassline, which constantly pushes forward a 'push rhythm', and offbeat chords.
6 of 7
Harmony and Tonality
Written in D Major although there are 2 contrasting sections in C Major (heard in bars 32-72 and 106-127)
Use of tritone which is an interval of 3 whole tones, e.g. C-F#.
Last note of the entire piece is a flattened 7th which remains unsolved and creates a feeling of incompletion.
Comments
No comments have yet been made