Thursday, March 5, 2009
NEW ANALYSIS- Karma Police
This is one of my all time fave. songs. Hope i do justice to it.
The pop piece that I have chosen for this semester’s blog assignment is a song by a British band, “Radiohead”, who are renowned for their experimental approach towards making music, as they always seek to incorporate elements from various genres like jazz, electronic music and world music into their song writing process. This song, “Karma Police”, however, on the surface might not sound as experimental as their other works, but upon close inspection and dissection of the piece, I have come to realize that there this piece is not like a typical pop piece where so often are based around simple harmonies of the Tonic, Pre Dominant and Dominant. It is more interesting to find out how in creating unconventional harmonic progressions, they had successfully managed to tie that in with the lyrics beautifully, which enhances the overall meaning of listening to it.
Form
The song structure of “Karma Police” could be largely described as a Verse-Refrain form, whereby it contains a refrain that defers from the verse melodically and harmonically, which follows after a verse. In this song however, this is slightly modified as the refrain comes only after two verses the first time, and the second time around, comes after one verse. Also, a coda/outro verse section is included after the refrain is repeated the second time, and this is then repeated twice before the song ends. Already, the song structure doesn’t really fit into the kind of song structure most typically associated with pop songs, and neither does it really correspond to the kinds of structures associated and taught in classical music, e.g. extended binary, as well. Thus overall, the song sequence would go like this: ‘A’ (verse refrain) section: 8 bar intro-1st verse-2nd verse-refrain-3rd verse-refrain, ‘B’ (Coda/outro) section: 2 outro verses repeated followed by a ten bar instrumental outro. I think it would be wrong to then label this structure as a simple binary form as first of all, sections A and B are based on different materials (as I will reveal in my later part of the analysis) and also, within the A section itself there are quite drastic changes as well.
In terms of Phrase Structure, however, is more straight forward (probably the only thing that is, in this song) about it. The opening 8 bar intro, which is almost identical to what is played in the verse, consists of a simple sentence structure of a 2 bar of short phrase followed by another 2 bar short phrase which then proceeds to a 4 bar long phrase. This is the same for the verse as well.
For the refrain, the same phrase structure occurs, with a short-short long sentence as marked out in the score. Again, as the intro and verse, it is 2 bars, 2 bars, followed by 4 bars.
In the outo/coda section, the phrase structure is also in a sentence, but this time, the ratio is reduced to 1+1+2, as marked out in the score.
Instrumentation
One striking characteristic of this song is level of euphony in the harmony which beautifully enriches the melody, but also, at certain sections, like the refrain, the harmony suitably thins itself out and changes the mood and color, and combined with the lyrics, captures the listeners’ imagination and attention. Thus, for all of these musical characteristics to be best brought out in the song, the instrument chosen must be able to bring out both the rich and thick harmonies and also be versatile enough to be able to handle the change in texture from think chordal harmonies to smooth, voice-leading and thin harmonies, without losing any of the emotion. An instrument that can do this very well is the acoustic piano. The acoustic piano’s range allows for good euphony in the playing of chords but yet not drowning out the vocals and the percussions, as compared to an organ perhaps. Also, the piano is versatile enough to bring out the beautiful voice leading harmony as seen in the refrain, as the piano allows the notes to be played in a beautiful smooth slur, and allows for the crescendos and decrescendos to be played to its full effect, all adding to the beauty of the voice leading. Also, the piano can also suitably bring out the intensity of the outro, which is seen as the climax of the song, as it can again bring out the rich harmonies that are involved there, as full chords can be played, and with gusto. Compared to the guitar for example, the guitar would not be able to fully bring these aspects of the music out fully as firstly, the range of the guitar is less and thus chords played would not sound as rich or euphonious. Thus, for this song, the guitar is just an accompanying instrument.
The percussions in this song is played by a drum set, and the drumming patterns are not elaborate and is kept to quite a minimal amount of permutations, in keeping with the overall mood of the song, which is somewhat melancholic and “grim”. At the refrain, the drumming ceases appropriately to add to the mood of desolation and despair. In the outro, however, it picks up and adds to the intensity of the climax.
Harmony
In talking about the harmonic progressions that make up this song, I would like to first talk about the lyrics of “Karma Police”, as I feel that the harmony of this song is closely tied to what this song’s message might be. “Karma Police’s” lyrics, on the surface, seem to talk about retribution and “getting your just deserts”. Also, in the verse and refrain, and in the coda/outro, conveys the message of relieve and perhaps, redemption or waking from a nightmare? Nothing’s really certain in the lyrics except the grim and sad reality of punishment for bad karma and resentment for office politics. As expressed in the verse, “Arrest this man, he talks in maths, he buzzes like a fridge, he’s like a de-tuned radio. There’s plenty of ambiguity in the lyrics, as we don’t know who exactly are the karma police, and “this is what you get…” the retribution of these people is not explained. Personally I feel that this instability is further enhanced by the harmony of this song. The harmonic progression of this piece starts with this: Am-Dmaj 1st inversion- Em- Gmaj-Am-Fmaj-Em-Gmaj. This is from bars 1-4. There’s an ambiguity on what key we’re in from the very start. From the opening bars it’s hard to determine where our “home” is, as there is no strong indication of any key being cemented. On first impression our ears tells us that we are in a minor key, but the question is, how so? The presence of the Dmaj chord followed by an Emin chord would immediately throw us off track, assuming it is in the key of A minor. A major chord IV followed by a Minor Dominant? Okay, so maybe our ears are playing tricks on us. Maybe it’s actually in a major scale instead. Let’s try to see if it analyzing it in the key of G major would shed light on this: ii-V-vi-I. This seems logical, as there is a common progression here from Pre-Dominant to Dominant to Tonic substitute, giving us an interrupted cadence. However, there is a flaw here as the interrupted cadence in nature is a weak one and doesn’t really help in strongly cementing a key, besides, it doesn’t feel as if we have cadenced at that moment, and it doesn’t sound like we are in a major key. The presence of the Fmaj chord in bar 3 further throws this analysis off course. Perhaps one way to explain this ambiguity is to look towards the modal scales, away from the common diatonic ones. Thus, we could arrive at the conclusion that the key is in A minor, but in A dorian. This could explain why the key signature is that of Gmaj/Emin, as the A dorian scale shares the same notes as the G major diatonic scale, but starts on A, thus explaining why we encounter a minor “feel” towards the opening intro but yet still see the presence of a D maj chord, as the A dorian scale would include a F sharp chord. It also explains the minor Dominant chord as the A dorian scale is likened to the natural minor with no alterations made to either the 6th or 7th scale degree. Thus, bearing this in mind, the progression starts to make sense: i-IV6-v-VII-i. Here we see a Tonic harmonic function progressing to a Pre-Dominant to a Dominant and then a Dominant substitute to a Tonic, which incidentally marks the end of the 1st sub-phrase. Here, the ambiguity is kept with the use of the dominant substitute to the tonic, which is a weaker cadential progression than the V-I, which is not seen in the opening intro at all, thus as listeners we are “teased” with this harmonic progression which doesn’t tell us straight forwardly and clearly which key we are in, all adding to the harmonic interest and the theme of “ambiguity” of this song.
In the long sub phrase of the sentence, that is the intro, we see a “lament bass” type progression, in bar 6, starting from the G bass note. It descends stepwise down to the D, which in context of A dorian, gives us the progression of VII-IV6-III65-iidim6, which goes back to i. At the end of the sentence, we find a plagal cadence that involves the Dmaj chord and the A min chord, which marks the end of the intro and start of the verse. The intro and verse share the same harmonic progression except for in bar 14, where in the intro was the lament bass progression, now the bass is ascending, but the progression is still largely the same, except for the omission of the chord IV6, and that the chord III is no longer a chordal 7th, but instead, it is the chord ii that is turned into a iidim42.
The same harmonic progression continues until we get to the refrain where the line “This is what you get,” starts. Here, the key changes but as in the Intro and the verse, doesn’t strongly indicate to us clearly which key we are in, however, our ears tells us that definitely, the color of the harmony has become more that centers around a G major tonal centre. It starts off with a C maj chord followed by a Dmaj 2nd inversion and a G maj chord. So far, up to this point, in the context of G maj, we see a common progression that we are all familiar with (at last!): IV-V64-I. Here, we have a perfect cadence in Gmaj and the tonality of G is added on by the melody, where we see the leading note (F#) actually going to the Tonic. However, our ears are slightly thrown off course again by the fact that the arpeggio of the Gmaj chord actually leads to the A then the A# from G in the Right hand. If it had led to the B instead of the A then A#, it would more clearly establish the perfect cadence and G maj as the home key in this section. Again, the idea of harmonic ambiguity is used to add color to our perception of the song. This is further confused by the fact that an F# maj is introduced after the G maj chord. Where did it come from? Well, we could use the concept of mixture harmonies to explain this. We know there are a few types of mixture harmonies, and one of them involves changing the nature (major or minor) of the chord, but not changing the diatonic root of the chord. Here, we know that F# (root) is part of the G major diatonic scale. Thus, instead of having a F# min chord, by changing it to a F# major chord, it adds another a different color to the section. Thus, here the F# maj chord can be seen as a secondary mixture chord. So, what does this imply? I feel that it is a clever use of mixture harmony as by changing it to a F# major, it suggests the appearance of a B minor key next, as F#maj chord, which comprises of the leading note A#, would be the leading note to B, and we know that F#maj chord is the Dominant of B min, which would most probably lead to Bmin Chord, its tonic. However, instead of doing that, it actually goes back to C maj chord! When we bring in the lyrics, it’s not hard to see what the composer is trying to do here. The F#maj chord comes after the line “This is what you get”. This, to me is significant as the “hinting” of the B minor using the F#maj chord tells us that “what they are getting” is something not good/evil, which ties with the overall theme of retribution for wrong doings in the song, however when it goes back to the C maj suggests that their “retribution” will not come immediately, but perhaps after death, and thus going back to the G maj tonality suggests that they can enjoy the benefits of their wrong doings for now, but inevitably they will pay for it. The way the F#maj chord is apreggiated also suggests a subtlety in the foreboding retribution that will surely come, instead of using block chords, which would suggest that the time of retribution is already here. At the end of the reprise section, the plagal progression returns and brings us back to A Dorian again for the next verse.
For the second time round that the reprise is played, the 2nd ending which preceeds the outro sets up for the change in key to B minor. As seen in the 2nd ending of the reprise, the key had already changed to B min when the C# appears in the Right hand. Thus, the progression goes from: i64-IV7-V65-6-5-4-i6, which establishes the new section and the new key. From here, the progression alternates between the median (D maj chord) and the tonic substitute, chord VI (G major). The introduction of the Emaj chord again, in keeping with the theme of the piece, unsettles listeners’ tonality once again. The presence of the E maj chord here could be seen as yet another instance of mixture harmonies, but this time, a primary mixture, which means that the E maj chord is “borrowed” from the parallel major, B major. What this does to the feel of this section is that it adds more tension by introducing this alien chord, all adding to the effect of the outro being a climatic awakening, likened to the moments just before waking up from a nightmare. The lyrics somewhat confirms this, “Phew, for a minute there, I lost myself”. This goes on throughout the outro, and when it gets to the end, we are finally given a strong indication of conclusion, after all the confusion and ambiguity, because one thing’s for sure, this song has to end. If we look at the last 2 bars of the piece, we see again the E maj Chord, this time with a 9-8 suspension, but then it progresses to a Chord IV7, which passes using a chord III to a chord V and i. Here, we know that we have cadenced, and concluded because we see in the bass, the leading note, A (in the context of a B natural minor) resolving to B.
Rhythm
The rhythm is kept at a steady 4/4 rhythm and is played perhaps at an adagio tempo, which adds to the overall melancholic feel to the song. The bass line is syncopated and “walks” up and down; giving the impression that could be likened to a funeral march. In the Outro section, the rhythm quickens and we see the chords repeating over quavers, adding to the climatic/orgasmic feel to the end of the song.
Melody
In the verse, the vocal melody moves generally in stepwise motion and doesn’t have many dramatic leaps. Also, the Melody is syncopated, which then causes the syllables of the words to be sung always on the off -beat. The lack of range in the melody for the verse gives the lyrics a “droney” feel to it, again contributing to the grim mood of the piece. Also during the reprise, the vocal melody is just a simple ascending scale from C to G. This contributes to the foreboding mood that is present in this section, and almost sounds like a whisper, said by an apparition or ghost. However, this is contrasted in the outro section where the range and pitch becomes wider and higher, and we see that there are many leaps in the vocal melody, again contributing to the chaotic and sudden climatic “awakening” before the end of the song.
The pop piece that I have chosen for this semester’s blog assignment is a song by a British band, “Radiohead”, who are renowned for their experimental approach towards making music, as they always seek to incorporate elements from various genres like jazz, electronic music and world music into their song writing process. This song, “Karma Police”, however, on the surface might not sound as experimental as their other works, but upon close inspection and dissection of the piece, I have come to realize that there this piece is not like a typical pop piece where so often are based around simple harmonies of the Tonic, Pre Dominant and Dominant. It is more interesting to find out how in creating unconventional harmonic progressions, they had successfully managed to tie that in with the lyrics beautifully, which enhances the overall meaning of listening to it.
Form
The song structure of “Karma Police” could be largely described as a Verse-Refrain form, whereby it contains a refrain that defers from the verse melodically and harmonically, which follows after a verse. In this song however, this is slightly modified as the refrain comes only after two verses the first time, and the second time around, comes after one verse. Also, a coda/outro verse section is included after the refrain is repeated the second time, and this is then repeated twice before the song ends. Already, the song structure doesn’t really fit into the kind of song structure most typically associated with pop songs, and neither does it really correspond to the kinds of structures associated and taught in classical music, e.g. extended binary, as well. Thus overall, the song sequence would go like this: ‘A’ (verse refrain) section: 8 bar intro-1st verse-2nd verse-refrain-3rd verse-refrain, ‘B’ (Coda/outro) section: 2 outro verses repeated followed by a ten bar instrumental outro. I think it would be wrong to then label this structure as a simple binary form as first of all, sections A and B are based on different materials (as I will reveal in my later part of the analysis) and also, within the A section itself there are quite drastic changes as well.
In terms of Phrase Structure, however, is more straight forward (probably the only thing that is, in this song) about it. The opening 8 bar intro, which is almost identical to what is played in the verse, consists of a simple sentence structure of a 2 bar of short phrase followed by another 2 bar short phrase which then proceeds to a 4 bar long phrase. This is the same for the verse as well.
For the refrain, the same phrase structure occurs, with a short-short long sentence as marked out in the score. Again, as the intro and verse, it is 2 bars, 2 bars, followed by 4 bars.
In the outo/coda section, the phrase structure is also in a sentence, but this time, the ratio is reduced to 1+1+2, as marked out in the score.
Instrumentation
One striking characteristic of this song is level of euphony in the harmony which beautifully enriches the melody, but also, at certain sections, like the refrain, the harmony suitably thins itself out and changes the mood and color, and combined with the lyrics, captures the listeners’ imagination and attention. Thus, for all of these musical characteristics to be best brought out in the song, the instrument chosen must be able to bring out both the rich and thick harmonies and also be versatile enough to be able to handle the change in texture from think chordal harmonies to smooth, voice-leading and thin harmonies, without losing any of the emotion. An instrument that can do this very well is the acoustic piano. The acoustic piano’s range allows for good euphony in the playing of chords but yet not drowning out the vocals and the percussions, as compared to an organ perhaps. Also, the piano is versatile enough to bring out the beautiful voice leading harmony as seen in the refrain, as the piano allows the notes to be played in a beautiful smooth slur, and allows for the crescendos and decrescendos to be played to its full effect, all adding to the beauty of the voice leading. Also, the piano can also suitably bring out the intensity of the outro, which is seen as the climax of the song, as it can again bring out the rich harmonies that are involved there, as full chords can be played, and with gusto. Compared to the guitar for example, the guitar would not be able to fully bring these aspects of the music out fully as firstly, the range of the guitar is less and thus chords played would not sound as rich or euphonious. Thus, for this song, the guitar is just an accompanying instrument.
The percussions in this song is played by a drum set, and the drumming patterns are not elaborate and is kept to quite a minimal amount of permutations, in keeping with the overall mood of the song, which is somewhat melancholic and “grim”. At the refrain, the drumming ceases appropriately to add to the mood of desolation and despair. In the outro, however, it picks up and adds to the intensity of the climax.
Harmony
In talking about the harmonic progressions that make up this song, I would like to first talk about the lyrics of “Karma Police”, as I feel that the harmony of this song is closely tied to what this song’s message might be. “Karma Police’s” lyrics, on the surface, seem to talk about retribution and “getting your just deserts”. Also, in the verse and refrain, and in the coda/outro, conveys the message of relieve and perhaps, redemption or waking from a nightmare? Nothing’s really certain in the lyrics except the grim and sad reality of punishment for bad karma and resentment for office politics. As expressed in the verse, “Arrest this man, he talks in maths, he buzzes like a fridge, he’s like a de-tuned radio. There’s plenty of ambiguity in the lyrics, as we don’t know who exactly are the karma police, and “this is what you get…” the retribution of these people is not explained. Personally I feel that this instability is further enhanced by the harmony of this song. The harmonic progression of this piece starts with this: Am-Dmaj 1st inversion- Em- Gmaj-Am-Fmaj-Em-Gmaj. This is from bars 1-4. There’s an ambiguity on what key we’re in from the very start. From the opening bars it’s hard to determine where our “home” is, as there is no strong indication of any key being cemented. On first impression our ears tells us that we are in a minor key, but the question is, how so? The presence of the Dmaj chord followed by an Emin chord would immediately throw us off track, assuming it is in the key of A minor. A major chord IV followed by a Minor Dominant? Okay, so maybe our ears are playing tricks on us. Maybe it’s actually in a major scale instead. Let’s try to see if it analyzing it in the key of G major would shed light on this: ii-V-vi-I. This seems logical, as there is a common progression here from Pre-Dominant to Dominant to Tonic substitute, giving us an interrupted cadence. However, there is a flaw here as the interrupted cadence in nature is a weak one and doesn’t really help in strongly cementing a key, besides, it doesn’t feel as if we have cadenced at that moment, and it doesn’t sound like we are in a major key. The presence of the Fmaj chord in bar 3 further throws this analysis off course. Perhaps one way to explain this ambiguity is to look towards the modal scales, away from the common diatonic ones. Thus, we could arrive at the conclusion that the key is in A minor, but in A dorian. This could explain why the key signature is that of Gmaj/Emin, as the A dorian scale shares the same notes as the G major diatonic scale, but starts on A, thus explaining why we encounter a minor “feel” towards the opening intro but yet still see the presence of a D maj chord, as the A dorian scale would include a F sharp chord. It also explains the minor Dominant chord as the A dorian scale is likened to the natural minor with no alterations made to either the 6th or 7th scale degree. Thus, bearing this in mind, the progression starts to make sense: i-IV6-v-VII-i. Here we see a Tonic harmonic function progressing to a Pre-Dominant to a Dominant and then a Dominant substitute to a Tonic, which incidentally marks the end of the 1st sub-phrase. Here, the ambiguity is kept with the use of the dominant substitute to the tonic, which is a weaker cadential progression than the V-I, which is not seen in the opening intro at all, thus as listeners we are “teased” with this harmonic progression which doesn’t tell us straight forwardly and clearly which key we are in, all adding to the harmonic interest and the theme of “ambiguity” of this song.
In the long sub phrase of the sentence, that is the intro, we see a “lament bass” type progression, in bar 6, starting from the G bass note. It descends stepwise down to the D, which in context of A dorian, gives us the progression of VII-IV6-III65-iidim6, which goes back to i. At the end of the sentence, we find a plagal cadence that involves the Dmaj chord and the A min chord, which marks the end of the intro and start of the verse. The intro and verse share the same harmonic progression except for in bar 14, where in the intro was the lament bass progression, now the bass is ascending, but the progression is still largely the same, except for the omission of the chord IV6, and that the chord III is no longer a chordal 7th, but instead, it is the chord ii that is turned into a iidim42.
The same harmonic progression continues until we get to the refrain where the line “This is what you get,” starts. Here, the key changes but as in the Intro and the verse, doesn’t strongly indicate to us clearly which key we are in, however, our ears tells us that definitely, the color of the harmony has become more that centers around a G major tonal centre. It starts off with a C maj chord followed by a Dmaj 2nd inversion and a G maj chord. So far, up to this point, in the context of G maj, we see a common progression that we are all familiar with (at last!): IV-V64-I. Here, we have a perfect cadence in Gmaj and the tonality of G is added on by the melody, where we see the leading note (F#) actually going to the Tonic. However, our ears are slightly thrown off course again by the fact that the arpeggio of the Gmaj chord actually leads to the A then the A# from G in the Right hand. If it had led to the B instead of the A then A#, it would more clearly establish the perfect cadence and G maj as the home key in this section. Again, the idea of harmonic ambiguity is used to add color to our perception of the song. This is further confused by the fact that an F# maj is introduced after the G maj chord. Where did it come from? Well, we could use the concept of mixture harmonies to explain this. We know there are a few types of mixture harmonies, and one of them involves changing the nature (major or minor) of the chord, but not changing the diatonic root of the chord. Here, we know that F# (root) is part of the G major diatonic scale. Thus, instead of having a F# min chord, by changing it to a F# major chord, it adds another a different color to the section. Thus, here the F# maj chord can be seen as a secondary mixture chord. So, what does this imply? I feel that it is a clever use of mixture harmony as by changing it to a F# major, it suggests the appearance of a B minor key next, as F#maj chord, which comprises of the leading note A#, would be the leading note to B, and we know that F#maj chord is the Dominant of B min, which would most probably lead to Bmin Chord, its tonic. However, instead of doing that, it actually goes back to C maj chord! When we bring in the lyrics, it’s not hard to see what the composer is trying to do here. The F#maj chord comes after the line “This is what you get”. This, to me is significant as the “hinting” of the B minor using the F#maj chord tells us that “what they are getting” is something not good/evil, which ties with the overall theme of retribution for wrong doings in the song, however when it goes back to the C maj suggests that their “retribution” will not come immediately, but perhaps after death, and thus going back to the G maj tonality suggests that they can enjoy the benefits of their wrong doings for now, but inevitably they will pay for it. The way the F#maj chord is apreggiated also suggests a subtlety in the foreboding retribution that will surely come, instead of using block chords, which would suggest that the time of retribution is already here. At the end of the reprise section, the plagal progression returns and brings us back to A Dorian again for the next verse.
For the second time round that the reprise is played, the 2nd ending which preceeds the outro sets up for the change in key to B minor. As seen in the 2nd ending of the reprise, the key had already changed to B min when the C# appears in the Right hand. Thus, the progression goes from: i64-IV7-V65-6-5-4-i6, which establishes the new section and the new key. From here, the progression alternates between the median (D maj chord) and the tonic substitute, chord VI (G major). The introduction of the Emaj chord again, in keeping with the theme of the piece, unsettles listeners’ tonality once again. The presence of the E maj chord here could be seen as yet another instance of mixture harmonies, but this time, a primary mixture, which means that the E maj chord is “borrowed” from the parallel major, B major. What this does to the feel of this section is that it adds more tension by introducing this alien chord, all adding to the effect of the outro being a climatic awakening, likened to the moments just before waking up from a nightmare. The lyrics somewhat confirms this, “Phew, for a minute there, I lost myself”. This goes on throughout the outro, and when it gets to the end, we are finally given a strong indication of conclusion, after all the confusion and ambiguity, because one thing’s for sure, this song has to end. If we look at the last 2 bars of the piece, we see again the E maj Chord, this time with a 9-8 suspension, but then it progresses to a Chord IV7, which passes using a chord III to a chord V and i. Here, we know that we have cadenced, and concluded because we see in the bass, the leading note, A (in the context of a B natural minor) resolving to B.
Rhythm
The rhythm is kept at a steady 4/4 rhythm and is played perhaps at an adagio tempo, which adds to the overall melancholic feel to the song. The bass line is syncopated and “walks” up and down; giving the impression that could be likened to a funeral march. In the Outro section, the rhythm quickens and we see the chords repeating over quavers, adding to the climatic/orgasmic feel to the end of the song.
Melody
In the verse, the vocal melody moves generally in stepwise motion and doesn’t have many dramatic leaps. Also, the Melody is syncopated, which then causes the syllables of the words to be sung always on the off -beat. The lack of range in the melody for the verse gives the lyrics a “droney” feel to it, again contributing to the grim mood of the piece. Also during the reprise, the vocal melody is just a simple ascending scale from C to G. This contributes to the foreboding mood that is present in this section, and almost sounds like a whisper, said by an apparition or ghost. However, this is contrasted in the outro section where the range and pitch becomes wider and higher, and we see that there are many leaps in the vocal melody, again contributing to the chaotic and sudden climatic “awakening” before the end of the song.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Imagine by John Lennon
This piece is a song, by John Lennon, which is in the key of C major.The overall structure of this piece is typical of pop songs, where there is a reapeat of the verses, a bridge before the next verse/chorus, and lastly the chorus. So in a sense, it goes like this. ABABABC.
The song starts which an intro which begins which an expansion of the Chord I C chord, as shown. The expansion from root position to the chordal 7th can be seen as a tonic expansion in terms of harmonic function, and then it progresses to the F chord, which is the chord IV. At the end of the intro, there is a chromatic passing note of the A# in the upper voice. This intro is basically the "theme" of this piece, and you can see it recurring throughout the verses. So basically the intro and verses comprises of the harmonic function progression of Tonic to pre dominant. The verses, in my opinion, forms period structures, comprising of an antecedent phrase and a consequent phrase. For example, from bars 3-4, "imagine there's no heaven" is an antecedent phrase to bars 5-6, "it's easy if you try."is the consequent phrase. Even more largely, the whole verse line from bars 3-6 could also be seens as an antecedent phrase to bars 7-10.
Then the song progresses to the bridge. Here, the dinstict feature that draws our attention to is the nice decending bass line as the chord progresses from chord IV to vi to ii7 and to ii2. The two notes, C and A, acts as a pedal in the upper chord voicing when the bass line decsends. The harmonic progression here is basically a Pre Dominant expansion which then goes into the dominant in page two, which continues the bridge.
Yup, here it is. As i was saying, we can see the harmonic progression from the predominant expansion to the dominant as seen here. Here, there is an expansion of the Dominant fuction where we have a Chord V in root position and a passing 64, which leads to the Chord V7. Note the voice leading of the progression? Nice stepwise ascent to the chordal 7 which prepares us for the Verse(Chord I) or the Chorus (Chord IV).The chorus starts with a Chord IV, then progresses into a Chord V64, and to the Chord 1 tonic. Now, what we then see here is an interesting chromatic passing in the inner voice, from G to G# to A. Also, the upper voice of the Chord I goes downwards from the middle C to the B. B, being the 7th note in the C chord. (Notice he did not leap to the 7th? but somehow preparing it by approaching it by setpwise descent?) We can see this section (Chord I6-5 to III to III7) as passing from Chord I to chord IV, which the E maj chord as a passing chord, or a expansion of the tonic? So it then goes on to the chord V64, and reapeats itself for 2 more times before ending with the tonic Chord I6 C chord. Again, structure wise, we can kinda see that there is a period structure going on in the chorus, almost similar to the verse. This piece has a strong ending to it due to the progression from the dominant to the tonic, giving us a perfect cadence. (seems like Mr. Lennon knows his cadences.)
So, that's all for know, until i realise any mistakes and new stuff to comment on....so have fun analysing my anlaysis and i look forward to comments!
"To be good, is god, but you don't need god to be Good"- i think what this song is trying to say and i totally agree.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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