AS Music Study Guide Jimmy Cliff You can get it if you really want
AS Level Music
Unit 3: Developing musical
understanding
Vocal music 2011
Jimmy Cliff You can get it if you
really want
A guide for students
© Dr Nick Redfern
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Contact: education@nickredfern.co.uk
AS Music Study Guide Jimmy Cliff You can get it if you really want
Developing musical understanding works for 2011 ................................ 3
Instrumental music ..................................................................... 3
Vocal music ................................................................................ 3
About this document ................................................................... 3
The exam .................................................................................. 4
Introduction ..................................................................................... 5
Genre & style ................................................................................... 6
Instrumentation ............................................................................... 6
Structure ......................................................................................... 7
Texture ........................................................................................... 8
Melody (chorus) ............................................................................... 8
Detailed analysis of chorus melody.............................................. 10
Melody (verse) ............................................................................... 11
Detailed analysis of verse melody ............................................... 12
Word setting .................................................................................. 13
Word painting ................................................................................ 13
Metre ............................................................................................ 13
Tonality ......................................................................................... 13
Harmony ....................................................................................... 14
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AS Music Study Guide Jimmy Cliff You can get it if you really want
Developing musical understanding works for
2011
Instrumental music
Bach Sarabande & Gigue from Partita in D
Haydn String Quartet The Joke, movement 4
Webern Quartet Op. 22, movement 1
Tippett Concerto for Double String Orchestra
Vocal music
Dowland Flow my tears
Bruckner Locus iste
Gershwin Summertime
Berio Sequenza III for female voice
Cliff You can get it if you really want
Gallagher Don’t look back in anger
About this document
This document is designed to support the study of AS Level Music
(edexcel) Unit 3 Developing musical understanding, Vocal Music.
The
guide is available at www.nickredfern.co.uk and is produced in conjunction
with student workbooks, PowerPoint documents and other related
material.
I have tried not to include detail which is extraneous to the
exam, such as dates and biographical detail, analysis of text, etc.
For
further
information
or
enquiries
education@nickredfern.co.uk
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please
contact
me
at
AS Music Study Guide Jimmy Cliff You can get it if you really want
The exam
There are two questions which relate to the set works which are constant
in format.
Part B: Investigating Musical Styles
(b) Vocal Music
(i) Describe the stylistic features of XXXXX (one of the set works)
which
show
that
this
is
an
example
of
XXXXX
(style/period/era)
(10)
(ii) Compare and contrast the XXXXX and XXXXX (two compositional
devices: harmony, tonality, melody, structure, vocal writing,
texture and word setting) of XXXXX and XXXXX (two different
set works)
(18)
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AS Music Study Guide Jimmy Cliff You can get it if you really want
Introduction
Jamaican singer songwriter Jimmy Cliff was born in 1948. He is a prolific
and highly influential composer as well as an actor, whose music has been
covered by many of the leading rock and pop acts of the latter half of the
20th century to the present day.
You can get it if you really want was covered, albeit reluctantly, by
Desmond Dekker and the Aces in 1970 for whom it was a huge chart hit.
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AS Music Study Guide Jimmy Cliff You can get it if you really want
Genre & style
The work has a clear rock steady feel although there is no overt back
beat in the recording. A back beat is an emphasis on the 2nd and 4th beat
of the bar. However, the tempo, rhythmic buoyancy and dance character
of the track does lend to a rock steady feel. The back beat is present in
drum score, however, but the quality of the recording does not allow this
to be evident.
The off-beat emphasis of the rhythm guitar is a typical
feature of rock steady and contributes greatly to the dance character of
the track. All melodic components begin on the second beat of the bar,
the first back beat.
The instrumentation is in keeping with Jamaican music of the period and
is identical to the original version by Jimmy Cliff.
Instrumentation
Lead vocals (Desmond Dekker); female backing vocals; 2 trumpets;
saxophones (baritone and tenor according to the score in NAM); 2 electric
guitars; electric organ; electric bass; drums; tambourine.
The quality of the recording does not allow for great clarity of individual
instrumental parts.
The trumpet theme, a pre-echo of the chorus, firstly solo followed by
parallel thirds, appear in the introduction. They subsequently are only
employed in the bridge, middle 8 and the fade ending.
The saxophones are only employed until the middle 8 and the fade
ending.
The backing vocals are only employed in the chorus and fade ending.
It is clear that the trumpets, saxophones and backing vocals are employed
to add sonic weight to the most important features of the song.
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AS Music Study Guide Jimmy Cliff You can get it if you really want
The 2 guitars, organ, bass, drums and percussion are present throughout
the song and can be considered to be the rhythm section. This is the
part of a band which supplies the rhythm, harmony and bass.
The bass part is particularly striking with its almost stolid adherence to
the root of the chords. However, the quaver portamenti (slides) from the
final half beat of the bar to the first beat of the next add to the harmonic
momentum. The bass is rhythmically constant throughout the verses and
choruses and acts as a form of basic riff.
Structure
Introduction bars 1 – 4 beat 1
Chorus bars 4 – 13
Bridge (based on the introduction) bars 14 – 17
Verse 1 bars 18 – 25
Chorus 2 bars 26 - 13
Bridge 2 bars 14 – 17
Verse 2 bars 18 25
Chorus 3 bars 26 – 35
Middle 8 bars 36 – 43
Chorus 4 bars 44 – 53
Fade ending bars 54 - 57
The structure of the work allows for the maximum impact of the chorus,
of which there are four, whilst there are merely two verses.
The trumpet theme in the introduction and bridges is derived from the
theme of the chorus.
Its reoccurrence is an important feature of the
songs form and emphasises the melodic impact of the chorus.
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AS Music Study Guide Jimmy Cliff You can get it if you really want
Texture
The texture of the work is exclusively homophonic. The backing vocals
are merely a harmonic frame for the vocal melody; the bass and harmonic
aspects are inextricably interlinked rhythmically; there is an unambiguous
one chord per bar harmonic motion to which all parts of the score are
governed.
Melody (chorus)
The character of the melody is cleverly defined by it starting on the
second beat of the bar.
This not only emphasises the back beat but
more importantly allows for the word really to be articulated on the first
beat of the following bar, adding to its emotional weight. The word really
also coincides with an appoggiatura, E flat to D flat, which further
emphasises the word’s emotional weight.
An appoggiatura is a
harmonic device where a dissonant note in the melody is placed on a
strong beat and then resolving.
The melody of the chorus is based on three notes, F, E flat, D flat. There
are two melodic B flats and one A flat and B flat semiquavers right at the
end of the chorus, but they are merely part of a vocal embellishment
which closes the final phrase of the chorus.
conjunct throughout.
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The melody is highly
AS Music Study Guide Jimmy Cliff You can get it if you really want
The melody has a clear theme which is stated initially in the trumpets at
bars 1 – 4 beat 1.
The melodic theme has four statements in the chorus.
The second
statement has a vocal embellishment at its close; the final statement is
a free variation which concludes the melody of the chorus.
The middle of the chorus is characterised by the fragmentation of the
vocal melody. This is an effective feature which allows the word try to be
isolated and placed on the first beat of the bar, which is the the strongest.
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AS Music Study Guide Jimmy Cliff You can get it if you really want
Detailed analysis of chorus melody
X = end of phrase embellishment
1. Passing note
2. Appoggiatura
3. Non-chord notes
4. Non-chord notes
5. Non-chord notes
6. Upper auxiliary note
7. Upper auxiliary note
8. Appoggiatura
9. Lower auxiliary note
10. Note of anticipation
11. Non-harmony note
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AS Music Study Guide Jimmy Cliff You can get it if you really want
Melody (verse)
The work is not monothematic but the presence of the theme from the
Chorus is constant throughout the song.
The verse starts with two
statements, free variations, of the theme typically starting on the second
beat of the bar.
The melody follows a similar patter to the chorus where, after two varied
statements the melody becomes fragmented.
The verse includes C’s in
bar 22 as there is an F minor chord.
The final bar of the verse, bar 25, provides the climax of the verse with
the voice reaching the highest notes of the song and requiring the voice to
sing in the falsetto range.
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AS Music Study Guide Jimmy Cliff You can get it if you really want
Detailed analysis of verse melody
X = end of phrase embellishment
1. Suspension
2. Non-chord notes
3. Note of anticipation
4. Non-chord notes
5. Non-chord note
6. Chord extension (7th)
7. Appoggiatura but could be considered to be a suspension
from the E flat.
8. Upper auxiliary note
9. Appoggiatura
10. Non-chord notes
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AS Music Study Guide Jimmy Cliff You can get it if you really want
Word setting
The word setting is syllabic with small melismas in the form of vocal
embellishments at the close of each phrase.
Word painting
Overt word painting is rarely an overt feature of popular music. However,
the method of phrasing whereby the key words really and try fall on the
main beat in the chorus does add emotional weight.
Metre
Simple common time.
Tonality
D flat major.
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AS Music Study Guide Jimmy Cliff You can get it if you really want
Harmony
The work is founded on three chords: D flat, G flat and A flat, the
primary chords of D flat major.
The chorus is based solely on these
chords. The verse is similarly limited to these chords with the exception
of an F minor chord, the mediant, at bar 22.
The middle 8, however, does have a more complex and unexpected
harmonic scheme. The use of E major can be explained by the use of a
borrowed chord, which here is borrowed from the enharmonic tonic
minor, C# minor, as is the B major chord. The D major chord is unusual
and is an example of the enharmonic equivalent of a flattened supertonic,
as found in the Schubert.
The parallel motion of the harmony, where all parts are moving in the
same direction, at bar 39 and 43, requires the bass to walk on a whole
tone scale (A flat, G flat, E natural and D natural).
The B chord functions as a modal leading note back to D flat.
The harmony is entirely in root position.
There is only one minor chord in the song which is the F minor chord at
bar 22.
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