MU106 Great Composers

Sixties British Songwriters

Evaluating Sound Objects

The Song

Melody: What is the range of the melody? Is it in a restricted range (no extreme highs or lows) or does it have variety?
Harmony: Do the chords in this song fit a recognizable stereotype, or do you hear originality? If so, what kinds of originality (and compared to what)?
Text: What is the subject of the song? Is this a love song? Is this a political song? Does the song tell a story? If so, what kind of story? Do the lines of this poetry rhyme? Is the metric structure of the poetry predictable? If not, then why not? How dense is the text? Does the song have many ideas, or only a few?
Structure: How are the building blocks of this song (verses, choruses, refrains, etc.) organized? Does this follow song form (AABA) or blues form (AAAAAA…). How are the parts of these blocks organized? (E.g., does the verse have subsections?)
Arrangement: How has the songwriter imagined the stylistic genre of the song? Are they writing rock, ballad, reggae, music hall, etc.

The Performance

Voice quality: Is the singer male or female? Where in their range is s/he singing? The highest part of their range? The lowest? Comfortably in the middle?
Instrumentation: What instruments are in this recording? Are particular versions of these instruments used? Who does what in this recording? (Do we know?)
Energy: Are these performers engaged in their recording, or are they just "mailing it in"? Do the performers sound emotionally involved with the song, or do they sound detached? What is the impact of this engagement or non-engagement on your interpretation of the text? The song?
Interpretation: Do the musicians sound to be improvising part of their performance, or are they playing pre-composed and fixed parts. How would you describe the style of this performance? Country? Blues? Rock? Pop? Why? What can you identify that would support your claim?
How convincing is the "groove"? How would you describe the rhythmic interpretation of the harmony and meter through the bass and drums, the ensemble's rhythmic-harmonic instruments (such as the rhythm guitar, keyboard, etc. ) and any other instruments that form the song's infrastructure.
How does the tempo work? Too fast? Too slow? Just right?
Is the pitch level appropriate? Too high? Too low?
How well do the instrumental interludes function (guitar/keyboard solos, breaks, etc.)

The Recording

Sonic Quality:

- How "clear" is the recording? Does the recording sound natural, or is it distorted? If distorted, how so?
- Are the dynamics (how loud or soft) consistent, or does the volume level change?
- Which part of the aural range does this recording occupy?
- Do the frequencies range from very low to very high?
- Are they all high? Or is this recording restricted to the mid-range of your hearing?

Balance:

- Which voices/instruments are the most prominent?
- Can you hear the bass? How clearly?
- Have the producers/engineers placed the instruments in the mix so you can easily hear them?
- If the recording is in stereo, where have the producers/engineers placed the sounds? How well can you hear them? Why?

Production:

- What is the organization of the musical elements?
- Did this performance evolve over the course of the recording?
- Has the production crew modified the recording (e.g., reverberation)

The Cultural Context

Who wrote the song? Who is the producer (or producers)? The engineers? What did they contribute?
Who is the publisher? Who collects the copyright?
Who are the performers?
What is their background?
When and where did they make the song-recording?
Who was the intended market?
How well did the song recording do on the charts? (Which charts?)
How would the original audience have heard the recording? (Mechanically)
How would the original audience have heard the recording? (Culturally)
How is the recording we play in class similar or different from the recording in its original context?
What were the social contexts of the song-recording's creation and reception?