MUHI 333 – Chapter 7 Blog

I found the song selections in the Chapter 7 listening guides pretty interesting. They were all pretty enjoyable tunes, even for being produced decades before my time. The recording process of songs made way back when is always interesting to me. The productions sound clear, yet theres something about the soundscape that gives it a vintage feel. I can never put my finger on it.

It was surprising to me how similar the structure of each of the songs in the chapter were. When I think of old songs, I associate them with a longer duration than most popular songs found today. These songs from the 50’s were under 3 minutes each. Besides the time of each piece, some songs had similarities in their hyper meters and verse/chorus patterns. I found most of these pieces started with a few second instrumental introduction, then would play eight measures of a verse before the chorus or switch it up to a different verse; similar to that of the 12 bar blues. Nancy with the Laughing Face was an exception. It doesn’t have a chorus, and the measures are elongated. It plays an 8 measure verse, followed by a similar 8 measure verse, before switching to a different 8 measures. The end of each 8 measure verse ends with the lyrics Nancy with the Laughing Face. That repetitiveness through the song almost creates the illusion of a chorus without there being one. Maybe the slow pace of the song has something to do with that. Despite the fact that most of these songs don’t appear to have high bpm’s, Nancy with the Laughing Face is particularly slow to my ear.

Lini një Përgjigje

Adresa juaj email s’do të bëhet publike. Fushat e domosdoshme janë shënuar me një *