Discussing and Writing About Tin Pan Alley Songs

Analysis of Tin Pan Alley Songs

TA: Amy Mayper

To participate in discussion, read the following, including the instructions in the “DISCUSSION ASSIGNMENT” below— and then click on “Post New Entry” above (login to see the button) to submit your post.

In the 1920s and 30s, Tin-Pan Alley songwriters such as Irving Berlin and Cole Porter sought to provide a way to resonate with their listeners’ increasingly modern lives, and sometimes to provide a means of  escape.  Lawrence Levine’s “American Culture in the Great Depression” (1985) describes a nation affected by anxiety and a near-revolutionary fervor for social change. But in the midst of turmoil, he also recognizes a strange passivity, in which desire for tradition and stability coexisted with classic notions of individuality and enterprise.

This time period also coincides with radical innovations in popular musical practices, including the internationalization and commercialization of “the blues,” the gradual spread of jazz performance practices, and the golden age of the Tin Pan Alley songwriters. As unemployment soared amidst the Great Depression and World War II loomed ever closer, some Americans yearned for songs that could give them a sense of identity or place in the world, but they may also have wanted a much-needed distraction from the troubles or complexities of everyday life. Tin Pan Alley songwriters accommodated their audiences in both ways, sometimes through an exciting world of glamour and romance, and other times through comforting reflections of universal emotions and human struggles.

***

DISCUSSION (Due October 29 — or submit by October 25 at noon to get TA guidance toward an essay): Choose one recording from the “Swinging Tin-Pan Alley” playlist and analyze what you hear in detail. Treat two elements of the song separately.

(1) Composition: What is the form of the song, and how would you describe the difference between one part of the form and another? Do the lyrics of the song and its melody, seem to confirm any of the ideas in Levine’s discussion of the culture of 1930s, or what we have learned in class about the jazz age? 

(2) Interpretation: How is the song interpreted? Do the feelings or expressions of the singer change in any way from one part of the song to another, helping to reinforce your sense of the whole song’s meaning?

Overall, your thoughts should address how the music and lyrics come together to produce some expressive end result. Be sure you make reference to specific moments in the song, using lyrics and form elements as reference-points, rather than describing the song as though it is just one unified experience.

Your thoughts, in about 150-250 words, should be posted to this webpage, by clicking on the “create new post” button on the upper left corner. (You’ll have to login to see it.) 

*** 

ESSAY (Due October 29 — if you choose to write an essay in this unit): Select two songs from the “Swinging Tin-Pan Alley” playlist and identify and discuss the ways the songs lend themselves both lyrically and musically to a feeling of a “universal” or “everyman” experience. 

First, think about two issues in particular: 

a. a description of melody — what words would you use to describe these songs’ musical forms? You are welcome in this assignment to describe a musical form in great detail — using terms of the course in whatever way appeals to you!

b. the relationship between music and form—for example, does the musical difference between “B” and “A” in an AABA form contribute to, or enhance, the meaning of the lyrics? How? Does the “B” section in one song mean something different than the “B” section in another? Consider how the lyrics occupy the formal categories (A, B, etc.) to affect the listener’s emotional experience. 

Second, consider the ways in which a song as a whole appeals to, or hopes for, a universal audience, and how it succeeds or fails in that regard. Does the song seem to suggest any assumptions about, or reflections on, the culture in which it was made popular? 

Your essay, in the form of a post to the Tin Pan Analysis Essays page, is due on October 29 at noon.  It should be about 600-800 words long.  Double-check your facts, and proof your work to make sure your peers will understand your argument and your ideas.  Please write clearly and concisely — big ideas count more than big words.

When you are done, please take time read your peers’ posts and essays, compare and contrast your thoughts, and continue discussion.

"Check to Check"

The song that I am analyzing is Irving Berlin’s “Check to Check”.  The specific song that I am analyzing is Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald’s version.  The form of this song is A A’ B B’ C, then repeating using Fitzgerald.  The ways Armstrong and Fitzgerald both emphasize the word Heaven is synchronized and well throughout.  One can tell that the song writer, Berlin, wanted to emphasize this word to depict that this people dancing check to check are indeed in “Heaven”.  Also, the lyrics and the melody seems to confirm Levine’s ideas of culture of the 1930’s.  The song does not acknowledge directly the depression and the way people could not afford certain luxurious; however, it does state that the best time you could spend with your loved one, is not wasting money one does not have, but simply dancing.     

This song is a very traditional song about one’s overjoyed experience spending time dancing with the one he/she loves.  This song is very unisex, not just because it is sung by a man and a woman using the exact lyrics, but because there is nothing gendered about the lyrics.  It is not like other artist of this era (i.e. Josephine Baker) who sung in a guy’s perspective talking about, in a very superficial way, the way men like how women look.  “Check to Check” uses the tactic of using no specific point of view so that everyone, no matter gender, race or class, can enjoy this song to its fullest.     

References:

Levine, Lawerence W. “American Culture and the Great Depression.” In the Yale Review, Vol. 74 #2,         January 1985.    

 

"I Got Rhythm" by George and Ira Gershwin

I chose to analyze the song “I Got Rhythm” by George and Ira Gershwin, with this particular recording performed by Lena Horne. I believe the form of the song is the traditional AA’BA. The lyrics and the melody express the ideas behind Levin’s essay of the need for comfort and distraction in post-depression America. The lyrics communicate a sense of satisfaction from the simple things in life. In a time when many Americans were in dire financial circumstances, the song tries to lift their spirits by stating that materialism won’t bring them real happiness, and that there is need for money to appreciate the true and the abundant blessings, namely love, that could be found by each and every one, male or female, rich or poor.

Horne performs the A segments in a manner that displays confidence, putting emphasis on the expression “I got,” and asking the question at the end of each A, “Who could ask for anything more?,” in a rhetorical way, as if to say to the listeners, “look at all of the good things that I possess. I don’t need any luxuries, and neither do you.” The B segment, which refers to the fortune of her not having “man trouble,” is sung is an appropriate, dismissive tone. As she reaches the end point, Horne begins to syncopate and to take many leaps from high to low, conveying a feeling of genuine joy, and with her, the various instruments rise in a celebratory fashion, which remains until the climactic conclusion.           

Bing Crosby and The Andrews Sisters' "Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive"

Lawrence Levine’s article “American Culture in the Great Depression” gives a wide analysis of the trauma felt by American’s at the time of the 1930s economic collapse and the various media outlets through which the people could heighten their spirits. Few other songs capture this goal of societal uplift this quite like “Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive” sung by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters does. Though technically this piece was composed in the 1940s, the wound of the Great Depression on America citizens was still unforgettable and the trend of upbeat songs was still continuing past the 1930s. What makes the song so pleasant is that its entire focus rests on thinking optimistically even in the worst of times (“You’ve got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive/ Eliminate the negative”). Also, there exists a binding factor of American togetherness, in the fact that both a man and three women are singing, which subconsciously illustrates to the audience that any gender can “sing this song” (aka preach/ live this message).

Just as one would expect from a musical composition with such a cheer-up message, the instruments maintain as light and upbeat of an air as the lyrics. The piece begins with the melodic waft of a clarinet and a few punches of the trumpet and trombone section, just before the entrance of Bing Crosby’s voice, at which point all instruments fall to the background. Through the course of the arrangement, the winds section keeps up the peppy beat of the tune (eventually joined by a piano mid-way) and only interjects during the pause between lyrics. An excellent example of the latter is the “punch” of the trumpets during the Andrews Sisters’ first chorus, which helps the arrangement to build the idea that this is the intersection for emphasis, as the Sisters’ intend “to illustrate his last remark” at this point.

The piece takes an interesting turn after its second affirmation of the A form chorus (“You’ve got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive/…/No do not mess with Mr. In-Between”) which is cued by Crosby’s line “Do you hear me, hmm?” and the introduction of a faster paced, high-pitched piano. After this point a set of new C form lyrics begin (“Oh, listen to me children and-a you will hear/ About the eliminatin’ of the negative/ And the accent on the positive/…”), sung by one of the sisters in a vastly different manner than the previous lyrics, given the exaggerated tone of preaching and the deepening of her voice.  In speaking directly to the audience and commanding them to “listen to me”, she seems to be embodying the call-and-response technique used by African Americans in many forms of blues. It is unclear to me whether this twist in the song was done for the purpose of light, minstrelsy mocking towards the call-and-response method or perhaps the hope of extending the message of the song beyond racial barriers.  The latter may be too optimistic of a belief given the racial oppression still ever present in the 1940s, however, it is the message of the song after all that one ought to “accentuate the positive”.

"Harlem on My Mind" by Irving Berlin

The song that I’m analyzing is “Harlem On My Mind” by Irving Berlin and performed by Ethel Waters. The song is of an A B B’ C format.  Waters sings about how she is wealthy and can buy anything she can imagine, but she is unhappy because she wants to be in Harlem.  The purpose of these lyrics is to show people that happiness cannot be bought with money.  Happiness can be achieved by surrounding yourself in an environment where you feel like you belong. She has all this fame and fortune, but to her she would rather live the simple life in Harlem.  Waters wants the audience to know that they do not need money in order to be happy.

To me when Waters sings about all the things she has, it sounds like she is saying “so what?”  In the A section as each of the phrases progresses the pitch of her singing increases.  But when she sings about Harlem the pitch varies only slightly.  When she sings about Harlem she sounds like she is reminiscing about the time she has spent in Harlem.  When Waters singing about being refined there is more emotion in her voice and she sounds annoyed that it has gotten to this point.  “Harlem On My Mind” uses Waters unhappiness with fame and fortune to get people to enjoy the simple life.

Update on Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 11:51 AM by MatthieuGarlock

I chose to analyze the song “Harlem on my Mind” by Irving Berlin but sung by Ethel Waters. Waters sings about her lifestyle of being able to buy pretty much anything, for example the line, “I can wine and dine, but I’m heading to a showdown.” She talks about wanting to be in Harlem and live a humble life rather than living a life with wealthy people where she feels like she is an outcast. Although she was a singer at the time and apparently had a lot of money, she is trying to convey to the audience that money is not everything in life.

The song has an ABB’C format and Waters uses different pitches to imply certain feelings on Harlem. She sings about Harlem and the modest lifestyle with an emotion that makes her sound like she really misses Harlem. 

"In My Solitude" Billie Holiday

      Billie Holiday ” In My Solitude” song expresses the loneliness that she feels in life and away from society. The form that is used in this song is the typical AABA form. Her expression of singing does not change at all. She sounds very depressed and tired of all the solitude that she is enduring in life. She prays that someday this solitude will eventually disappear. At the beginning of the song the trumpets play a very melancholy tune that leads in to Holiday’s depressed lyrics. Lawrence Levine’s ” American Culture and the Great Depression” connests to Billie Holidays ” In My Solitude” because she is having anxiety and desire to escape the solitude that she is undergoing. She expresses the issue by confronting  reflections of universal emotions and human struggles, instead of making all negatives into positives, like most Tin Pan Alley song writers do.

      In the “A” form there is a more slow tune that plays and in the “B” form it becomes a little more upbeat although it is still slow, sad, and depressing. The collaboration of the trumpets, saxophones, and trombones demonstrated harmony, yet loneliness. The name of the song definitely describes the tone and mood of the music. Her depression has came very clear to the listener and the song kind of puts the listener in a state of solitude also. Holiday does a good job at expressing her “Great Depression” through the AABA form.

Update on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 9:58 PM by NoemiVillalpando

Your analysis of Billie Holiday’s song “In my Solitude” shows that you made a deep connection with the song.  The depression that comes over her is reflected through the emotions she conveys in her lyrics.  I personally think that her voice, what she has been through in life and her personality is enough to bring a depressing atmosphere to the song and the lyrics themselves do not necessarily make the song depressing.  The solitude that she faces in her song that you mention in your analysis shows that the great depression hit all realms of society, not only the working class.  She is personally relating to her audience, which makes a good artist become popular in this time period.  I wish you could have elaborated more on the connection with Tin Pan Alley and the story about this category of songs in relation to other jazz songs.  Overall, great connection and analysis to this typical AABA song!     

 

Brother Can You Spare a Dime?

“Brother Can You Spare a Dime?” by Yip Harburg and Bing Crosby is a complicated song with an abstract AABB form, with the verses being the first two sections which in themselves have an AABB form and then a sort of double chorus, which has an ABAB form. The shift in form halfway through the song adds a feeling of repetition which helps to convey a sense of growing wistfulness and longing for the past, with the singer becoming engulfed more and more by the sense of misery his present helplessness forces on him. The lyrics and melody of the song confirm many of the idea’s of Levine’s discussion of 1930’s. “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?” is often considered the theme song of the 30’s, and it taps into the feelings Levine describes being beneath the surface of people’s thoughts. There is the helplessness of those who had their societal worth under the dominant ideology confirmed through being productive, in the face of an economy which is restraining the productive forces and keeping them from contributing to society. The condition of helplessness and percieved failure is exacerbated in contradistinction to a glorious past when the person was able to take pride in real contributions to society, particular in the singer’s mind, his past as a young soldier boy.

In the first line and throughout the first verse you can sense from the tone a certain bitterness, as the singer expresses the resentment of so many who worked to build the towers and railroads that made up the productive forces of America at their current, in their own minds pathetic state as unemployed beggars. The introductory melody captures perfectly the sense of past, almost exaggerated glory declining into immiseration. The lyrics which beg for a dime and those which talk of a hardworking past become more and more exaggerated as the song progresses, with the singer expressing increasing levels of nostalgia disconnected and counterposed to the beggar’s desperate situation. This culminates in a last description of his soldiers past (In one of the worst wars ever) which is almost comically exaggerated, followed by a tragic, anguished cry for a Dime that is not so much a cry for the money as a desperate, anguished expression of self loathing at the immasculating position the beggar is reduced to.

Solitude

The song i decided to analize was “Solitude” by Billie Holiday and Duke Ellington becuase it really stuck out to me how the lyrics, melody and overall feel of the song come togethere very well. Fisrt in terms of form it sounds to me like it is in the A, A’, B, C for every four verses in the song, and stays that way through out the whole song except for the last five lines where it changes a bit. The song fits in with the contemporary feel of society during the time of the great depression as described by Levine in his essay “American Culture and the Great Depresssoin” where people felt alone and meserable as if they were never going to get out of that situation. Although this song seems to be about love and how she misses her lover with lyrics like “With gloom everywhere I sit and i stare” it can be taken that yeah she has lost her love but also that with so much despair going on around her due to the depression it is harder to deal with losing her love.

            “Solitude” overall gives off the impression that Billie is alone very sad without hope that she will get better anytimes soon. The song holds the steady rhythm that is very low which makes it easier to understand the sorrow Billie is in. The instruments in the song also make it easier to feel the pain Billie is going through because they play very slow and stay that way all the way till the end of the song, with out really changing the beat and rrhythm. In the end I believe this song is a perfet example of life during the great depression where people felt that there was no hope in sight.

Brother can You Spare a Dime, sung by Bing Crosby and written by Yip Harburg is in the ABAB form for part of the song.  The music along with the lyrics seems to reminisce about the good times before the depression.  When Crosby is singing about building the railroads, his voice seems to move up an octave in a happier nostalgic way, but returns to a lower tone in the second part of the verse.  Also just like when he sings about the railroads, when he sings about his days as a soldier it regresses back to more wistful music.  Also in contrast to these two verses, the ending to the song seems to end in a bit of an angry tone.  The last line ends with “buddy can you spare a dime”, rather than with “brother” as used in the beginning.  With this simple change in lyrics you can really hear the emotion in the last line of the song in contrast to the way it was sung in the beginning.

Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time.           A

Once I built a railroad; now it’s done. Brother, can you spare a dime?   B

Once I built a tower, up to the sun, brick, and rivet, and lime;              A

Once I built a tower, now it’s done. Brother, can you spare a dime?      B

Overall, the song perfectly evokes the emotions of the depression era, and has lyrics that people could’ve related to at the time. The title, and main line in the song, is a perfect example of the history of the depression in which the singer is asking, “Brother can you spare a dime?”  The lyrics that Bing Crosby sings can apply to every other person in America in the 1930’s who is reminiscing about the good days in which they had something to contribute to society rather than having to beg for money.

Cheek to Cheek

I agree that check to cheek has a AABAC form. The form changes as Armstrong and Fitzgerald sing about fishing and climbing and then the melody gets a brighter swing as they start returning to the lyrics cheek to cheek. I feel the lyrics of the piece do reflect the great depressiion. They talk about how they would love to go fishing and climbing, implying they haven’t done those things. Then they reflect on what they can do and come to the conclusion that even if they can’t do these adventures they still have eachother and thats what counts.

The piece generally sticks to a universal theme except in one lyric armstrong sings “now mama dance with me” in this line it’s clearly a from a mans perspective.This piece also accomadates thiere audience my distracting them from there troubles and creating a glamorous and romantic world in which they can escape.In the lyrics theres a illusion to a troubled week and how once there close and dancing all there troubles fall away and it’s just them in there own special world.

"Cheek to Cheek" Fred Astaire

I analyzed Irving Berlin’s song “Cheek to Cheek”, done by Fred Astaire.  The song is in AA’BB’C format. The chorus, “Heaven, I’m in heaven, and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak…”, is used to show the romance side of Tin Pan Alley songs.  Every time the musician goes back to this line, and the chorus in general, it brings us back to a “dreamy” state, which is exactly what the composer wanted.  Throughout the Great Depression, our population was reminded constantly about our economic state.  With songs such as this, we can enjoy intimate and personal things such as “dancing cheek to cheek” to achieve a sense of euphoria, or contentment.

The song is interpreted as a romance song.  It takes us to a ball room dance setting, where we are simply dancing with someone we care a lot about.  The expressions used by the singer to portray this are quite consistent throughout the song.  Using a neutral perspective, or point of view, to exhibit emotions felt by both males and females, blacks or whites, the song appeals to anyone who enjoys this style of music.  It reminds us how simple things with someone we love, can bring us an ultimate happiness, masking any problems we might be facing.

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

The Bing Crosby recording of Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? By Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney had a difficult form for me to distinguish, but I think it can be simplified down to a AA’AABCBC form. The song does confirm Levine’s notion that long after the Great Depression, people are singing and writing about their hardships, and I would also argue it gives an example of the internalized guilt the nation was feeling at that time. “Why should I be standing in line just waiting for bread?” Asks Crosby, a question that resonated with many American men and women. This song is a testament to American’s pride and their idea of worth, for before he asks for a hand out, a dime if you’ve got one to spare, he tells a few tales of happier working days. This informs the listener that he’s not a good-for-nothing parasite living off society, but a workingman who’s built towers and railroads and was a contributing member of the community. Just as Sherwood Anderson suggested, the down and out character is quick to explain himself to his listener, which implies he is guilty for being in his situation, and is trying to prove that he is still worthy of at least respect, if not a dime.

Ethel Waters “Please don’t talk about me when I’m gone”.

The form of this song is pretty simple. It follow a simple AA’BB’C form, I found it difficult to find the form because there is such variation in the song. The song does repeat itself, but towards the end of the song a change in tone and melody is obvious. We’ve learned that in jazz sometimes songs are gender neutral and that anyone can sing them to any special someone; it isn’t about being singled out just to a male or female. It’s not specific or at least it isn’t specific to a certain gender, like this song. The song doesn’t do very much to try to uplift the sprits of the people during what music from the 1930’s was doing according to what Levine’s article says. This song is on a depressing topic; the end of love.

            The song interpretation changes as the song continues. At first it’s sung in a sad slow way, giving the mood of sadness in the song needed to convey because it is discussing the end of the love that once was. As the song continues toward the end you hear more anger and fewer patience in her voice. It helps reinforce the fact that she isn’t very happy. She’s disappointed with what’s happened letting her feelings know clearly.

Stormy Weather

The song I am analyzing is Stormy Weather, sung by Lena Horne and written by Hank Arlen. It seems to be in a slightly variate version of AA’BA where some lines are repeated but sung in a slightly different way. While the song has a slow and lethargic tempo there are some parts where it picks up a bit and almost has a happier sound based on the emotions of the brokenhearted woman in the song. When she starts to sing “this pittering, pattering beating and spattering” the feeling of the music changes.There’s definitely a sense of romance, or loss there of, which coincides with the theme of jazz portraying the world as Amy said “an exciting world of glamour and romance, and other times through comforting reflections of universal emotions and human struggles.”

I interpreted the song as a woman who has had her heart broken and is remembering what it was like to be in love. Ever since she got her heart broken everything feels gloomy like “stormy weather”. Her constant repetition of the phrase “stormy weather definitely drives home the feeling of sadness. There is some moments in the song where she recalls the happy feelings of being in love and uses a metaphor within the stormy weather metaphor when she “remembers walking in the sun”. 

Ethel Waters/Irving Berlin: Harlem On My Mind

      I chose to listen to the arrangement, “Harlem on My Mind”, performed by Ethel Waters and written by Irving Berlin. This song has a more unorthodox structure of A A’B B’C C’B B’, the section labeled “BB’’” acts as a chorus, yet still maintains verse characteristics. The lyrics in this chorus section are, “I’ve got Harlem on my mind, I’ve a longing to be lowdown…” The chorus melody is then augmented and repeated with different lyrics with the exception of the hook phrase, “With Harlem on my mind”.

      This song’s lyrical value is clearly a convolution of material happiness, intrinsic Americana happiness and nationalism; these lyrics are further empowered by the Economic crisis of the arrangement’s time. Ethel explains in the A A’ section that she has a lot of wealth and jewelry in France, yet she still isn’t happy. This stanza is ironically significant because it hooks the 1930’s listener in with alluring grandiose ideas of wealth, yet in the next section she reveals that she yearns for the lowdown lifestyle of Harlem, directly rejecting her current wealthy world in which she’s immersed. She further deepens the texture of her lyrics by saying, “And my ‘parlez-vous’ will not ring, with Harlem on my mind.” “Parlez-vous” meaning, ‘do you speak?’, in this context sends the message that she’s trying to embrace French culture but the authenticity and glory of Harlem prevents her from achieving this because she intimately knows a higher happiness that’s only found in America.

      This appealed to so many Americans during the great depression because most did have a place like Harlem and most lacked, “a million Francs”. When Ethel Waters rejected wealth and a foreign country which America has had cultural tension with in order to embrace Harlem, the song ends up striking a profound chord with the American audience of that time.  

Cheek to Cheek

I chose to write about Cheek to Cheek by Irving Berlin. It is the verson by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. The song is in the form of A A B B C A with Armstrong singing, and it repeats after with the same form with Fitzgerald singing. The lyrics are all about how dancing with the person they are singing about, makes them forget about everything and they are just happy. I beleive this os typical of the happy go lucky sound of the jazz age that came out of the depression.

The mood of the song is very happy. Both Armstrong and Fitzgerald seem like they are just havign fun singing this song. The majority of the lyrics are just how happy they are to be danceing “And I seem to find the happiness I seek. When we’re out together dancing, out together dancing”. Eventully Armstrong joins Fitzgerald towards the end of her part, and the mood of the song starts to reach a climax. The tone changes a bit here, and seems a bit richer with both of their voices being used, and it finishes out the up beat peice.

"Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar"

The song “Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar” sung in the 1940s, by the Andrew Sisters, is about a piano player that has the gift of when playing piano people want to get up and dance. The song’s form, when the Andrew Sisters sing, is a particular form of AA’AA’BB’, but the form somewhat changes in each verse. This slight change is due to that the Andrew Sisters would sing as if to impersonate harmonizing trumpets, which tended to be improvised when played, and use that characteristic of the “Big Band” trumpet on the way each line was sung. The songs meaning is supported by the syncopated sound of the piano playing at the beginning of the song and during an instrumental break. The Andrew Sisters show the syncopation of the piano in the song during the part where they mimic the sound of the piano “a-plink, a-plank, a-plink plank, plink plank…a-riff, a-raff, a-riff raff, riff raff”.

The Andrew Sisters sing the song in an upbeat tune, resembling swing/”boogie woogie” style peaking in popularity at the time. This makes the song to appear to not support the argument in Lawrence Levine’s article “American Culture in the Great Depression”. The article was about how the economy was extremely down and people were looking for a sense of purpose and looked to music as that, but the song “Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar”, being pre WWII, has an upbeat tune that relates to the fact that the times then were looking better and the economy was up again.

Cheek to Cheek

The song “Cheek to Cheek” composed by Irving Berlin and sung by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald is about how happy the protagonist is and how bliss the moment is when they are dancing on the floor with their loved one. This song relates to Levine’s “American Culture and the Great Depression” because the song represents a sort of escapism from society and the depression. When Louis sings the line “And the cares that hung around me through the week/Seem to vanish like a gambler’s lucky streak.” This line is talking about how when the protagonist is dancing with their loved one they forget about all their problems and are able to just be in that blissful moment.

The form of this song is AA’BB’C.  The general melody of the song is very upbeat and light. Especially at the end of the line where it says “speak” and “seek” it hits a higher note to convey how happy that person is to finally found that moment of happiness. As well when Armstrong and Fitzgerald sing together, they aren’t really singing in sync. They sing it broken up to make it more like they are singing it to one another rather than to someone else, almost like a call and response. Armstrong and Fitzgerald singing separately as well shows that Berlin wrote this song for any gender so it’s a song that everyone can relate to during the depression.

Lena Horne's "I Got Rhythm"

Lena Horne’s “I Got Rhythm”, by Ira and George Gershwin, is a great example of a Tin-Pan Alley Song.  The song is about the simple things in life such as love, “her man” and brings a feeling of contentment with what the singer does have, as opposed to the things she is surely missing during the Great Depression.  It is a song that would make people realize that, although they don’t have a lot, pleasure and happiness can be found in the simple things in life, such a love.
“I Got Rhythm” has an AABA’B’A’ form.  The lyrics “I got rhythm…” in the beginning has a swing feeling, the words not exactly landing on the beats.  This gives the song a carefree feeling.  When she sings about “Old Man Trouble”, the song changes form and feeling, violins are added, giving it a happy feeling of love.  When she sings of starlight, a piano part is added, giving a dreamy feel.  The instrumental interlude gives way to an improved sounding “You know I’ll never ask for anything more”, and leads into a jubilant feeling of conquering over the depression that everyone else is experiencing. 
 

Cheek to Cheek - Ella and Louis

 This Tin Pan Alley song opens with a simple piano melody. As the introduction progresses, the gentle drum and percussions begin. These instrumentals provide a quiet background to Louis Armstrong’s deep croon. The form of the song is A A B C A. When Armstrong sings these lines  the pitch of his voice floats into a high warble. It sounds as if the lyric is extending into the sky. It becomes lilting. This is significant because Armstrong is in a ‘heavenly’ state while dancing with his partner. His voice lifts with his mood, thus the pitch of his voice is a perfect indicator of what he is feeling at that exact moment. When Armstrong sings, “And I seem to find the happiness I seek,” it is a slightly lower C, since it expresses the angst of searching for love. In the verse “… dancing, cheek to cheek,” Armstrong omits the lilting warble and makes the note clean cut. This is fitting since the artist is singing about reality, the present, human moment besides his lover. 

The instrumentals intensify in the second verse and third verse. Armstrong sings about, “… the cares that hang around me thro’ the week,” Oscar Peterson adds piano improvisations at the end of  lines. This suggests complications. This reflects the attitude of the American people during this Great Depression era. Lawrence Levine describes it as an era that, “… had a particularly profound emotional and psychological impact.”

When Ella Fitzgerald joins into the song, the music becomes more alive and recaptures the listeners attention. This second half of the song is distinctly feminine. The instruments intensify, percussion’s are heavier, the trumpet and saxophone are introduced, and there is more improv.

The two jump into song together creating a dynamic duet. Both artists are slightly off beat, creating ambiguity. They share the melody, neither quite overpowering the other. Their voices wind around one another, creating the image of two dancers caught up in a sporadic step. The placement of their words seem improvised and free. Bold and uninhibited. A sharp contrast to the attitude of a nation suffering from devastating economic crisis.