Listening Week 5: Chromatic 32-bar Forms

[Download the scores for the Analysis assignment associated with this listening list. Scroll down to see the assignment.]

Prisoner of Love (Russ Columbo/Clarence Gaskill/Leo Robin 1931)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OYKHyZIqTE>

Stormy Weather (Harold Arlen/Ted Keohler 1933) +2 extra credit

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCG3kJtQBKo>

Solitude (Duke Ellington/ Eddie DeLange & Irving Mills 1934)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuyn3GBEoCk>

I Get A Kick Out Of You (Cole Porter 1934)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtwO2tKZmwQ>

Anything Goes (Cole Porter 1934)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zJ3vqkXqRU>

Cheek to Cheek (Irving Berlin 1935) +1 extra credit

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeisCvjwBMo>

The Nearness of You (Hoagy Carmichael/Ned Washington 1938)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqdaS0EOBHk>

At Last (Mack Gordon/Harry Warren 1941)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwzDxp2TC7I>

Moonlight in Vermont (John Blackburn & Karl Suessdorf 1944)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwyZyDD6Yqw>

— And, this is not in the genre … and he’s a bit too post-modern arty or a pop-music class, but I couldn’t resist adding some Sondhiem —

Losing My Mind (Stephen Sondheim 1971)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCeQetI111c>

 

Analysis/Composition: Exercise 3 [Due ]

(20 points)

Choosing one of the songs above, or a similar song with instructor approval, complete an analysis that illuminates its harmonic and melodic structure.

1. Perform a rhythmic reduction following the model offered in class. Your submission of this part should include a reduced melody, a bass line representative of a typical recording’s chord progression (not the detailed or editorial decisions of an individual musician, and preferably not the bass line shown in the score), Roman numeral analysis, and essential intervals.

2. Distinguish prolongational from cadential harmony, and identify, wherever possible, stepwise structures in the melodic line.

3. Complete a short 16-bar AABA form, following the instructions in this week’s musicianship lab assignment (week 5).

 

Listening Week 4

[Download the scores for the Analysis assignment associated with this listening list. Scroll down to see the assignment.]

Prisoner of Love (Russ Columbo/Clarence Gaskill/Leo Robin 1931)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OYKHyZIqTE>

Stormy Weather (Harold Arlen/Ted Keohler 1933) +2 extra credit

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCG3kJtQBKo>

Solitude (Duke Ellington/ Eddie DeLange & Irving Mills 1934)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuyn3GBEoCk>

I Get A Kick Out Of You (Cole Porter 1934)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtwO2tKZmwQ>

Anything Goes (Cole Porter 1934)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zJ3vqkXqRU>

Cheek to Cheek (Irving Berlin 1935) +1 extra credit

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeisCvjwBMo>

The Nearness of You (Hoagy Carmichael/Ned Washington 1938)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqdaS0EOBHk>

At Last (Mack Gordon/Harry Warren 1941)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwzDxp2TC7I>

Moonlight in Vermont (John Blackburn & Karl Suessdorf 1944)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwyZyDD6Yqw>

— And, this is not in the genre … and he’s a bit too post-modern arty or a pop-music class, but I couldn’t resist adding some Sondhiem —

Losing My Mind (Stephen Sondheim 1971)

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCeQetI111c>

 

Analysis/Composition: Exercise 3 [Due Monday February 3]

(20 points)

Choosing one of the songs above, or a similar song with instructor approval, complete an analysis that illuminates its harmonic and melodic structure.

1. Perform a rhythmic reduction following the model offered in class. Your submission of this part should include a reduced melody, a bass line representative of a typical recording’s chord progression (not the detailed or editorial decisions of an individual musician, and preferably not the bass line shown in the score), Roman numeral analysis, and essential intervals.

2. Distinguish prolongational, intermediary, and cadential harmony, and identify, wherever possible, stepwise structures in the melodic line.

3. Complete a short 16-bar AABA form, following the instructions in this week’s musicianship lab assignment (week 5).

 

Listening Week 1

For Friday 1/10, listen to 1-4 of “Mid-western Blues Diaspora,” choose 5 from “Boogie Woogie and Jump Blues,” and 1-4 of “Country & Western and Rockabilly.” Listen to the remaining tracks before Monday, 1/13.

MID-WESTERN BLUES DIASPORA

Early Mid-western Artists

  1. Memphis Minnie’s I’m Not a Bad Girl, 1941
  2. Sister Rosetta Thorpe’s Don’t Take Everybody to Be Your Friend, 1946

    Chicago Electric Blues
  3. Muddy Waters’ (I’m Your) Hoochie Coochie Man” 1954, Willie Dixon
  4. Howlin’ Wolf’s Moaning at Midnight (Transcribe the guitar and voice parts with rhythmic accuracy for at least one rhyming pair of phrases) 1962*

BOOGIE-WOOGIE and JUMP BLUES

  1. Louis Jordan’s Caldonia 1946, Darling/Horton/Gabler
  2. Louis Jordan’s Blue Light Boogie, 1949-1950
  3. Fats Domino’s The Fat Man, 1949
  4. Kay Starr’s Kay’s Lament, 1952, with “The Lancers”
  5. Ruth Brown’s Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean, 1953, Ruth Brown
  6. Big Joe Turner’s (Feb 1954) Shake, Rattle, and Roll 1953, Calhoun
  7. Etta James’ (The Wallflower:) “Dance With Me Henry (February 1955, Johnny Otis/Hank Ballard/Etta James)
  8. Little Richard’s Tutti Frutti (August 1955)

COUNTRY & WESTERN and ROCKABILLY

  1. Merle Travis 16 Tons 1946
  2. Hank Williams’ Hey, Good Lookin’ 1951
  3. Rufus Thomas, Guitar Red, & Joe Hill Louis, as recorded by Sam Philips, with honky-tonk inflected backing bands.
  4. Tenessee Ernie Ford 16 Tons 1955, Merle Travis 
  5. Chuck Berry’s Maybellene 1955
  6. Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel 1956, Durden/Presley
  7. Buddy Holly’s That’ll Be the Day 1957
  8. Everly Brothers Wake Up Little Susie 1957

Calendar

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COURSE CALENDAR

 

 

Special Topic in Analysis and Composition: Popular Song

 

 

MUSIC 150P

 

 

UCSC Department of Music. Instructor: Ben Carson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TAs: Jay Arms, Ittai Rosenbaum

 

 









 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lecture/ Presentation Meetings:

 

 

Deadlines: readings/listenings on Mondays; written work on Fridays

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

M

W

F

 

 

Listening & Reading

 

Musicianship (W & F labs)

 

Analysis & Composition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 (please use landscape-formatted staff paper)

 

 

JANUARY   

6

8

10

 

 

[Due Jan 10 for Analysis I] Jump Blues, 1940s Country & Western Johnson, Maria V. 2007. “Black Women Electric Guitarists and Authenticity in the Blues.”

Santoro, Gene. 2004. “Chess Records” [Ch. 10 of Highway 61 Revisited. & pp. 140-148 of Cohodas, Nadine. 2000. “2120 South Michigan” [Ch. 10 of Spinning Blues into Gold]

Listening Week 1

 

Week 1— Blues progression I, mixolydian in A and F; sing-tap 1.

 

Analysis I: Archeology of Rock and Roll [Written submission Jan 10, Prepared discussion Jan 13]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

13 

15

17

 

 

Chicago Blues; “Rock & Roll”: Peterson, Richard. 1990. “Why 1955? Explaining the Advent of Rock Music.” In Popular Music, Vol. 9, No. 1. (Jan., 1990), pp. 97-116.

 

Week 2— Blues sing-play, Blues progression II (AAB) in F, major-seventh-chord arpeggiations, F & D mixolydian & aeolian.

 

Exercise I: Treble-bass framework

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

22 

24

 

 

Brill-building, Gordy, Spectre, early Lennon & McCartney

 

Week 3— Blues: progression II, Eb & G mixolydian & aeolian, Stephen Foster sing-play

 

January 24: COMPOSITION I—basic AABA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

27

29

31

 

 

Eubie Blake, Irving Berlin, George Gershwin

Listening Week 4

 

Week 4—including Boogie Bass lines

 

Analysis Project II: Tin-pan Alley.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FEBRUARY   

 3

5

7

 

 

Duke Ellington, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter

 

Week 5—Performances of Composition I, Sequences I

 

ANALYSIS/AURAL SKILLS MID-TERM 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10

12

14

 

 

James Brown, Bob Dylan (Nashville Skyline), Stevie Wonder

 

Week 6—Sequence Review, Stop-time Blues.

 

Exercise II: chromaticism, modified cadences, Steely Dan (Ittai Rosenbaum)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

19

21

 

 

Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil

 

MUSICIANSHIP MID-TERMS

 

February 21: COMPOSITION II—Tin-Pan Alley w/ Verse

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

24

26

28

 

 

Progressive Rock and Metal (Jay Arms), Bob Dylan (61 Revisited), Joni Mitchell (Blue)

 

Week 8 — 

Analysis II chords and melody

 

Exercise III: Prolongation and Sequence

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MARCH

 3 

5

7

 

 

Parliament/Funkadelic

 

Analysis II chords & elaborated melody, bass & chords, bass and melody

 

March 7 / Composition III Drafts: March 10

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10

12

14

 

 

Final Presentations Begin

 

Musicianship Final

 

Extra Credit: Analysis III: Advanced Literature

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FINAL EXAM

17

19

 

 

 

REVIEW

 

March 19, 4-7 pm: Final Exam

 

March 21: Final Project Due

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Syllabus

Music 150P 
Special Topics in Music Analysis: 
Melody and Form in Popular Song 
UC Santa Cruz, Winter Quarter 2014 
  
Instructor:  Ben Carson 
Meetings: Music Center 138 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays 
  
Section 01 (class# 42511): 9:30 AM to 10:40 AM 

Prerequisites: MUS 30 C or equivalent 
  
Office: Music Center 148 (on the lower floor, just past Professor Paiment’s office)

[Click here for Analysis/Composition Assignment 2, due Monday February 3.]


Office hours: Mondays 1-1:55 pm, and Fridays 12-1 pmor by appointment.
Phone:  9-5581 (I do not check voicemail frequently!) 
Write to me: blc at ucsc dot edu 
Teaching Assistants: 
Jay Arms Ittai Rosenbaum

Course Catalogue Description for the 150 series:   Special Topics in Music Theory & Analysis. Labs in musicianship emphasize basic performance skills and advanced reading skills in music from a particular cultural or historical practice, or in relation to a particular theory or style of analysis.
  
150P Course Overview:  Study of melodic forms and their harmonic support in a variety of key genres of 20th-c popular music. Blues forms; AABA forms associated with parlor song, “Tin-pan Alley,” and “Brill-building” pop; postwar verse-chorus forms, and through-composed song-forms will be emphasized. Students complete analytical or compositional work on a weekly basis, using clear and thoroughly detailed Western music notation. In addition, students work with TAs to develop their practical musical skills in relation to these course materials.

Objectives: 
1.          Clarify and distinguish twentieth-century conventions in song melodies. 
2.          Understand principles of harmonization in popular music, in relation to standard song forms. 
3.          Introduce performance and listening skills that relate to popular music.
4.          Introduce extended tertian harmony associated with post-war jazz practices, and understand the role of that harmony in the composition and improvisation of popular song.
  
Required Texts: 
TBA, available for download from this page.

Here’s some good notation staff paper for analysis (landscape-oriented). 

Miscellaneous Aspects of the course: 
1.              Being there:   Regardless of any reason for absence, students are responsible for completing whatever work they have missed when they are gone.  Please let me know about absences that result from health conditions, family emergencies, or major transportation accidents, and so on.  However, in any case of absence, be sure to check with a classmate for information about what was discussed on that day, and get a clear sense of all new assignments. If you can’t get that information from a classmate, please contact me via email. More than five unexcused absences from class and lab combined, or three unexcused absences from lab, will result in a grade of NP. See “Course Credit and Grading” (below) for more details. 

2.             Performance anxiety:  In class, we’ll work on your skills and your knowledge in a direct and conversational way.  But I’m never interested in getting you to prove anything on the spot.   You will find that if you can’t get the answer right away, I’ll take lead the conversation differently so the class will work on it together.  I hope you’ll find I’m pretty good at diffusing any public sense of student deficiency. 
  
3.             Deadlines:  Please complete your homework in clear hand-written  notation, with a pencil, and get them in on time!  Late assignments will be accepted but they will not receive full credit and I cannot guarantee that I will give them thorough comments.  This can be a problem because I expect to see improvement from one assignment to the next, so one late assignment can affect your later grades if you don’t take the initiative to get my informal comments on your progress, and keep the “conversation” going. 
  
4.             Communication:  I respond to most email, IM, and text-messaging within 12 hours or so, to answer important questions about course material, the assignments and so on.  I love getting emails with questions about music and the actual content of the course.  I also want to hear from you if you’re having any trouble getting the concepts, getting the homework in, or getting to class.  But please limit the use of email for excuses about already-past absences of unfinished assignments – there’s no hurry to give me that information so it’s better to focus on your work and think about what you need to do for the next class. 
  
Course Credit and Grading: 


Weekly exercises, including composition and analysis: 25%

Quizzes: 10%

Mid-term 1: 12%

Mid-term 2: 13%

Final composition project: 15%

Musicianship Lab: 25%* 

*A grade of 50% or less in the combined scores of musicianship “lab midterm” and “lab final” (dates TBA) will result in a credit of zero percent under this heading.  You must also pass the musicianship portion of the course in order to pass the course as a whole, even if your coursework is excellent. 
  
More about grading: 
Grades are an evaluation of your accomplishments, not your intentions, your sincerity, or my sense of your potential. That might make some grades seem cold or harsh, but if you think about it, it’s actually the warmest possible arrangement: anything else requires me somehow to pretend that I can look into your soul and qualify myself to judge what I see. I don’t want to judge your character—if I tried to do that, it would take all the fun out of the everyday challenge of learning about music. I hope you’ll be comforted to know that a C- doesn’t mean I’m annoyed at you, and an A+ doesn’t mean I’m your newest fan.

If you are ever uncertain about why I’ve given any particular evaluation, please come to me with questions about it. I’ll be happy that you want to understand the assignment, or the concepts, in greater detail. It helps this course a great deal if you try to build a conversation around my written feedback about your work.

 

General Materials:

Sight-singing practice materials (part 1)

Scores and links to Tin-Pan Alley examples for listening and analysis

MUSICIANSHIP FINAL:

MUSICIANSHIP FINAL:

1. Choose either a tin-pan alley tune from the Week 4 analysis / listening list, or one of the charts from week 8’s sight-reading materials, and perform it with accurate and well-planned interpretations of the written harmony (either in a score or in chord symbols). You may choose one that you have already begun to learn in a previous assignment.

2. Singing drill ascending: octatonic “A Bb C Dd Eb Fb Gb G A” … and descending Ab Lydian.

3. Use “Scale Rhythm 6” (week 6) or “Scale Rhythm 7” (week 8) to perform a C ionion and Bb dorian scale. 

4. 8 new bebop charts for sight-singing practice. Use them in combination with last week’s materials …and surprise yourself! This is an important part of the exam.

Drafting process for final composition (Due Monday March 10)

1. Compose a 2-bar (4/4) guitar or bass line suitable for a layered, static, rhythmic ostinato. It should have the following features:

— Some rhythmic feature should call into question the meter. One technique for this involves the use of a set of timespans that occur in contrasting metric positions.

— It should include syncopation, but direct emphasis on some strong beats

— It should not be cheesy.

2. Melodic Structure

a. Using your transcription of a 1970s-80s “confessional” song as a starting point, and analyzing its basic treble-bass relationship in terms of essential intervals, derive a new melody by changing key and tempo, shifting basic rhythmic ideas, and removing non-chord tones from the original while adding new ones to your draft.

b. Taking your new melody as a starting point, use your instincts to vary it further in the drafting of two more phrases that might belong in the same song.