Eleanor Rigby - Analysis

Eleanor Rigby - Analysis

This song is quite depressing. It talks about an unlamented death of an old and lonely spinster who used to clean up after joyful church weddings. This depressive mood is reflected in the music where descending lines are used throughout the song. It is in the key of Emin and also sound modal. Also, this whole song is written using only the harmony of C and Em chords (VI-I). Is there any term for this? or is there anything very significant about it?

In the Intro, the descending line A G F# E sung by the singer can be heard distinctly (b.1-2). This is repeated by the keyboard an octave lower as part of a compound melody (b.3-4). Also, there is a pedal point in b.1-2 and 5-6 below the descending line. This alternating between the voice and kbd of the descending melodic motif is repeated twice.

Moving on to the verse, most of it is made up of a decorated descending melodic line over a tonic pedal. D C# B A can be heard very distinctly (b.10-12 and 15-17). This line moves downwards in spirals gradually. The word-setting is also very apt because all the stressed syllables are held longer by the rhythmic displacement of the melody .
We've learnt about the '5-6' technique, and we've also learnt of other suspensions, but not '6-5'. In b.13 there is '6-5' suspension and also in b.12 which is separated by a long rest.

The chorus (b.19-29) can be looked at in 3 parts: the bass, 'tenor' and melody line.
The bass is a tonic pedal of Emin throughout. This gives a strong sense of the key in Emin even though the Dominant is not used once in this song. The 'tenor' line descends chromatically D-C#-C-B and adds to the harmony. As for the melody line, it has leaps of 8th (b.20) and 10th (b.24) upwards followed by a descending line. This style of the music climbing upwards quickly and gradually coming down is typical of this song as we have seen in the Verse section (b.10-11) and now in the chorus section (b.20-21 & b.24-25)

Eleanor Rigby - Score

Eleanor Rigby - Score
I can’t think of a better way but to simply put all 3 pages of the score here instead of small specific sections like what I did earlier, cos a lot of my points are interlinked. Pardon me, cos its gonna be more difficult for you to refer to.. Perhaps you could just print them out! Thanks.

Lady Madonna - Plagal Expansion

Lady Madonna - Plagal Expansion

After Dr Chong mentioned about Plagal Expansions in lesson last Tuesday, I couldn’t resist putting this song up here – Lady Madonna. So I’ll just have to put Eleanor Rigby on hold for the moment!

As you can see in fig. 11 above, the song starts with a plagal expansion of I-IV-I-IV-etc. and ends that phrase with VI-VII-VIII, completely avoiding out V. This deliberately creates tonal ambiguity.

Towards the middle of the song, it modulates to Cmaj where Cmaj is briefly established by an imperfect cadence. It then shifts back to plagal expansions in Amaj.

The Dominant of Amaj is finally used as seen in b.39-40 in fig.13 above. A suspension is used but it is not resolved the conventional way. It is a suspension followed by retardation (resolution upwards). But whatever the case, it definitely feels more comfortable and stable after being established in Amaj with the use of V after being tonally ambiguous throughout the whole song. This is further emphasized with a sudden increase in note values for these 4 bars. The whole song is slowed down and chord V becomes more prominent, confirming the tonal center.

At the end of the song, one would usually expect a resolution of sort in the home key. However this is not the case here. (fig. 12) Even though the chords provided says E7sus – A, it does not seem like a V7-I to me. I would think its iio7-I. Am I right by saying this?

Eleanor Rigby - Lyrics and Overall Form

Eleanor Rigby – Lyrics and Overall Form

Here are the Lyrics for Eleanor Rigby, the new song I'll be working on. It starts with a stand-alone introduction. This song is strophic with 3 verses having the same melody and harmony but different words set to it. And after each verse is the chorus.

{Intro}
Ah, look at all the lonely people
Ah, look at all the lonely people

{Verse 1}
Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?

{Chorus}
All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

{Verse 2}
Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near.
Look at him working.
Darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there
What does he care?

{Chorus}

{Verse 3}
Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name
Nobody came
Father McKenzie wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave No one was saved

{Chorus}