Final Assessment Qn2

Final Assessment

Question 2: Three Lennon & McCartney songs

i. All three songs you have chosen betray a rather idiosyncratic use of mixture harmonies, whether in the major or minor keys. Examine and comment. Consider their renderings both in the melody and in the harmony.

[Special note: Obviously, answers to these two questions can be full-length essays, but for this test you need only discuss 2 or 3 instances in each case.]

Eleanor Rigby

The home key of this song is E minor and the use of the Dorian mode with its 6th raised, ie. C#, as a mixture harmony is also very distinct. This is seen in the chorus (b.19-26) and also in the verses. In the chorus, it seems to be switching between tonal and modal harmony especially because of the C# appearing.

Perhaps the Dorian traditional/church mode had been used here deliberately because the scenario of this song is also in a church.

Lady Madonna

Primary mixture harmony is used extensively in this entire song. It is the borrowing of diatonic chords from its parallel major/minor, which is A minor in this case. Examples are shown below in (2a) in b.15.

Looking at this song from the perspective of a mixture harmony, the song does not modulate to C major as said previously in my 31 March 2007 posting on ‘Lady Madonna’. Instead, it remains in A major and the chords used are borrowed from A minor as seen in (2b) from b.25 to 31.

As for the melody, the flattened third (C natural) occurs very frequently. This is also very common in blues. The sixth and seventh of the scale is also flattened occasionally but not as frequently. An example of the melody using the mixture harmony is also in (2a) above where the melody uses G natural and C natural.

It is interesting to note that at b.15 at (2a) even though C natural is used in the melody, that chord still contains a C#, resulting in a false relation. I believe this C# is used as a Common Tone which leads to the A major chord that follows.

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

There are two types of mixture harmonies used in this song – primary mixture and modal mixture.

The primary mixture occurs in the first part of the verses in the A major section, b.5 to 21. Similar to Lady Madonna, some chords are borrowed from its parallel minor of A minor. An example of those chords can be seen underlined in (3a).

The modal mixture occurs in the second part of the verses in Bb major, b.24 to 35. The Lydian mode is used where the 4th is raised, ie. E natural. One example can be seen in (3b), giving rise to a major chord II.

ii. Another prominent musical feature is the use of a scalic motif/idea as a recurrent or repetitive element in all three songs. This has a unifying effect on the one hand but it also betrays the composers’ ingenuity on the other. Again, identify the motif in each song to examine and comment.

The main idea found in all three songs is the use of descending partially-chromatic motifs. However, they are handled differently in each case.

Eleanor Rigby

The main motif of this song is A G F# E in b.2 labeled as (1a). It recurs many times throughout the song as seen in the score, labeled from (1b) to (1e). However, this does not make the song any less interesting because it always reappears in varying forms. Even though (1c), (1d) and (1e) have a missing F#, it still sounds quite clear that it is from the main motif. These descending lines can be likened to sighs, lamenting the lonely people and sighing throughout the song.

The second motif is D C# C B found labeled as (1f) and (1g) in the score. This motif is important to the song as it introduces the C# at b.10 which contributes to the song’s modal feel. This motif also complements the main motifs in (1d) and (1e) in b.19 to b.26.

Lady Madonna

The main motif of this song is C# C# C B A (as seen in b.9 in (2c)) and it occurs in throughout the song in different variations such as in (2d) and (2a), highlighted in blue. It is easily recognisable and memorable as the motif is catchy with syncopation and at the same time simple.

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

There are three distinct motifs for each of the three sections of this song – the A major section, the Bb major section and the G major section.

In the A major section, it has a distinct three-note motif of C# B A which repeats tirelessly (3c). Underlying this motif is A G F# F E in semibreves (as described further in the 21 Feb 2007 posting). This descending line gives a certain form of direction as the melody continues to repeat itself for a total of 11 times in this short section of 16 bars.

In the Bb major section, the motif also consists of three notes D D D and repeats throughout, with a dip in the melody to C which cause syncopation in the beat (See 3b).

The final motif in the G major chorus section is more complicated in comparison with the previous two motifs. The chorus is simply made up of this motif repeating 3 times. An example is seen below labeled as (3d).