History of Beatles

History of Beatles

Write a paper discussing how composer, performer and listener play works together in your chosen song to create a musical experience. Choose any Beatles song that has not been discussed at length in class. Write a discussion of play in your chosen piece, accounting for the activities of composers, performers, and listeners in any combination. Use class lectures and readings from both class books, Can?t Buy Me Love and The Beatles: Paperback Writer, in identifying and discussing the musical, historical, cultural, and artistic constraints within which the composers/performers played in creating this song.Choosing a piece.
You may choose a song that has been mentioned in class, but we will expect you to write more about such a song than was said in class about it. Musical elements
Composers play with the elements of music in composing a piece of music. Performers translate the composers? ideas into sound. For the Beatles, the composers were also the performers, and all four Beatles frequently worked out their arrangement together. For that reason composer play and performer play is likely to be intertwined. Also, you may consider the contributions of the producer (generally George Martin) and the recording engineers as part of overall performer play.
You should spend some time analyzing your song in terms of the following elements. You may decide that you don?t need to include all of these elements in your final paper, but do think about all of them.
Form: Based on the lyrics, chart out the musical form of the song. Are there verses, that is, sections of music that repeat with different words? Is there a refrain, that is, a section of music that repeats with the same words? Is the song based on A A B A song form, that is, with verses and a bridge (?middle 8?)? Is the song a 12-bar blues? Is there an introduction, either with or without words?
Instrumentation and texture: What voices and instruments are used in the recording? Do they all appear throughout the song, or only in particular places? What is the general texture of the song: is it the original Beatles lineup of lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass, and drums, or some other grouping? Do all four Beatles participate, or only some of them? Are any other musicians involved (e.g., ?Yesterday? has a string quartet)? How many people are singing? Think about the particular timbre (sound colors) of the voices and instruments, and how they interact.
Mark Lewisohn?s book, The Beatles, recording sessions, is on reserve for our class at the Music Library. This book details who exactly performed on each recorded track. Information about musical personnel has been included in the Wikipedia articles for individual Beatle songs, but I will want you to cite the original book if you use that information.
Once you have the larger sections (musical form) mapped out, you can identify and add local details, such as instrumental solos, vocal harmony vs. solo voices (also, note vocal details such as call-and-response), over-dubbed percussion, etc. Melody: what is the shape of the melody? Does each line of the verse start on a high pitch or a low one? Does each sung line move up or down in pitch? Is there any pattern to the melody?s motion throughout the verse? Does the melody stop at the end of each line, or does it connect more than one line together? Does the melody proceed by steps or leaps? Frequently the Beatles (and other composers) will use the shape of a melody to reflect what the song is about ? does that happen in your song? Or does the melody produce an abstract shape in sound?
Rhythm: A melody has two components: its pitches and its rhythm. The pitches move higher or lower (or stay the same), while the rhythm is the pattern of beats setting the pitches. Clap your hands along with each syllable of the lyric: that?s the melodic rhythm. All the instruments can play rhythmic figures as well. Notice if you hear the same rhythmic pattern repeating in one or more instrumental part.
Meter: Find the beat and count it out. If you can count to four over and over again, it?s duple meter; if you count to three, it?s triple meter. Almost all the Beatles? songs are in duple meter. Some songs switch from duple to triple and back. Note which meter(s) your song uses.
Harmony: Harmony can refer to the progression of chords throughout a piece, but fear not, I don?t expect you to write about chords. For the Beatles? songs, think first about vocal harmony. Notice how many singers are singing in throughout the song. Is it one person? Is it two people, singing the same thing at the same time (this is called singing in unison (unison = one sound): John and Paul sang in unison a lot in the first part of the Beatles? career)? Is it two (or three) people singing different pitches at the same time? This last one is vocal harmony ? does your song have any? Is it used throughout the song, or only at particular times? [Note: in the middle of their career individual Beatles would record a lead vocal, and then sing that same melody again, in essence singing in unison with themselves. If you hear more than one person singing together in unison, check Gould: it could be two Beatles, or one Beatle double-tracked. From Revolver on they used ADT to produce the effect of double-tracking vocals from a single vocal recording]. Next, think about how the guitars interact with each other, and how any other instruments interact with the guitars.
Lyrics: Include the lyrics for your song. Notice the rhyme scheme. Is there any other play with rhyme in the middle of lines, or only at the ends of lines? Are all the lines the same length (in terms of numbers of syllables ? count them!)? If not, can you determine a pattern? What is the song about? Does it narrate a story? Does it create a mood? Does it represent someone?s thoughts? Begin to notice details of sound and meaning in the words: how do the Beatles use musical elements to reinforce the meaning of the words in your song, creating an experience for the listener? Why did you choose this piece?
Think about why you chose this piece for this assignment. Your own response to the song can inform your discussion of listener play, that is, how a listener can experience the song. Some questions to ask yourself include: What kind of experience does this song shape for the listener? How have the performers and/or composers created this experience? What musical elements contribute to this experience? Who was responsible for contributing particular elements? How were the composers/performers responding to musical, historical, or cultural constraints in creating this song? How do the lyrics and the ?sound? of the song work together to create meaning(s) for the listener? You should include a discussion of how and when your song was written and recorded, and how and when it was released (on an album, as a single); this discussion can be based on information in Jonathan Gould?s book, class lectures, or other sources, properly cited. Gould?s book provides good discussions of the political, economic, artistic, and cultural contexts that provided constraints for the Beatles? composition; you may include this kind of information if you feel it adds to your discussion of your song.

 
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