I have noticed that most of the phrase structures are similar and they tend to repeat. For example in page 3, we can see one short-short-long phrase. But after that, the phrases repeat themselves (2 by 2). However, this does not make the song boring. I guess it's just for emphasis sake.
Oh yes, another last point would be the omission of 3rds. For instance, in page 1 bar 2, there's only Eb-Bb-Eb, the 3rd which is the G, is missing. And also, in bar 3, the Bb is missing for chord vi. I then recalled Dr. Chong mentioning that the omission of 3rds in composition are relatively acceptable and that it does not spoil the chords' sounds too.
This piece starts off with Bb major. It starts off with its theme with I-IV-vi-V and repeats and after which it comes off to the part where the singing starts. The progression is as follows: I-vi-IV-IV65-I-vi-IV-IV65-ii-V-V6-V/ii-ii-iii....
If you can see, the progression of the singing part is actually the opposite from the theme where it goes from IV-vi but instead it goes from vi-IV.
Jay kinds of delay the dominant after tonic by using 1st inversion chords and chord ii.
The only tonicized key was at the second bar of page 2, where he tonicized to C major. This could be the anticipation or rather a hint that he wants to go into the C major key later.
At the part where the song goes into its peak, C major key comes in and it's not surprising at all due to the hint earlier on. The peak is also established using different time signatures like 2/4 and 3/4.
At page 7, the pre-dominant chord (chord vi) goes into C major and starts off with chord V. After which, I notice that there's I in its root position, 1st inversion of I and 2nd inversion of I, all in the preceding bar.
And at the end of page 7, there's a chromatic neighbour note F# being used.
______________________________________________
I have noticed that the melody from the start is rather restricted to the range from D to B. But in page 2, highlighted in purple, the use of D and E helps to open up the melody and gives more space for it to go higher.
The are also alot of leaps used in this song. They are all highlighted in purple too. This is especially different from normal classical songs where leaps are seldom used. I guess in modern compositions, these leaps not only provide new forms, but also help make the composition more interesting.
TaDa!! And so this is the song I'm gonna analyze - Silence (安靜).
"This song is about the sorrow of silently playing a piano alone. This is a slow and classical song with the main instrument being the piano. Jay writes the words and they are quite touching. .......... This is bit of a sad song and you should probably listen to it when you are feeling sorrow." This is an editor's review taken from jaychoustudio.com.
I agree with him that this song is rather sad. It's melancholy touched me and I felt like crying at times whenever I hear this song.
Hello! The second song I'm going to touch on is last song from Jay Chou's second album launched on 19 September 2001. This album is called Fantasy (范特西). I think this album is the album which brought Jay into the starlight and thus making the audience look at him from his talent's side instead of his looks. Once again he worked with Vincent Fang and Vivian Hsu in the lyrics of this album. Fantasy lives up to its name with songs centered around strange and wonderful themes. Some of his tracks has brought in the combination of Chinese music and Hip Hop, which I thought was something interesting. So if you guys have the time, you all can go check out other songs of this album. =)
Atom Feed (xml)