Tuesday, January 26, 2021

"She Don't Care about Time"

The guitar solo in "She Don't Care about Time" is based on a melody from Bach's cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben, BWV 147.  In Bach's piece, it appears in the sixth and tenth movements, played by oboes and violin:

[source]

The subject-verb disagreement in the title line ("she don't") illustrates and emphasizes the lack of care.

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

"The Times They Are A-Changin'"

In the titular line of "The Times They Are A-Changin'" "changin'" is sung with a melisma (A G G), musically giving a sense of the word's meaning.

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

"If You're Gone"

I can't decipher the whole first line of "If You're Gone," but "ev'rything" in the phrase "to me you're ev'rything" is sung with a melisma (A C B A G, I think), musically giving a sense of that entirety.  "Fall" in the line "If you're here, the night is rightly going to fall" is sung with a melisma (B A G), so while it's used more metaphorically here, there's a sense of its meaning.  "Care" in the line "If I love you, if I know how much I care" is sung with this same melisma for a sense of degree ("how much").  "Anywhere" in the line "If I find the things you want then, anywhere" is also sung with a melisma (G G F# E D), musically giving a sense of that breadth of possibility.

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

"Lay Down Your Weary Tune"

In "Lay Down Your Weary Tune," the end of the line "Lay down your weary tune, lay down" is sung to a descending phrase (the whole line is sung to the phrase E A B C# B A A F# E E), musically giving a sense of that "lay[ing] down."  Similarly, "And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings" descends (something like D D C# A A B C# A D), musically giving an impression of "lay[ing] down" to "rest."