Let's talk...songs. =)

Just so you know, this *isn't* redudant, because sometimes a band only produces one or two really fantastic songs.
And then there are those songs which sound effing amazing, but you don't know what in the heck they're about.
And then those OTHER problems I'm not insightful enough to list.
So, all in all, if there's anything about a song you love that you would like to talk about, you can do it here, and no will bash you over for it.

Oh man, Sara. We're going to be analyzing songs forever. People are going to be like wtFFF?

Iris.

And I'd give up forever to touch you 'cause I know that you feel me somehow.
You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be and I don't wanna go home right now.

I agree with Britt alittle. I would just start rambling on about the Opheliac Companion, which Emilie Autumn and her sound guy talk about the album because I picked up on most of the stuff they talked about. And, I was top of music at school

B-b-but. That's not a bad thing!
Analyzing is fuuuuun, hehe.
Should be second nature then, Minny, whose wisdom we can learn much from.

I just don't wanna miss you tonight!


A fun 'discussion' song: Iron and Wine's "Flightless Bird". Also beautiful. And not surprising to Britt that it is here, ahaha.
Aaaand! Defying Gravity, from the Wicked soundtrack. Ohmygoodness, is that just about one of the best songs EVAR.
There's so many more I had all planned out to type out but my brain's on a freeze... gah.

Flightless Bird is indeed BEYOUTIHFULL.
And wonderful in its vagueness.
All the metaphors and such get me everytime.

I have not heard the other one, though. I'll have to get on that.

scissorsbeatpaper wrote:

B-b-but. That's not a bad thing!
Analyzing is fuuuuun, hehe.
Should be second nature then, Minny, whose wisdom we can learn much from.

I just don't wanna miss you tonight!


A fun 'discussion' song: Iron and Wine's "Flightless Bird". Also beautiful. And not surprising to Britt that it is here, ahaha.
Aaaand! Defying Gravity, from the Wicked soundtrack. Ohmygoodness, is that just about one of the best songs EVAR.
There's so many more I had all planned out to type out but my brain's on a freeze... gah.

Should post my loooooong analyse of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen compared to the cover by Emilie Autumn

Ahaha yea, that would be great, Minny

bloodiestkisses wrote:

Flightless Bird is indeed BEYOUTIHFULL.
And wonderful in its vagueness.
All the metaphors and such get me everytime.

I have not heard the other one, though. I'll have to get on that.

I didn't get it for a reaaaally long time, lol. But, I didn't mind not knowing. It's just that great. <3

Defying Gravity is like... I don't know if you'll like it. But the lyrics are amazing, for me.
The sound, in the musical, is broadway-ish duh, so yeah, lol.

Bohemian Rhapsody- Queen Vs Emilie Autumn
Miranda Schuch

“Bohemian Rhapsody” is a well known progressive rock song that was released by British rock band Queen in 1975. The song, written by Freddie Mercury, was an unusual song to become a huge success because it didn’t follow a ‘nice’ traditional rock structure. It has no choruses but instead is divided into 6 obviously different sections: the Introduction, Ballad, Guitar Solo, Opera, Hard Rock, and Outro. It set a new record for sales selling 2, 176, 000 singles and is at number 163 on the list of 500 Greatest Songs of All Time by Rolling Stones magazines setting it as one of Queen’s defining songs. In September 2008, Emilie Autumn released “Girls just wanna have fun/Bohemian Rhapsody EP” that featured a “Victorianindustrial” styled cover of Queens hit that Infrarots website describes as “studded with a killer beats and splattered with violin and harpsichords, Emilie Autumn mesmerizes us once more.” Although Emilie Autumn’s version of “Bohemian Rhapsody” is an exciting and interesting cover, the time old saying “The original is always the best” still applies. By thoroughly deconstructing and analyzing the musical element of both versions of this song, this essay will prove that Queen’s song is the best and will stand the test of time.

The Introduction

The introduction of the original the song that leads into the ballad section lasts for 48 seconds. This also made this song very different to most of the Rock and Pop songs of the time, which got into the verse or chorus very quickly. The first four bars of the Introduction is an a capella that all four members of Queen sing. Then after those 4 bars the piano joins in. The introduction is set in the key of B flat and begins in 4/4 but switches to 5/4 for one bar in bar 3 and 10. There are a lot of short notes in this section that are within the range of one octave. The tonality has a dull sound.
In Emilie Autumn’s version is very similar except for two things, the a cappella is sung by a Mezzo Soprano female singer (Emilie Autumn) and the piano is changed to a harpsichord to give it the Victorian sound. The tempo is also quicker and the sound is brighter due to the harpsichord which has a brighter sound than the piano.

Ballad
This section begins at 0.48 with two bars of playing a slurred melody on the piano and in Emilie Autumn’s version, the harpsichord. This section is homophonic with the singer having the melody to tell the story. Both versions have a singing solo section unlike the introduction that was a four part harmony. They also have the same lyrics which turn this song into a ballad telling a story of a person that has killed a man with a gun and has thrown their life away. Due to the message conveyed in the lyrics and the slow tempo, the timbre is a sombre one. The original song does a better job of telling the listener that this is a sad story, due to the instrumentation, because the harpsichord and electric violin have a happier sound which gives Emilie’s version a brighter, more peaceful sound than Queen’s. Emilie Autumn’s version doesn’t portray the emotion of the lyrics at all and even the notes the violin plays have a short staccato feel, rather than a sweeping feel like in Queens. At 1:15 the volume in Queen’s version has an effective crescendo that Emilie Autumn’s lacks. This lack of crescendo draws away some of the desperation feel from Emilie Autumn’s version that Queen’s has used, but Emilie has used some very effective vocals still convey this timbre. In both versions it ends on a crescendo into the Guitar Solo section. In this section, Queen’s version has been proven to being a more interesting and has better feel to it because of the dynamics and instrumentation.

Guitar Solo

What is usually called a “Guitar Solo” section in-between the Ballad and Opera section is an “Electric Violin Shredding Solo” section in Emilie Autumn’s version which is an interesting take of Queen’s guitar solo. Both versions are very similar in this section apart from instrumentation. This effects the timbre because the electric violin has a prettier more refined sound than the guitar which makes it loose the rebellious feel that is conveyed in the original making Queen’s version better.

Opera

The Opera, which has modulated to A major is the longest section of this song due to the amount of bars. The first 20 bars move along in 4/4 until bar 21, which is in 2/4, before going back to 4/4 and modulating again, this time to E Flat. This section would have to be one of the most interesting and comic sections in the original song because it involves the use of word painting, call and response, and has the most dramatic use of dynamics in the whole song. The instrumentation is this section is male lead vocalist with male chorus that is usually homophonic, drums, bass, piano and timpani. The lyrics are also very interesting and add to the word painting and call and response. When it is just Freddie Mercury singing he sings about how he’s going to hell and going to dance because he doesn’t care, then the chorus comes in to remind him of what hell will be like by singing, “Thunder bolts and lightning, very very frightening.” These lyrics are turned into a word painting because at the same time they are sung, the piano, drums and timpani are playing at the same time in a crescendo to sound like the lightning that the chorus are singing about. Straight after this word painting is a call and response at bar 17 between Freddie and another member of the chorus in the chorus. This shows a variety of pitch because one singer is singing in a higher pitch than the other making this an effective call and response. There has been use of very good crescendos with drops back down to mp. And example of a crescendo in this section is at 3.37. This section is quiet fast paced with a chromatic chord progression. The timber is a bight but a manic one due to the dynamics and good use of vocals.
In Emilie Autumns section of this cover, it still follows the use of her usually instrumentation within her own songs like a violin, harpsichord female voice and electronic sounds that is assumed to be a drum machine. In her version the word painting isn’t affective at all. When the ‘Thunder Bolts and Lightning very very frightening” that is very powerful in Queens version, it isn’t so much in Emilie Autumns version due to the lack of a crescendo. Through out this section there is a lack of dramatic volume and seems to just stay at the same volume. At 3.14 is a crescendo but it doesn’t get as much louder as Queens version does. The singing in this version is all done by Emilie Autumn so the different character and chorus are no easily depicted. The Timbre in this section is panicked but it isn’t as effective as the Queens timbre because it lacks the effective dynamics (eg. Crescendo) and different voices. In this section Queen does it better with a more interesting use of an Opera section.

Hard Rock

In the original song, The hard rock section opens with an aggressive timbre guitar riff that lasts four bars in 4/4 with the tempo begin Allegro. After the 4 bars Freddie Mercury begins singing angry lyrics about being betrayed. Most of the lyrics are sung in short triplets notes (“So you think you can stop me and spit in my eyes”, Bar 5 of Hard Rock section on score) with long notes in between but staying within one octave. Apart from the lyrics the instrumentation gives to the dark angst timbre with the electric guitar and drums taking turns to fills in between the lyrics. This section is Homophonic because the melody is Freddie Mercury’s singing with the other instruments accompanying that melody, apart from the first 4 bars that the guitar has the melody and for the last 4 bars with the drums and bass guitar accompanying it. This section is nearly as short at the guitar section.
Emilie Autumns take of the “Hard Rock” section is very similar to the original songs with the use of long notes and triplets and it still being in 4/4 except that its slower than the original and the instrumentation has changed with a female lead in this section along with a chorus (that is all sung by Emilie Autumn), the electric violin that plays the guitar part throughout this song and the drum machine to play the drums. The use of a drum machine in this section take away some of the aggressive feel because it sounds more precise and doesn’t give the same raw sounds that the Drum kit gave in the original song. This section is played slower that in the original song and some of the fills in between lyrics are played on the violin (not electric violin) taking away some of the angst in this section but it has good voice work to covey the emotion of someone that is angry. This version tries to evoke the same timbre as the original, but fails making Queen’s convey the angst feel.

Outro

In the original the Hard Rock section changes smoothly into the Outro because the guitar melody from the hard rock section slowly fades out in this outro section, returning the pacing of this song to the same at the beginning of the song. Its tonality is now in minor but the key signature is still 4/4 and in the key of E Flat but with chromatic chords. Freddie Mercury sings “Nothing really matters” while the piano, Drum kit and bass are accompaniments making this section homophonic. The volume slowly gets quieter through out this section with short, flowing notes within one octave. At the end the gong is played lightly. This section have a very depressing and dull timbre with tells the listener that the protagonist has given up. In Emilie Autumn’s version the ending isn’t as dull as Queen’s because it is still using the electric violin and harpsichord that doesn’t have a depressing sound.

Queen has had a lot of success with Bohemian Rhapsody making it one of the bands most iconic songs. After examining the music it is easy to tell that the original is better than Emilie Autumns. The biggest difference in between both versions is the instrumentation. Emilie Autumn uses violins and harpsichords which creates and interesting version of this song but gives a much different timbre to the instruments in the real song. This in itself has taken away some of the meaning that is conveyed in the original song. Also, the use of dynamics isn’t as powerful in Emilie Autumn’s as shown by examining the Opera section in the middle. It has already been shown that Queen’s song, Bohemian Rhapsody, is going to be remembered because it’s hard to find anyone that doesn’t know this song. By examining in the musical it’s had been proven that in this situations, the original is always the best.