Don't you think all these CD's we have to listen to should be tax deductible? I mean it's very important to study what's going on, not only from a lyrical standpoint and a harmonic standpoint or even a melodic standpoint. But have you also listened to that little thing called "the rhythm of the melody"?
I used to have a friend who would tap out rhythms on my arm and see if I could guess the melody. Sometimes, it would be so distinctive, I could. Try tapping out the melody to "As Time Goes By," on someone's arm and see if he/she can guess it. Or "America" from West Side Story. If your friends give up, hum it for them without words and they'll hit their heads like someone in a V-8 commercial. The truth is, in both of these old songs, the rhythm is very distinctive. But it's also true of most songs that the rhythm of the melody is as important to its personality as facial features are to a person's appearance. It just seems to be the part of melody that gets discussed the least.
It's an interesting exercise to spend a week listening only to rhythm of melody. Whenever the radio is on, or a CD, hone in on that one facet. See where the melody starts in relation to the count of "one." See if it's relatively on the beat or on an "and" or an "oh" as in "3-oh-and-uh" --in other words, syncopated. See if the verse differs from the chorus in this regard. Never mind the shape of the melody or its interaction with the chords right now, we're just listening for the rhythm of the notes that are sung.
Consider the song mentioned above, "As Time Goes By." The subtle syncopation is so nice in the phrases that repeat. "You must remember this," sets up the sequence that repeats rhythmically and even though they're on different scale degrees over different chords, the rhythm of that melody is the same through three phrases--actually four, but on the fourth, it's added to. So the rhythm of "You must remember this" is identical to "a kiss is still a kiss" as is the rhythm to "a sigh is just a sigh." Then when we get to "The fundamental things," the phrase continues and adds beats. Of course, the writer (Herman Hupfeld) didn't think this mathematically when it was written, but when we analyze songs to figure out what was done instinctively, it sometimes gets mathematical.
Melody rhythm can make a song sound either hip and soulful or straight and goofus. There's nothing that points up more clearly the difference between a hip rhythm and a dorky one than hearing a bad piped-in music rendition of a well-known song. You know, the kind that sounds like a nerd quantized it. Shopping can become a frightening experience when you suddenly hear a Michael Jackson tune arranged like a polka. (Imagine a Lawrence Welk rendition of "Bad" and you're starting to get the picture.) So when you ask yourself what is it that makes a totally cool melody into something you'd be embarrassed to be associated with, when the notes are identical in pitch: it's the rhythm of the melody. I've actually had people play me versions of my own songs that so radically changed the rhythm of the melody, that it seemed like a Halloween costume version of what I considered to be a designer garment. And they'd turn to me and say, "You wrote that, right?" And I'd really want to say, "No, I wrote something that sounds a little like that, but what I wrote goes like this."
Because this element in melody frequently goes unexplored or unacknowledged, people can be deaf to it and not know it. They can sing your song and change the rhythm of the melody drastically and think they're doing their version of it. Now, sometimes they can do their version of it, changing it and it's still great. Nancy Wilson recently recorded something of mine and I loved what she did. But she's a master.
Rhythm and feel and style are so intricately bound up that it's hard to talk about rhythm without dividing it into styles. But if you want to study rhythm of melody all in one album, you can get the Annie Lennox "Medusa" CD. She has songs by writers as divergent in styles as Neil Young and Al Green, Paul Simon and Bob Marley. Listen to the verse melody on the Green/Hodges tune"Take Me To The River," and compare it to the pre-chorus melody and the chorus melody. They're totally different, and yet each one is wonderful. The rhythm of all melodic sections vary tremendously. Of course, doing this drill with one of Annie's CD's is a pleasure because she's such a wonderful interpreter, whether she's singing her own incredible songs as on the "Diva" CD or other people's, as she does on the new "Medusa."
So if you get an IRS auditor who complains that you're deducting all these CD's as research, you should explain that you're investigating the rhythm of melody. After all, just 'cause it's pleasurable doesn't mean it isn't work.
© 1995 Harriet Schock
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