Climb Ev'ry Mountain (from The Sound of Music)
14 years ago
Monday, September 28, 2009
Chord progressions and harmonic functions are also written in the score. :)
Chord progression
1. There is no modulation or key changes in this pieces. It remains in G major.
2. Bar 1 to bar 3: It is the introduction of the music by using chord I.
3. Bar 4 to bar 7: There are only 4 chords used in this sentence, I-vi -IV-V.
4. Bar 12 to bar 19: The same 4 chords are used in this simple period, I-vi -IV-V.
5.Bar 20 to bar 28: There are 8 bars in this phrase, which ends with a imperfect cadence (ii - V ).
6. Bar 28 to bar 37: The same chord progression are repeated in this phrase but ended with a perfect cadence.
Harmonic Function
1. The harmonic function for this phrase is tonic (bar 4 to bar 6) - predominant (bar 7 to bar 10) - dominant (bar 11 and bar 12). The predominant harmonic function is extended with 2 chords, chord vi and chord IV.
2. Bar 13 to bar 19: The harmonic function for this phrase is the same as the previous period.
3. Bar 20 to bar 28: The harmonic function for this phrase is tonic (bar 20 to bar 22) - predominant (bar 23 to bar 27) - dominant (bar 28). The predominant harmonic function is extended with a few chords, chord vi, chord IV, chord iii, chord vi and chord ii.
4. Bar 28 to bar 37: The same harmonic function are repeated in this phrase but ended with a tonic.
Phrase Structure
1. From bar 4 to bar 7, it forms a 4 bar phrase while from bar 8 to bar 11 is another 4 bar phrase which both have the same sequence. Both phrases (antecedent phrase and consequent phrase) forms a simple period.
2. From bar 12 to bar 15, it is a repetition of bar 4 to bar 7, which is also an antecedent phrase. From bar 16 to bar 19, it is a consequent phrase. Another simple period is formed.
3. From bar 4 to bar 19, it is a double period.
4. From bar 20 to bar 37, it is the chorus of the song which forms a simple period. From bar 20 to 28 is an antecedent phrase while from bar 28 to bar 37 is a consequent phrase.
5. From bar 20 to bar 28, it is a short-short-long subdivision. From bar 20 to bar 22, it is a short subphrase and from bar 22 to bar 25 is another repeated short subphrase. From bar 24 to bar 28 consists a shorter short-short-long subdivision, which forms a long subphrase.
Hypermetre
The hypermetric structure is the same as the phrase structure. The standard 4 bars forms a phrase with typical strong (bar 1),weak (bar 2), medium (bar 3) and weak (bar 4). The standard 8 bars then forms a simple period. There is no much surprise of hypermetre in this song.
I am quite impressed that this nice song is not that difficult to compose after analysed. Well done, Jay Chow!! ( Don't think he will see this.)
Enjoy the song ya! :)
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I'm not sure if I'm right but I'm wondering whether the G from Bars 1-20 (just before the Chorus) can be seen as a Tonic Pedal. Though it is always replaced with another note in the second half of the bar(either F or A) but because of the sheer number of bars the G appears repeatedly in, the sound continues to resonate in our minds despite interruptions by F and A. Also F and A note may be seen as neighbor notes to the G tonic pedal. The G note remains in the tenor voice despite changes in the chords and the chords and the bass. The tonic pedal then returns immediately after the chorus ends in Bar 37 thus, in a way, it can be seen as a characteristic of the stanzas, clearing dividing between stanza and Chorus.
There are quite a number of suspensions in the song. In the chorus, Jay used 4-3 suspensions at the end of his short-short-long structures. All the short phrases from Bars 22 and 24, the suspended note was tied to a note in the bar before. But suspended notes in bars 25 and 26 were not prepared with the usual tie. Instead it is being prepared by a repeated note the bar before. The 4-3 suspensions helped to drag the melody to maintain consistency for all subphrases to start on an off-beat. Only 2 suspensions were used in the subseqent sentence structure (Bars 28-37) - one at the end of the first short (Bar 30) and one at the end of the long (Bar 37). The offbeat characteristic was maintained in this sentence via anticipated notes(Bar 32,33,34).
Yup! I guess that’s all I had to say! It’s a nice song. :) Thanks for posting!
The first suspension used after the first Short is actually a 9-8 suspension(instead of 4-3 mentioned above), whereas the second suspension at the end of the second Short is a 4-3 suspension. In the Long part of the sentence, i think the chord vi you used before chord ii should actually be a chord tonicizing chord ii (i.e. V7/ii). I guess the composer used a V7/ii chord here to tonicize the ii, creating that temporary tonic, to signal the end of the sentence structure.
For the subsequent sentence structure from Bars 28 to 37, only 2 suspensions are used -> a 9-8 suspension in Bar 30 and a 4-3 suspension in Bar 37.
Thanks for pointing out the suspensions.
I do not know what is "stanza". So I went to google search. Wikipedia has the explanation. A stanza is also a verse, which has two or more sections of the song have basically identical music and different lyrics. By thi definition, I think it is right to say bars 4 to 20 is a verse. I have learnt another new term. :)