Need of Musical Analysis for 'Stay With Me' (Sam Smith) (1 Viewer)

DrSwegway

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Hello my fellow online peers,

I do Music 1 and I have been given an assessment that asks me to make a powerpoint on our chosen piece for a performance assessment the week following the due date. In our powerpoint we must outline the elements of our chosen piece for the 6 concepts of music; Pitch, Duration, Tone Colour, Texture, Structure and Dynamics (Expressive Techniques).

My chosen piece is 'Stay With Me' by Sam Smith. If someone could possibly help me by giving me some notes on that it would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You,
James A Smith.
 

Kittyrules

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im not sure what the song is, and i dont do hsc music, but i am very interested in it, and did music for a while ... and know what those words mean, so i can give you some tips, but not full-on analysis

pitch - talk about how high/low the different parts are. what instruments are used, and are they playing their whole range, or just some parts of it? how does this make the listener feel? (i.e high = airy, light)

duration - what sort of notes are used in the different parts? quavers? semi-quavers? what is the effect of this (i.e long notes held over many bars (lol forgot what they're called!) = drone, serious, dark, solemn). How long is each section of the song? What does this mean? how fast is it, and what effect does it add (i.e allegro= energetic, lively, happy)

Tone Colour - this is the easiest in my opinion... basically just use any old adjectives to talk about the music and the instruments. like rough guitar, klangy (idk lol) piano, bouncy clarinet, sweet voice, hollow xylaphone etc.

Texture - this is the most interesting imo. how many layers are there to the music? How many parts? ist is homophonic, polyphonic (are there two melody lines, or do all the instruments play the melody, or do some play melody, and others the accompinament?). What effect does this create? (i.e polyphonic = very busy, confuses the listener, very full sound)

Structure - This is where you talk about ABA, ABCB, exposition development bridge etc. if its a song, you would talk about the lyrics here i think, and the rhyming structure, and the order of the verses and the bridge etc. Why is a certain part repeated? How does the melody change from verse to verse?

Dynamics (expressive techniques) - is about the crescendos and tenutos and pauses and all those squiggles you see on the music. You sjould talk about how they accentuate parts of the music (maybe how they accentuate particular lyrics or words?). Are the changes subtle or explicit? Why is this so, and what effect does it have? What effects are used on particular instruments, e.g on a guitar you can slide and hammer on strings, while on a piano you can't.

I hope that helps you in some way! Just try and answer the questions that i put in there with your song in context, and then talk about the effect this puts on the listener. Talk about the roles the instruments play and how they create meaning. Sort of like english, but with musical techniques!
Have fun :D
(if it seriously did, it would be nice if you could press the small star icon in the corner to give me some rep :))
 

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