Form as Harmony in Rock Music (Oxford Studies in Music Theory)

Overturning the inherited belief that popular music is unrefined, Form as Harmony in Rock Music brings the process-based approach of classical theorists to popular music scholarship. Author Drew Nobile offers the first comprehensive theory of form for 1960s, 70s, and 80s classic rock repertoire, showing how songs in this genre are not simply a series of discrete elements, but rather exhibit cohesive formal-harmonic structures across their entire timespan. Though many elements contribute to the cohesion of a song, the rock music of these decades is built around a fundamentally harmonic backdrop, giving rise to distinct types of verses, choruses, and bridges. Nobile's rigorous but readable theoretical analysis demonstrates how artists from Bob Dylan to Stevie Wonder to Madonna consistently turn to the same compositional structures throughout rock's various genres and decades, unifying them under a single musical style. Using over 200 transcriptions, graphs, and form charts, Form as Harmony in Rock Music advocates a structural approach to rock analysis, revealing essential features of this style that would otherwise remain below our conscious awareness. "There's a moment in Janis Joplin's rendition of "Piece of My Heart" that anyone who has heard the song even once will recall vividly. I'm referring of course to Joplin's explosive cry of "take it!" about a minute in, right at the beginning of the chorus. This moment seems to embody all of rock's essential elements: freedom, power, personal expression, heartache, rebellion, etc. But that moment, iconic as it is, is more than a moment. Its strength is completely lost if we remove it from its musical context. Imagine playing someone just that second or two of music and expecting an emotional reaction you will more likely be met with bewilderment than excitement. The powerful effect of Joplin's cry derives as much from the material surrounding it as from what happens at that particular point in time. To understand that moment we must therefore consider it in relation to the song's organization as a whole. That central question how a song is organized in time underlies the concept of mu sical form. Form is often presented in opposition to content, the latter referring to more tangible musical elements such as notes and rhythms. The two are not so easily separated, though; as the "Piece of My Heart" example attests, we perceive content through the lens of form, each moment's meaning dependent on its role within the song's temporal organization. Music builds its communicative capacity upon its formal foundation; studying form is thus not a matter of zooming in on one particular musical aspect, but rather sets the stage for understanding all of a song's various expressive elements. Form, in other words, is the gateway to interpretation. This book offers a comprehensive theory of form in rock music. My basic premise is that rock songs are cohesive entities, gradually unfolding through time a unified musical structure. Their formal components are not merely discrete elements arranged in succession but interdependent, dialogic utterances, each fulfilling a particular role i n relation to the whole. Seen this way, rock form is inherently a process, an active, temporal journey, not a series of musical containers; "a self-realizing verb, unspooling itself through time, not a static noun," as James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy put it (2006, 616). In other words, form is something a song does, not something it is. A conception of form as process underlies much contemporary discussion of classical form (Schmalfeldt 2011, Hepokoski and Darcy 2006, Caplin 1998); discussions of form in rock, though, tend toward an object-oriented approach, focusing on dividing a song into labeled sections rather than describing its temporal development.1 Rock-oriented studies that reflect a more processual approach, such as Robin Attas's 2015 article on buildup introductions and Allan Moore's 2012 monograph Song Means, generally eschew large-scale thinking in favour of moment-to-moment interpretations; Moore specifically states that he \see[s] little to be gained from [discussing mo re global formal terms] . . . it implies a `god's-eye perspective,' which does not seem to be part of the popular song experience, where what matters is exactly where one is at a particular point in time" (84). I do not believe a focus on process is incompatible with large-scale thinking, though. My aim in this book is to bring a process-based approach to the study of rock's large-scale structures"-- Provided by publisher Cover Half Title Page Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents About the CompanionWebsite Note on theMusical Examples Introduction 1 Harmonic Syntax Category, Prediction, Syntax:Three Views of Harmonic Function The Functional Circuit Tonic Function Pre-Dominant Function Dominant Function Cadence and Closure Summary 2 Verses Sectional Verses as Periods Sectional Verses as Srdc Sectional Verses as Small aaba Sectional Verses with Blues Progressions Refrains Initiating Verses 3 Choruses Identifying Choruses Sectional Choruses Continuation Choruses Telos Choruses Chorus Types: Summary 4 Prechoruses, Bridges, and Auxiliary Sections Prechoruses Bridges Solos and Instrumental Breaks Other Auxiliary Passages Formal Layout versus Formal Process 5 AABA and Strophic Forms Verses in AABA and Strophic Forms Large-Scale Trajectories Issues in AABA Form 6 Sectional Verse–Chorus Verse–Chorus Forms Sectional Verse–Chorus Form Sectional Verse + Sectional Chorus Initiating Verse + Sectional Chorus Verse and Chorus in Different Keys Initiating Verse + Telos Chorus Bridges and Full-Song Layouts 7 Continuous Verse–Chorus Initiating Verse + Continuation Chorus Expansions Sectional Verse + Continuation Chorus Large-Scale Trajectory 8 Verse–Prechorus–Chorus Initiating Verse + Prechorus + Telos Chorus Phrase Rhythm Verse-Prechorus Fusion Verse–Prechorus–Chorus Form with Sectional Chorus Verse–Prechorus–Chorus Form with Continuation Chorus Full-Song Layouts Conclusion Looking Ahead Acknowledgments Bibliography Song Index by Artist Song Index by Title Subject Index Overturning the inherited belief that popular music is unrefined, Form as Harmony in Rock Music brings the process-based approach of classical theorists to popular music scholarship. Author Drew Nobile offers the first comprehensive theory of form for 1960s, 70s, and 80s classic rock repertoire, showing how songs in this genre are not simply a series of discrete elements, but rather exhibit cohesive formal-harmonic structures across their entire timespan.0Though many elements contribute to the cohesion of a song, the rock music of these decades is built around a fundamentally harmonic backdrop, giving rise to distinct types of verses, choruses, and bridges. Nobile's rigorous but readable theoretical analysis demonstrates how artists from Bob Dylan to Stevie Wonder to Madonna consistently turn to the same compositional structures throughout rock's various genres and decades, unifying them under a single musical style. Using over 200 transcriptions, graphs, and form charts, Form as Harmony in Rock Music advocates a structural approach to rock analysis, revealing essential features of this style that would otherwise remain below our conscious awareness Form as Harmony in Rock Music investigates the formal-harmonic structures of classic rock of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, demonstrating how artists across decades and genres have unified under similar compositional structures and a single musical style.