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Review Musical Forms

• 12-bar blues
• AABA
• I-vi-IV-V
• through-composed
• strophic - e.g., church hymn or folk song... strophic form typically used by folk singers

strophic form - a strophic form is one in which the musical sections repeat over and over throughout the duration of the song, while the lyrics change; the vast majority of folk and folk rock songs fit into this form, as do most of the examples below. The way in which the music varies within each strophe (verse) varies from song to song, as demonstrated below.

Macrostructure vs. Microstructure

• macrostructure: larger form elements (like sections of a song or composition: verse, chorus, bridge, etc.) ... labeled using uppercase letters (A, B, C, ...)
• microstructure: small sections within the macrostructure (phrases, subsections, etc.) ... labeled using lowercase letters (a, b, c, ...)

Strophic Forms

• for all songs below, the macrostructure is "strophic" ... it is the microstructure where the musical variation occurs

• Blowin' in the Wind

  (#2 hit for Peter, Paul & Mary; Dylan's version didn't hit the charts)

  

16-bar stroph ... "aaab" inner form

(290K)

A - How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?

A - Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?

A - Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannonballs fly before they're forever banned?

B - The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind, the answer is blowin' in the wind.

 

Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

Dylan "love song"

• sarcastic tone - "You just kinda wasted my precious time, but don't think twice, it's all right."

outer form is also strophic, using an "aabc" inner form

(173K)

first 2 phrases divide into two subphrases: "It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe ... If'n you don't matter anyhow."

My Back Pages

repudiates the self-assured, protesting stance of his earlier recordings (p. 190 in text)

6 stanzas all set to the same music; "aaab"

(186K)

Variations of strophic form:

Positively Fourth Street

(#7, 1965)

12 short stanzas made up of two 4-bar phrases (ab)

(266K)

 

 

The Times They Are a-Changin'

• triple meter
• six lines rather than the typical four 4-bar phrases
• 1st & 3rd lines of each stanza are 5-bars long!!

a	Come Senators, Congressmen, please heed the call (5 bars) Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall.(4 bars)
a	For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled (5 bars) There's a battle outside and it is ragin'.(4 bars)
b	It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls, (4 bars) For the times they are a-changin'. (4 bars)

(162K)

 

Blues-based forms

Rainy Day Women #12 & #35

(#2, 1966) - highest charting single of his career ... his one other #2 song was "Like a Rolling Stone"

12-bar blues - all five stanzas

what is the meaning of the word "stone"? ... high on drugs? persecuted?

Subterranean Homesick Blues

(#39, 1965)

variation of the 16-bar blues (measures in red represent modification of the typical 12-bar blues form):

       ||: I  |     |     |     |

        |  I  |     |     |     |

        | IV  |     |  I  |     |     |     |

        |  V  |     |  I  |    :||

Verse-Chorus forms:

verses - same (similar) music with different words

chorus - words & music always the same

Like a Rolling Stone

(#2, 1965) - features Al Kooper (of Blood, Sweat, & Tears) on organ

• verse: five 4-measure phrases ("aabcd")
• chorus: usually three 4-bar phrases (skips one subphrase after 1st verse)

(702K)

 

Mr. Tambourine Man

#1 hit for The Byrds in 1965 ... Dylan's version didn't chart

• chorus - always 16-bars (four 4-bar phrases)
• verses
  • 20-bar verse structure - 16-bar form (four 4-bar phrases), extending the 1st & 3rd lines repeat the 2nd subphrase (2-bars) with new words
  • 2nd verse repeats subphrase of 1st line three times ... each time with new words (total of 24 bars)
  • 3rd verse extended to 26 measures
  • 4th verse extended to 32 measures

Dylan uses verse-chorus & 12-bar blues (infrequently), but strophic form prevails

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