"We Three Kings of Orient Are"

Last month I was wondering if there were any Christmas songs in minor keys besides "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen."  I suspected "We Three Kings of Orient Are," but when I sat down at my keyboard and played through it, I discovered that it's not that straight-forward.  The verses are in a minor key, but the choruses are in a major key (the relative major of the minor key).

The only recording I have of "We Three Kings of Orient Are" is the Beach Boys' version, so I referenced that and figured out the vocal melody.  Here's the melody for the verses, in F# minor:

And here's the melody for the choruses, in A major:

The minor key doesn't have implications for all of the verses, but for the first (along with the alliterative catalogue of "Field and fountain, moor and mountain"), it suggests the weariness of lengthy travel ("we traverse far... Following yonder star").  The turn to the major key for the chorus almost gives a sense of the joy and enlightenment that the kings receive from the "star of wonder" that "Guide[s] us to the perfect light."

While thinking about the melody, I also realized that its being in 3/4 is significant.  There are three beats in each measure, and the song is about three kings.

Bill Haley & His Comets' What a Crazy Party: The Best of the Decca Years

A couple months ago, I listened to a two Bill Haley albums a few times each: From the Original Master Tapes and What a Crazy Party: The Best of the Decca Years, which contains four original albums alongside some singles (I should note that all of the tracks on From the Original Master Tapes are also on What a Crazy Party).  I found a number of things to write about, but since they're mostly small points, I thought I'd write a post about the collection as a whole.

"Dim, Dim the Lights (I Want Some Atmosphere)"

I actually noticed a couple months ago that the line "Turn down the lights" descends (I think it's E C C# A), as if to match the lowering of the light level, but I didn't think that that alone was significant enough to write a post about.

For what it's worth, the title What a Crazy Party comes from a line in this song.

"Burn That Candle"

At the very end, there's a near quote of Mendelssohn's Wedding March from the incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream (Op. 61).  I probably noticed this quotation before but didn't really think about it.

The phrase at the end of "Burn That Candle" (played on saxophone) is something like:

And here's the phrase from Mendelssohn's Wedding March that it quotes:

[notation found here]

That's just the first violin part, but the same phrase is played on the flutes, oboes, and clarinets.

There are only slight differences between Mendelssohn's phrase and this quotation.  The rhythms are basically the same (the phrase in "Burn That Candle" just turns some of Mendelssohn's quarter notes into pairs of eighth notes), and with the exception of one note (the third in each phrase), the intervals are the same.

Recently, however, I noticed that there's an-other phrase that seems to come from the Wedding March.  After the first chorus and the saxophone solo, there's this five-note phrase:

These are the same four notes that begin the Wedding March quotation at the end, just an octave lower and with the order of two notes (E and D) reversed.

"Hey Then, There Now"

One of the verses ends with the line "Will you be the apple of my eye?" which is a phrase from the Bible.  It's in Psalm 17:8 ("Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings"), but apparently the first instance is Deuteronomy 32:10: "He [God] found him [Jacob] in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye."

"How Many?"

I noticed a couple things about the bridge:

Now there must have been a million
For everywhere you go
You seem so well acquainted
Ev'rybody says hello

The "every-" of "everywhere" is pronounced with three syllables (rather than just two, like the "ev'ry-" of "ev'rybody").  This three-syllable pronunciation provides a sense of the breadth of everywhere.

I also noticed a grammatical ambiguity: for could be understood as preposition or a conjunction.  As a preposition, there's a sense of calculating.  With that parsing, the sentiment is: you've surely known a million guys in each place you've been.  Parsing for as a conjunction provides a reason for positing that "there must been been a million."  It's easier to see the distinction if for is replaced with because:  "Now there must have been a million [guys you know] / Because everywhere you go / You seem so well acquainted."

"Rock Lomond"

The last verse begins with the lines "Now you take the high road / And I'll take the low road."  The "take the high road" ascends (G A B B), and "take the low road" descends (A G E D).  Each phrase is sung to a melody that musically illustrates the height of the road described.

"Rip It Up"

I noticed years ago that the saxophone solo starts with a phrase from "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town."  It's a variation on the melody to which "You better watch out; you better not cry / You better not pout" is sung.

"Skinny Minnie"

The first verse ends with the line "Well, she is the apple of my eye," which - as I mentioned above with "Hey Then, There Now" - is a phrase from the Bible.

The Byrds' "Oh, Susannah"

A month or two ago, I started practicing Stephen Foster's "Oh! Susanna" in my piano book (The Older Beginner Piano Course, Level 2 by James Bastien).  It reminded me of the Byrds' version (with a slightly different title: "Oh, Susannah") on Turn! Turn! Turn!, so I compared the music in my book with the Byrds' recording.

Here's the rhythm as it is in my piano book (I had to squeeze the top line a bit to accommodate the up-beat).  It's in G major in my book, but I transposed it to F major because that's the key the Byrds' version is in:

The Byrds' version alternates between instrumental sections (where the melody is played on twelve-string guitar) and sections that are sung.  There are three of these instrumental sections, and the first and third are the same (the guitar part is, at least), but the second is slightly different.  Here's the notation for the first and third iterations:

Compared to Foster's rhythms, the Byrds' version is more syncopated.  In the third measure in each line, two of Foster's quarter notes are turned into a dotted quarter note followed by an eighth note, and there's a similar shift in rhythm in the second measure of the third line.

That second measure of the third line is the only difference in the second iteration of the instrumental section.  In the first and third iterations, there's a half note tied to an eighth note followed by a second eighth note, but in the second, it's a dotted half note:

In my piano book, the song is played with only three chords (I, IV, and V7), ostensibly because it's a book for beginners.  The Byrds' version of "Oh, Susannah," however, involves six chords (played only during the sections that are sung):

F major | A minor | D minor | G major
F major | A minor | D minor | G major | F major
Bb major | F major | C major
F major | A minor | D minor | G major | F major

The coda is Bb major to F major.

Peter & Gordon's "I Don't Want to See You Again"

I recently learned the chords for Peter & Gordon's "I Don't Want to See You Again" (credited to Lennon-McCartney although apparently written by McCartney alone) and I found some connections between the lyrics and certain chords.

Here's the chord progression (with - as always - the disclaimer that I might have something wrong):

Introduction
C minor | G major

Verses
G major | B minor | C minor | D major
G major | B minor | C minor | G major

Bridge
|: C major | G major :| E minor
A minor | B major | E minor
A minor | D major

The song is in G major, so that C minor chord (with its Eb accidental) is an outlier.  Most of the titular line (all but the last syllable of "again") is sung above this C minor, so there's a musical tension attached to this sentiment.  Furthermore, one of the vocal melodies sings "I don't want to see" to an A note.  Combined with the Eb in the C minor chord, this forms a tritone, a dissonant feature that adds to the musical strain.

This odd C minor is also the chord beneath the phrase "Something wrong."  The foreign tonality demonstrates the "something wrong."  The second half of this line is "could be right," and the chord progression moves to a D major.  Since D major is the dominant chord in G major, the "right"ness of tonality is restored.

The beginning of the bridge alternates between C major and G major chords, but at "day" in "You hid the light of day," the progression moves to E minor.  The sadness associated with minor chords connects to the loss of "the light of day" mentioned in the lyrics.