张惠妹 - 我无所谓 (Prelude)

(Blog) analysis assignment 2 for Dr. Chong. On hindsight, perhaps I should've used the piece in the first blog assignment for this instead...haha.

I'd trouble settling on which song to analyze as certain criteria (e.g. common-tone modulations) should preferably be met. Had wanted to do another Final Fantasy piece, Liberi Fatali, but I couldn't make sense of the harmony.

And so began the rummaging through of scores my sister and I have at home. After a quick-analysis of a few scores, a certain algorithm'd been formulated mentally:

1. Look out for unexpected accidentals. If there's a change in key signature, good. If new key is in the Neapolitan key, even better.

2. Analyse the chords used for the modulation.

3. If unable to explain, go on to next score.

This went on to no avail until I happened to hear 那英 - 相见不如怀念 played on the radio while I was driving home one night. The underlying harmony sounded "promising" but upon closer inspection, it wasn't what I was looking for. I then decided to go through some of my Chinese songs. Was about to settle on 孙燕姿 - 我要的幸福 as it'd a quintuple meter in general. I'd the score too but it didn't have the harmonic interests which I was looking out for.

I decided to listen through even more Chinese songs and realized that many of them feature a modulation to the Neapolitan key at the last reprise of the chorus. Then I settled on 2 songs:

1. 成龙, 李宗盛, 周华健 & 黄耀明 - 真心英雄

2. 张惠妹 - 我无所谓

Both'd the Neapolitan modulation that I was looking for. The first song's pretty straightforward but it's the second one with more harmonic intricacies.

The next problem was the score. It's really tough to find scores for Chinese pop songs! (Or at least I was incredibly bad at doing so.) Stumbled upon PoPiano in the midst of searching but the scores were full of errors! The score I'd downloaded actually had the Neapolitan modulation transcribed as a supertonic modulation. Hence began the tedious job of transcribing.

张惠妹 - 我无所谓 (MV)

Here's the music video of the song:



And for some of you who find it familiar-sounding, it may be due to the fact that this's the theme song to one of Channel 8's blockbuster drama back in 1997, 《长河》 (Rising Expectations). This should bring back memories:



Here's my attempt at transcribing the piece:

Here's also the URL to the accompaniment for the piece.

张惠妹 - 我无所谓 (Chord Analysis)

Common tones

Interestingly, this piece modulates entirely through the use of common tones. Modulation occurs only in the introduction, the bridge and the last phrase of the final chorus.

In the introduction and the bridge, the piece modulates between C major and A-flat major but the pivot notes for the common-tone modulation differs in both sections. In the introduction, the tonic of C major (C-note) acts as the pivot note while in the bridge, the leading note of A-flat major (G-note) acts as the pivot note instead. The composer does it very effectively and seemlessly, making these sections sound tonally fluid. More will be discussed in the harmonic analysis.

For the last phrase of the final chorus, the piece modulates to its Neapolitan (flattened supertonic) key. This is done using a common-tone Ger

6
5 . The augmented 6th chord can enharmonically respelt as a V7 of D-flat major, thus acting a pivot chord for this modulation.

Such a modulation usually occurs during the final chorus of Chinese pop songs. As such, it also signifies that the music is coming to an end. This is a common phenomenon in Chinese pop songs, especially those with rock elements, as it literally ramps up the intensity of the music.

Some songs go to the extent of modulating twice in this manner at the end. For example, in the song 《真心英雄》 (translated as “True Heroes”), a song sung by 成龙 (Jackie Chan), 李宗盛 (Jonathan Lee) , 周华健 (Emil Chau) and 黄耀明 (Anthony Wong) in a charity show, such a move is justified as it effectively roused the (live and television) audience, in attempt to garner more telephone donations.

Dissonances

As with most pop songs, this piece makes use of extended tertian chords. The 9th-chord is used more frequently. It appears in every section except the bridge.

The dissonances are always prepared (either by syncopation or approached by step) though the preparation may occur is a different voice. Furthermore, dissonances do not always resolve (e.g. bar 26³ and the final bar).

Bassline

The piece generally has a very smooth bassline. This is achieved through the use of chromatic harmonies (e.g. #iv° in bar 19³) , passing

6
4 s or

4
2 s.

张惠妹 - 我无所谓 (Harmonic Phrase Analysis)

Harmonically open

As illustrated in the analysis, we will notice that the music is harmonically open most of the time. We almost never hear a perfect cadence. The tonic is almost never used at the end of each harmonic phrase. The closest we get is a tonic substitute. The composer seems to deliberately avoid using a perfect cadence. The only time we hear the tonic at the end of a harmonic phrase, is right at the end. Even then, we do not get a perfect cadence but a plagal cadence. Furthermore, the wavering of the 9-8 in the last bar does tickle the listeners’ heart as it reminds us of the harmonically-open nature of the music.

Tonal fluidity

As mentioned earlier in the chord analysis, the music sounds tonally fluid in the introduction and bridge sections. Personally, this piece fills me with uncertainty and anticipation as I never will be sure where the music is heading to. The composer establishes this fluidity right at the beginning, setting the sombre mood of the music which describes the melancholy of a broken heart.

The harmony at the opening of a piece usually establishes the tonic of a key but we do not see that in the introduction of this piece. It starts with a predominant in C major and just as we are expecting the dominant, it modulates to A-flat major and cadences in the new tonic. However, this new tonic does not get established but immediately modulates back to C major instead. We still do not hear a tonic in C major but we do have a strong imperfect cadence (with the dominant 7th) in C major, which leads us to the tonic at the start of the next section.

We see a similar situation in the bridge section. The dominant in A-flat major can be heard as an accented incomplete neighbour due to unstable nature of the
4
2 chord. We expect a tonic (I6) after that but instead, we get a substitute, which modulates back to C major.

Plagal nature

Another reason for the tonal uncertainty in the music is due to the prominent use of the subdominant chord (of C major):

1. The piece starts off with the subdominant – an uncommon trait.

2. The verse starts with a plagal expansion and ends with the subdominant.

3. The final chord of the chorus is usually the subdominant.

4. The piece ends off with a plagal cadence.

张惠妹 - 我无所谓 (Melodic Phrase Structure)

Regularities

The verse, pre-chorus and chorus sections have a more regular phrase structure.

The pre-chorus section has a sentence structure, with a sequence in the first 2 “short” phrases.

A double period phrase structure outlines the verse sections but the consequent period does not end in a perfect cadence. Hence, I have labelled them as phrase groups instead.

The phrase structure for the chorus section is an amalgamation of the verse and pre-chorus sections. It seems to follow a simple period structure, with a sentence structure embedded within each phrase. There also seems to be another layer of sentence structure embedded within the second “short” phrase of each sentence within the simple period. However, like the verse section, the consequent phrase does not end in a perfect cadence. Hence, I have labelled it as a phrase group too.

Irregularities

The introduction and bridge sections are quite abnormal in terms of conventional phrase structures.

The introduction has an asymmetrical phrase structure. The antecedent phrase is 3-bars long while the consequent phrase is 5-bars long. A sentence structure is embedded within the consequent phrase but the “long” phrase is extended by a bar by stretching the length of the suspension in the harmony. On the whole, this seem to suggest a simple period structure too but the consequent phrase does not end in a perfect cadence. Hence, I have labelled it as a phrase group too.

Another phrase extension occurs in the second phrase of the final chorus section. The phrase extension is to accommodate the common-tone augmented-6th chord.

The final chorus section has its consequent phrase repeated, hence creating a 3-phrase long phrase group.

On top of phrase extensions, there are a number of phrase overlaps in this piece. Some of these overlaps cause some irregularities in terms of the length of each phrase:

1. The final bar of the chorus section overlaps with the first bar of the bridge section.

2. Similarly, the final bar of the final chorus section overlaps with the first bar of the outro.

3. The bridge section has a phrase overlap in the 3rd bar of the section.

The bridge section, like the introduction, has an assymetrical phrase structure but with a phrase overlap. Both phrases do not have a antecedent-consequent relationship and thus, I have labelled them as a phrase group.

Hypermeter

The hypermeter of the piece is generally regular. However, there are some anomalies:

1. In the introduction, due to the assymetric phrase structure, the hypermetric down beats land on bars 1 and 4.

2. The hypermetric phrase is shortened at places where phrase overlap occurs, such as the final phrase of all chorus sections.

On the whole, the piece does not follow the conventional 8-hypermetric-phrase (32-bars) structure for its verse sections. Instead, the verse is 2-hypermetric-phrase long and the pre-chorus is 1-hypermetric-phrase long, making it a total of 3 hypermetric phrases in length. However, the chorus sections generally follow that structure, but with a shortening of the final phrase.