Verse
Here’s the meter within the hypermetric phrase structure of the 2 verses:
5-6-5-5
5-6-5-5
5-6-5-5
5-6-5-6
5-6-5-5
5-6-5-5
5-6-5-5
5-6-5-5
(The numbers denotes the crotchet beats per bar.)
The "extra 6th crotchet" in each hypermetric phrase throws off your counting. It is pretty prominent to the ear as it's heard in the bass as well as the melody. As a result, there's a slight stretch in the middle of each hypermetric phrase. Other than that, the hypermetric beats’re pretty even.
I feel that the “extra 6th crotchet” is deliberate as the melody’s still functional and tuneful even without it. I.e. the 3 crotchets in the 2nd bar of each phrase is brought forward by 1 crotchet beat, resulting in an even quintuple meter throughout. I think this’s also the composer’s way of emphasising the 3-crotchet-note groups in the melody.
Each time you see/hear 3 consecutive crotchets in the piece, the meter’ll change to duple. I hear these 3 notes as an “anacrusis” to the subsequent long melodic note. It isn’t an anacrusis per se as it all takes place within the same melodic/hypermetric phrase. However, if we’re to break the phrase down, we can hear it in 2 fragments, with the 2nd fragment starting with the 3 crotchets. Having that, we get 2 asymmetrical melodic fragments, which can explain for the hypermetric bulge (i.e. the “extra 6th crotchet”) near the middle of each phrase. This phenomenon seems to be further supported by the fact that this extra 6th crotchet is also present in the last bar of the 1st verse but not in that of the 2nd verse. The reason’s probably because the last bar of the 1st verse has a 3-crotchet-note group while that of the 2nd verse doesn’t.
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Nice job laying out the hypermetric structure!
ReplyDeleteThe 6/4 bar does transform the music in musically interesting ways. At the metric level, it changes a metre with unequal beats (1+2++ or 1++2+, as discussed in my comment to your first post) to one with equal beats (1++2++). At the hypermetric level, the effect is the opposite: the 6/4 stretches the second hyperbeat (assuming my preferred 1++2+ reading, that is) such that the hypermeasure now has unequal hyperbeats.
As for the reason for such complications, I believe it is motivated by the text (assuming the text was written first, which of course, is not always the case in pop music): notice that the first word of each 3-crotchet group must be accented?
You’ve noticed the significant difference in the last bar between the two renditions of the verse; this is not so much motivated by the text but the pacing at the formal structural level. At the end of v. 1, the 6/4 in effect delays the entry of v.2 by one crotchet and in so doing, allows v. 2 to enter after a brief moment of metrical stability. At the end of v. 2, perhaps the desire is not to let the tension sag by a 6/4 metre so that the chorus can enter at a more heightened level.
I agree that the complication's also motivated by the text as it definitely sounds like equal emphasis's given to each of the 3 crotchets. On the whole, I still hear the 3-crotchet group as a small build-up to the long note that follows it, sort of like the typical swell you got in each melodic phrase.
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