2009-10-18T12:25:00.001-07:00

My choice of song is Heal the World by 'King of Pop' Michael Jackson. I got addicted to it for quite a while the first time I heard it over the radio.

(First 3 pages of scores, 7 pages in total)

Written and Composed by Michael Jackson
Prelude by Marty Paich
Orchestra arranged and conducted by Marty Paich
Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDTofU6ImOk

Background Information

"Heal the World" is a song from, Michael Jackson's hit album, Dangerous, released in 1991. The music video features children living in countries suffering from unrest, and is about his hope for a better world for human children. Jackson performed the song in the Super Bowl XXVII halftime show with a majestic 35,000 person flash card performance.

This song was used as one of the ensemble performances to close Jackson's memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 7, 2009.

Keys and Modulation

The piece starts out in A major and modulates to D major at the Bridge. It then modulates to Bmajor at the 2nd Chorus. When the Chorus is repeated as Chorus 3, it is then transposed one key up, modulating to C#major. Thereafter, the song remains and ends in C#major.

Phrase Structure

There is evidence of the 'simple period' structure in the verse. As marked out in the scores above, the first antecedent phrase entails the lyrics "There's a place...know that it is love". (Bars 12-14) The consequent phrase consists of the lyrics "And this place... brighter than tomorrow". (Bars 14-16) Within the antecedent phrase, there is a 'sentence' structure. "There's a place" is the 'short' subphrase, "in your heart" another 'short' subphrase and "and I know that it is love" is the long subphrase.

The chorus is of a 'simple period' structure. However, its difference from the verse is that both the antecedent and the consequent phrases are of the 'sentence' structure. (Refer to markings in scores.) The consequent phrase of the chorus ends with a perfect cadence V---I.

The sentence structure of the chorus is as follows:

Antecedent Phrase

Short: Heal the world
Short: Make it a better place
Long: for you and for me and the entire human race

Consequent Phrase

Short: There are people dying
Short: if you care enough for the living
Long: make a better place for you and for me

Chord Progression

Verse:
(Em9 A Bm7 C#m7 Em9 ) x4

Pre-chorus:
Bm7 C#m7 D C#m7 Bm7 Em9

Chorus 1:
A Bm7 Em9 A C#m7 F#m C#m7 D C#m7 Bm7 Em9 A

Bridge:
G A G A F#m G#m D C#m Bm7

Chorus 2:
B C#m7 B D#m7 G#m D#m7 E D#m7 F#m9 B

Chorus 3:
C# D#m7 C# E#m7 A#m E#m7 F# E#m7 G#m9 C#

Harmonic Analysis

Michael Jackson features chordal seventh chords prominently throughout the song and this is probably the reason for the groove of his music--the unresolved sevenths above the root provide the forward melodic drive of the music as they do not get resolved downwards but instead serves to add colour to the harmony. This is characteristic of modern pop music where even suspensions may not have preparations or resolutions.

For the verse(which is in Amajor), the Roman numerals are repetitive and are basically
I-- ii7-- iii7--- (V9)

For the bridge,
The chords are in D major and are namely
IV-- V-- IV-- V--
vi-- vii7--IV-- iii7-- (V9)

Michael Jackson(MJ) uses a very interesting chord, to the guitarist, the Bm7/E. (This is marked out in the scores above in bar 12, 14, 16, 18 etc.) It may seem like a ii7 chord at first but it is in fact, a chord V9 employing an unprepared and unresolved suspension note A. This non-harmonic tone A belongs to the next chord (chord I) and could be used to introduce the next chord. MJ might also have intended this displacement to give it more of a crunchy dissonant sound, and to add colour to the harmony.
This chord V9 is also similar when the song transposes to Bmajor and C#major in chorus 2 and 3 respectively.

This feature and his chord progressions are rather unusual and are characteristics of modern pop music. The rate of change of chords is also very fast compared to classical tonal pieces.

Other Interesting Harmonic Features

In the prelude(written byMarty Paick), it is interesting to observe that all the chords until the start of the verse contain an A note. This is for the chords to achieve a sense of unity in the main A major key. The A maj7 chord especially, provides a 'fleeting and misty' atmosphere that is pleasing to the ear in the harmonic sense.

When the music transposed up one key from Chorus 2 to Chorus 3, the composer did this to heighten the overall atmosphere, to create a more majestic feel. This further stresses and emphasises Michael Jackson's call to people out there to 'Heal the world'.

Personal Insights about Pop song analysis

Through analysing pop songs, I learnt not only the stark contrasts between classical tonal music and pop music but also the similarities. No matter how unrestricted modern pop songs are in terms of their harmonic functions, they cannot escape the very fundamental essence of cadences, albeit having their own form of cadential moments and not the standard cadences found in classical music.

Initially, I was confused between the guitar chords indicated with a '/' for the respective bass notes and how to go about doing harmonic analysis for the pop music. It is now interesting to note that guitar chords are just like figured bass, in the sense that they indicate how the musician should perform. In the case of the guitar, the chords help the guitarist to discern the chords(with bass notes) and hence the fingerings etc. Similarly, figured bass gives musicians(especially Baroque musicians) directions to improvise in the intended chords.

All in all, doing harmonic analysis for pop songs requires us to analyse the chords in the music just like how we would in Dr Chong's music analysis class. We are required to use our aural skills and ''ear'' and be especially sensitive to the music.

2009-08-29T12:36:00.001-07:00

My AAI102 blog. (:

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