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Expanded & Irregular Forms
Organization of the Beatles' songs were more complex than most preceding rock
music, which was typically in very symmetrical forms based on 8-, 12-, or 16-bar phrases
- "Hound Dog" by Elvis Presley
- 12-bar blues form, divided into three vocal phrases (aab) that are 4 bars each
- "I'm Walkin'" by Fats Domino
- AABA form with each section consistently 8-bars in length
- "Venus" by Frankie Avalon
- AABABA with consistent 8-bar sections
- "Runaround Sue" by Dion & the Belmonts
- I-vi-IV-V progression, in consistent 8-bar phrases (even the two brief sections that are not I-vi-IV-V)
Messing with the symmetry (slightly)
- "Great Balls of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis
- also an AABA, but while the A sections are 8 bars, the B section extends to 12 bars
- "All I Have to Do is Dream" by the Everly Brothers
- AABA made up of 8-bar sections (after brief 4-bar intro) ... midway through a 2-bar insertion occurs
- with some notable exceptions ("Yer Blues" and "Birthday," for example), during their later period, the Beatles avoided the typical 12-bar blues & AABA form
of most early rock
- in music by the Beatles (even music of their early period), phrase structure was often made up of asymmetrical phrases and/or phrases
of atypical length (e.g., 7-, 10-, or 11-measure phrases instead of the
nice, neat 4- or 8- bar phrases of most previous rock)
see p. 110 in text - form is unique ... not a copy of some preestablished
formula
A - 10-measure phrases, rather than typical 8 measures
the phrase "I saw a photograph" added to the end creates the
additional 2 measures
B - 5-measure & 10-measure phrases
Irregular Phrase Length
13-measure verse
6-measure verse, 10-measure bridge
7-measure phrases
3-measure phrases
15 1/2 measure section: 5 - 3 1/2 - 3 - 4 [different from book]
microform (phrases, sections, etc) vs macroform (groups of songs
& entire albums; "concept album")
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