Knocking On Heavens Door written by Bob Dylan music analysis MYP MUSIC G2 PROJECT ! By Miggy Habos
What will this presentation cover? The elements of music -Genre and Style -Timbre and Instrumentation -Form and Structure -Texture -Tempo -Tonality and Harmony -Melody -Metre and Rhythm -Dynamics -Articulation -Purpose of the Piece/ Interesting Features ! Response to the Unit Question: How can old be new?
Genre and Style -Knocking on Heaven`s Door has elements of Folk Rock and Gospel Music ! -Folk Rock music has the unique feature of a guitar being part of the timbre associated with harmonies - Folk Rock Music was written in a layout for Folk Music while adding in Rock and Roll beats -Gospel Music was made during the period of slavery, though in the time when churches were not wealthy, there were not a lot of instruments, usually the timbre is a cappella -Gospel Music did have multiple voices for fillers and associated with a piano or tambourine when played. Our Group`s Style and Genre (Bluegrass) -Was similar to folk music and did use Guitars and Banjos for the Timbre in particular - The song did allow improvisation, in the group medley, one verse of the song was removed and changed into an improvised section -Bluegrass is sped up and did not contain a large group, similar to our group as it only contained 2 people to play the song and not a wide range of instruments were used.
Timbre and Instrumentation For original version of Knocking on Heaven`s Door, there is a diverse range of timbre. ! The list of timbre included a guitar, some voices, a flue, a harmonium, cellos, bass, drums and a key board used for the original piece Our Group`s Timbre Similarities and Differences Similarities: -Our group still used a classical guitar and had some vocals for our Bob Dylan Knocking on Heaven`s Door Medley -Our group did use melody and filler vocals as we progressed on to the melody ! Differences: -Our group did omit a selection of the instruments that were played in Knocking on Heaven`s Door, particularly the use of percussion instruments - While falsetto and higher pitch were used in parts of Knocking on Heaven`s Door, our group did just use regular pitch and refrained from a variety of singing pitch ranges
Form and Structure The original version of Knocking on Heaven`s Door had the following structure as shown below
! -Intro (Played with an instrumental) -Verse -Chorus -Instrumental (Verse 2 Transition) -Verse 2 -Chorus - Coda Our piece is a medley and did have the following structure from Knocking on Heavens Door before it plays onto Hey Jude Structure From Knocking on Heaven`s Door -Intro -Knocking On Heaven`s Door Verse -Knocking On Heaven`s Door Chorus -Transition Chord to Hey Jude -Hey Jude Chorus and Improvised Rap Verse - Ending Hey Jude Verse
Texture Knocking on Heaven`s Door is overall a polyphonic piece due to the the fact that there are different groups that help create the melody being played. With the polyphonic texture, it is supported with choir singers singing near the end as an echo with a higher pitch
Group Medley Version: -Mainly homophonic as one person plays the melody while the sings the verses. ! -The singing does not necessarily follow through with the meldy, however it does follow the playing for the Knocking on Heavens Door portion in the medley
Tempo Knocking on Heaven`s Door Plays at a constant 140 beats per minute in terms of instrumental playing ! -The speed was generally played at a moderato pace
Group Medley Tempo Information ! -The tempo for our medley is moderato and at a constant tempo for both the Knocking on Heavens Door and Hey Jude Track ! -To make the speed manageable, the speed of the medley is less than 140 be ats per minute
Tonality and Harmony -Bob Dylan`s version of knocking on Heaven`s Door was mainly focused on the G Major Key. ! -The Original had 4 chords per verse and chorus for the Knocking on Heaven`s Door portion
Comparison with our Medley`s Tonality and Harmony ! -The medley is not focused on major or minor tones, it has neither major or minor chords being played for both Knocking on Heaven`s Door and Hey Jude. ! -Similar to the chords per section, there are 4 chords to play per line of the song in both the verse and the chorus for Knocking on Heavens Door. !
Melody and Pitch -A Falsetto pitch was associated with a bass singing voice for the pitch near the end -The vocals assisting the falsetto at the beginning is a bass singing vocals -The original song lasted for around 8 minutes
! Our Medley Version -The medley lasted for around 3-4 minutes including the Hey Jude Portions ! -The singing pitch was generally neutral and did not change it did not gradually increase or decrease, staying at the same pitch even though the rap slightly changed the pitch to a much lower one ! - A pitch was used like a filler, similar to the original, the filler pitch is somewhat of a lower pitch
Metre and Rhythm - The metre for Knocking on Heaven`s Door is a constant Quadruple Metre. ! - The chords for Knocking on heaven`s Door are G, D, C and A Minor Chords
Metre and Rhythm similarities and differences to the Medley ! -We played the chords in the pattern G, C7, D and C7 for verses and choruses for the Bob Dylan Part. ! -The Hey Jude portion was played in G, D, F and C chords for chorus and G, D and G for Verses. ! -The 4 chords per section in the verse and chorus is played in a similar way to Knocking on Heaven`s Door
Dynamics -The dynamics of the piece were somewhat terraced and did contain a range or forte and piano dynamics ! -The singing dynamics were more piano sounding compared to the instruments especially when singing an ostinato part or repeat portions with the melody
Medley Dynamics: -Medley Dynamics: ! - The Dynamics for the group medley was moderato forte for both the Knocking on Heaven`s Door and Hey Jude portions ! - The song did however have a pianissimo dynamics at the very end during our piece ! - The medley`s instruments did have the same level of forte dynamics
Articulation The articulation for the piece played by Bob Dylan is overall legato with the way singing and playing is done as the notes flow together. ! Whenever Vocals are at staccato or not being sung, the instruments are played with a legato articulation
Group Medley of the Bob Dylan Portion: -For the Blues Aspect of the song on Knocking on Heaven`s Door , the verses were mainly sung in legato -Staccato articulation was present in Knocking on Heaven`s Door when the chorus portions having brief pauses in verses to flow with the legato playing -The guitar is still played in a legato articulation throughout the piece as was the actual piece.
Purpose of the Piece -Originally Knocking on Heaven`s Door was written by Bob Dylan for a Western film called Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid in 1973
! -The perspective of the song was based on a sheriff and played as Sheriff Colin Baker dies in the movie
! - A cover of this song was done by Gun`s and Roses as a tribute to Freddy Mercury, the lead singer of Queen who died of from AIDS
-This song was often covered in reggae style by many artists Artistic Intention (Our Group`s purpose in creating a Knocking on Heaven`s Door Medley) ! -Portray Elements of Bluegrass with two Rock pieces -To give the audience that an atmosphere of the song still exists, but clearly shows an effective variation -To combine two ideas for a song and express these shared ideas of music in the form of a medley
Answering the Unit Question “How can Old be New� In the case of our Group`s Medley which included Bob Dylan`s Knocking on Heaven`s Door, some aspects that were included to make a song from 1973 sound modern were
! - Fusion of Blues and Hiphop styles (Using a Bluegrass Style) ! - Lyric Improvising and Chord Transitions (Rock and Roll Improvising Aspects) ! ! How can old be new in general? ! - We can recycle elements and fuse them with modern or past elements in the case of Neo Classical Music, a combination of Baroque and Classical Music ! -Old concepts can be developed and annotated, as well as have variations to make something new while retaining the feeling that the old aspects are still there. ! -Nostalgic ideas can be brought back to mind and people can go back to nostalgic times, only adding more modern elements to their ideas
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Dylan, Bob. Knocking on Heaven`s Door. Bob Dylan, 1973. Youtube. Web. 09 Apr. 2014. <http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jPg2M1UYgU&feature=kp>.
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