Blog#5: Sound Deconstruction

Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbkCVXQSAIo&feature=related  
Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QaI-M9sxW4

Listening Framework

Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You”  

Listening Phase 1 (Rhythm)

Tempo [slow, medium, fast]

Medium

Source [where is the rhythm coming from?]

The lead and rhythm guitarists

Groove [describe how the personality of the rhythm]

Soulful

Listening Phase 2 (Arrangement)

Instrumentation [which instruments drive the song?]

Guitar, bass, drum set, fiddle(strings), piano

Structure/Organization [how is the song built?  Order, patterns, etc.]

Intro verse 1 chorus verse 2 chorus verse 3 chorus  

Emotional Architecture [Draw how the song build and drop?]

Strait Forward- emotion starts low and then builds to a climax then comes back down

 

Listening Phase 3 (Sound Quality)

Balance

-       Height [high and low of frequency]

Fairly static. The frequencies are mostly high with the guitars, piano, stings, and vocals but drop down to low frequencies during verses to build emotion

-       Width [stereo panning left/right]

Most of the panning is done with the guitars where the lead guitar dominates the left ear while the rhythm guitar dominates the right ear.

-       Depth [layers of instruments - via loudness]

Most of the instruments seem to be balanced except vocals which are louder than the instruments. Also the guitars and strings are brought out more than the bass and drum set. 

Listening Framework

Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”

Listening Phase 1 (Rhythm)

Tempo [slow, medium, fast]

Medium

Source [where is the rhythm coming from?]

The source of the rhythm is the vocalist Whitney Houston who is driving the music.

Groove [describe how the personality of the rhythm]

Soulful

Listening Phase 2 (Arrangement)

Instrumentation [which instruments drive the song?]

Guitar, strings(orchestra), electric piano, bass, drum set, saxophone(solo)

Structure/Organization [how is the song built?  Order, patterns, etc.]

verse 1 chorus verse 2 chorus solo verse 3 chorus

 

Emotional Architecture [Draw how the song build and drop?]

 The emotion starts low then builds pretty much till the end and then drop off

Listening Phase 3 (Sound Quality)

Balance

-       Height [high and low of frequency]

The electric piano, base, and drum set occupy low frequencies while strings, guitar, vocals and saxophone occupy mostly high frequencies. Some of the low frequencies switch to high when building emotion. At the end of the songs the songs key goes a half step up making all the frequencies higher.

-       Width [stereo panning left/right]

There is no panning

-       Depth [layers of instruments - via loudness]

All the instruments are pretty balanced except for the saxophone that sticks out during the solos and strings stick out as well, while vocals definitely dominate the piece. All instruments get louder during the emotion build.  

 Comparison

Dolly Parton wrote and originally sung the song, “I Will Always Love You.” The song was originally a popular country song and became an alma mater for aspiring female country singers. But Whitney Houston covered the song and made it even more popular and had become a career maker for her. She originally covered the song for the movie bodyguard, and the song was later played at her funeral. Both songs have nearly identical Listening Phase one, but Listening Phase two and three are significantly different from song to song. In Listening Phase one, rhythm, both Dolly Parton’s original song and Whitney Houston’s cover are fairly consistent. The tempo’s in the songs are medium, not to slow and not too fast, and each has a very soulful or tragic groove to them. The one difference in Listening Phase one is the source of the rhythm. The guitars lead the rhythm of Dolly Parton’s original song, while Whitney Houston’s vocals are the major rhythmic lead. In Listening Phase two, arrangement, Dolly’s and Houston’s songs have some definite differences.  Dolly’s song contains a guitar, piano, drum set, bass, and fiddles, while Whitney’s song contains the same but the piano is electric, a saxophone is used, and the fiddle is almost a full orchestra containing multiple string instruments.  Also the structures of the songs are contrasting. Dolly song structure starts with an introduction then verse one, chorus, verse 2, verse 3, and finally chorus, while Whitney’s song structure starts with verse one with no introduction and contains a saxophone solo before verse 3. But the emotional architecture of both songs are the same as it starts low then builds to a climax then come back down.  In Listening Phase three, sound quality, Dolly’s and Houston songs can be differentiated. In terms of frequencies they both are fairly static with certain instruments including the guitar and strings standing out during the emotional build. But Whitney’s song contains the saxophone solo which mostly occupies higher frequencies and her song also has a key change which moves all instruments and vocals to a higher frequency. Dolly’s song utilizes panning with the lead guitar in the left ear while the rhythm guitar occupies the right. Whitney’s song does not contain width. As far as depth in Doll’s song her voice is in balance with the other instruments, but as far as instruments go the guitars and fiddles is louder than the piano, drum set, and bass. While in Whitney’s song her vocals out power everything and the guitar, orchestra, and saxophone are much louder than the drum set, bass, and electric piano. I think the Whitney Houston’s song is better than Dolly’s. It gives more emphasis to the person, vocals, which relates to audiences more because it emphasizes the lyrics, groove, and emotion of the song- heartache.