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Thursday, March 06, 2008

Stephen and Jeanie sittin' in a tree...

Chord analysis for “Jeanie with the light brown hair” is as follows

m.13 V ii
m.14 I vi64 ii6
m.15 I V IV
m.16 V7/V Vadd6 I64 IV
m.17 I64 iii6 V I

This songs format is ----a aprime b a----
The new harmony present in this piece that i is discussed in chapter 26 is the Vadd6. The simple I IV V I makeup of this song emphasizes the beautiful simplicity of the mainly stepwise melody. This also emphasizes idea of the dream stated in the text.
I wouldn’t say that Foster contrasts in the b section so much as he uses it in a way as to climax into the repeated, final a section. This section is definitely dependent on the a section.
There really isn’t anything more to say about this song. It is very pretty. If I were to perform it, which I would never do, because of the issue of gender (!), I would make sure to create a very long phrase line. That’s about it….There should be more songs about blondes…the end.

1 comment:

Scott said...

The second chord of m. 13 is a V9#5. 14 is all a I chord. Third chord of 15 is vi (deceptive cadence). How would you create the long phrase line?

As for blondes, Debussy gave us The Girl with the Flaxen Hair.