"Spirit of America"

Months ago, I had a small realization about "Spirit of America," but it wasn't until recently that I was able to articulate it.

The phrase "half airplane, half auto" is sung to a melody something like this:

"Half airplane" is sung to notes that total five beats, and "half auto" is sung to notes that total six beats, so it's not quite exact, but there is a sort of musical balance that matches this "half" and "half."

This balance is also present in the lyrics alone:  the two phrases have the same number of syllables, and there's a parallelism in the initial letters of the words.

"Spirit of America"

Last night, I figured out the chords for "Spirit of America," and while doing so, I noticed a small feature.  In the line "Half airplane, half auto, now famous worldwide," "-wide" is sung with a melisma (G Ab G F), musically giving a sense of that breadth.