Monday, October 5, 2020

"Here Today"

In the line "Well, you know I hate to be a downer" in "Here Today," "downer" is sung to a pair of descending notes (B F#), giving something of a sense of its meaning.

In the line "Tomorrow it's here and gone so fast," "fast" is sung with a melisma (D B), giving a sense of degree (for "so").

Sunday, October 4, 2020

"I'm Waiting for the Day"

In "I'm Waiting for the Day," "free" in the line "To set your broken heart free" is sung with a melisma (B A G#).  Since the word isn't constrained to a single syllable, there's a sense of its meaning.

"So" in the line "And that you still loved him so" is sung with this same melisma, but in this instance it gives a sense of degree.  (I'd noted this before, but I didn't include the specific pitches in that post, which was so badly written that I removed it.)

Saturday, October 3, 2020

"Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)"

In "Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)," "right" in the line "Being here with you feels so right" is sung with a melisma (C Bb A), musically giving a sense of degree (for "so").

Friday, October 2, 2020

"Wouldn't It Be Nice"

I listened to The Pet Sounds Sessions box set recently and noticed a handful of features.  "Wouldn't It Be Nice" contains an instance of polysyndeton, a rhetorical effect in which conjunctions are repeated:  "Maybe if we think and wish and hope and pray it might come true."  Having "and" so many times isn't strictly necessary, but its repetition gives a sense of the earnestness of those actions.

Additionally, the musical rhythm of this line is such that "think," "wish," "hope," and "pray" all occur on downbeats, and this also provides emphasis.

Thursday, October 1, 2020

"Don't Worry Baby"

I noticed two features in the line "Ev'rything will turn out alright" in "Don't Worry Baby."  The three syllables of "Ev'rything" are each sung to a different pitch (E# F# G#), musically giving a sense of breadth.  The "al-" of "alright" is sung with a melisma (I think it's D# E# D#), giving a sense of entirety.

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

"Hawaii"

In "Hawaii," "far and near" in the line "Surfer guys and girls will be comin' from far and near" is a merism.

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

"The Surfer Moon"

I noticed a couple significant melismas in "The Surfer Moon."  In the line "Brings the tide in, takes it all away," "away" is sung with a melisma (I think it's Eb Eb D Eb F G A F, but since there's a harmony part there, it's a bit difficult to tell) for a sense of movement or distance, and in the line "Promising to remain forevermore," "forevermore" is sung with a melisma (A# G# F# F# E#, I think) for a sense of duration.  (I'm pretty sure there's a key change for the bridge, which is why one of those sets of notes is in a flat key and the other is in a sharp key.)

While referencing the song again to find those specific pitches, I also noticed that the melody mirrors the directions in the line "Rising up, throwing down its golden light."  "Rising up" is sung to an ascending phrase (F# G# A#), and "throwing down" is sung to a descending phrase (C# B G#).

Monday, September 28, 2020

"Noble Surfer"

In "Noble Surfer," "night and day" in the line "Surfin' night and day, never twice in one spot" and "up and down" in the line "He takes his choice of honeys up and down the coast" are merisms.

Sunday, September 27, 2020

"Surfin'"

"From the early mornin' to the middle of the night" in "Surfin'" is a merism.

Saturday, September 26, 2020

"County Fair"

In "County Fair," the description "most specialist" ("the most specialist girl I knew") is a pleonasm.  Adding "-ist" to the end of an adjective and putting "most" in front of it are both ways to form the superlative, but doing both isn't necessary.  That both are here indicates an extreme degree.

Friday, September 25, 2020

"Surfin' Safari"

I recently listened to the first three Beach Boys albums (and Shut Down Volume 2 because it's paired with Surfer Girl on the CD re-issue), and I noticed a bunch of minor points to note.

In "Surfin' Safari," the line "From Hawaii to the shores of Peru" (describing how surfing is "gettin' bigger ev'ry day") is a merism.

Thursday, September 10, 2020

"Our Car Club"

I was thinking about "Our Car Club" this morning and realized a small feature about it:  the line "We got a Deuce Coupe, a Stingray, a rail job, and an XKE" is a rhetorical catalogue whose function is to illustrate the "class and style" of the car club via the variety of cars included in it.