OK, one more pop-music-oriented post. It’s obliquely related to the one on Leonard Cohen.
Remember long ago when I asked whether Phillip or other musical experts here could explain how “Hallelujah” worked, what it was about it that was so appealing? Phillip and many others rose to the occasion.
Well, I’ve got a tougher one today. This morning, I was listening to “One-Note Samba,” and wondered how in the world that could reach out and grab me or anyone else.
Maybe it doesn’t speak to you, but I’ve always had a thing for samba music ever since my Dad brought back some records from a trip to Rio when I was a kid (sort of the way Liverpool kids learned about rock ‘n’ roll from the discs brought into port by sailors). And obviously some people besides me like this one, since it’s been covered so often.
So tell me:
Why does it work? Why isn’t it too monotonous? Does it keep us listening purely because of the rhythm? Is that it? Or is it the fact that we know, as we endure the one-note parts, that it’s going to change, and that change is what rewards us? Or is it because of what the instruments are playing while the singer is stuck on the one note?
Just wondering. Because to me, music is just magic, and far beyond my ken…
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It’s not just on one note, of course. I think it is the contrast between the syncopated one note phrase and the even-spaced tag.
Also, the B line/bridge is very varied in pitch and only syncopated at the end of the phrase.
The chord structure is changing under the one note. I think that’s what keeps it interesting along with the rhythm like Kathryn says. That one note has a completely different feel depending on it’s relation to the chord under it so you have sensation of movement even though the melody note isn’t changing.
I’ve been trying to think of some other songs that do this. The main vocal on the verses of Help stay alot on the same note while the backing vocals and chords change behind and under it. Also There is Love by Peter Paul and Mary spends alot of time on one note with the chords changing behind. I think as long you’ve got the juxtaposition of something moving somewhere, it doesn’t get too monotonous.
Kathryn and Scout both have it right. If you watch this how-to video, you can see that the bass line, the bottom note of the harmony, moves progressively down chromatically (meaning, by consecutive half-steps, D, D-flat, C, etc.) while the melody repeats the same pitch…so as Scout was saying, in each bar of the “melody” the pitch has a sort of different color, even though it’s not going anywhere. Everything is changing around it.
But it’s the syncopation of the samba rhythm that is the most infectious thing, isn’t it? Almost every note of the “tune” of One-Note-Samba is NOT happening on a beat, just anticipates the beat very slightly. And then as Kathryn pointed out, the bridge is completly different, melody ranging up and down the scale before returning to the “one-note.” Jobim was a genius, a master of harmonic motion. A lot of his tunes have fairly static melodies if you think about it, at least until you get to the bridge…Corcovado (my favorite), Girl from Ipanema.