Twelve years ago, I wrote: "Yesterday, I heard "La Rossa" as a slow 12/8, and on that basis, the middle section became very interesting ("if we made love now..."): a bar of 3/4 followed by two of 4/4, repeated several times (that could be written as 9/8 followed by two bars of 12/8, to make the triplet beat clear)."
I was listening to the 2021 remix of the song (the only differences that I can hear is a guitar line in the introduction that isn't audible in the version familiar to me from 1976; along with one in the saxophone solo at the end where there are a few new phrases as well as some guitar 'chunks' at the very end) when suddenly I noticed yet another metrical peculiarity of this song, especially the middle section that I referenced above. This either displays metric modulation (three beats in the space of two) or something similar, but that isn't anything new for me.
What caught my attention was ironically the 'if we made love now' phrase at about 4:17 in the song: after having triplets and fours scattered around, that specific line (and its corresponding repeat at 5:22/3) has a five beat bar. The word 'now' is the first beat of five before the next chord change. The same thing happens at the end of the phrase 'it will change all there is yet to be': 'it will change' is one triplet, 'all there is' another triplet, and 'be' is the first beat of a five beat bar. Wow.
The resources available to me now are more extensive than they were 12 years ago, and I'm going to try and bring this song to the interest one of the YouTubers who relish odd rhythmic constructions.
By chance, today is Peter Hammill's birthday.
No comments:
Post a Comment