"Another Morning"

Recently, I was thinking about the mellotron brass phrase near the beginning of "Another Morning" (at ~0:24), and I realized something that I think I'd noticed a while ago but had forgotten about.

First, here's that phrase (I should note that I'm not entirely confident about my notation):

This phrase is just an arpeggiation of an A major chord (inverted so that - in ascending order - the notes are E A C# E), and this is a common feature of bugle calls.

For comparison, here's "Assembly":

and here's "First Call":

While both of these are in C major, they're made up of notes with the same sort of arpeggiation (G C E G).

I don't think the mellotron brass phrase in "Another Morning" is an actual bugle call, but it's certainly characteristic of one.

"Magic"

I listened to Keys of the Kingdom yester-day, and this morning I figured out the chords for "Magic."  In doing so, I discovered something I wouldn't have found otherwise.  The song is in E major, but under the line "I'm in a state of permanent confusion," the chord progression moves to an F# major, which contains an A# accidental.  This foreign tonality musically mirrors that "confusion."

"Nervous"

I listened to Long Distance Voyager on Tuesday and noticed a small feature in "Nervous."  In the lines "Would you turn away" and "Would you walk away," the "away"s are sung with a melisma (E E F#), musically giving a sense of movement.

While I don't really have anything to say about it, I also want to point out the nice parallelism in the lines "Don't question faith / Don't answer lies."

"What Am I Doing Here?"

I listened to Caught Live + 5 to-day and noticed a small thing about "What Am I Doing Here?"  In the line "Ev'ryone's dream is deep within," the three syllables of "Ev'ryone's" are all sung to different pitches (C B A), musically giving a sense of the breadth of "ev'ryone."

"Watching and Waiting"

When I listened to To Our Children's Children's Children yester-day, I noticed a small thing in "Watching and Waiting."  "Share" in the lines "They're here for only you / To share" is sung with a melisma, although it's sung to two notes of the same pitch (G).  Still, the articulation gives something of a sense of the word's meaning, since the word is "share[d]" by the two notes.

"The Dream"

I listened to On the Threshold of a Dream yester-day, and I noticed a small grammatical ambiguity in "The Dream."  One line could be rendered as "Come to witness spring's new hope, born of leaves decaying" (where "decaying" is a participle modifying "leaves") or as "Come to witness spring's new hope, born of leaves' decaying" (where "decaying" is a gerund).  As far as meaning, however, there isn't much difference.

"Eternity Road"

I'm going a bit out of order in my cycle of albums, but I figured out some of the clarinet mellotron part in "Eternity Road" last night and noticed a small thing while doing so.  In the repeated line "You'll see us all around," the three syllables of "all around" are each sung to a different pitch (F C A, which is then echoed by mellotron).  Musically, this gives a sense of the breadth of "all around."

"What Am I Doing Here?"

When I listened to In Search of the Lost Chord a few days ago, I also noticed something about "What Am I Doing Here?" which is included as a bonus track.  "Free" in the lines "Ev'ryone's dream is deep within / Find it, and you'll be free" is sung with a melisma (E D).  Because it's not limited to a single pitch, there's a musical sense of that "free[dom]."

"House of Four Doors (Part 2)"

In the phrase "Nowhere at all" in "House of Four Doors (Part 2)," "all" is sung with a melisma (C D in one voice).  Because it's in a grammatical construction with "at," however, the melisma provides a sense of degree rather than entirety.

"Anymore" in the phrase "not there anymore" is also sung with a melisma, specifically the "-more" is sung to two G notes an octave apart.  The musical sense here, although negated ("not... anymore"), is one of continuation.

"House of Four Doors (Part 1)"

I noticed a small thing in "House of Four Doors (Part 1)" when I listened to In Search of the Lost Chord yester-day.  In the line "We'd lost our way," "way" is sung with an ascending melisma in one voice (C D) and a descending melisma in an-other (G F#).  Musically, "way" is being pulled in two different directions, and this illustrates the confusion of being "lost" and not knowing whether to go up or down.