"Have You Heard - Part 1"

In "Have You Heard - Part 1," the "always" in the line "Each day has its always" is sung with a melisma (G A G), musically giving a sense of that duration.

"Are You Sitting Comfortably"

In "Are You Sitting Comfortably," the "lay before your feet" in the line "The seven wonders of the world he'll lay before your feet" is sung to a descending phrase (B B G G F), musically giving a sense of that "lay[ing] before."

"Lazy Day"

A couple days ago, I learned the mellotron trombone part during the harmonica solo in "Lazy Day."  There's actually a mellotron trombone part throughout most of the song, but it was easier to pick out during this section.  I learned the harmonica solo back in August, so now I have two parts I can stick together.

There's a bent note in the harmonica solo (it contains both F# and F natural), which is a technique way beyond my harmonica playing ability, so I used melodica, which is much easier to play and doesn't sound too drastically different:

After I recorded these two parts, I realized something about the song:  the phrase "Like to get your feet up" ascends (spanning a whole octave: D E F# G A D'), musically giving a picture of that "get[ting] your feet up."

"Never Comes the Day"

In "Never Comes the Day," "away" in the line "I feel her gently sighing as the evening slips away" is sung with a glissando (moving from F# to D, I think).  Musically, this gives a sense of the (metaphorical) movement of "the evening slip[ping] away."

"So Deep within You"

In "So Deep within You," "night" in the line "My heart is heavy; it's weighed down by the night" is sung with a descending melisma (C# A).  Musically, this gives a sense of the weight with which the heart is "weighed down."

In the next verse, "shared" in the line "Warm colors flowing, this feeling we have shared" is sung with the same melisma, but here it gives a sense of the word's meaning since "shared" is distributed between those two notes.

"To Share Our Love"

Near the end of "To Share Our Love" (at ~2:32), there's the line "To share love" sung above the repeated line "To share, share my love."  The "share" in that "To share love" is sung with a melisma (E F# G#).  Because the one word is spread over a number of pitches, there's a musical sense of that "shar[ing]."

"Send Me No Wine"

I listened to On the Threshold of a Dream this morning and found a number of things to write about, although they're all just small points.

In "Send Me No Wine," the "away" in the line "To send my love away" is sung with a melisma (F# F# D, I think), musically giving a sense of the movement or distance of "send[ing]... away."

"The Actor"

The last thing I noticed when I listened to In Search of the Lost Chord a couple days ago is in "The Actor."  The "share" in the line "I wish this feeling I could share" is sung with a melisma (D D E B C D).  This articulation provides something of a sense of the word's meaning, since it's "share[d]" among a number of pitches.

"Voices in the Sky"

When I listened to In Search of the Lost Chord yester-day, I noticed a small feature in "Voices in the Sky."  The "by" in the line "Old man passing by, tell me what you sing" is sung with a melisma (G# F#), which musically gives a sense of the movement of "passing by."

"Departure"

I listened to In Search of the Lost Chord this morning and noticed some things.

Throughout almost all of "Departure," there's a slow upwards glissando on what I think is a cello.  To some degree, this mirrors the upward motion in the lines "To burst up through tarmac to the sun again / Or to fly to the sun without burning a wing."

I also realized that "To fly to the sun without burning a wing" is a reference to Icarus.  In the Greek myth, Daedalus makes wings out of feathers and wax for himself and his son Icarus so they can escape the labyrinth.  He warns him not to fly too close to the sea or too close to the sun, but Icarus is so captivated by flying that he ignores this.  He does fly too close to the sun, which melts the wax in his wings, and he falls into the sea and drowns.

When I referenced my transcription of the song, I discovered that I'd already noticed this reference to Icarus (in January of last year).  It slipped through the cracks when I first set up this project and wrote posts about my old notes.

"Another Morning"

When I listened to Days of Future Passed on Tuesday, I noticed that there are two simultaneous flute parts in "Another Morning."  I'd always thought it was just a single part, which I'd learned way back in 2013.  In sorting out the harmonies (which are almost entirely thirds), I discovered that I didn't even have that one part right; near the end, I'd unknowingly shifted into the harmony part.

I think I have both parts now.  I recorded and filmed them (using the mellotron flute sound on my keyboard) because that was easier than trying to write them down:

I used the section at the end as the template for my recording, but I think the parts are the same throughout the song (aside from the last few notes, of course).  Near the end, I accidentally held a G note in the harmony part for too long, but oh well.

"Cities"

The last thing I noticed when I listened to Days of Future Passed is in "Cities," the B-side of the "Nights in White Satin" single, included as a bonus track.

In the chorus, the line "In the sky" is sung entirely to F# notes, and "On the ground" (the next line) is sung entirely to D notes.  Musically, there's a sense of the relative positions of "the sky" and "the ground" through these pitches: "the sky" (F#) is above "the ground" (D).

"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"

When I listened to Days of Future Passed yester-day, I listened to the edition with bonus tracks, and I noticed a small feature in "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," performed live on the BBC.

The second "long" in the line "Sometimes I spend long nights long regrettin'" is sung with a melisma (E D), musically giving a sense of duration.

I'm still going under the assumption that the Moodies based their version of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" on the Animals' version.  Not only does the Animals' version not feature a melisma'd "long," but the line itself is quite different.  In the Moodies' version, the line "Sometimes I spend long nights long regretting" is present in the second and third verses (I'm not very confident in my transcription, and there's one line I can't even make out in full):

Sometimes, babe, oh, I feel so carefree
With a joy it's hard to hide
Sometimes I spend long nights long regrettin'
If you hurt me [???] down inside

Oh, oh, baby, don't you know I'm human
With thoughts like any other man
Sometimes I spend long nights long regrettin'
Some similar little stupid thing that you've done

In the Animals' version, these verses are:

Baby, sometimes I'm so carefree
With a joy that's hard to hide
And sometimes it seems that all I have to do is worry
And then you're bound to see my other side

Oh, oh, oh, baby, don't you know I'm human
Have thoughts like any other one
Sometimes I find myself long regretting
Some foolish thing, some little sinful thing I've done

I might not even have my transcription of the Animals' version right.  It might be "Sometimes I find myself [a]lone regretting."  In any case, the melisma'd "long" for duration seems to be unique to the Moodies' version.

"Peak Hour"

One of my 2019 musical projects is to listen to a Moody Blues album every Tuesday.  To-day I listened to Days of Future Passed and noticed a couple of things about which I'll have posts over the next few days.

At ~3:16 in "Peak Hour," there's a tempo change from a fast tempo to a slower one (and there's also a change in the number of instruments playing, with the slower section featuring only what I believe to be an organ sound on mellotron), which musically differentiates between the rushing people and the speaker/singer, who has a more relaxed attitude.  The lyrics during this slower section describe this difference:  "It makes me want to run out and tell them / They've got time."  When the speaker/singer himself says, "I found out I've got time," the word "time" is sung with a melisma (A Bb B in one of the voices), which musically gives a sense of the abundance of time that he has.

"Let Me Go"

This evening, I learned the piano in the introduction to "Let Me Go," to which I could add the flute part that I learned back in December 2017:

This is only ten measures, but I think it turned out fairly well.  The flute part is such that I can play it even with my limited flute abilities.