"Mike's Number One"

I also noticed a small thing about "Mike's Number One," included as a bonus track on A Question of Balance.  "Grow" in the line "And we'll grow" is sung with a melisma (C B A G G), musically giving a sense of that "grow[ing]" or expanding.

"The Balance"

The beginning of "The Balance" seems to draw from the first few chapters of Genesis.  The narrator describes how a man "took to himself an orange and tasted it, / And it was good."  In the creation account in Genesis 1, a similar phrase is repeated: "And God saw that it was good."

Genesis 3:8 describes "the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day," to which "he lay in the cool" in "The Balance" bears some similarity.  The description of the orange grove with "the tree above [the man], / And the stars, / And the veins in the leaf" and its "magnificent perfection" could also describe the Garden of Eden.

In the sung parts, "always" in the phrase "the way it's always been" is held for a full measure ("al-" for the first three beats and "-ways" for the last beat).  Because it fills the whole measure, there's a musical sense of that permanence.

"Melancholy Man"

In "Melancholy Man," the lines "When all the stars are falling down / Into the sea and on the ground" are sung to descending phrases spanning an octave (G# C# C# B B A A G# / C# F# F# E E D# D# C#), musically giving a sense of that "falling down."

"Dawning Is the Day"

This is just a small point, but in the line "Flow to the sea" in "Dawning Is the Day," "Flow" is sung with a melisma (A G), musically giving a sense of movement.

"Minstrel's Song"

At the end of "Minstrel's Song," the "around" from the line "Everywhere love is around" is repeated with two different melismas: G G C and G G D (it's also sung to these phrases earlier in the song).  These span a fourth and a fifth respectively, and these intervals give a sense of the breadth of where "love is."

"It's Up to You"

The beginning of the line "And it's up to you" in "It's Up to You" is sung to an ascending phrase (B C# E), so while it really isn't the same sense, there is a musical impression of that "up."

"Free" in the line ""But it seems so long ago we have been ready trying to be free" is sung with a melisma (G# F# E, I think), musically giving a sense of that freedom (since the word isn't constrained to a single syllable).

"Tortoise and the Hare"

In the lines "And your load is so heavy" and "While your load was so heavy" in "Tortoise and the Hare," the "heavy"s are sung with a descending melisma (F F Eb C).  Musically, this gives a sense of weight, as if the word itself is being pushed down.

There's a similar feature in the first line of the bridge: "heavy" in the line "Your friend is heavy" is sung to a descending pair of notes (C A).

"Don't You Feel Small"

In "Don't You Feel Small," the "all" in the line "Who's the biggest fool of all" is sung with a melisma (B A B, I think), musically giving a sense of number or amount.  In the next verse, "more" in the line "Understanding, nothing more" is sung with the same melisma for a similar effect.

In the third verse, "voice" in the line "Time is now to spread your voice" is sung with the same melisma yet again, but here, there's a musical sense of that "spread[ing]" since the word is sung to more than one note.

The fourth verse begins with the line "See the writing on the wall."  Although the phrase "the writing on the wall" has taken on a larger meaning, it originally refers to an event in the Bible, specifically in Daniel 5.

"And the Tide Rushes In"

In "And the Tide Rushes In," the melody to which the line "I build them up; you knock them down" is sung musically reflects the "build[ing]... up" and "knock[ing]... down."  "I build them up" is sung to an ascending phrase (E A A A), and the "down" in "you knock them down" is sung with a descending glissando (C# to A).

"How Is It (We Are Here)"

I listened to A Question of Balance this morning, and along with a few things I noticed now, I have a list of things that I noticed the first few times I listened to the album back in November.  I purposely didn't write about these then because I just wanted to enjoy listening to the album and becoming familiar with it.

In "How Is It (We Are Here)," the "Descending" at the beginning of the line "Descending from the apes as scientist-priests all think" is sung to a descending melody (G E D), so although "Descending" is used in a more metaphorical sense, there's something of a musical sense of its meaning.

The alliteration of "Men's mighty mine-machines" poetically gives a sense of that strength.

"Grain" in the line "While a starving frightened world fills the sea with grain" is sung with a melisma (A B), musically giving a sense of the abundance that "fills the sea."

"Share" in the line "It's there for you and me to share" is sung with a melisma (C D# E D# E).  The one word is sung to a number of pitches, musically giving a sense of its meaning.