Reference no: EM13331971

SONG TRANSCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

Using transcription and analytical tools developed in the previous assignments, analyze a recorded performance of a song to show how structure and message are aligned. Explicate the lyrics observing how the metrical arrangement confirms or contradicts traditional scansion and pronunciation. Pay special attention to the affect and meaning of what you hear.

The goal behind this assignment is to practice some of the fundamental skills of ethnomusicology: song transcription and analysis. Considerable care should be used in selecting the musical material. Because of the complexity and numerous demands of the assignment, students are urged to select short and simple songs that have been recorded by you or someone you know. Familiarity with the performer will help you understand the language, a short song will simplify your transcription, and having no musical accompaniment may eliminate the need to account for it on the transcription. Simple tape recordings, recordings made on the computer, or mp3's (if your machine will record them), are sufficient. However, if you choose, you may utilize something more complex, like a track from a cd or a music video.

As in the previous assignments, a visual presentation is required to represent the sound. The more time and care is spent on the transcription the more considered and cogent your comments will be. A good transcription will include: A timeline (in minutes and seconds), a transcription of all the lyrics and vocal sounds, a phrase-by-phrase mapping of the melody contours and the form of the piece, together with indications for entrances and changes in the accompaniment. It would also include a mapping of metric stresses in the lyrics, together with other phonetic features such as rhymes, phrase division and grammatical logic of the lyrics. Ideally, students will be able to account for conjunct and disjunct motion in the melody, and for lyrics that are syllabically or melissmatically set.

For the purposes of this assignment you may consider a song to be a kind of amplified speech. Considering how and why this speech is amplified, by whom and for what purpose is the job of the ethnomusicologist. Along with structural information, try to be open to feelings and meanings in the song, and how these resonate inside you.

In a short paper (about 4 -6 pages) you should accompany your transcription with an essay about the song, its affect and structure, and especially how these two might work together. You may also write about the transcription or recording process, and how your listening changed over the course of your work. Most appreciated will be efforts to context your analysis in the light of our previous three assignments on language, and the questions they raise. With your essays and transcriptions, please turn in a recorded copy of your song, or a web address where it can be heard.