Sunday, July 22, 2018

"What Goes Up"

I'd forgotten about this, but in looking through some notes I made, I discovered that a couple weeks ago (11 July), I realized that the first "What goes up" in "What Goes Up" ascends (C C Eb), musically illustrating that "go[ing] up."

The following "Must come down" isn't sung to a descending phrase (it's Bb Bb C), but that phrase as a whole is lower than the phrase to which "What goes up" is sung.  Similarly, "What must rise" is sung to an ascending phrase (C C Eb), and "Must fall" is sung to a descending phrase (F D).

When I referenced the song just now to find specific notes, I also discovered that it contains the phrase "writing on the wall."  As I mentioned with "Children of the Moon" (which also contains this phrase), "the writing on the wall" ultimately comes from Daniel 5 in the Bible.