Saturday, June 27, 2026

"The Cask of Amontillado"

After the line "Part of you dies each brick I lay" in "The Cask of Amontillado," the bass plays a phrase that represents the lyric in a way.  The notes are all distinct pitches (F G Ab Bb), giving a sense of the individuality of "each," and the phrase ascends, illustrating the increasing height of the courses of brick that the narrator is laying.  Since the ascent is diatonic, with the notes following each other in the scale, there's even a specific sense of each brick being placed upon the previous one.