"In the Real World"

In the backing vocals near the end of "In the Real World," "hearts" in the line "Too many lonely hearts" is sung with a melisma (G F# D, I think, and only the first time), musically giving a sense of amount.

"Limelight"

In "Limelight," "all" in the line "I'm gonna show them all" is sung with a melisma (F Eb), musically giving a sense of breadth.  The last time (~4:20) is an octave higher than the first two (~1:55 and ~3:44).

"Stereotomy"

I still have a handful of notes from Stereotomy and Gaudi from the end of last year that I need to flesh out into posts, which I hope to do over the next month or so.

When I listened to Stereotomy back in December 2018, I noticed that in the title track, "forever" in the line "Stereotomy, we can make it forever" at ~3:04 is sung with a melisma (F Bb A G), musically giving a sense of duration.  When I listened to the album again last December, I noticed not only that this feature is repeated at ~4:45, but that it also appears in "Stereotomy Two" (at ~0:17), albeit with a slightly different articulation (F A Bb G).

"I Robot"

Recently, I was thinking about the synth phrase at the beginning of "I Robot."  I vaguely remembered a comment Alan Parsons had made about the perceived shift in its rhythm, and I eventually tracked this down again in the liner notes in the legacy edition of I Robot:

I played a 7-note sequence which was continuously 'looped' by the synth [the EMS Synthi-A].  I was fascinated by the fact that the sequence could be interpreted in different ways according to where, within the seven notes, the downbeat (or the first beat of a 4 beat bar) was placed.  Most people hear this sequence as having a certain rhythmic pattern when it first starts, but without anything on the sequence actually changing, the entire feel changes when the drums enter and establish a new downbeat.

I figured out how this works.  When the part fades in, the perceived rhythm is:

(This is two iterations of the sequence; I felt that having more than one would be a better illustration.)

Since there's nothing to indicate where the downbeat is and that C note is held the longest, it seems to occur on the first beat.  But actually, that C note is tied across the bar line.  The sequence is really:

The Turn of a Friendly Card

Last night, I figured out about half of the bass part in "Time" (up until ~2:18, just before the bridge).  I was particularly interested in the bit underneath the lines "Who knows when we shall meet again / If ever":

(This is from the second verse; the last measure is a bit different in the first verse.)

There's a chromatic descent, but the notes appear in different octaves.  This is somewhat similar to the bass part in "Nothing Left to Lose" (up until ~2:35, at least), in which a majority of the measures contain the same note just an octave apart.  I wrote about this (and its similarity to the bass part in a movement of one of Bach's orchestral suites) about three years ago, but here's some notation with better formatting than what's in that post:

Both this bit of the bass part in "Time" and most of the bass part in "Nothing Left to Lose" use the octave interval, and that gives a bit of cohesion to The Turn of a Friendly Card.

"Winding Me Up"

I was thinking about "Winding Me Up" yester-day and discovered a small feature in the first verse.  In the line "There wasn't any doubt," "any doubt" is sung with melismas (D C | C B), so while negated, there's a sense of the broadness of possibility of "any."

In thinking about the song again to-day, I realized that in the line "'Cause woman you ain't so strong" in the chorus, "so strong" is also sung with melismas (G E | E D), musically giving a sense of degree.  (Really, I should have realized this months ago when I discovered that "too long" two lines earlier is also sung with these same melismas.)

"Days Are Numbers (The Traveller)"

In "Days Are Numbers (The Traveller)," "around" in the line "He never has the time to turn around" is sung with a melisma (C D C A) for a sense of movement, and "so" in the lines "We can only see so far" and "We can only go so far" is sung with a melisma (D E D, I think) for a sense of degree.

"Let's Talk about Me"

I listened to Vulture Culture a couple weeks ago and noticed a handful of things.  In what the APP website credits as "oral rendition" in "Let's Talk about Me," the television station WGN and Wrigley Field are mentioned (in the right channel) in the section starting at ~2:46.  Both of these are in Chicago.

"Dancing on a High Wire"

I'm getting behind in writing about things I'm noticing as I continue to make my way through The Complete Albums Collection box set for a second time.  I listened to Ammonia Avenue on 29 November and noticed a small thing in "Dancing on a High Wire."  In the line "You need to be so sure" at ~3:55, the "sure" is sung with a melisma (G F D), musically giving a sense of degree (for that "so").

In referencing the recording again now, I noticed that some of the "so"s in that recurring line are also sung with a melisma (C D), also for a sense of degree.

"Old and Wise"

After I listened to Eye in the Sky a couple days ago, I learned what I think is a cello part in the introduction of "Old and Wise."  To this, I could add what I think is a flute part, which I learned a couple years ago.  I used mellotron voices for both.

"Children of the Moon"

In the lines "Children, children of the moon watch the world go by" and "Children, children of the moon watch it all go by" in "Children of the Moon," the "by"s are sung with a melisma (F C), musically giving a sense of movement.

"Eye in the Sky"

I listened to Eye in the Sky yester-day and noticed two small things.  In the line "Don't cry; I ain't changing my mind" in "Eye in the Sky," "mind" is sung with a melisma (C# B), so while it's negated, musically there's a sense of that "changing" (from one pitch to an-other).