Performance 1 - I have chosen to study Evanescence - Hello, All About Eve - Scarlet and Joy Division - The Eternal.

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Sheena Robinson        Music Coursework        Integrated

Integrated Coursework

Performance 1

Introduction

I have chosen to study Evanescence – Hello, All About Eve – Scarlet and Joy Division – The Eternal. These pieces are all from the gothic genre yet each has individual features that make them very different from each other. This can provoke people into believing that they lie more comfortably into a sub-genre, for example; gothic rock, gothic folk etc. The main features of gothic music are hard to pinpoint because of this diversity however they regularly include melancholy lyrics, unusual vocals created by singers who are not accepted into the “charts”, often with drawn out notes and, more recently, female fronted.

This is certainly true of Evanescence and All About Eve however, Joy Division were the most ground breaking band in the history of the sub-culture according to the publications of the time e.g. NME. Their lead singer Ian Curtis is well known for his on stage performance where he often looked possessed by devils. His vocals range from a fast, tenor, atmospheric sound to a steady, bass, haunting sound as in The Eternal. The mix of their songs causes the bass and drums to be very prevalent and the vocals and lead guitar in the background. The tempo, dynamic and melody always influence the content of the lyric.

Evanescence did, in fact get into the charts when their ‘debut’ album, Fallen, was released in 2003. The front lady Amy Lee has a beautifully crystal clear voice that, while being digitally enhanced on the CD, also comes across in the live performances. The guitar, bass and drums are secondary to the vocals in most of the songs and this is the standard set up. On the other hand, Hello has a marvellous piano melody which is a refreshing break from the guitar rock and, in my opinion, allows it to fit more comfortably under the ‘gothic’ classification.

All About Eve played their first gig in 1985 and by this time the gothic ‘scene’ was well established and they have remained as underground as they were then until their (most recent) split in 2004. Some would describe this music as folk rock but this would be in the loosest way possible. Again, it is a female fronted band with a standard 4 person set-up (vocal, guitar, bass, drums), although this has varied over the years as has the mix of their songs. The melody is powerful and well delivered through the, occasionally gritty, vocals of Julianne Regan. The guitar riff in Scarlet is shaped around the chords and can be put across successfully on an acoustic guitar. The chords used are mostly in standard shape with very few power chords.

Planning

My instrument is my voice and I am going to perform Hello by Evanescence. This piece is adagio and the structure is ABABC without an obvious verse and chorus. This is different from Scarlet which has an AABABAB structure with A being the verse and B being the chorus yet it does compare well with The Eternal as that simply has four similar repeated melodies. Part A is all minims for the vocals with the exception of the last two bars of each of the two phrases which contain a semi quaver to convey a more colloquial style and finish off the phrase neatly. The first three notes rise in a scale from B to D and then fall back to C before an interval of a major 3rd down to A. This melody should be legato and a slight variance in dynamic should be applied to each note to prevent it from sounding too calculated.

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Section B has mainly crotchets and dotted crotchets, allowing for a faster, yet still controlled manner. The melody here also has a range of an octave and there are similar sized intervals between notes than that of part A however, they appear more frequently. The same rhythm at the end of the phrases in A finishes off these phrases too giving the piece a subtle consistency.

C is a variant of B with a small fragment of chromatic scale from B to C. The majority of this section is higher than the B an octave above the start note (one ...

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