Monday, December 9, 2019

"Look Away"

At the beginning of "Look Away," the only instrumentation is organ, and the sparseness of the arrangement gives some sense of the solitude of the first line:  "All alone, standing here by myself."

"Alone" in that first line is sung with a melisma (Bb C Bb A G F G) musically giving a sense of the degree of that "all."  In the first line of the second verse - "She's so close, the girl that I knew so well" - "close" is sung with the same melisma for a musical sense of the degree of that "so."  The second "so" there ("so well") is also sung with a melisma (A G F) for a sense of degree.

At least one of the "away"s in the title phrase in the lead vocals (at ~1:47) is sung with a melisma (D D C), musically giving a sense of movement.  The "look away"s in the backing vocals are sung to phrases that move in opposite directions (one descends - C C A; one ascends - E E F), which gives a sense of movement or even of distance.