Monday, December 16, 2019

"Watch Your Step"

In "Watch Your Step," the "away" in the line "Before you go away" is sung with a melisma (C C Eb F G, I think), musically giving a sense of movement.  "Every" and "night" in the line "You gonna miss me every night" are also sung with melismas (G Bb C Eb F Eb and F G respectively), musically giving a sense of number or frequency, and in the following line - "I'm gonna get myself together, and ev'rything gonna be alright" - the "al" of "alright" is sung with a melisma (G F Eb), musically giving a sense of breadth or entirety.

While reviewing the song in order to write this post, I also noticed that "wide" in the line "Keep your eyes open wide" is also sung with a melisma (D C Bb G, I think), musically giving a sense of the word's meaning and that the three syllables of "ev'rything" in the line "I'm gonna get myself together, and ev'rything gonna be alright" are all sung to different pitches (G F Eb) for a sense of breadth.