Deep River

• Deep River, Marian Anderson, 1897-1993
• Instrumentation: This song is only piano and vocalist. The voice is is primarily the dominating sound, although the piano does get fairly loud where Marian raises the volume of her voice.
• Texture: This piece is fairly thin in that there is only one voice, and only one piano. This is not to say that the piano and the voice are not rich themselves. Marian's voice is very full. For the most part the piano and the vocals travel together, but at times it is almost like a call (the vocals) and response (the piano) as the piano will play a note/chord a beat behind when Marian sings it. There is also some independent movement from the piano while Marian is holding a long/ drawn-out note, of which there are many.
• Range: Marian demonstrates great range with her voice. The low notes that she is able to sing are especially notable (to me). The piano pretty much follows the vocals as they travel up and down the notes.
• Tempo: This is primarily a very slow and drawn out piece, although it does pick up around three quarters of the way through the song, both in volume and in tempo.
• Meter: It seems to be a duple beat.
• Volume: I would describe this song as mostly soft, although there is a distinct section where the volume increases noticeably.
• Lyrics: The lyrics seem to imply that this song originated in slave- America. It seems to be the voice of a slave singing for freedom. The "deep river" could symbolize a number of things- it could be God, as the voice seems to be addressing the deep river as if it were a person. This analogy is further supported by the fact that the Jordan River goes through Israel, arguably the most religious piece of land that exists.