- God Bless the Child, Billie Holiday, 1941
- Instrumentation: Vocals (Billie), saxophone, piano, trumpet, percussion (what you'd traditionally find in a jazz accompaniment)
- Texture: This texture is solid, there are no empty parts, but it isn't thick. It maintains a light feel throughout. It does have a number of different instruments accompanying the vocals, but there are not a lot of each instrument.
- Range: The range does not vary hugely. This seems to be typical of jazzy blues, as the focus of the songs is not so much the vocal/instrumental range but rather technique and style.
- Tempo: slow, very laid back and relaxed.
- Meter: duple beat, the percussion emphasizes the feel that one could "shuffle dance" to this song (no need to pick your feet up very much or very fast).
- Volume: The volume does not vary largely, and this song seems to have been written to be performed somewhere between forte and piano- loud enough to distinguish all the parts but not so loud that it can't be relaxing.
- Lyrics: Holiday is singing about money and the wonderful freedom that having one's own money can bring. "God bless the child that's got his own (money)... He just don't worry about nothin cuz he's got his own."
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
God Bless the Child
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Hmmm -- is it about the wonderful freedom of financial independence, or the absolute necessity of some level of means in order to survive? Is this a "happy" song?
ReplyDeleteCould you describe Holiday's singing style in a little more detail? What's the relationship between voice and instruments? What about Holiday's distinctive vocal timbre?
Thanks!