Instrumentation: Vocals (Holiday), piano, clarinet, saxophones (intro), trumpet (typical Jazz ensemble instrumentation)
Texture: The word I would use is ‘restrained’. Although there are a lot of instruments, they are used sparingly, and played with a refined, professional sense. Holiday’s voice I personally find a little thin and grating at times.
Range: The vocal melody goes pretty deep at the repetition of “that’s got his own”, while there are bits of higher held-out notes at the bridge (“Money, you’ve got lots of friends), as well as the end. In general, though, the piece sits in a fairly casual voice register. The background instruments too have little range, so as to not draw too much attention away from Holiday’s vocals.
Tempo: Slow, laid-back: like a ballad.
Meter: Duple (slow shuffle)
Volume: Soft and subdued.
Form: Strophic (chorus starts with “Mama may have …”), with verses and bridge
(12-bar blues???)
Lyrics: The lyrics are very religious, saying that those with religion “have” more than those who don’t. Riches fade, but religion endures. I find this a surprising song for Holiday to sing, as I never really thought of her as particularly religious, especially given her life circumstances (worked as a prostitute at some point). It’s also a significant departure from the majority of her works, which are about love or other non-religious subjects.
Other: I own a different version of this song, so it was really interesting to hear another recording: even though it was still Billie Holiday, the songs have really different attitudes to them – instrumentation, key, phrasing, etc. Even though I personally don’t like Billie Holiday (the quality of her voice just doesn’t sit well with me), I’ve always liked this song, and found it to be incredibly soulful (in addition to the spiritual lyrics).
Thanks for this very thoughtful analysis, especially observing the different kinds of performances that Holiday herself recorded.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that she wrote this work.
One thing to listen for in jazz and blues -- what is the relationship between the vocal melody and the instrumentation? Is there much imitation -- do instruments repeat vocal lines? Is this simply "voice and accompaniment"? Or is there ever a conversation between the vocal line and the instruments themselves? This is something you might explore in future blog entries.
Thanks!