Sonic Patterns and Compositional Strategies in Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody'

Twentieth-Century Music 12/2, 173–196 © Cambridge University Press, 2015
doi: 10.1017/S147857221500002X
Sonic Patterns and Compositional Strategies in Queen’s

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
NICK BRAAE
Abstract
Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (1975) has been the subject of many academic analyses; the song has not been
considered, however, in the context of Queen’s wider output. This article examines ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in relation
to Queen’s idiolect as identified from the group’s songs written between 1973 and 1975. ‘Idiolect’ refers to the
common musical details of an artist’s output or segment of their output. I subdivide the category of an idiolect
to include sonic patterns and compositional strategies. The former accounts for patterns that are consistent in
their presentation across songs, the latter accounts for patterns that differ in their presentation across songs. The
formal and harmonic structures of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ reflect the group’s common compositional strategies; the
song’s textural arrangements highlight Queen’s sonic patterns. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ occupies a unique place in
Queen’s output, as the first song to present all the major elements of the group’s idiolect.
Introduction
British rock band Queen released ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ on 31 October 1975. As the lead
single from their fourth album A Night at the Opera (released three weeks later), it brought the
group greater commercial success than they had previously experienced. It went to no. 1 on
the British singles charts where it remained for nine weeks; slightly less popular in America,
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ only reached no. 9 on the Billboard singles chart. Nonetheless, when
re-released in 1991 and 1992, following Freddie Mercury’s death and its appearance in the
popular film Wayne’s World (1992), ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ returned to the top of the British
charts and ascended to second position on the Billboard charts. Nearly forty years after its
release, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ remains one of rock music’s most famous and beloved songs,
on account of its striking and enigmatic lyrics, operatic references, and stylized music video,
amongst other features.1
<braae.nick@gmail.com>
I would like to thank Martin Lodge, Ian Whalley, and Jeff Wragg for the many discussions during which the ideas of
this article took shape. I would also like to thank the two reviewers from this journal for their insightful feedback and
suggestions.
1 This lasting appeal is evident in a number of ways. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was inducted into the Grammy Hall
of Fame in 2004; it also belongs to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of ‘The Songs That Shaped Rock
and Roll’. Further to this, in 2012, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was ranked the ‘The Nation’s Favourite Number
1 Single’ following a public vote to celebrate sixty years of the Official Singles Chart in Britain; see www.
officialcharts.com/chart-news/queens-bohemian-rhapsody-voted-the-nations-favourite-number-1-single-1491/
173
174 Braae Sonic Patterns and Compositional Strategies in Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
Despite Queen’s marginalized presence in rock criticism and academia, generally,2 there has
been much written by critics and academics about ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, specifically. From
an academic perspective, authors have cumulatively provided a rich tapestry of information
concerning the operatic influences on the song,3 the potential links between the lyrical
narrative and Mercury’s biographical circumstances,4 and the form of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.5
In a recent thesis, Promane draws on all these strands in a single chapter dedicated to
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’: he discusses extra-musical genre issues, Mercury’s biography, and
presents a detailed outline of how the song unfolds.6 From outside academia, two DVD
documentaries and other interviews with the song’s producer Roy Thomas Baker provide
further insight into the making of the song from a recording and production perspective.7 It
is fair to say, then, that there exists a wealth of insightful information regarding ‘Bohemian
Rhapsody’. The various authors and commentators view the song, however, predominantly
from a synchronic perspective. While ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is often tied into wider contextual
trends in popular music (e.g. Zak’s ‘epic’ song forms of the 1970s), the musical components of
the song are rarely considered from a diachronic perspective – in other words, it is much less
evident from the analytical literature how ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ sits within Queen’s wider
output.
It is in the critical and biographical accounts of the band that this issue is addressed to
varying degrees. To start, a number of writers hold up ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ as Queen’s
greatest triumph and Mercury’s songwriting masterpiece, almost solely on account of the
ambitious formal, stylistic, and studio techniques underpinning the song.8 ‘Bohemian
Rhapsody’ also occupies an important position in the career narrative of the group, as
(accessed 4 January 2015). Finally, the song and video have inspired many parodies in recent years: one such (amusing)
example features the Muppets performing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ – see www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY
(accessed 15 December 2014).
2 See Anne Desler, ‘History Without Royalty? Queen and the Strata of the Popular Music Canon’, Popular Music 32/3
(2013).
3 See Ken McLeod, ‘Bohemian Rhapsodies: Operatic Influences on Rock Music’, Popular Music 20/2 (2001), 192–4.
4 Shelia Whiteley, ‘Which Freddie? Constructions of Masculinity: The Killer Queen and Justin Hawkins’, in Oh Boy!:
Popular Music and Masculinities, ed. Freya Jarman-Ivens (New York: Routledge, 2007), 24–5.
5 Jack Boss, ‘“Little High, Little Low”: Hidden Repetition, Long-Range Contour and Classical Form in Queen’s Bohemian
Rhapsody’, paper presented at the conference The Twenty-third Annual Meeting of the West Coast Conference of Music
Theory and Analysis (University of Utah, Salt Lake City, 28–30 March 2014); Albin Zak, ‘Rock and Roll Rhapsody: Pop
Epics of the 1970s’, in Expression in Pop-Rock Music: A Collection of Critical and Analytical Essays, ed. Walter Everett
(New York: Routledge, 2008), 350–1.
6 Barry C. Promane, ‘Freddie Mercury and Queen: Technologies of Genre and the Poetics of Innovation’ (PhD diss.,
University of Western Ontario, 2009), 26–76.
7 See Matthew Longfellow, Classic Albums: Queen – A Night at the Opera (Eagle Vision, 2005); Matt
O’Casey, Queen: Days of our Lives (Eagle Rock Entertainment, 2011); Mark Cunningham, ‘Roy Thomas
Baker & Gary Langan: The Making Of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”’, Sound on Sound, October 1995,
www.soundonsound.com/sos/1995 articles/oct95/queen.html; Rick Clark, ‘Roy Thomas Baker: Taking Chances and
Making Hits’, Mix, April 1999, www.mixonline.com/mag/audio roy thomas baker/.
8 See, for example, Jon Bream’s opinion piece in Phil Sutcliffe, Queen: The Ultimate Illustrated History of the Crown
Kings of Rock (Minneapolis: Voyageur Press, 2011), 81.
Braae Sonic Patterns and Compositional Strategies in Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ 175
told through various biographies and documentaries.9 In 1975, the band was on the verge of
breaking up, courtesy of a bad record deal that left them with little money from their modest
successes of the previous years.10 Queen hired Elton John’s manager John Reid, who said to
them, ‘You go away and make the best record you can make; I’ll take care of the business.’11
It was not easy for the group to make their ‘best record’ – A Night at the Opera was the most
expensive album ever recorded at the time, and involved four painstaking months in the
studio, refining thirty-eight minutes of music. As May put it, ‘We always go for perfection
in the face of financial disaster.’12 By the end of the following year, 1976, the situation had
changed drastically for the group: Queen had scored two no. 1 albums (A Night at the Opera
and A Day at the Races) and three Top 10 singles in Britain (‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘You’re My
Best Friend’, and ‘Somebody to Love’13 ), toured the world, and performed to over 100,000
fans in a free ‘thank you’ concert at Hyde Park, London. The transformation from potential
rock and roll also-rans to global superstars was complete. At the centre of this narrative lies
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. It musically embodies the band’s gamble in producing the ‘perfect’
album, and it was also the group’s greatest commercial achievement at the time. Put simply,
in the context of Queen’s career, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ stands as the turning point from
failure to success.
The problem with the discourse surrounding ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is that contrasting ideas
and perspectives are conflated. On the one hand, the critical and biographical appraisals work
from a diachronic perspective, in terms of locating ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ within the group’s
corpus and as part of an unfolding career trajectory. On the other hand, such appraisals
rarely address the music of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in relation to other Queen tracks, focusing
instead on the song’s features on their own terms, much like the academic work. Accordingly,
the diachronic view of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ rests (implicitly and explicitly) on evidence
gathered from a synchronic perspective. This is not to diminish the importance of the work
that has previously been conducted on the song, but it seems necessary to adjust the analytical
focus somewhat so that there is greater alignment between the critical and the analytical
standpoints. To be sure, my aim below is not to use musical analysis to explain why the song
was commercially successful, or why it deserves to be regarded as a masterpiece. Rather, if
we are to understand ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ as a dominant point on the Queen landscape,
and as the fulcrum of their career in commercial terms, then it pays to also understand how
the song sits in relation to the band’s output in musical terms. Was ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
representative of Queen? Did the song follow the musical trends of the group’s early years?
9 Representative examples of this narrative can be found in O’Casey, Queen and Sutcliffe, Queen, 53–94.
10 Evidence of this success can be found in the positive reviews from early in their career; see, for
instance, Gordon Fletcher, ‘Queen: Album Reviews’, Rolling Stone, 149 (1973), www.queenarchives.com/
index.php?title=Queen - 12-06-1973 - Queen - Rolling Stone %28Issue 149%29. ‘Killer Queen’ from Sheer Heart
Attack (1974) had reached no. 2 on the British singles charts.
11 O’Casey, Queen.
12 Harry Doherty, 40 Years of Queen (New York: St Martin’s Press, 2011), 20.
13 Rather than provide details for each song cited in the body of this article, I will direct readers to the discography,
which lists the tracks for each of the first six Queen albums. All songs cited in this article come from these albums.
Did it introduce a new and divergent stylistic path? Or, perhaps, was it simply a remarkable,
one-off piece of songwriting?
Methodology I: idiolect analysis

Idiolect analysis offers an appropriate framework for answering such questions. The term
‘idiolect’ derives from the discipline of structural linguistics, where it refers to the speaking
patterns (tone, pronunciation, vocabulary, discursive organization, etc.) of an individual, as
opposed to a ‘dialect’, which concerns the speaking patterns of individuals bound by, for
example, a geographical region or social class.14 Although various analysts have employed
different terminology,15 the same types of ideas are upheld in musical contexts. Thus, an
idiolect ‘refers to the individual stylistic fingerprints [ . . . ] of a performer or group of
performers’.16 In theoretical terms, Moore notes that ‘style refers to the manner of articulation
of gestures [ . . . ] at various hierarchical levels, from the global to the most local’.17 An idiolect
is a level of style, operating at the ‘local’ end of the spectrum.
Over the past two decades, a number of popular music analysts have contributed to our
understanding of artists’ idiolects by documenting the common traits or ‘fingerprints’ of
the artists in question. The various analyses demonstrate that in practical terms an idiolect
may be understood as comprising any number and type of musical details. Moore, for
example, emphasizes the consistent juxtaposition of electric and acoustic textures in Jethro
Tull’s output, as well as the group’s use of contrasting rhythmic layers.18 Endrinal and Spicer
both highlight the importance of instrumental playing techniques in their studies of U2 and
The Police, respectively. In the former instance, one of U2’s defining traits is the arpeggiated
rhythm guitar figuration;19 in the latter instance, each band member employed instrumental
techniques from contrasting styles, as heard in Sting’s punk-derived bass guitar playing, Andy
Summers’ fusion-influenced guitar chords, and Stewart Copeland’s ‘upside-down’ reggae
14 See J. B. Pride and Janet Holmes, ‘Introduction’, in Sociolinguistics, ed. J. B. Pride and Janet Holmes (Harmondsworth,
Middlesex: Penguin Education, 1972), 8; E. Haugen, ‘Dialect, Language, Nation’, in Sociolinguistics, ed. Pride and
Holmes, 97–102.
15 Meyer, for example, uses the term ‘idiom’, whereas Zak uses the general term ‘style’ but as qualified by ‘Roy Orbison’
and ‘West Texas’, thus indicating that he is referring to the musical characteristics of a subset of a single artist’s output.
See, respectively, Leonard B. Meyer, Style and Music: Theory, History, and Ideology (Chicago: Chicago University Press,
1989), 24; Albin Zak, ‘“Only the Lonely”: Roy Orbison’s Sweet West Texas Style’, in Sounding Out Pop: Analytical
Essays in Popular Music, ed. Mark Spicer and John Covach (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2009), 18–41.
16 By ‘group of performers’, Moore is referring to a band; his turn of phrase implies that the idiolect of a band may
depend on the unique techniques brought to the musical table by individual band members. Allan F. Moore, Song
Means: Analysing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song (Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2012), 166.
17 Allan F. Moore, ‘Categorical Conventions in Musical Discourse: Style and Genre’, Music and Letters 82/3 (2001),
441–2.
18 Allan F. Moore, ‘Jethro Tull and the Case for Modernism in Mass Music’, in Analyzing Popular Music, ed. Allan F.
Moore (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 158–72.
19 Christopher Endrinal, ‘Form and Style in the Music of U2’ (PhD diss., Florida State University, 2008), 28–60.
grooves.20 The idiolect of The Police thus developed from the confluence of these stylistic
ingredients. The methodological approach in each case is rather straightforward: to identify
the common musical details from a corpus of songs. To paraphrase Meyer, idiolect analysis
is similar to statistical sampling insofar as one is concerned with ‘observed correlations and
repeated concatenations of traits’.21 One can understand, therefore, how idiolect analysis may
be useful for assessing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in the context of Queen’s career. Analysis of the
wider corpus reveals the common features of the group’s output, or Queen’s idiolect; analysis
of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ reveals whether the song’s features correlate with this idiolect.
This is the fundamental approach taken below; however, I have limited the analysis in
two ways, and made a small, but significant adjustment to the analytical apparatus. First,
the scope of the idiolect analysis has been limited such that the ‘sample’ of songs comprises
only those that precede or were written concurrently with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in Queen’s
output.22 This creates a corpus of forty-five songs from the group’s first four albums: Queen
(1973), Queen II (1974), Sheer Heart Attack (1974), and A Night at the Opera (1975). The
primary reason for this limitation is that it allows one to address in greater detail the idea of
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ as a fulcrum or turning point in the career path of Queen. That is, it
is necessary to have a clear conception of what occurred musically both before and after this
point in time. Given the potential scope of such a task, this article only tackles the former
issue, in terms of addressing how ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ related, in musical terms, to the early
career output of Queen. There would be merit in developing a further study that considers
issues of idiolect after ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in order to gain insight into how the song may
have shaped Queen’s music post-1975.
The second analytical limitation concerns the musical details addressed below. Again
primarily for reasons of space, I examine and discuss seven salient features of ‘Bohemian
Rhapsody’: the formal template; the key structure; Brian May’s guitar arrangements; the
operatic references; aspects of the vocal arrangement structure; a surface harmonic gesture;
and the spatial arrangement of voices in the sound-box. For each feature, the underlying
consideration is whether the traits of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ are consistent with the treatment
of the corresponding traits in the forty-five other songs of the corpus. Thus, in the section on
form, I outline the structure of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and place this structure alongside other
Queen tracks, with the implicit question: is the structure of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ similar to
the structures of previous Queen songs? With both these limitations in mind, it is necessary
to note that the analysis does not aim to provide readers with a complete understanding
20 Mark Spicer, ‘“Reggatta de Blanc”: Analyzing Style in the Music of the Police’, in Sounding Out Pop: Analytical Essays
in Popular Music, ed. Mark Spicer and John Covach (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010), 123–53.
21 Meyer, Style and Music, 57.
22 Some thought was given to cutting off the corpus after Sheer Heart Attack given that ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was
released as a single prior to the release of its parent album. Assuming that most listeners in 1975 probably heard
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ as a single before hearing it as track eleven on A Night at the Opera, this approach would have
allowed one to approximate what it may have been like to hear the song anew at the time of its release. Equally, it
would seem that songs on the album were developed concurrently in 1975, which means other tracks from A Night at
the Opera may have influenced the final product of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. See Georg Purvis, Queen: Complete Works
(London: Titan Books, 2011), 40ff.
of either ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ or Queen’s idiolect; that said, the material below does offer
significant insight on both counts, as discussed in the conclusion of this article.
There is a final methodological hurdle that requires an adjustment to the analytical
apparatus. It was noted above that idiolect analysis is concerned with identifying consistent
musical traits across a given corpus of songs. The problem in this context is that one can
observe different types of musical consistency across this selection of Queen’s output. This
kind of issue is not unique to Queen. In their study of Radiohead, Moore and Ibrahim
identify several structural features that recur in various guises across the band’s career:
AAB formal templates; development within songs via variations on this template; and the
presence of ‘breakdown’ sections. But the authors’ most striking conclusion is this: ‘it is the
unpredictability of the band’s recordings that is arguably the only real constant . . . it is in this
respect that Radiohead problematizes the specification of idiolect’.23 Moore makes a similar
point regarding progressive rock band Gentle Giant. Having surveyed the material from their
1972 album Octopus, he concludes: ‘This album then forms part of a changing Gentle Giant
idiolect, an idiolect which I suspect retains few constant features across its lifespan.’24 If we
consider the nature of the idiolects discussed in this article, there is a clear tension: on the one
hand, the idiolects of The Police and U2 were marked, above all, by consistent instrumental
techniques; on the other hand, the idiolects of Radiohead and Gentle Giant were marked,
above all, by constant change. In the case of Queen, both sides of this issue come to the fore,
thus raising the question of how to assess the group’s idiolect when some elements constantly
change, and some elements stay the same.
Methodology II: sonic patterns and compositional strategies

In order to resolve this issue, I propose a distinction between the different types of traits
that comprise an artist’s idiolect. The analysis below suggests that a richer understanding of
Queen and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (and, indeed, other artists’ output) may be possible if one
distinguishes between sonic patterns and compositional strategies. Both categories encompass
common elements of a group’s output, and thus may be considered subservient to the
overarching idiolect of a group. That is, Queen’s idiolect – what allows us to ‘recognize their
[Queen’s] work as their work individually’25 – may be construed as comprising the sum total
of the group’s sonic patterns and compositional strategies.
What, then, do the terms mean? To adopt the terminology from Moore’s definition of
style (noted above), there are gestures or musical details that are ‘articulated’ in the same
‘manner’ from song to song. These constitute Queen’s sonic patterns. There are also gestures
or musical details that are ‘articulated’ in a different ‘manner’ from song to song, but one
can understand the corresponding gestures as sharing a common musical kinship or identity.
23 See Allan F. Moore and Anwar Ibrahim, ‘Sounds like Teen Spirit: Identifying Radiohead’s Idiolect’, in Strobe-Lights
and Blown Speakers: Essays on the Music and Art of Radiohead, ed. Joseph Tate (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009), 152.
24 Allan F. Moore, ‘Gentle Giant’s “Octopus”’, Philomusica On-line: Composition and Experimentation in British Rock:
1966–1976 (2007), www-3.unipv.it/britishrock1966–1976/pdf/mooreeng.pdf.
25 Moore and Ibrahim, ‘Sounds like Teen Spirit’, 140.
These constitute Queen’s compositional strategies. To use Meyer’s terminology,26 sonic patterns
comprise musical details that are replicated across an artist’s output, and are realized in the
same way at the individual levels of intraopus style; compositional strategies are musical
features replicated across an artist’s output, but realized in different ways at the individual
levels of intraopus style. Ultimately, the naming of the particular labels is arbitrary; however,
I have attempted to use terms with appropriate connotations. ‘Sonic patterns’ have been
designated thus because the musical gestures sound the same across songs; ‘compositional
strategy’ suggests a general plan on the songwriters and musicians’ behalves that may result
in numerous musical outcomes.27
Although the sections on Queen should help to clarify this methodological distinction,
several examples from the wider popular music repertoire may be useful in the first instance.
It is important to note that the following paragraphs are based on ad hoc analytical sketches
of the artists in question; however, they should suffice to illuminate several initial points.
To start, a good example of a sonic pattern can be found in the songs of Jerry Lee Lewis –
one of his trademarks was the long glissando across the piano. This appears as part of the
accompaniment and as part of his piano solos in early career tracks, such as ‘Great Balls of
Fire’, ‘Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On’, ‘Boogie Woogie Country Boy’, ‘Wild One’, as well as in
‘Rock and Roll’, ‘I Saw Her Standing There’, and ‘Trouble in Mind’ from Last Man Standing
(2006), an album of covers in collaboration with other artists. The point is that the piano
glissando, as a musical gesture, appears in much the same form across all of these examples
as a marker of Jerry Lee Lewis’s idiolect. In other words, his idiolect (what distinguishes his
output) is defined, in part, by this particular sonic pattern.
The Beatles’ output provides a good example of a compositional strategy. Particularly in
the latter half of the 1960s, one can note the following features in their records: artificial
double-tracking of the lead vocal (‘Love To You’); running the lead vocal through a rotating
Leslie speaker (‘Tomorrow Never Knows’); recording the bass guitar through Direct Input
(‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’); close miking of instruments (‘Eleanor Rigby’),
and playing back the tapes in reverse (‘Rain’).28 These examples clearly showcase a range of
gestures arising from different production techniques. And yet, it is possible to understand
these varying sounds as deriving from the group’s overarching aim of experimenting and
innovating in the studio, which is often regarded as a key feature of The Beatles’ output or
idiolect. Everett, for instance, talks of the ‘tape manipulations and studio effects that were
to become de rigeur for them [ . . . ] in the coming years [post-1965]’.29 Compared with the
26 From Meyer, Style and Music, 24ff.

27 The phrase ‘compositional strategy’ is reasonably common in the analytical literature. Moore, for example, uses it in
his analysis of Gentle Giant with roughly similar connotations; my use of the phrase draws on this and other examples
but offers a slightly more rigid definition of the category. See Moore, ‘Gentle Giant’s “Octopus”’.
28 See, for instance, Kari McDonald and Sarah Hudson Kaufman, ‘“Tomorrow never knows”: The Contribution of
George Martin and his Production Team to the Beatles’ New Sound’, in ‘Every Sound There Is’: The Beatles’ Revolver
and the Transformation of Rock and Roll, ed. Russell Reising (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002), 140–3, 150–5.
29 Walter Everett, The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver through the Anthology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999),
20.
case of Jerry Lee Lewis’s glissandi, however, this component of The Beatles’ idiolect may be
regarded as a compositional strategy insofar as the feature identified from the group’s output
(i.e. experimentation in the studio) has a variety of musical outcomes in individual songs.
The above comparison between sonic patterns and compositional strategies draws
attention to the level of analysis for each category. Jerry Lee Lewis’s glissandi are essentially
decorative gestures, while The Beatles’ production techniques could shape the overall sound
of a part of a track; indeed, the discussion of Queen below draws a similar distinction between
the sonic patterns, which play out on the musical surface, and the compositional strategies,
which operate at the structural levels of the musical texts. It is not imperative, however, that
sonic patterns and compositional strategies align with pre-determined levels of a musical text.
In hard rock band AC/DC’s output post-1980, many of their songs are in verse–chorus form
with the verses underpinned by a repeating rhythm guitar riff. Lead guitar solos tend to be
played over the same riff patterns, although in a number of songs one hears an instrumental
bridge section, which begins with either a power chord on or a new rhythm guitar riff based
around the subdominant (e.g. ‘Shoot to Thrill’, ‘What Do You Do For Money Honey?’, ‘Givin’
the Dog a Bone’, ‘Shake a Leg’, ‘Heatseeker’, ‘Thunderstruck’, ‘Wheels’). In terms of the riffs
themselves, there is considerable variety in the riff construction (chords vs scalar passages
vs arpeggiated figuration), rhythmic design, and harmonic patterns; nonetheless, they tend
to be built around notes of the pentatonic minor scale, which, I would argue, provides the
riffs with a common musical identity. AC/DC’s idiolect can thus be defined in part by sonic
patterns that create a sense of structural regularity (consistent verse–chorus forms and bridges
starting on IV), and in part by a compositional strategy (guitar riffs built on pentatonic minor
scale) that produces a range of surface gestures across their output.
In outlining the examples thus far, I have proceeded as if the musical gestures of an artist’s
idiolect fall easily into the category of sonic patterns and compositional strategies. In practice,
this is not the case, as one can often identify gestures that reside in a grey area relative to the
definitions of the categories set out above – not identical from one instance to the next, and
yet not completely dissimilar. A good example of this in relation to AC/DC is the song ‘Have
a Drink on Me’, which is also in verse–chorus form and has an instrumental bridge, this time
opening on the dominant chord. In terms of a structural gesture, the starting point of the
bridge in ‘Have a Drink on Me’ is different to ‘Shake a Leg’ (i.e. not IV), but clearly the pair
is related by virtue of the respective bridge sections beginning off-tonic. Does this mean that
‘Have a Drink on Me’ presents a subtle variation on the sonic pattern evident from the other
songs? Or, perhaps, are all these songs bound by the compositional strategy of beginning the
bridge section on a non-tonic chord? Does the answer to either question even matter?
With respect to the last question, I would suggest the answer is ‘no’. It is necessary to
remember, as Moore notes, that any category (style, idiolect, sonic pattern, compositional
strategy, etc.) simply ‘tells us something different about how we organize the sequence of
sounds issuing from instruments or speakers’; as listeners and analysts, we develop such
categories as an ‘an aid to our organizing that sequence of sounds’.30 These ideas are
30 Moore, ‘Categorical Conventions’, 441.

important when it comes to idiolect analysis and distinguishing between sonic patterns
and compositional strategies. Neither is a pre-facto category that shapes and determines how
the sounds unfold through time; instead, they are concepts ‘imposed’ on the music by the
listener or analyst, when one listens to specific elements of a song (and other songs) in
a certain way.31 That is, in identifying sonic patterns across an artist’s output, the analyst
chooses to hear and highlight the similarities of gestures across different songs; in identifying
compositional strategies across an artist’s output, the analyst chooses to hear the differences
between songs, while still recognizing a shared musical relationship across these examples.
Indeed, as is explored below, the richness of this method stems from identifying different
types of musical continuity within the same temporal span, according to the analytical focus
at any given point in time.
To provide a summary of this method, then, it is best to conceive of sonic patterns and
compositional strategies as idealized categories that sit at opposite ends of a continuum of
relative musical similarity between songs of an artist’s output. What is important in this kind
of analysis is recognizing and understanding the different types of similarity between songs,
and then being able to communicate and illuminate these ideas through close attention to the
musical texts. Maintaining a distinction between sonic patterns and compositional strategies
provides the requisite framework for undertaking this kind of analysis; and in turn, these
distinctions allow one to reach richer conclusions regarding an artist’s idiolect.
The formal and harmonic structures of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’

I begin the analysis by considering the formal and harmonic structures of ‘Bohemian
Rhapsody’ because they provide good instances of compositional strategies that marked
Queen’s output between 1973 and 1975. Much of the analytical intrigue of ‘Bohemian
Rhapsody’ derives from the unusual formal and harmonic plan of the song. Boss has argued
that ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ follows the processes of sonata form insofar as the primary motivic
ideas are introduced in the opening third of the song, juxtaposed and fragmented in the opera
section, and recapitulated in the coda section.32 While his analysis is accurate, the motivic
continuity is offset by the high degree of thematic contrast across the song. In sectional
terms, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ seems close to Osborn’s ‘Multi-Part Monothematic’ through-
composed form, wherein distinct thematic ideas may be repeated within a ‘sectional group’
but are not recapitulated later in the song.33 Adopting Osborn’s formal terminology, Table 1
outlines the formal and tonal plan of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. There are five main sectional
groups, each of which contains its own thematic ideas. One could further subdivide the opera
section, given the frequent changes of motivic content and texture; for the current discussion,
however, finer distinctions are not necessary. Similarly, the tonal plan only accounts for those
31 Moore, ‘Categorical Conventions’, 441.

32 Boss, ‘“Little High, Little Low”’.
33 Brad Osborn, ‘Understanding Through-Composition in Post-Rock, Math-Metal, and Other Post-Millenial Rock
Genres’, Music Theory Online 17/3 (2011), 13, www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.11.17.3/mto.11.17.3.osborn.html.
Table 1 Queen, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, formal and tonal structure.
Section Group Section Tonal Centres Time Description

I A B 0’00” A capella and piano ballad introduction
II B B – E 0’48” Verse I
B B – E 1’48” Verse II
B’ E 2’35” Guitar solo
III C A – E 3’03” Opera section
IV D E 4’08” Hard-rock section
V E E – F 4’55” Instrumental and vocal coda
tonal centres emphasized through cadences and overlooks the numerous tonicizations that
occur within sections, such as E major in the introduction or C minor in the coda.
I will address the formal and harmonic dimensions of the song separately. An appropriate
starting point may be to note that there is no other Queen song written between 1973 and
1975 that follows the same structure, in terms of the specific succession of thematic ideas.
However, aside from the succession of ideas, we may point to three striking elements about
the formal design of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’: it avoids the conventions and templates of rock
music (no chorus, lack of recapitulating material), it contains multiple thematic sections,
and it is through-composed. One may suggest then that ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ unfolds an
unconventional and expansive formal structure. It is in this regard that one finds consistency
with prior Queen songs. Indeed, this was one of the prominent features of the group’s early
output: of the forty-four songs that precede ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ten present some type of
expansive formal structure, with many more subverting the formal conventions of popular
music.
This initial idea may be considered one of Queen’s prime compositional strategies that
underpin the group’s early output; that is, a number of songs follow the same structural
approach (i.e. unconventional and expansive forms), but realize this idea in different
structural patterns. Three consecutive songs from the debut album Queen (1973) neatly
illustrate this point. ‘Great King Rat’, a Hendrix- and Clapton-inspired hard rock track,
divides into three primary sections (the introduction is brief and non-recapitulatory), and
unfolds an overarching structure that hovers between a ‘compound’ form and rondo form.34
Table 2 outlines the structure of ‘Great King Rat’. The foundation of the song is a seventeen-bar
section [B], which could either be viewed as an extended verse–refrain or as a verse–chorus
pair (the chorus starting after eight bars). Either way, these seventeen bars are heard four
times in succession, twice with vocals, twice as guitar solos with vocals added for the final
refrain. Subsequently, the groove, harmonic content, and texture change tack; Roger Taylor
34 For more on compound forms, see John Covach, ‘From “Craft” to “Art”: Formal Structure in the Music of the Beatles’,
in Reading the Beatles: Cultural Studies, Literary Criticism, and the Fab Four, ed. Kenneth Womack and Todd F. Davis
(Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006), 48.
Table 2 Queen, ‘Great King Rat’, formal and tonal structure.
Section Group Section Tonal Centre Time Description

I A E Aeolian 0’00” Instrumental Introduction
B A Aeolian 0’31” Verse I + Refrain
B A Aeolian 1’04” Verse II + Refrain
B A Aeolian 1’34” Instrumental Verse + Refrain
B A Aeolian 2’03” Instrumental Verse + Vocal Refrain
II C D 2’35” March Verse
C’ D 3’13” March Verse II
I B’ A Aeolian 3’55” Verse III
III D C 4’17” Instrumental
I B A Aeolian 5’00” Instrumental Verse + Vocal Refrain
shifts from his hard rock drumming (as evident from hitting the bell of the ride cymbal) to
a tom drum-oriented march pattern. Brian May on guitar and John Deacon on bass guitar
also offer a new accompaniment: they shift from a three-chord Aeolian loop (i–VII–v) to
alternating I and V chords, with the harmonic rhythm slowing to one chord change per eight-
bar phrase. May also moves from a driving rhythm guitar pattern to sustained power chords
that ring through each bar. This material provides the basis for two new verse-like sections,
before a return to the original verse material. The recapitulation is short-lived, however, as
the band segues into another new chord pattern, this time alternating between I and IV.
This material underpins a guitar solo for twenty-five bars before ‘Great King Rat’ concludes
with final recapitulation of the verse–refrain pair. Thus, one can identify an overarching ‘A’
section (Section Group I), which makes up the outer sections of the song; there is a loosely
organized ‘B’ section as well (Section Groups II–I–III combined); both these macro sections
further subdivide into two and three parts, respectively, hence the ‘compound’ nature of the
structure. Alternatively, the recurring verse–chorus material creates a rondo-like template.
‘My Fairy King’ and ‘Liar’ are related structurally to the examples discussed so far, while
still unfolding unique structures. The form of ‘My Fairy King’ can be mapped out thus:
ABCB’CB”BB’DB”’E, where B represents a harmonic riff, i–iv or I–IV, and C represents a
verse-like section. Like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, there is the continual introduction of new
material as the song progresses, such that the instrumental coda offers a new harmonic
progression and guitar melody. There are also parallels with ‘Great King Rat’ in terms of
the repeated sections within the structure, namely the harmonic riff; unlike the preceding
song, however, the nature of the repetition is rather irregular. The verse section succeeds the
instrumental version of B twice, but then disappears, as it were, from the song; further, the
B section progresses through two variations in the first half of the song, but then promptly
returns to its original form.
‘Liar’ unfolds a structure that is again comparable but different to the previous examples. Its
lengthy formal plan can be conceived thus: AA’BBACC’DD’C”C’”C””C””’, where A comprises
an instrumental riff, B comprises a verse–chorus pair, and the initial C section comprises
three repeated harmonic progressions: I–IV, I–V, and a static vi chord over a descending
Aeolian bass line, all realized with a consistent texture. At later stages in the song, the band
adopts, extends, and varies these harmonic fragments individually. Thus, like ‘My Fairy King’,
the song abandons the early material halfway through the song, while also offering multiple
variations on basic harmonic ideas. Like ‘Great King Rat’, there is frequent recapitulation of
material; and like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, there is the presence of sectional groups, in which
several thematic ideas are repeated – on this occasion, the song’s verse and chorus.
If one continued in the same vein through the songs preceding ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, one
would reach much the same conclusions regarding the form of Queen’s large-scale songs: there
are elements of continuity in terms of presenting multiple thematic ideas in a song, and in
terms of unfolding these ideas in an unconventional and, at times, irregular order. But, there is
no fundamental pattern that underpins the structure of these songs; the specific presentation
of thematic ideas in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is distinct from any other of the preceding songs
in the corpus. It is for these reasons that the formal structure of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ can
be considered consistent with Queen’s prior output in terms of a compositional strategy. The
large-scale songs from these years do not unfold the same structural patterns, but they share
a musical relationship or common identity of expanding upon the formal conventions of
popular songs.
The large-scale harmonic structure of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ can also be understood in
terms of compositional strategies. Returning to Table 1, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ shows the
group modulating between keys across and within sections; specifically, the modulations are
between keys that are either adjacent on the circle-of-fifths, closely related, or a tritone apart.
These observations are highly consistent with pre-‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ songs. ‘The March of
the Black Queen’ offers a prior example of frequent modulations within and across sections.
In the first thirteen bars of the song, four tonal centres or modes are suggested: E Aeolian, via
a prolonged dominant chord; G major, via a local vi–V–I progression; A harmonic minor,
intimated by a local vii° chord; and, A Dorian, intimated by a local IV63 chord. This structural
progression underpins the subsequent verse sections: each starts in G major, before tonicizing
A minor and then hinting at A Dorian in the song’s refrain. The similarities with ‘Bohemian
Rhapsody’ are twofold: both repeat modulation patterns by virtue of repeating sections, and
both modulate between closely related tonal centres. But the actual key relationships explored
within these repeating sections are different, with ‘The March of the Black Queen’ shifting
between major and minor keys and modes. In further distinction to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’,
‘The March of the Black Queen’ explores greater harmonic ground following the repeated
verse and refrain sections. Here, the subsequent episodes (which move through a number of
tempi and textures) are in F major, C major, E major, A minor, E major, and C major; the
overall tonal structure is thus much more expansive, both in terms of the number of keys
moved through, and the tonal distance between those keys.
A more appropriate point of comparison with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ may be ‘Killer Queen’.
Both songs predicate their harmonic relationships, above all, on several closely related keys.
Indeed, ‘Killer Queen’ moves between E major, B major, and F major, which, on the
surface, bears a striking resemblance to the tonal movement in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. There
are further similarities in that the modulations between the related keys take place within
sections, before returning to a harmonic starting point when the verse material returns. One
could reasonably argue that ‘intra-sectional modulations between adjacent circle-of-fifth
keys’ represents one of Queen’s sonic patterns; indeed, this pattern is evident to varying
degrees also in, for example, ‘My Fairy King’, ‘The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke’, and ‘Love of
My Life’, all Freddie Mercury-penned songs that precede ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in Queen’s
output.
Viewed from another perspective, however, it can be argued that the description above
captures the shared identity of a range of different surface harmonic gestures; even when the
key relationships are consistent between songs, the actual modulations are realized in different
orders and with different harmonic progressions. Thus, in ‘Killer Queen’, the movement from
E major to B is achieved through a sequence of secondary dominants, which results in iii
of E acting as a pivot chord (i.e. vi of B major). The subsequent movement to F major is
also sequentially derived and dependent on an obscure pivot; VI of B doubles as V/V of F.
‘My Fairy King’ covers the same harmonic ground as ‘Killer Queen’, between G major and D
major, but does so via a temporary tonicization of A minor, and then via an unusual IV–VII–
I cadence into the new key. The flattened leading-note chord comes into play also in ‘Love
of My Life’, but this time as a means of reversing the modulation trajectory – the B major
chord that appears midway through the verse in C major doubles as the subdominant of the
destination key, F major. ‘Love of My Life’ is harmonically closest to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
in terms of modulating towards the flat key areas, but in the latter song we find yet another
variation in the modulation process: the movement from B major to E major is undertaken
in the verse via a descending chromatic bass line from C (harmonized as C minor) that
simply arrives at the new tonic. At the conclusion of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, the shift upwards
from E major to F major effectively compresses the overall harmonic movement of ‘Killer
Queen’ into two bars: from the tonic chord, the bass line descends to the submediant and is
harmonized as VI7 , which doubles as the dominant of the destination key to conclude the
song.
Similar kinds of points can be made about the tritone modulations in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
The song is not unique in terms of shifting between tonal centres a tritone apart; the exact
movement between E and A is found in ‘The March of the Black Queen’ (major to Aeolian)
and ‘Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon’ (major to major), the latter also from A Night at the Opera.
In the former example, the tritone distance is traversed via a melodic sequence; the latter
example features a direct modulation across sectional bar lines; in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, the
modulation into the opera section is effected via a descending chromatic line that concludes
on the new tonic.
Compared with the formal structures, there is a much greater degree of similarity between
Queen’s early songs in terms of the common modulatory ground. The key relationships
explored in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ were not unique in Queen’s output by 1975; in some
prior cases, one finds replicas of the specific tonal centres. That said, I would argue that the
songs mentioned above do not ‘articulate’ particular modulation gestures in the same way.
‘Modulations to related keys’ can be regarded as another compositional strategy for Queen
given that the order and scope of the modulations differ from song to song; that is, the
actual procession of tonal centres in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is different to preceding songs.
Similarly, even the precise modulation relationships, such as ‘modulations to adjacent keys on
the circle-of-fifths’ or ‘modulations by a tritone’, can be considered compositional strategies
given that the surface harmonic progressions used to effect the modulations differ between
songs. From an overall structural perspective, then, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ unfolds a unique
formal and harmonic plan within Queen’s output from 1973 to 1975. At the same time, one
can understand ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ as sharing common approaches to form and harmony
with its predecessors, as accounted for by the compositional strategies listed above.
Brian May’s guitar arrangements

Compared with the structural elements of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, the textural elements of
Brian May’s guitar arrangements are excellent examples of sonic patterns. There are three
textural gestures worth considering in this regard. The first two gestures – sustained power
chords on the downbeat and doubling the bass line – are conflated in the second verse of
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. When Mercury sings the line, ‘Got to leave you all behind to face the
truth’, May’s overdriven electric guitar enters suddenly into the song’s piano-based texture.
He plays a C power chord that punctuates the downbeat and rings for two beats of the
bar. Thereafter, May shifts from the power chord accompaniment to single notes, doubling
Freddie Mercury’s piano left-hand and John Deacon’s bass guitar as the bass line descends
into E major. One only has to return to the closing track of the previous album, ‘In the Lap
of the Gods . . . Revisited’ from Sheer Heart Attack, to find a near-identical textural gesture.
In the five-bar pre-chorus phrase, May joins the piano when the dominant chord is heard for
the first time, playing an A major chord that sustains for two bars; the chorus begins with
6
another chromatic progression, I–I42 –VI, and May doubles the bass line, D–C–B.
The two components of this textural gesture can be found separately in a number of other
songs preceding ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. In ‘Flick of the Wrist’, the two gestures demarcate
the sections of the verse. The bass line doubling is heard at the start of the verse as part of
a monophonic texture – all the accompaniment instruments (electric guitars, bass guitar,
and piano) double the two-part melody (also in octaves); May changes to a ringing power
chord accompaniment after eight bars. In ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’, the power chord gesture is
used to punctuate the introductory piano riff: the textural combination is thus very similar
to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, and the guitar chords fall on the downbeat. Later in the song, May
doubles Deacon’s bass line as it ascends towards the dominant via the progression ii–I63 –
IV–II63 –V; this bass line is clearly divergent, in harmonic terms, from the chromatic descent
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, but in both contexts the textural arrangement remains consistent.
May’s third textural gesture occurs in the coda section of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and
is highly consistent in its articulation with the prior songs in Queen’s output. When the
band returns triumphantly to the ballad tempo after the hard rock section, May provides
the primary melodic lines on electric guitar, above the piano, bass, drums, and backing
vocals accompaniment. After three bars, May’s call-and-response lines give way to twin
guitars playing a third apart. From a textural perspective, the key detail here is that May has
overdubbed single electric guitar lines, as opposed to playing two notes on the one guitar.
This technique was one of May’s trademarks and can be found in many other songs by
Queen. There are variations in the number of guitar parts in each arrangement (‘Father to
Son’ features six guitar lines; ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’ and ‘Killer Queen’ feature three), as well
as in the harmonic language of each phrase; nonetheless, each arrangement has a consistent
sound because single melodic lines on the guitar are arranged in close position.
These textural gestures can all be regarded as sonic patterns because their articulation is
the same from song to song. While the gestures occur in different places within songs and
within different harmonic contexts, the ways in which May plays his guitar parts – the ringing
power chords, the doubled bass lines, and the close position harmonies – remain the same.
The sonic consistency of May’s playing is emphasized further given that he almost exclusively
used his hand-made Red Special guitar from the outset of Queen’s career; while the guitar
had different settings, its general timbre is constant across the corpus. One may thus draw a
tentative conclusion that where the structural elements of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ reflect the
group’s compositional strategies, May’s guitar playing reflects three prominent sonic patterns
from the early stages of Queen’s career.
The opera section

The discussion thus far has focused on three sets of gestures pertaining to form, key
relationships, and guitar textures. These gestures overlap to a certain extent – May’s guitar
playing obviously takes place within the song’s form, and his bass line doubling gesture
occurs at a point of modulation – but, it is easy to draw distinctions between the gestures:
the former two were primarily large-scale in their focus, while the guitar gestures were small-
scale in their focus. In this final section, I take a comparatively mid-range view, focusing
on the different gestures that unfold concurrently within a short timespan. The segment in
question is the opera section of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, a sixty-second musical fragment that
is among the most celebrated and famous in rock music history. What makes this section so
intriguing within the context of Queen’s early output is that the different gestures reflect the
group’s compositional strategies and sonic patterns at the same time. The importance of this
observation will be addressed further in the conclusion of this article.
Let us start with the most obvious characteristic of the opera section: the fact that there
are references to operatic music in the middle of a ‘rock’ song. McLeod argues that a number
of thematic and stylistic references are juxtaposed, such that ‘the confused context of these
terms serves both to highlight the foreign intrusion of opera in a rock anthem and parody
the lack of understanding of foreign language opera common to most rock fans’.35 Indeed,
when asked about the opera influences, Mercury was rather coy: ‘I did some research’ was his
35 McLeod, ‘Bohemian Rhapsodies’, 194.

enigmatic response.36 Nonetheless, two stylistic references are most apparent. The first is to
the light operatic works of Gilbert and Sullivan. This is evident through the call-and-response
dialogue between the lead vocalist and the vocal chorus, the sudden changes in dynamics
accompanying this dialogue, and the light, homophonic instrumental parts that accompany
the voices. A number such as ‘I am the Captain of the Pinafore’ from Gilbert and Sullivan’s
H.M.S. Pinafore serves as a useful point of comparison. Where Mercury was reluctant to
divulge his sources, May has been open about the second primary influence on the section.
The a capella vocal line ‘Magnifico’ features the voices in a staggered, descending arpeggio.
This was intended as an homage to Mantovani’s cascading strings.37 Thus, within this section
there are two general references to musical styles beyond the world of rock music.
By 1975, Queen had started to highlight their stylistic proficiency and virtuosity. Spicer’s
notion of a ‘Universe of Style’ – where each musical style is represented by a different ‘planet’ –
is useful for understanding this element of the group’s output in the early years.38 It was clear
that the band members were adept at travelling between ‘planets’ located in close proximity
to one another, namely, the various styles of 1970s rock music (compare the glam rock of
‘Now I’m Here’ with the hard rock of ‘Son and Daughter’, and with The Beatles-inspired folk
rock of ‘The Night Comes Down’). At the same time, the group also showcased an ability to
undertake longer journeys within the musical universe to style planets of pre-1970s popular
music. Prior to A Night at the Opera, the most conspicuous examples of these adventures
were ‘Killer Queen’ (the planet of British music hall, à la The Beatles’ ‘Penny Lane’), ‘Bring
Back That Leroy Brown’ (1940s jazz, à la the Andrews Sisters), and ‘Funny How Love Is’
(Phil Spector’s 1960s wall-of-sound production). On A Night at the Opera, in the tracks
leading up to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, Queen made five more voyages, in the form of ‘Lazing
on a Sunday Afternoon’ (music hall à la The Beatles’ ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’), ‘Seaside
Rendezvous’ (vaudeville), ‘Love of My Life’ (Bach-inspired piano playing), ‘39’ (skiffle), and
‘Good Company’ (1920s Dixieland jazz).
Because of their continual stylistic movement, it is easy to hear the opera section of
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ as consistent with Queen’s output from 1973 to 1975. One could
reasonably argue that this section is further consistent with Queen’s compositional strategy
of travelling to distant style planets outside the sphere of 1970s rock. As the examples
demonstrate above, one may regard Queen’s stylistic voyages as reflective of a compositional
strategy precisely because they made regular trips through the musical universe, but did not
visit the same planet twice. Equally, however, one should not overlook the degree of surprise
that listeners (and even the most devoted Queen fans) must have felt upon hearing ‘Bohemian
Rhapsody’ for the first time. For ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ not only marked the group’s most
audacious journey to date, in terms of venturing into the realm of classical music, but
it also marked the first occasion on which the group moved away from the rock planets
36 Andy Davis, ‘Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody’, Record Collector 166 (1993), www.brianmay.com/queen/
rcjun93/rcjun93.html.
37 O’Casey, Queen.
38 Spicer, ‘“Reggatta de Blanc”’, 125ff.
Example 1 Queen, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, opera section, backing vocal structure, 3’26”–3’29”.
and returned home within the same song. That is, other songs structured around highly
contrasting episodes (e.g. ‘Father to Son’) operated within a consistent rock framework;
different sections tended to move along a soft–hard rock textural spectrum.39 And when
Queen travelled further to pre-1970s style planets, they remained at their destination for
the full song. In this regard, one can hear the opera section within ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ as
representing an innovative and rather extraordinary moment in the early stages of Queen’s
career.
And yet, it is not entirely the case that the opera section was a radical and innovative
move by Freddie Mercury and Queen. If one delves a little deeper into the musical details
of this episode, the picture becomes somewhat more interesting. First, one may consider
the voicing structure of the operatic chorus arrangement. Contrary to de Boer’s assertion
that Queen employed a SATB structure,40 the chorus vocals of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ are
based around three- or four-part close position harmonies in the octave above middle C,
with one or two voices an octave below tending to sing either the tonic, root, and/or fifth of
the chord. Example 1 highlights the arrangement and voice-leading structure of the backing
vocals as they sing through the line ‘He’s just a poor boy from a poor family’. The lower
voices double the local tonic note (E), while the upper three voices sing in close position.
It was comparatively unusual for Queen to add extra voices in the tenor and bass register,
and thus again, one can note a degree of divergence here from previous songs. That said,
almost without exception, Queen’s vocal arrangements in other songs adopted the same
structure as the upper parts in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ – three- or four-voices arranged in
close position with predominantly arpeggiated or stepwise movement. Example 2 highlights
the arrangement and voice-leading structure of an excerpt from ‘Killer Queen’, where the
group sings punctuating ‘baahs’ behind Freddie Mercury’s line ‘Guaranteed to blow your
mind’. Example 3 highlights the same arrangement features of an excerpt from the verse of
‘Bring Back That Leroy Brown’, where the group sings ‘woohs’ and ‘yeah’ in between phrases.
As with Brian May’s guitar arrangements, the vertical construction of the backing vocal parts
39 Thus in ‘Father to Son’, the chorus section features acoustic guitar strumming and electric guitar arrangements; one
of the bridge sections features three overdriven guitars playing heavy riffs.
40 See Jennifer de Boer, ‘On the Margins of the Mainstream: Queen, the Rock Press, and Gender’ (MA thesis, McMaster
University, 1999), 94–100.
Example 2 Queen, ‘Killer Queen’, chorus, backing vocal structure, 0’33”–0’36”.
Example 3 Queen, ‘Bring Back That Leroy Brown’, verse, backing vocal structure, 0’14”–0’17”.
is highly consistent from one example to the next, and thus, it is easy to regard three- or four-
part close position vocal harmonies as a sonic pattern that marks this segment of Queen’s
output.
Example 1 also draws attention to two harmonic gestures, both of which appear in songs
before ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Specifically, one can note the presence of an embellishing
common-tone diminished chord built on the local tonic note, and the movement of two or
more voices underneath an upper pedal. The two gestures appear separately in other Queen
songs. Example 2 from ‘Killer Queen’ neatly highlights the use of an upper pedal in the
vocal arrangement, under which the lower two voices ascend by step. The chorus of ‘Flick
of the Wrist’ features a similar voicing arrangement, as well as presenting a common-tone
diminished chord on the tonic, albeit in Mercury’s piano introduction. The common-tone
diminished chord is rife also through the introduction and verse of ‘In the Lap of the Gods’.
In ‘Bring Back That Leroy Brown’ (Example 3), not only does one hear the close position
vocal harmonies, but also one may observe the use of an upper pedal, and the appearance
of a common-tone diminished chord. This example acts almost as a direct precedent for
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Like the structure of the vocal arrangement, one may regard these two
gestures – ‘upper pedal voicing’ and ‘common-tone diminished chord built on tonic note’ – as
sonic patterns, due to the fact that both exhibit consistent articulation across the songs. That
is, in spite of, for instance, the change of instrumentation between ‘Flick of the Wrist’ (piano)
and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (voices), the harmonic sonority of the common-tone diminished
chord is the same.
There is a final gesture pertaining to the voices of the opera section, which reflects another
sonic pattern from Queen’s early years. As the ‘characters’ and chorus members call and
respond to each other, the voices are placed in different positions within the sound-box. On
several occasions, one hears alternating voices panned to the extreme left and right edges
of the stereo image. This feature is best observed on the repeated chants of ‘Galileo’, as well
as when the chorus argues with the narrator – the chorus, in the left channel, state ‘We
will not let you go’, which is answered immediately in the right channel, ‘Let me go’. The
result of this panning is a series of short spatial gestures in which the antiphonal voices
draw the listener’s attention back and forth between the opposing horizontal boundaries of
the sound-box. Queen’s prowess in the recording studio was evident by the time the group
recorded ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. While their studio experimentation (like The Beatles) is best
understood as a compositional strategy articulated in a variety of ways,41 the antiphonal
voices of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ reflect a sonic pattern: one can identify the same structural
(call-and-response) and spatial (left–right) arrangement gestures in a number of songs from
the first three albums, including ‘In the Lap of the Gods’, ‘My Fairy King’, ‘Killer Queen’, ‘The
March of the Black Queen’, ‘The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke’, ‘Brighton Rock’, ‘Nevermore’
and ‘Now I’m Here’, amongst other examples.
This part of the analysis has thus reached a position where one can hear the opera section
in terms of multiple musical gestures. On the one hand, the references to operatic and other
classical styles reflect Queen’s compositional strategy of moving outside the stylistic world of
1970s rock. On the other hand, within the opera section, one can identify a range of gestures
relating to the structure and voicing of the vocal arrangements, the harmonic content of the
arrangement, and the spatial treatment of the voices. These latter gestures can be found in
almost identical form in other Queen songs written before ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’; thus, they
reflect a number of the group’s sonic patterns from the early years of their output.
Conclusions: the nature of Queen’s sonic patterns and compositional strategies

‘I don’t want to keep playing the same formula over and over again, otherwise you just go
insane. I don’t want to become stale. I want to be creative.’42 This is what Mercury told an
interviewer in 1977, and to a certain extent the analysis above reflects these sentiments. What
was evident in this segment of Queen’s corpus (1973–75) is that the structural elements of
their songs – namely, the formal templates and the tonal relationships – were best understood
in terms of two compositional strategies, which give rise to a variety of distinct formal and
harmonic patterns. The first compositional strategy was a tendency towards expansive and
unconventional song forms; the actual unfolding of these structures differs greatly from one
song to the next, in terms of the number of themes and the degree of repetition, variation,
and recapitulation of ideas. The second compositional strategy was the use of modulation
schemes between closely related keys; again, the unfolding order of the modulations differed
between songs, as did the surface harmonies used to realize such key changes. Mercury was
41 Note, for instance, the ‘wall-of-sound’ homage to Phil Spector in ‘Funny How Love Is’, the revolving stereo panning
of the voices in ‘In the Lap of the Gods’, or Brian May’s creation of a Dixieland orchestra using different guitar tones
in ‘Good Company’.
42 Tony Parsons, ‘Is This Man a Prat?’, New Musical Express, 18 June 1977, www.queenonline.com/en/the-band/
interviews/freddie-mercury-1/is-this-man-a-prat-/.
thus correct: it is extremely difficult to point to a formula that governs the order of ideas
within a Queen song, and the harmonic setting in which those ideas unfold.43
But it is equally important to temper Mercury’s comments with two further observations.
First, despite the overt variations between the structural elements of Queen’s songs from
1973 to 1975, the identification of compositional strategies (expansive forms, modulations
to related keys) reflected the fact that there was marked consistency in the nature of these
structural differences. Brian May suggested that Queen was fortunate to have begun their
career at the tail end of The Beatles’ and Jimi Hendrix’s careers – he noted that these two artists
served as ‘role models’ and ‘it was like finding a rule book on how to break the rules’.44 This
speaks to the fact that while elements of Queen’s songs could be regarded as experimental,
the group was experimental in much the same way from song to song. Perhaps unlike their
progressive rock contemporaries, Queen did not expand the stylistic boundaries of rock
music, per se, but rather followed the ‘rules’ for experimentation that had been passed down
to them by their predecessors.
Second, many of the sounds heard within the structures of Queen’s songs were highly
consistent across their output from these years. One can observe a number of sonic patterns
that recur through the group’s early career – the construction of the vocal and guitar
arrangements, the use of the common-tone diminished chord, and the spatial placement
of voices (amongst others) all contributed to the legendary ‘Queen sound’.45 These sonic
patterns tended to comprise short and striking gestures that could provide any musical
setting and structure with a Queen-like musical flavour. This idea becomes particularly
important in the context of Queen’s references to musical styles beyond the context of 1970s
rock. While the stylistic reference points varied from song to song, every reference tended
to be marked by some or other of Queen’s sonic patterns. The opera section of ‘Bohemian
Rhapsody’ encapsulates these ideas. The actual evocation of classical music styles is distinctive
within the group’s repertoire from 1973 to 1975; the uniqueness of this reference, however, is
balanced by the vocal arrangement and the harmonic and production techniques that were
highly consistent with earlier Queen songs.
To offer a broad analytical conclusion regarding Queen’s idiolect and the group’s approach
to making records in the early stages of their career, one might say that they struck a fine
balance between precise musical similarities and consistent musical differences. Accordingly,
through the years 1973 to 1975, Queen’s overall idiolect was very well defined, in terms
of both compositional strategies and sonic patterns. Put another way, where songs differed
structurally or stylistically, they could often be reconciled with other songs through common
43 To amplify this point, Queen wrote numerous rock ballads through the 1970s and early 1980s, which were almost
exclusively in verse–chorus form, and featured a modulation between sections (e.g. ‘Teo Torriatte’, ‘We are the
Champions’, ‘Sail Away Sweet Sister’, ‘Save Me’). In each case, however, the modulation distance changes, thus
enabling each song to have its own structural identity. By way of comparison, one may point to the Rolling Stones,
who wrote a number of verse–chorus songs, in which the choruses only feature I and V chords (e.g. ‘Sympathy for
the Devil’, ‘Brown Sugar’, ‘Honky Tonk Women’, ‘Rip This Joint’, ‘Start Me Up’).
44 Interview with the author, 4 September 2014, Auckland, New Zealand.
45 See de Boer, ‘On the Margins’, 84.
compositional strategies. Despite ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ unfolding a unique structure in

relation to songs that preceded it in Queen’s output, we might be tempted to remark something
along the lines of, ‘It was the type of thing Queen would do’, given that it provided another
example of an expansive song form featuring modulations to related keys. And even at
their most experimental, as is surely the case with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, Queen’s songs
rarely sounded unfamiliar, courtesy of their well-defined sonic patterns. This methodological
distinction, within the framework of idiolect analysis, allows one to develop this richer and
more nuanced conclusion.
Finally, then, what of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in relation to Queen’s wider output? Can the
song be considered a musical turning point as viewed through the lens of the group’s idiolect?
As noted above, one would need to investigate the post-1975 Queen songs in greater detail to
answer this question; however, if we cast our eye briefly over the subsequent albums, one may
note the continuation of many idiolect traits identified above. The compositional strategy
of moving to different pre-1970s popular styles was evident in ‘Somebody to Love’ (gospel),
‘Long Away’ (1960s folk rock), and ‘My Melancholy Blues’ (cabaret). The compositional
strategy of modulating between related keys also appeared frequently in subsequent years
(e.g. ‘Millionaire Waltz’, ‘Jealousy’, ‘Save Me’). Furthermore, a number of the sonic patterns
identified above remained in use in the years after ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ – May’s guitar
textures and the structures of the vocal arrangements were consistent in their articulation
post-1975, while the common-tone diminished chord and upper pedal voicings made a
number of appearances in later tracks (e.g. ‘You Take My Breath Away’, ‘Millionaire Waltz’,
‘Bicycle Race’, ‘Sail Away Sweet Sister’). From this perspective, one may suggest that ‘Bohemian
Rhapsody’ does not act as a turning point for the group, but does serve to crystallize many
of the key features (in terms of both compositional strategies and sonic patterns) of Queen’s
idiolect.
The main issue, however, concerns the musical relationships between ‘Bohemian
Rhapsody’ and the preceding material of Queen’s corpus. The analysis demonstrated that
many of the notable features of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ were highly consistent with the various
strands of Queen’s idiolect through their first four albums. This observation is congruous
with what Mercury said to Sounds magazine in 1976: ‘I’m going to shatter some illusions. It
[‘Bohemian Rhapsody’] was just one of those pieces I wrote for the album: just writing my
batch of songs.’46 The analysis would suggest that, yes, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is just another
manifestation of Queen’s sonic patterns, and presents another distinct formal and harmonic
template, and references another pre-1970s style. It is easy to view ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ as
‘just one of those songs’ that continues the idiolect trends established by the group in their
early years.
Well, not quite. I would argue that the most remarkable aspect of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
is not that it is consistent with Queen’s idiolect, but that it presents all of the primary
compositional strategies and sonic patterns that had marked Queen’s output up to 1975.
46 John Ingham, ‘Mercury Rising: The Queen Interview’, Sounds, January 1976, www.queenarchives.com/
index.php?title=Freddie Mercury - 01-XX-1976 - Sounds.
‘Killer Queen’, for instance, featured a typical modulation scheme, a wider stylistic reference,
as well as numerous sonic patterns (close position voices and guitar harmonies), but within a
pared-back formal structure; ‘The March of the Black Queen’ had an expansive structure and
featured close position vocal and guitar arrangements, but did not really venture from the
stylistic world of rock music. Thus, while ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is viewed as the commercial
fulcrum in the group’s career trajectory, from a musical perspective, the song acts as a
summary of Queen’s output from 1973 to 1975. It epitomized Queen’s idiolect at this point
in the group’s career; if one wished to know what defined Queen’s music between 1973
and 1975, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, by itself, would probably provide more than a few answers.
Much of the literature invariably highlights the ambitious musical techniques and subsequent
commercial success of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. It is worth pausing, however, to acknowledge
another achievement of Mercury, May, Taylor, and Deacon: in 1975, they distilled the musical
essence of Queen into six minutes of operatic rock music.
Bibliography
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Discography and track listings

The discography below lists the albums from which songs were cited in this article. I have provided full track listings
for the Queen albums that formed the basis of the analysis, so that readers can locate within Queen’s output the songs
discussed in detail.
AC/DC. 1980. Back in Black. Albert Productions, SD 16018.
————. 1988. Blow Up Your Video. Albert Productions, CDP 748977 2
————. 1990. The Razors Edge. Albert Productions, 467462 1.
————. 2008. Black Ice. Columbia, 88697392382.
The Beatles. 1965. Rubber Soul. Parlophone, PMC 1267.
————. ‘Paperback Writer/Rain’. Parlophone, R 5452
————. 1966. Revolver. Parlophone, PCS 7009
————. 1967. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Apple Records, 0946 3 82419 2 8
Jerry Lee Lewis. 1975. Boogie Woogie Country Man. Mercury, SRM-1-1030
————. 1993. All Killer, No Filler: The Anthology. Rhino, R2 71216
————. 2006. Last Man Standing: The Duets. Artists First, AFT-20001-2
Queen. 1973. Queen. EMI, EMC 3006.
A1. ‘Keep Yourself Alive’
A2. ‘Doing All Right’
A3. ‘Great King Rat’
A4. ‘My Fairy King’
B1. ‘Liar’
B2. ‘The Night Comes Down’
B3. ‘Modern Times Rock ‘n’ Roll’
B4. ‘Son and Daughter’
B5. ‘Jesus’
B6. ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’ (Instrumental)
————. 1974. Queen II. EMI, EMA 767.
A1. ‘Procession’
A2. ‘Father to Son’
A3. ‘White Queen (As It Began)’
A4. ‘Some Day One Day’
A5. ‘The Loser in the End’
B1. ‘Ogre Battle’
B2. ‘The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke’
B3. ‘Nevermore’
B4. ‘The March of the Black Queen’
B5. ‘Funny How Love Is’
B6. ‘Seven Seas of Rhye’
————. 1974. Sheer Heart Attack. EMI, EMC 3061.
A1. ‘Brighton Rock’
A2. ‘Killer Queen’
A3. ‘Tenement Funster’
A4. ‘Flick of the Wrist’
A5. ‘Lily of the Valley’
A6. ‘Now I’m Here’
B1. ‘In the Lap of the Gods’
B2. ‘Stone Cold Crazy’
B3. ‘Dear Friends’
B4. ‘Misfire’
B5. ‘Bring Back That Leroy Brown’
B6. ‘She Makes Me’
B7. ‘In the Lap of the Gods . . . Revisited’
————. 1975. A Night at the Opera. EMI, EMTC 103.
A1. ‘Death on Two Legs (Dedicated To . . . )’
A2. ‘Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon’
A3. ‘I’m in Love with My Car’
A4. ‘You’re My Best Friend’
A5. ‘‘39’
A6. ‘Sweet Lady’
A7. ‘Seaside Rendezvous’
B1. ‘The Prophet’s Song’
B2. ‘Love of My Life’
B3. ‘Good Company’
B4. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
B5. ‘God Save the Queen’ (Instrumental)
————. 1976. A Day at the Races. EMI, EMTC 104.
————. 1977. News of the World. EMI, EMA 784.
————. 1978. Jazz. EMI, EMA 788.
————. 1980. The Game. EMI, EMA 795.

Sonic Patterns and Compositional Strategies in Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody'

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Twentieth-Century Music 12/2, 173–196 © Cambridge University Press, 2015

Sonic Patterns and Compositional Strategies in Queen’s

Methodology I: idiolect analysis

Methodology II: sonic patterns and compositional strategies

26 From Meyer, Style and Music, 24ff.

30 Moore, ‘Categorical Conventions’, 441.

The formal and harmonic structures of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’

31 Moore, ‘Categorical Conventions’, 441.

Table 1 Queen, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, formal and tonal structure.

Section Group Section Tonal Centres Time Description

Table 2 Queen, ‘Great King Rat’, formal and tonal structure.

Section Group Section Tonal Centre Time Description

Brian May’s guitar arrangements

The opera section

35 McLeod, ‘Bohemian Rhapsodies’, 194.

Example 2 Queen, ‘Killer Queen’, chorus, backing vocal structure, 0’33”–0’36”.

Conclusions: the nature of Queen’s sonic patterns and compositional strategies

compositional strategies. Despite ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ unfolding a unique structure in

Discography and track listings

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