Kimberlyn S.

Badilles GE 6 – Art Appreciation

BSN – 1, Silliman University September 11, 2019

Music Analysis

The Opus One: All male classical crossover performed at Claire Isabel McGill Luce Auditorium last
September 7, 2019. The performers were Lorenzo Mendoza, Jose Juan Jalbuena, Robelle Linster Alalong
and Juan Alfonso Mendoza. The three songs they performed that I chose to analyse are: 1) Impossible
Dream; 2) You Raise Me Up; and 3) Perfect. Although each song has their own characteristics, the group
made a twist in singing that made their performance more entertaining and unique.

The song Impossible Dream (The Quest) was one of the outstanding songs from the Broadway
musical in 1965, Man of La Mancha. The music was composed by Mitch Leigh and the lyrics were
written by Joe Darion. When literally interpreted, the song was about fighting against impossible odds
and reaching for something that looks unattainable. The song was sung by the group with a time
signature of 9/8 or compound triple. The beat note was a dotted quarter note. The beats were divided into
3 eighth notes. It was sung melodically as they have different voices which coincided, complemented, or
blended thoroughly. It has a repeated melodic theme throughout the piece. The music was interesting to
listen to because the timbre of the melodic line constantly changes. It has a polyphonic texture. There
were bass, tenor, and alto parts. The singers were accompanied by minus-one in which the noticeable
instrument used was the piano. The melodies were both conjunct and disjunct. Some parts of the song
were smooth, easy to sing or play and some parts were disjointedly ragged or jumpy, difficult to sing or
play. The song has a Tempo di Bolero or moderato assai ("tempo of a bolero, very moderate"). The
dynamics of the song was gradually getting louder, commonly called as crescendo. It was most
remarkable in the chorus part of the song. It went back to its original softness after the chorus for the
second part of the song. Although there were alternating loudness and softness of the song, the most
evidently heard was the crescendo. The voice, range of the song was C4 - Eb5. There was harmony in the
music played. There was consonance or a smooth-sounding harmonic combination. It has tonality or its
harmony focuses on a "home" key center. The group’s performance was superb and it showed more of the
emotions behind the message of the song itself.

The song You Raise Me Up was originally composed by Secret Garden. The music was composed
by Rold Lovland and the lyrics were written by Brendan Graham of Secret Garden. The song was
recorded by more than a hundred singers including the Westlife who popularized it in United Kingdom.
Most of us may have heard the version of Josh Groban. It was an uplifting song which conveyed a strong
message about the power and strength of faith. The Opus One gave a classical flavor of the song. The
song has a lyrical melody. It is largely diatonic. Its melodic line has two parts/structures: verse and chorus
or [A] & [B]. It was highly repetitive. These were symmetrical since each of the chorus and verses have 8
bars. It started with the A section. The movement of the melody was restricted in each sub phrase (2 bars)
where it got higher and ended off with a note being sustained. The B flat reached the E flat in the third
sub phrase which was followed by the chorus. For the chord progression, the chords used were I, IV, V
chord. Chordal 7th and 9th were presented as well. For the harmonic function, each section of the songs
ended with a perfect cadence or the use of Dominant-Tonic harmonic function. Although there were
“written out repeats”, they occur with different keys, making each one distinct from the other. The first
set was E flat major, and this modulated to F major for the second set. This made the song higher and has
a brighter tone. Right after, the chorus was played again but with a key of G flat major this time. The
structure was [A] [B] [A’] [B’] [B’’] [B’’]. The 8 bars of the song formed a simple period with 4 in
antecedent and 4 in consequent. The piece was generally homophonic in texture. It started with a solo
voice accompanied by the piano to form simple chords and other instruments such as violin collided to
thicken the texture. There was different instrumentation. There were bass, tenor, and alto parts. The song
was sung in a higher tessitura for soprano and one or two of them were also in the tenor range. The first
chorus was shown with a large crescendo. There was a part of the song where they reached a very loud
(mezzo forte) and more powerful tone. When the line, "I am strong…” came during the fourth chorus,
there was a large decrescendo to a lower volume.

The song Perfect was composed by Ed Sheeran. It was a pop song/romantic ballad written for his fiance,
Cherry Seaborn. It was the first track of his third studio album, Platinum. The song was about what love
truly means and how it makes life worth living. The rhythm and tune of the song was slow and soft.
Definitely 6/8. In the later part of the song, one can hear that the triplets were grouped in pairs. The tempo
was of 63.5 beats per minute (Larghetto) or 21 measures/bars per minute. The time signature is ¾. It was
written in the key Ab major. It has an easy structure, pentatonic melody and simple chords. In its rhythm,
it has a triple meter which is somewhat similar to the doo-wop ballads in 1950s to 1960s, although
modern production techniques were used. In the chord progression, verses and choruses were I-vi-IV-V
while the bridge was vi-IV-I-V. In their performance, the singers gave roses to some of the audience
which received a few giggling response.

In all, the entire show was very interactive and it was worth the money. It made me realize more of the
importance of music for human beings and to appreciate the beauty of what music gives us. Indeed, that
night was a night full of grace and beauty.