Comparative analysis and brief discussion on the original piece and your arrangement

<1> Details of the Original Piece/song 

 
 

Title of the piece/song: My Favourite Things 

Version I based my performance of off : 7 rings 

My version: Droplets of blood 

 

Name of composer/songwriter:  

 
•Composer of My Favourite things : Richard Rodgers 

Singer : Julie Andrews  

 
•Composers of 7 rings : Ariana Grande, Victoria Monèt, Tayla Parx, Tommy Brown, Charles Anderson, Michael Foster, Nijomza Vitia, Kimberly Krysiuk, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II  

Singer : Ariana Grande 

Producers : Tommy Brown, Charles Anderson and Michael Foster 

 
Name of performer(s) of  recording you based upon: 

 
•Favourite things: Julia Andrews 

•7 rings: Ariana Grande  

 
Background information of the original recording such as release date, social and cultural context, public reception, etc.: 

 
*My Favourite Things: Released in 1959 

This song is from the musical The sound of music. The stage musical was released in 1959 but the film version was released in 1965. The movie was revolutionary in its own right. It had done extremely well in the box office. The broadway production won five tony awards. The film won five Academy awards including best picture. 

The movie Sound Of Music is a social phenomenon, it has a very beautiful and heart warming plot. It is about children without a mother, it’s about escaping war and has romantic connotations as well. I believe when the composers wrote it they kept ‘hope’ in mind. The track to me symbolises that life is very short and happiness exists in small things and we should live in the moment and cherish everything it has to bring. I also found out one of the composers Oscar Hammerstein II died of stomach cancer nine months after the broadway production was released. That got me thinking if that had anything to do with his thinking process. Because he probably had a lot of realisations and one of them could be life is really short and we should cherish our favourite things, people and moments and wanted to leave some hope behind in this world.  

 
*7 rings: January 18, 2019 

Debuted number 1 on the us billboard hot 100. It did extremely well commercially. But Ariana Grande was definitely accused of plagiarism by various artists.  

Ariana Grande sampled ‘My Favourite Things’ to 7 rings. Like mentioned before she knew this song is a winner as it had already proven it’s success before. It’s an easy pop song which appeals to the masses. It about vanity, money, power, attitude and success. The video show cases the physicality of the vocalist and is quite  superficial. It highlights the flexing culture that lot of Instagram influencers, YouTubers, R&B, Hiphop artists take part in. I feel like it very well could be a mockery of todays society and their perception of material wealth and items. 

 
<2> Comparative analysis 

 
(i) Rhythm 

 Tempo: 

 
•7 rings: 70 bpm
 

•Droplets of blood: 63 bpm

 
Time signature: 
 

•7 rings: 3/4 
 

•Droplets of blood: 3/4

I tried to do 12/8 but in some places it was 3/4 

 
Rhythm pattern: 
*My Favourite things: Waltz
 

•7 rings: 1 2 3 

Has R&B,Hiphop,pop,trap
 

•Droplets of blood: >1-2-3, 4-5-6, 7-8-9, 10-11-12 

 

Any other rhythmic features: 

7 rings:  

 
(ii) tonality and harmony 

 
Key signature: 

•7 rings: C# minor 

•Droplets of blood: D minor  

Scales: 
*My Favourite Things has a classical feel

•7 rings: C# minor (minor natural)

•Droplets of blood: D minor (minor natural with a hint of Phrygian mode)
 

Harmonic Progression: 
*My Favourite Things

•7 rings: i-VI-ii-V-V7 
Both songs have different harmonic progressions 

•Droplets of blood: i-VI-ii-V-V7, i-V-i, i-iv-V-i 

 
Any other harmonic features: 

•7 rings: Theme and Variations  

•Droplets of blood: Fantasy 

(iii) instrumentation 

•7 rings: electronic  

•Droplets of blood: a cappella 

(iv) dynamics, texture, structure 

Dynamics: 

•7 rings: mf-f (medium loud to loud) 

•Droplets of blood: mf-f-p-ff (medium loud to loud to soft to very loud) 

Texture: 

•7 rings: Synth, FX (dense) 

•Droplets of blood: a cappella (thinner compared to 7 rings but still busy) 

Structure: 

•7 rings: A A’ A’’ … 

•Droplets of blood: A A’ B C C’ D D’ 

(v) concept for your arrangements 

Genre/style:  
 
*7 rings : R&B 
*Droplets of blood: Musical 

•7 rings: vanity, bragging/flexing  

•Droplets of blood: crime story

 
 

Choice of the piece: 7 rings 

I chose this song because this was the only song I was familiar with and I thought that would be the most time efficient. As I would not have to familiarise myself with ins and outs of the song. I am not absolutely in love with this piece but I do not dislike it either. 

 
 

General concept for your arrangement: 

My lyrics (Appendix 1)

 
I had completely changed the lyrics, wrote my own and tried telling a story.  

Whilst singing I utilised my vocal range by singing the first paragraph in mid range, soft and happy. Second paragraph sounded more desperate, quick and aggressive. Third paragraph I use my own melody, sing soft, high and in head voice giving it a creepy feel. Fourth paragraph is my chorus which has slight similarities with the chorus of 7 rings but the first half being my own melody and I sang it with a lot of rage the second half of the chorus has slight similarities with 7 rings but not quite. Fifth paragraph has my own melody and I sing it quite fast but the sixth paragraph is even faster and breathier. These two paragraphs help build tension and seventh paragraph is sung slow, soft, vile and sarcastic. The eighth paragraph is sung in a similar way but in a way is a building up for the 9th and final paragraph . First half of it has new lines and is sung with a lot of passion, emotions and almost by screaming. Second half of that paragraph is ties the whole song together and is repeated as a chorus like the third paragraph; and has similarities to 7 rings. 

 

(vi) Discussion 

Working Process: 
 

After receiving the brief for the assignment I had some initial ideas which were quite basic like to slow the song down and to rewrite the lyrics.

I did feel a bit of pressure on me to make a song that represents my singing and writing ability. I thought of writing a love song but I wasn’t ready to be vulnerable in front of the class in that manner. I have a folder where there are print outs of many of the songs I’ve written. I flipped through the pages and pondered upon some pages. Nothing seemed fitting. The first page 

/song I had ever written in my folder was called rain. I thought rain would be a fitting topic because I wanted to completely avoid the original concept and the rendition which were both about cherishing nature and material things. I was still feeling quite uninspired. On that day I had started watch the third season of the hit netflix series ‘You’. Which is physiological thriller. The show is mainly about love, obsession, jealousy and murder. (See appendix 2 for details of the show).

That is the day I gave my song some structure and wrote most of the lyrics and the next day I ran it through my lecturer Guy in our private tutorial session. He’s feed back was very helpful and insightful. He seemed very impressed with my ideas and told me ways I could improve it. He was aware that I had done Performing arts and theatre in the past. So he mainly told me to learn my lines and to play it like an actress. He told me to start of by singing sweet, soft and subtle and then on the angrier parts to be change the dynamics of my vocals. In the past he had also showed my vocal warms ups and jaw, shoulder loosening exercises. I tried to implement all his feedback into my performance. Also tried to incorporate some melismatic singing as demonstrated in class. The next step was to finish my song and learn my lines and melody. There were some hindrances in the creative process ; time constraints being the main one. But nevertheless I was really excited for my song and performance to come together. On my next tutorial with Guy a few of my friends (other music students) were present there as well. I had not finished my song but had some extra lyrics which rhymed but was yet to have a melody. So we all thought it would be best for me to do spoken words or a monologue and then to tie in the song with a line with a melody. At the time it seemed like a quick solution but I was not entirely happy with that decision. Because Ideally I would want a full fledged song with my own melody added to it. A few days before the performance, at home I went over the again and again till I got the first three paragraphs down and after that I began to structure my words and implement the melodies I had previously come up for it. Then I recorded the song on my phone and mac to make sure it flowed together. When in University, my friends and I were practicing our pieces, my friends Rhi, Aggy and Sasha gave me a lot of valuable feed back as well, They helped me with my acting, physicality and vocals. They also gave me suggestions on how I could possibly use my prop knife and roses. They threw out some great ideas but due to lack of time they could not be implemented in the final performance. I went through a bit of difficulty trying find some fresh real roses the evening before the performance and their were some set backs too when it came to the lyrics getting printed. But luckily every issue was resolved before the final performance.
 

Evaluation of the performance: 

I feel like my performance went well in general. My lecturers said it was very engaging and I had great stage presence. They said it was theatrical and I made it my own and also said my ideas were great.
Due to some technical issue my first performance was out of frame and I had to re do it, this is the footage of the second performance. First take went smooth but towards the end of the second take when I tried to incorporate the prop knife into my performance I messed up a couple of the lines. I wish that hadn’t happened. Therefore it’d be amazing if I knew my lines thoroughly. I wish I could’ve practiced many more times especially incorporating the props which I had only tried to do in the time of the main performance and would’ve liked to experiment with my physicality as well. I think my singing was really good. I incorporated different ranges, dynamics and textures as well as did some melismatic singing, I believe I was in key the whole time and the timbre if my voice was bright. I sang with a lot of clarity, articulation and confidence. Overall pretty good for a first performance in front of the whole class.

 

 

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                                                                            Props and look for the performance. 

Reference for the background information and bibliography:
 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_Rings

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Favorite_Things_(song)

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_of_Music_(film)

 

https://genius.com/Ariana-grande-7-rings-lyrics

 

https://genius.com/Julie-andrews-my-favorite-things-lyrics

 

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/julie-andrews/my-favorite-things

Appendix:

 
 

1.)

Droplets of rain and whispers so subtle 

Flowers in full bloom yet more to discover  

I just want to get lost in between  

Teardrops in downpours my favourite scene  

 
 

Oh rain please come again 

Think I’ve lost my mind 

The love I sought to gain 

Just wasted my time 

I don’t care what you think of me 

I’ll burn this house down 

And you’ll never see 

 
 

Through the glass I see 

Rain dripping citrus leaves 

The pitter patter melody is all I’ll ever need  

This rain will wash away 

The pain from yesterday  

It’s time to betray my flavoured lonely days 

 
 

If I can’t have what’s mine 

You know that you can’t too 

Nothing will be fine 

Till I can get with you 

I want it  

I got it  

I want it 

I got it 

I want you 

I’ll get you too 

 
 

It’s no more a drizzle now 

The lightnings appearing 

You said our love fizzled out 

The ending is nearing 

 
 

Now the puddles of mud 

Start to change colours 

From brown to red 

As she goes down the river 

 
 

You’re never seeing her again 

Who’s to say I did something  

Thank goodness for the rain 

Washing blood of my cufflinks  

 
 

I can see the storms coming  

I’ll wait for you outside 

Through my veins the bloods rushing 

There’s not much left to hide 

 
 

All that we had 

Was so beautiful  

You say that you don’t love me 

But you’re just delusional  

If I can’t have what’s mine 

You know that you can’t too 

Nothing will be fine 

Till I can get with you 

I want it  

I got it  

I want it 

I got it 

I want you 

I’ll get you too 

 

2.)

I was on the second episode of that season, the lead character Joe is burying a woman called Nathalie in the woods . This lady was murdered by his wife named Love who knew that her husband was cheating on her with this woman. And now he was having to cover up his wife’s murder. In that scene Joe drags the body to the woods and the camera is turned up wards where you can see the grey over cast sky the leaves from the tall trees. And from that snap shot you could tell it was about to rain heavy or maybe a storm was approaching too. So that is where I got the perfect idea of combining my pre existing rain song and a crime story.