The Book

Introduction What is it all good for? Scope of work Project History

Music theory in nutshell Harmony Chord notation used in the analyses The degrees of notes Chord functions Keys, Sharps and flats, neighbour keys Guitar friendly and piano-friendly keys Modulations, key changes Parallel key modulations Relative key modulations Neighbour key modulations Combined modulations Step-up/down modulations Unusual modulations Key-shifts Pivot Modulation Borrowed chords Cliche chord progressions Modes Ambigous harmony Rhythms Exercies Syncopations Shuffle beat Metrical modulations, metrical anomalies Compound meters Disorienting Rhythms Songforms General aesthatics of popular and rock music

Repetitions and variants

Queen - The four of them as musicians Brian May Roger Taylor Freddie Mercury John Deacon

Songwriting Analyses Smile Ibex "No Synth" era Queen Keep Yourself Alive Doing All Right Great King Rat My Fairy King Liar The Night Comes Down Modern Times Rock'n'roll Son And Daughter Jesus Seven Seas Of Rhye Silver Salmon Hangman Mad The Swine Queen II Procession Father To Son White Queen (As It Began) Some Day One Day The Loser In The End Ogre Battle The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke Nevermore March Of The Black Queen Funny How Love Is Seven Seas Of Rhye See What A Fool I've Been Sheer Heart Attack Brighton Rock Killer Queen Tenement Funster Flick Of The Wrist Lily Of The Valley Now I'm Here In The Lap Of The Gods Stone Cold Crazy Dear Friends Misfire Bring Back That Leroy Brown She Makes Me In The Lap Of The Gods... Revisited A Night At The Opera Death On Two Legs Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon I'm In Love With My Car You're My Best Friend Sweet Lady '39 Seaside Rendezvous The Prophet's Song Love Of My Life Good Company Bohemian Rhapsody God Save The Queen A Day At The Races Tie Your Mother Down You Take My Breath Away Long Away The Millionaire Waltz You And I Somebody To Love White Man Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy Drowse Teo Torriate News Of The World We Will Rock You We Are The Champions Sheer Heart Attack All Dead All Dead Spread Your Wings Fight From The Inside Get Down Make Love Sleeping On The Sidewalk Who Needs You It's Late My Melancholy Blues Feelings Jazz Mustapha Fat Bottomed Girls Jealousy Bicycle Race If You Can't Beat Them Let Me Entertain You Dead On Time In Only Seven Days Dreamers Ball Fun It Leaving Home Ain't Easy Don't Stop Me Now More Of That Jazz Live performances in the 70s Modern-era Queen The Game Play The Game Dragon Attack Another One Bites The Dust Need Your Loving Tonight Crazy Little Thing Called Love Rock It (prime Jive) Don't Try Suicide Sail Away Sweet Sister Coming Soon Save Me Human Body Sandbox Flash Gordon Flash's Theme In The Space Capsule Ming's Theme The Ring Football Fight In The Death Cell Execution Of Flash The Kiss Arboria Escape From The Swamp Flash To The Rescue Vultan's Theme Battle Theme The Wedding March Marriage Of Dale And Ming Flash's Theme Reprise Crash Dive On Mingo City The Hero Hot Space Staying Power Dancer Back Chat Body Language Action This Day Put Out The Fire Life Is Real Calling All Girls Las Palabras De Amor Cool Cat Under Pressure Soul Brother The Works Radio Ga Ga Tear It Up It's A Hard Life Man On The Prowl Machines (or 'Back To Humans') I Want To Break Free Keep Passing The Open Windows Hammer To Fall Is This The World We Created? I Go Crazy A Kind Of Magic One Vision A Kind Of Magic One Year Of Love Pain Is So Close To Pleasure Friends Will Be Friends Who Wants To Live Forever Gimme The Prize (Kurgan's Theme) Don't Lose Your Head Princes Of The Universe The Miracle Party Khashoggi's Ship The Miracle I Want It All The Invisible Man Breakthru Rain Must Fall Scandal My Baby Does Me Was It All Worth It Hang On In There Chinese Torture Hijack My Heart My Life Has Been Saved Stealin' New Life Is Born Dog With A Bone Guess We're Fallin Out Innuendo Innuendo I'm Going Slightly Mad Headlong I Can't Live With You Don't Try So Hard Ride The Wild Wind All God's People These Are The Days Of Our Lives Delilah The Hitman Bijou The Show Must Go On Lost Opportunity Face It Alone Self Made Man My Secret Fantasy Made In Heaven It's A Beautiful Day Made In Heaven Let Me Live Mother Love My Life Has Been Saved I Was Born To Love You Heaven For Everyone Too Much Love Will Kill You You Don't Fool Me A Winter's Tale My Life Has Been Saved It's A Beautiful Day (reprise) No-One But You Live performances in the 80s

Appendix Special instruments Special effects Special playing techniques Classical quotes Musical terms Index References

Path: Queen Songs - The Book - Songwriting Analyses - "No Synth" era - A Day At The Races: You Take My Breath Away

You Take My Breath Away

This song is a piano-ballad, the follower of "Love Of My Life" and precedessor of "My Melancholy Blues".
Piano is the only instrument of the accompaniment, only in the solo section appear guitars. Mercury makes heavy use of the sustain pedal (which of course does not mean that he just holds it pushed down throughout...). The homekey is Eb/cm, a favourite of Mercury. The form is subtly clever with cross-quotes between the sections, especially the solo section which combines both verse and bridge.
The live version was shortened being started with the piano intro and closed after the first bridge.

Acapella Intro
The song starts with an acapella intro, which can be divided to three subsections each one starting with a solo vocal phrase followed by a harmonised phrase(s). The solo phrases change only their last note which is walking upwards along the notes Cm triad (C > Eb > F) cycle by cycle.
The metrical framework of the melodies is vague, so the harmony-scheme will be based on phrases or phrase pairs.

| Cm ... Ahalfdim |
| i |

| Cm ... Gbdim7 |
| i |

| Cm B7 Ab B |
| i #VII VI #VII |

The first phrase quotes it's second phrase from the main piano-hook of the song.
Harmony-wise the most interesting subsection is the third. Following the first solo vocal phrase we have three harmony blocks overlapping and fading into eachother going through interesting chord changes. While two of the chords are native in the homekey of the song the B7 and B chords agressively prevent one to feel an established homekey here.

Piano Intro
Following the acapella intro we have a more traditional instrumental intro that exposes a piano-hook which returns at the end of every vocal sections and also at the end of the first phrase of the verse. The hook is preceded by two bars of Cm7 chord.

| Cm7 | - |
| i | - |

Then the piano hook is played twice in predominantly arpeggio-mode, the second time with pedal bass added to the halfdim-arpeggio. The subphrasing of the three-bar hook phrase is AAB.

/------------ 2x-------------\
| Cm Dhalfdim | - | Cm |
| i iihalfdim| - | i |

Verse
We have two verses in the song moroeover the solo also starts off as an instrumental verse. The first verse has only solo piano and vocal, the second verse adds backing vocal harmonies. The opening chords can be simplified as Cm chord played throughout colored with step-wise ascending parallel thirds.

c:
                  /------- hook --------\
| Cm * | Cm * | Cm... |      |      |
| i      | i      | i...

                     (6/4)
| Bdim7 Cm | -     | Bb Eb |
| "V"   i | -     | VII III|
                 Eb: V   I |

| Ab(6)    | Bb7   | Eb/G   | Gbdim7 | Fm7 | -    |
Eb: IV      | V     | I6/3   | biiidim| ii   | -    |
                                    c:| iv   | -    |

/------- hook --------\
| Cm... | - | - |
| i...

The first phrase and the whole section closes with the piano hook. The subphrasing of the second phrase is melody-wise AAA, chord-wise AAB. The last chord is prolonged longer thus the 6/4 bar. The lead melody changes here for the second Verse. This altered fragment is reminiscent of a guitar motif off the end of "Bohemian Rhapsody".
The chord progression of the third phrase applies chromatic bassline from the tonic on. The subphrases of the third phrase are closing on the last eighth of the measures creating a kind of syncopation. The last melodic phrase is the title phrase that closes on the downbeat of the assigned harmonic phrase.

Bridge
We have one normal and one half intrumental Bridge. Except the first melodic phrase the lead vocals are either harmonised or backed with harmonies.

| Bb (Ab/Bb)| - | - | Eb | - |
| V IV | - | - | I | - |

| Ab | C7 Gdim7 |
| IV | V/ii |

| Eb/G   | Gbdim7 | Fm7   | -    |
| I      | biiidim | ii    | -    |
                 c:| iv    | -    |

/------- hook --------\
| Cm... | - | - |
| i...

The harmony of the fourth phrase and the subseqent piano hook with the title phrase are taken from the end of the Verse. The lead melody of the fourth phrase is a distant variant of that of the Verse.

Solo-Bridge
The solo in fact starts like an instrumental verse. The second melodic phrase echoes the first with prolonged guitar harmony chords. Similar motif-echoing we can find in the followng phrase as well.

/------- 2x ------\
| Cm * | Cm * |

From here the harmony switches to the Bridge. This transition is executed so smoothly that one can hardly realise. From the five measure second phrase of this Bridge the vocal mode returns but without the lead vocal which is held back until the Abdim7 bar (m.9). From here the harmony arrangement is different from that of the first Bridge.

Outro
The song has an odd outro. After the last piano-hook fades away, a strange looped vocal harmonies fade in and finally lands on a four-note chord: C5,7,9 which clears out the preceding chaos.