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 - Queen II: Procession

Procession

Composer: Brian May
Meter: 3/4
Key: (g-minor), F-major, (d-minor), C-major, G-major, (D-major)
Form:

Intro | First Half | Second Half |...(intro of Father To Son)

The influence of Classical music this time is quite on the surface. The album opener "Procession" is a short but lovely instrumental composition by Brian, could be best described best as a stylized Baroque (or pre-Classical) piece. It may disappoint you, but for many reasons "Procession" cannot be considered a "proper" Baroque piece of music. The tonal ambiguity during the big part of the piece, the chord streams, and the open ending (i.e. dominant not resolved to the tonic) break rules of the Baroque era. (BTW, Baroque/Classical era composers sometimes also broke some rules). In spite of every such violation "Procession" sounds quite catchy and deceptively Baroquesque.

The idea of pseudo-Classic pieces has a rich tradition in the genre of progressive rock, not really this type though. Later on Brian May recorded two more orchestra-to-guitar arrangements covering the well known traditional tunes "God Save The Queen" (1975) and the "Wedding March" (1980).

The arrangement of Procession is built out of blocks of guitar harmonies and occasional bass-line plus the rhythmical ostinato backing (see also "We Will Rocl You"). The harmony blocks are articlulated by pauses and distinctive stereo mixing. The left channel is the leader, while the right channel fills the pauses with harmonies or bass-lines. The scheme of the blocks:

bars and beats: 1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..0..1..2..3..4..5..6..7..8..9..0..1..2.
treble: AAA__BBBBBB_DD__DD_DDDDDD_____E_EEE___GGGGG___ II__KKKK___
baritone and bass: CCC__CC__CCCCCC_____ FFFF__ HHHH__JJJJJJ___

m.1-13: First Half,
m.14-22 : Second Half,

All the treble harmony blocks are three-parted (more than three tracks, though). Block C is bass-line, F and H are four-part harmonies, J is a combination of bass and three part harmony. Most of the treble harmonies are ascending, while "baritone" blocks are usually descending. Micro-crescendo is applied in each "bass" chord and single note.
The piece, except the ostinato backing rhythm, is completely acyclic. Note how a short number like this can go along with four-five keys step by step along the circle of fifths (from two flats to two sharps).

Intro
It consists of three iterations of a one-measure rhythm pattern that will keep playing throughout (almost) the whole track. The damp drum-sound is reminiscent of what is introducing the legendary Pink Floyd album Dark Side Of The Moon (1973).

First Half
Ten measures belong here. The first measure features the same rhythmic pattern as the backing. Later the lead rhythm is much lousely tied to the downbeats of the backing rhythm. Most of the time the top part of the treble harmonies can be considered the lead melody; sometimes (e.g. in 4th and 5th measure) the lower parts take over the lead. The harmonic functions are very hard to figure out; still:

top : G A Bb
bottom : Bb D G

Another intersting piece of harmony is a cascaded use of two resolved suspensions in m.7. (see also "Dear Friends" and "Teo Torriate").
In the third and fourth measures we have a chain of fifths and a chain of fourths (it was something to avoid in pre-Romantic Classical music), both starting from C next to each other with the latter acting like a so-called "double plagal cadence" of the key D-major or of d-minor with a Pickardy third ending. I've transcribed this part in F (the relative minor key is d), but the tonality is weak and thus doesn't last:

m.8
| Dm    |   Bb     | G    C | F Gsus4 (G7) Am | G5    | -    |
F: vi         IV     V-of-V V | I V-of-V    iii| ii...
d: i          VI...
                     C: V    I | IV V        vi | V     | -    |
                                           G: ii | I     | -    |

The G>C progression introduces the key of C, but the section ends on G5 chord which gets a strong tonic flavor. The way we arrive at G5 is not very Baroque due to the parallel-fifth motion. Note that changing G7 to Bm (omitting the sustained G in the bass and using Gb instead of F) resulted in a non-Baroque downward chord stream with four steps of parallel fifths. The phrase ending on an open fifth chord is another archaic touch (Renaissance). Measures (4-)5-7 feature ascending chromatic motion.

Second Half
During the second half (nine measures) of the song the tonal ambiguity persists even though the first bars (m14-15) establish a strong G-Major tonality ( I > IV > V > I see also m.5-6). M.19 and m.21bars feature non-baroqesque parallel fifths (built in the chord streams of Am>Bm>C and C>D>Em). Another non-Baroque element is the open ending on the dominant D chord. The "plagal cadence" of the key of D (i.e.: G>D) somehow saves the piece from sounding completely non-resolved.

m.14
|G C | D G   |          C9>8 Bdim b2>1 C | C       | :treble
|      |       D| G G5/7 C |             |    G C | :bass
G:|I IV | V I V| I (V/IV) IV| "V/IV"    IV |    I IV |
                 C: V   -    I | viidim   I |    V I |

|         Am Bm C |         | C D Em C D Em G Am Bm | D    | :treble
| G/B Am          | E5/7 Am | A1     E1     G       | D    | :bass
G:| I   ii ii iii IV| V/ii ii |(ii)   (vi)    I       | V    |
C:| V   vi...                         D:      IV      | I    |

From m.19 the lead melody changes to triplet-mode. The backing rhythm pattern stops at the second beat of the 22nd measure. The special effect at the end musically leads into the next song: Father To Son.