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

The Fairy Fellers Master-Stroke

Composer: Freddie Mercury
Album: Queen II
Meter: 4/4 (occasssional 5/8 measure)
Key: e-minor, a-minor, d-minor, F- Major, bb-minor, D-Major
Form: 

                 Intro I-II | A | B I -II | B I-II'|
 | crazy interlude I-II-III | C | B I'-II'| B-I | Outro segued to intro of "Nevermore"


Mercury's "Master-stroke" is one of the compositions that paved the way for Bohemian Rhapsody in terms of progressive songwriting both formwise and harmonywise. Mostly simple chords are used (no iii, bIII, bVI, bVII) on the other hand we have numerous modulations.
Interesting choices of instrument are the harpischord and castanettes the latter played by Roy Thomas Baker. Some guitar harmonies have special tone achived by varispeed recording.
The form is close to be acyclic, except the repeated B section, and also several motifs. This subtle art of repetition will be a lasting Queen trademark, one of the secrets of many later Queen hits.


Intro:
The first subsection is four measures long. The crashing drumsound is segued from the preceding track (Ogre Battle) the clicking sound marks the beginning of the song. The opening key is also inherited also from there: e minor. Harmonized lead vocals enter on the upbeat of the fourth measure. This phrase can be threated as a long upbeat of the second subsection, which is however instrumental.

| Em - Am/E | -     | -     | -     |
| i    iv   | -     | -     | -     |


The second subsection is built upon two ostinato patterns (notated as X and Y) carried by the piano, clavierchord and partly also in the bassline, two and four beats long respectively. The tonality is not very strong. The D chord which is the tonal centre of the subsection sounds like the VII chord of the preceding e-minor tonic. The C (b7 of D) and B (#6 of e) bass notes enhance the ambiguity of the harmony while the whole music reamains "harmonious". But in the end it does not resolve to Em but to Am.

                                       5/8
| D    | -    | -/C  /B | /D   | /B/D | /D |
| X    | X    | X       | Y Y  | Y Y  | Y  |
| VII...

There is two rhythmical twists. In the Queen song book a rare case, but this time the tricks seem to have been applied only for the sake of complexity as they don't really enhance the beauty nor the catchiness.
In m.4 there is a heavy accent put on the 2nd 1/8 beat. Very disorienting, but the ostinato pattern in the background keeps us oriented rhythmically. Measure 6 is cut off after the 5th 1/8 beat.
The next measure works as a link to the next section. The harmony steers toward the key of a-minor. Simple triadic varispeed guitar harmonies follow the chords:

a:
| C  G/B  |
| III VII |


Section "A":
The instrumental first two measures work as an internal intro. The bassline repeats a one measure figure with mostly off-beat accents:

1 2 3 4 1
** * * **...

This pattern turns out to be a leitmotif in the song and as such building cohesion between the sections.
Castanettes enter in m.2 and keep played throughout the section. The simple drum-line plays the quarters throughout the phrases in "a-minor", while the bassline plays that off-beat pattern.

a:
| Am   | -    |
| i    | -    |

The first vocal phrase repeats the above phrase as backing.

| Am   | -    |
| i    | -    |

The second vocal phrase is sung falsetto and rhythmically parallels the first.

| Am   | B7   |
| i    | V/v  |
     e:   V

Ub the next phrase the harmony modulates back to e minor. The drums stop at the end of the vocal phrase in measure 9 followed by the half-title whispered.

e:
| Em   | D    | C    | A1 B1 |
| i    | VII  | VI   | IV1 V1|

The rhythm of the instrumental last measure with unisono arrangement is interesting:

12345678
 ******

Then we have an instrumental connector that reprises the intro harpischord figure with crescendo hihat roll.   

e:
| Em - Am | -     |
| i    iv | -     |



Section "B":
This section with two subsections appear twice as double section. The last time the second subsection is omitted as the first subsection is segued into the outro.
The first subsection is six measures long (4+2), two phrases where the second extends the first and adds a guitar harmony block. The harmony slips to the reative Major key (C).

C:
| C G/B | Am    |
| I  V  | vi    |

| C G/B | Am    | Dm    | Am    |
| I  V  | vi    | ii    | vi    |



The second subsection modulates to the F/d tonality, which is more clearly established in later cycles. Note the classic cliche used here (m.9-10) again that appears in many other Queen song.


|  F    | -     | F C/E | Dm    |
F: I    | -     | I  V  | vi    |
d: III  | -     |III VII|  i    |

| Am    | -     | Dm    | -  F  G |
d: v    | -     | i     | - III IV|
                        C:   IV V |

In m.9-10 cymbals are played then the we hear a melodic 4th-5th motif, similar to what closed the "A" section.
Differences:
1) transposed down by two whole steps.
2) chords instead of octaves.
3) It modulates back to C-Major instead e-minor.



The arrangement of the vocal and guitar harmonies changes circle by circle, lets summarize these for both I and II (m.1-6, m.7-14) subsections:

First cycle:
Harmozied lead vocals (m.1-4, 7-10), falsetto singing (m.9-10), guitar harmony fill (m.5), piano figure echoed by harpischord (m.12).
Second cycle:
Vocal harmony block in m.5, the lead melody changes (for the whole II subsection), counter vocal harmonies instead of lead-harmonization. The chord also change in m.7-8:

| F C7/E | F  /Bb |...
| I   V  | I   IV |...
 
Third cycle:
The lead melody changes a bit rhythmically. Harmonizing similarly as in the first cycle. The second subsection follows the second (alternated) version. Note the diatonic octave scale on bass in m.9. There is a guitar harmony fill in m.11-12. Some of the chords are also changed: Am7 in m.4, A4 in. m.6.

Fourth cycle:
The vocal phrase stops after m.4, with a tight 7th harmony/chord. The second subsection is dropped. In m.5-7 we have a nice pivot modulation to the neighbour key: F-Major.

m.3
 | C G/B | Am7   |
C: I  V  | vi    |

| Dm     | Bb    || F...
C: ii    |       ||
F: vi    | IV    || I

In the fourth cycle there are both lead-harmonizing and counter harmonies.


Crazy Interlude:
This is section is famous for its crazy harmonies, and instrumental solos (harpischord and guitar respectively). The bassline repeats the one measure ostinato figure that we've already heard in the "A" section making the song more cohesive. The arpeggio figure is transposed to outline the actual tonic chord (Am > Bm) in the first two subsections. The phrasing four-squared throughout the section. Castanettes are played during the first two subsections.

The first of the three subsections has parallel harmonies. The opening Am-Bm sets the crazy mood (with a touch of dorian mode). The oscillating harmonies in m.4 is an early-Queen era trademark.

a:
| Am   | Am    | Am    | Am     | : bass line
| Am   | Bm    | C     | C - Am | : vocal harmonies
| i    | ii    | III   |III- i  |

bb:
The craziness of the harmonies goes on. The key changes to bb-minor with abrupt modulation. The melodic phrasing is 2+2, AA' (AA for the harpischord part).

bb:
| Bbm        | Bbm        | : bassline
| Bbm Gbdim7 | Bbm Gbdim7 | : vocal harmonies

| Bbm        | Bbm      | : bass line
| Bbm Gbdim7 | Bbm Gb   | : vocal harmonies


The last subsection is dominated by guitar solo, with harpischord backing. The phrasing of the guitar solo is AA'A"B (2+2+2+4). The guitar solo gets double-track harmonized from m.7. The trills are mimicking the style of the preceding harpischord solo, which continues in the background. altough hard to hear until last measures. Too bad, because it is one of Mercury's most unique keyboard playing moments.

D:
/---- 3x ---\
| D   | A   |
| I   | V   |

| D   | C   | B    | -    | : bass-line
D: I...
e: VII| VI  | V    | -    |

The first double-phrase is reminiscent of to the "Race" section of "Bicycle Race".
in m.7 the Bb chord is articluted by an octave long ascending diatonic scale similarly as in "Crazy Little Thing". John plays yet another (this time chromatic) scale-fragment in the last measure.

Section "C":
This section fluently follows the preceding interlude even though the preceding dominant is not resolved first to Em, only for the second phrase. The bassline again is built on the off-beat pattern in the first pharse. Guitar harmonies are backing the vocal phrases thoughout. There is a brief octave vocal harmony added in m.2. The simple 4/4 drumbeat is reminiscent of what we've heard in the "A" section. More direct crossreference is that the second phrase is a backed with the same chords as those of the last phrase in section "A", but melodically only the closing three notes are taken from there. Also the castanettes return for this section.

e:
| Am  | -   | B   | -   |
| iv  | -   | V   | -   |

| Em  | D   | C   | A1 B1 |
| i   | VII | VI  | IV V  |

               2/4
| Em  | E1...| ... |
| i   |...   |     |

The second vocal phrase is followed by an unisono instrumental phrase. Its rhythm:

1 2 3 4 1 2 1...
** ******

The closing half measure presents an interesting sounding stereo-antiphonal trill.


Outro:
The last six measures of the song introduces what turns out to be the piano leit-motif of the following track on the album: "Nevermore". During the first mesures the tempo slows down and the bass plays his rising farewell notes. 


 | F    | -    | -    | /E /D | /D   |/C    |
F: I    | -    | -    | -     | -    | -    |