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: White Queen (As It Began)

White Queen (As It Began)

Composer: Brian May 
Meter: 4/4
Key: G-major/e-minor, a-minor, C-major

Form:
 | Intro I-II | Chorus |
 | Verse fig. | Verse | Verse | Bridge 1 | Chorus'|
 | Verse fig. | Verse | Verse | Bridge 2 |
 | Solo 1 (Verse fig. x 3) | half-Chorus instr. |
 | Solo 2 | Bridge 1' | Chorus |

White Queen is one of Brian's and Queen's most beautiful ballads, and in respect of form it's definitely May's most complex song yet: two different bridges plus an instrumental one (Solo 2), variant sections and subsections. Until Bridge 2 the form is cyclic; the second half of the song is where it gets more interesting with an instrumental block of sections. The final two sections recover the cyclic feel of the song. The Verses are in a-minor while the Choruses are in G/e tonality, the Bridge 2 section has a touch of C-Major.

Intro
The Intro consists of two parts. The first one can also be considered as a tail part of the preceding track "Father To Son" whose fade out outro overlaps the fade in intro of "White Queen". In the vinyl era many people must have thought that the track started where the acoustic guitar enters, but one thing clearly shows that these harmonies belong to "white Queen": the chord progression is the same with that of the Chorus with different harmonic rhythm though. The track starts on the fourth beat where the static multitrack guitars start to move. The acoustic guitar enters on the first beat of the fourth measure. The key is G-major which is inherited from the outro of "Father To Son".

m1                 ac. gtr.
...G|D   D|Em  Em|D    | G  D |
G: I|V    |vi    |V    | I  V |

The Intro ends with fermata.

Chorus
The Chorus is very simple: three chords, AAAA' phrasing for both the first and the last Chorus, and BBCA' for the second.

| G  D    | D Em   |
G:| I  V    | V vi   |
e:|III VII  |VII i   |

One's ear prefers the G-major tonality due to the outro of the last track was in this key. The closing Em chord which also closes the song (turned to Major) also sounds tonic-like. On paper the key of D Major also makes sense due to the lack of C natural and the occurance of a leader c# note in the last measure of the very last chorus, and the way how the second Chorus is preceded by a A > D cadence.
The lead vocal enters on downbeat section starts without upbeat, and the last syllable is overlapped by the Verse guitar figure.
The second Chorus and the is instrumental half-Chorus are the most intense ones with distorted guitars and fast triplet-driven drums.
The last Chorus, similarly to the first one, features laid back arrangement with only acoustic guitar backing the lead vocal creating a "frame". The very last chord is E-major instead of e-minor. This gambit is called "Picardy third" and has been in use since 16th century. The band never used it again, but in this song we will find other minor to major altered chords.

Verse
The Verse is only four measures long and built upon a typical folk-balladic fingerpicked figure. After this album Brian rarely played such single-note fingerpicked acoustic guitar parts (like he did earlier in "Liar" and "Great King Rat"). The riff is based on an Am chord with descending bass measure by measure. The one measure subphrases have an oscillating shape with descending top-line (compare with "Total Eclipse Of The Heart") and static bottom line. This figure gets cleverly inverted for the third measure.

a:
| Am  | Am/G | Fmaj7 | F7  E  |
| i   | -    | VI    | VI  V  |

The turnaround chord progressions that start from Am chord and combine it with descending bassline were popular in the late sixties:
Summer In The City, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Babe I'm Gonna Leave You, ...

The Verse sections here make groups of three: one instrumental and two with vocals. During the second and third groups of Verses the acoustic backing figure is modified by only one note.

Bridge 1
This section is four and a half measures long, the half measure is located in the middle.

a:                 half
| Am G | C  G  Am | -  | D Am | D A ||
| i VII III VII i | -  |IV i  |IV I ||

The IV function in a minor key results in a special "archaic" touch. In the last measure it is developed into a "doubled" Picquardy third ending. The section features angelic backing choir: simple consonant chords arranged for three vocal parts.
The section returns once more in a modified form: it drops the half measure and features richer arrangement.

Bridge 2
This one consists of only one phrase which is four measures long, while the lyrical phrase overlaps the next section (Solo 1).
The chord set (A, Dm ,F, Bb, Gm) would clearly suggest a (neighbour-key type) modulation to d-minor, but transitory use the Dm chord and the wider perspective suggest (?) that the key remains a-minor. In this case the A chord can be interpreted as a "Picquardy third opening". Unlike the Pickardy third ending it is hardly discussed in theory books (see "Michelle", Beatles).

a:
|  A   | Dm  F7  | Bb F/A Gm Dm | Esus4 E || Am
|  I   | iv  VI  |bII  VI IV i  |     V   || i

Solo 1
The acoustic backing is resembles to that of the Verses: Am-based arpeggios, the descending bass. The section is three Verses long, the last of which is extended. Toward the end of the solo a second guitar enters and takes over the leading role. The two guitars go into harmony for only a moment. Near the end static vocal harmonies fade in. In its live version, Solo 1 features piano appogiaturas upon the above Solo 1 chords and an electric guitar solo with delay.

Half Chorus and Solo 2
In the second phrase of the half-Chorus fanfare-like guitar harmonies introduce the next section (Solo 2). Special effect is fine fade-in volume control (see also in Procession). The guitar orchestration behind Solo 2 is arranged for two groups (low and treble) of guitar tracks plus we have an extra group in the final measure. The rich arrangement enhances the dramatic feel of the climactic Bridge 1' section. The tonality is not very strong here. The initial feel of key is G-major is supported by the diatonic upward scale (a Brian May favourite lick over the Queen-years) that closed the half-Chorus. The F > C cadence suggests a C Major key, enabling an smooth transition to the next a-minor section.

|  C  G | F   C/E | Bb    | Esus4 E |
G:| IV  I |bVII IV  | bIII...
C:|  I  V | IV  I   | bVII  | V-of-vi |