Read all 4 events for 23 January at diary.QueenSongs.info
Composer: Brian May
Meter: 4/4
Key: D-major
Form:
Verse | Verse'|
"Dear Friends" is a very simple piano ballad, a kind of lullaby. It is almost completly free from any syncopations and non-diatonic notes, the phrasing is square throughout. The non-syncopated rhythms and the arrangement itself is very classical-influenced, and could be arranged for string-quartett easily.
Many scale-fragments are built-in the accompaniyng chord progression.
The slow ballad tempts to chose 2/4 instead of 4/4 (shades of "All Dead")
The piano is played by Brian May.
Verse
The phrasing is 2+2+2+1+1. In m.3 we have a suspension resolution directly preceded by another suspension resolution. See this gambit also in "Procession" and "Teo Torriate". In m.3 the left hand plays arpeggiated bass, a deceptive sign, that the pianist is not Mercury this time. The third phrase shows a nice downward scalar bassline. The first chromatic note and chord is in m.4.
| D | G(8>7) A(4>3) D |
| I | IV V I |
| D | A/C# G#dim/B(2>1) A |
| I | V "V/V" V |
| D C# B A | G F# E | : bass
| D Asus4 G D | G D Em |
| I V IV I | IV I ii |
| Dsus2 D |
| I |
| Dsus2/A D/A A7 |
| I V |
The second verse adds backing harmonies. Piano adds a descending scale from the middle of m1. The ending if the section is different m.6 where a syncopation is dropped in. The closing cadence is colored with a downward scalar bass-line completed with a "contra" bass note.
m.6
| G D/F# E7 |
| IV I V/V |
| A Asus2>3 | G Em7 D |
| V - | IV ii I |