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Analysis Of Brooke Fraser 's ' Kings And Queens '

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Brooke Fraser is a New Zealand musician who has gravitated towards the acoustic, singer-songwriter genre for most of her music career. Her latest album (2013) ‘Brutal Romantic’ marked a significant shift in her music as she moved into more electronic sounds. ‘Arithmetic’ is a very simplistic, acoustic song off her first album ‘What to Do with Daylight’ (2003). ‘Kings and Queens’ is off her newest album and is a highly produced song containing elements of rock, pop and electronic sounds. These two songs I have chosen use various music techniques and show the development of Fraser’s music over the past decade.

‘Arithmetic’ (AR) and ‘Kings and Queens’ (KQ) share three similarities with its arranging techniques as both songs use common time 4/4 and a major tonal centre. AR is in the key of B major and KQ is in the key of C major. The songs are played at a moderate tempo; AR is slightly faster at 117 BPM and KQ at 100 BPM.

AR does not use the common V-Ch form that many pop songs have; instead it replaces the chorus with a refrain. The songs form is presented below and shows that the song stays at a consistent, dynamic level with a slight raise in the 2nd V and a peak in the Br. AR starts with a 9 bar In with a pause on bars 8 and 9 that leads into a 3 bar Pvs; preceding an unusual V length of 9 bars. The first Re has a bar of ¾ and creates tension as the pulse changes yet the other Re’s use only 4/4. There are two 7 bar Inst that create space from the vocal sections, with

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