Jeff Buckley: Grace (1994, folk rock)

Texture:

• Homophonic
• Different accompaniment styles – broken chord and chordal
• Texture varied through addition of synthesizer and strings
• Gets thicker with overdubbed guitars and vocals

Harmony:

• Diatonic, in Em
• Often ambiguous, beginning in D
• Harmonies dissonant through drop D tuning, reflects melancholy mood of song
• Chord progression more complex than usual rock; move chromatically in parallel motion: F-Em-Eb in the chorus

Instrumentation:

• Vocals: solo and backing
• Multi track guitars, acoustic and electric
• Bass guitar
• Synthesizer, modulation used at beginning
• Strings
• Drum kit

Rhythm:

• 12/8 time signuature
• Lots of syncopation in vocal melody and bass line

Melody:

• Wide vocal tessitura (over 2 octaves)
• Descends in pitch to reflect mood
• Ornamentation in melody, with glissandos and portamento (sliding between notes)
• Vocalisation (wordless singing) used as sorrowful cry
• Melody mainly syllabic
• Word painting: “cries” – falls a 5th, “pain” and “leave” in high register and sound fraught, “slow” – long note, “drown” – built up and suffocating in thick textures

Form:

• Verse-chorus: Intro, V1, C1, Intro, V2, C2, Bridge, I, V3, Coda