Name = Mazidah Mukhtar
ID = 2007114473
Diploma Report
THE ANALYSIS OF LYRICS AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH MELODY AND CHORD PROGRESSION
Table of Content
1. Introduction
1.1 Syafei Embut
2. Malam Merana
2.1 Lyric Analysis
2.2 Syllable
3. Melody
3.1 Pitch
3.2 Rhythm
3.3 Form
3.4 Phrase
4. Chord Progression
5. Conclusion
Appendex
Bibliography – Book Reference
THE ANALYSIS OF LYRICS AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH MELODY
AND CHORD PROGRESSION
CASE STUDY: MALAM MERANA BY SYAFEI EMBUT.
1. Introduction
The title of my report topic: The Analysis of Lyrics and Its
Relationship With Melody and Chord Progression - focuses on the
techniques of writing lyrics, melody and chord progression and the
relationship between them. The extent of this report encompasses a
well-known Indonesian Art song: Malam Merana by Syafei Embut; where I
aim at looking into the following three main focuses of interests
which is the explanation of story/ message behind the lyric, links of
lyrics to melody and chord progression and how well composers deliver
the message using his composition.
A song is a compilation of feelings, emotions, ideas or messages;
it is expressed in the form of words and accompanied with music.
Music is the essence of a song. However lyrics play and equally
important part in conveying what you want to say. Now days,
lyrics are provided after the tune for a song has been composed,
an appropriate selection of words to create a lasting impact on
your listeners, but a poorly written lyric will ruin any song. In
some genres of music, like country, folk, gospel and rap, the
lyric is often important in influential a song’s success, Dave
Novik, Senior Vice President of A &R at RCA Records in New York,
says that
“A lyric is 50 percent of the reason why a song works-often more.
A personal statement here, a story song there, but a lyrics that
is universal and can touch someone’s heart or cause their life to
change, that’s the power of good lyrics, in any genre of music,
be it pop, adult, urban or hard rock.”
1.1 Syafei Embut
Although Malam Merana is recognized by public and people of vocal
classical, it is unfortunately the other way around about the
composer/writer of the song. Syafei Embut was only known as the other
Embuts brother. He was over shadowed by his brother Mokhtar.
His name only appears as the member of the famous strings quartet
alongside with Mokhtar, Theo Djin-tjin and Hasan Embut, and a
secessionist violinist for album recording. Besides that, he is a
professional pianist and a composer. The other famous piece he
composed is Chempaka Kuning.
2. Malam Merana
Known as “Seriosa Song” to the Indonesian, Malam Merana has
become one of the most famous repertoires for study in classical
vocal in Indonesia and Malaysia. Write and composed by Syafei
Embut, the other famous half of Embuts brothers, Malam Merana is
known as very dramatic song either in its melody or lyric.
Verse:-
Malam lesu terdampar merana
Membisu kata tiada berdaya
Senja lah jauh di balik bumi
Meninggalkan alam sendiri.
Chorus:-
Bulan dan bintang turut sinar
Lupa kah akan tugasnya
Tiada bunga membawa harumnya
Membiarkan malam merana
2.1.Lyric Analysis
“The art of shaping words to a music, it is best
accompanied by discipline, the best lyricists,
whether they’re aware of it or not ,are using
elements of honetics, linguistics, grammar,
semantics, merics, rhyme, rhythm, poetics,
phonology, communications, sociology and even
psychology of verbal behavior”
Sheila Davis
Music is a compilation of emotions, feelings, ideas or messages; it is
expressed in the form of words and accompanied with music. A song can
evoke powerful emotion and physical reaction, “There is something
about music that evolves over time, as do emotions. When we hear the
song we re-live the emotional sequence that happened when we first
heard it,” says Professor John Sloboda of Keele University and author
of Music and Emotion, These days, popular songs can give those types
of effects to a lot of people. It almost seems like these songs are
able to speak to the listener.
In every songs, there’s a lyric created, there’s an optional
choice of writing lyric whether writing lyrics before the music,
or to do it the other way around, and while some of them would
write the lyrics and music at the same time, as a conclusion, it
doesn’t matter which technical methods we used, the most
important aspect of all is the meaning that should be understood
by the listeners. A good lyric should be memorable and simple;
and it needs to capture the listener’s attention and emotion.
According to Sheila Davis the author of The Craft of lyric
writing, it is said that they are five elements frame every well-
written lyric, it should contain a genuine ideas, a memorable
title, the appropriate form, knowing what it is you want your
audience to feel, and the last one is a strong start, for
example, the first few line should begin with who, why, when, and
where.
From the lyric of Malam Merana, the verse is telling us about
Malam(who) the main character of the song. As the lyric continue,
it opens up to the story of Malam (why). “lesu terdampar merana,
Membisu kata tiada berdaya” explaining the situation of Malam
suffering and feeling sad. “Senja lah jauh di balik bumi,”
describe the the time of the story (when) which is between dusk
and night and “Meninggalkan alam sendiri” complete the cycle by
telling about leaving his own world as if entering his
dreams(where).
The key word or of this text is Malam, a name of the character
which also means night time. The main character itself is written
as metaphor which mean that its dark and we can simply visual
dark as being sad, trouble and misery.
Malam Merana only contains one verse and chorus. Surprisingly
that is how most of the seriosa song is created. Inside chorus,
writer always create a contrasting element from the verse. Chorus
usually contain complete summarizes of central idea. It is the
central section of the lyric and typically the most balances
section. Thus, it stops the forward motion of the lyric. Usually
the punch line and repetition of song title appear in chorus as
well.
At the end of the verse, Malam has entered a dream world. By
using a metaphor of the moon and stars in the first line of
chorus, it describe Malams dream. As to balance up the story of
chorus, it bring back Malam to the reality by reminding him about
his responsibility in line two.
According to Pat Pattison the author of Writing Better Lyrics, it
its most basic form, metaphor is a collision between ideas that
don’t belong together. In the chorus of this song, the writer
also used a writing technique called metaphor which is quit
common. Because Malam Merana is an art song, instead using
metaphor for one word, the writer used full phrase of metaphor to
describe the situation. In line three of chorus, “Tiada bunga
membawa harumnya” explaining the reality of Malam life in
metaphor by using flower that have no scent describing the
ugliness of his real world. The final line completes the story
about Malam cruel life by leaving Malam in misery. The last line,
the title of the song appears and it is quit commonly
acknowledged in the chorus to hook the listener to the song.
2.2 Syllable
From the book title You Can Write Song Lyric the author stated
that rhythm of a lyric line is determined by meter. Meter is
determined by the repetition of accented and unaccented syllables
in each lyric line, which establishes a consistent pattern.
Accented lyric syllables are the stressed and/or strong syllables
that usually fall on, or play off on strong beats in the music.
Most pop songs have a 4/4 time signature, and the accented lyric
syllables coincide with the strong downbeats, which would be
beats 1 and 3. Unaccented lyric syllables usually fall on the
weak beats (2 and 4), or serve as pickups to the downbeats. When
an unaccented lyric syllable is sung to an accented musical
syllable, the result can be a little awkward, because it does not
sing like it would be spoken. On the other hand, it could
possibly be more interesting and memorable. The author referred
to as “ear painting”, he imagine on how painting pictures can
turn into words. he shares the technique of painting the ears
with adjectives and adverbs, simile, metaphor and
personification.
A good lyric could be created by balancing the syllable of each
phrase.
Verse:-
Malam lesu terdampar merana…………………………line 1
Membisu kata tiada berdaya……………………………line 2
Senja lah jauh di balik bumi…………………………line 3
Meninggalkan alam sendiri…………………………………line 4
From line 1,2 and 3 we can see that the total syllable used are
ten each while the fourth line is 9. We can see that syllable of
the verse are 99% balance. When we link the text to the melody,
the composer used the same motive repeatedly in each bar of verse
and the balancing of text fit perfectly to the melody.
Chorus:-
Bulan dan bintang turut sinar……………………line 5
Lupa kah akan tugasnya………………………………………line 6
Tiada bunga membawa harumnya………………………line 7
Membiarkan malam merana…………………………………line 8
The phrases in chorus are more shorter then the verse. Line 5
contains of nine syllables and line 6 have only eight. Line 7 is
similar to the line in verse and contains 10 syllables while the
last line contains nine.
3. Melody
Oxford Dictionary of Music define melody as a succession of notes,
varying in pitch which have an organize and recognizable shape. Melody
is horizontal, which means; we can here the notes consecutively,
whereas the notes in harmony are audible simultaneously.
“Melody is the main idea of a song. It is the melody
that helps people differ one song from the other. The
two basic elements that define melody are pitch and
rhythm. Melody is a succession of pitches in rhythm. The
melody is usually the most memorable aspect of a song,
the one the listener remembers and is able to perform”.
Jack Perricone
Melody is the most memorable aspect of the song and is defined to two
basic element, pitch and rhythm. Melodic writing differs from lyric
writing, for the reason that there is a significant consideration
pertaining to pitches and harmony whilst writing a melody.
Furthermore, there are other elements to consider, such as; rhythm,
articulation and phrasing in melody writing.
3.1 Pitch
Pitch is the relative highness and lowness that we here in the sound.
The frequency of its vibrations defined the pitch of the sound such as
the faster the vibration; the higher the pitch, but when the vibration
is slower; the lower the pitch. In Western scale system which consists
of major and minor scales, there are eight series of pitches in
sequence.
“All tonal systems are built in hierarchical structure.
There is always one tone, the tonic, which is the most
stable. Other tones having a good relationship to the tonic
are also labeled stable. The most stable tones are 1, 3 and
5; 1 is the more stable than 5, and 5 is more stable than
3. Other tones that have a more distant relationship to the
tonic are labeled unstable.”
Jack Perricone
Degrees of Stability in Major scale:
(Perricone
, Jack. Melody in Songwriting. 1994)
Kamien, Roger. Music: An Appreciation (2004), page 6.
Unstable tones tend to resolve in a downward direction to a stable
tone. Thus, supertonic (II) resolves to tonic (I); subdominant (IV)
resolves to mediant (III); submediant (VI) resolves to dominant (V).
However, leading tone or subtonic (VII) tends to move upwards instead,
and thus resolves back to tonic (I). Melodic phrases that end on a
stable tone are tonally closed. Melodic phrases that end on an
unstable tone are open with the greatest openness which supported by
the leading tone.
The key of this song is in D minor. After intro the first phrase
begins with a pickup in the fourth bar, where it ends on unstable
note, E(supertonic). The second phrase begins on the fourth beat, pick
up from the last bar of first phrase which is the same as the
beginning, and ends on a D note(tonic). The third phrase which is the
starting of chorus begins exactly like the second phrase. The first
phrase in chorus ends with G note(subdominant) while the second ends
with C#(leading tone). The last phrase ends with D(tonic).
3.2. Rhythm
Music takes place in time. It is with the control of time that players
or composers prove their strength. Musical time is measured by pulses
or beats, meter and rhythm. Pulse is a series of undifferentiated even
beats. All pulses in a series are by definition exactly alike. Meter
is a measurement of the number of pulse between regularly recurring
accents. Thus, meter is the grouping of these pulses. And accordingly,
rhythm is the most basic and important structural element.
In Malam Merana,the tempo indication are in Allegro, which mean fast.
Although the song sounds very dramatic but most of the note value in
melody are quarter note. It indicated that the melody rhythm is
accelerating.
3.3 Form
Form is the structure and design of a composition. The two most basic
forms in a compositional structure is binary and ternary form. A
binary form is when a piece or a song is composed of two different
sections; mostly marked as ‘A’ section and ‘B’ section. While a
ternary form is when a piece or a song is divided into three
dissimilar sections; where each section is categorized as ‘A’ section,
‘B’ section and a ‘C’ section.
In popular music composition or popular songs, sections are divided
into verse, chorus and bridge. The verse is the section that begins
the song or the introduction of the song. The chorus is the section of
the song which contains the central statement or the main idea of the
whole song. Most often, the chorus is being repeated in order to make
the song more memorable. The bridge is a section that connects two
other sections. It may also provide contrast within a song, and also,
a good place for an opportunity to modulate the song to a different
key.
Malam Merana are in ABAB form. It started with the verse followed by
chorus. Towards the end of chorus ritardando appear as preparation for
the chorus to end until it reach sign then the song continued by
repeating the verse. Then it enter chorus again and continue until
coda to jump to the final ending.
3.4 Phrase
There are two types of phrasing in songs which is lyrical and musical.
Phrasing is defined in the dictionary as "a sequence of words intended
to have meaning”. In musical language “the motive ex-panded and
completed”, or the length in which a singer or instrumentalist can
play in one breath. In lyric writing, phrases are introduced as
‘lines’ or sentences in each line of every section of a verse, a
chorus, a bridge or a refrain. The speed of the song depends on the
length of the phrase. According to author Sheila Davis Succesful Lyric
Writing, it is said that the shorter the phrase, the more acceleration
it creates to the movement and to the overall momentum of the section.
Longer phrases would slow structures down.
Since Malam Merana only have one verse and chorus, it means that this
song have only a few phrases. When we look at the verse it has only
two phrases with each phrase have two sub-phrases. Both phrases in
verse contain of four bar each. And each phrase of verse have the same
motif of the melody rhythm.
Then we take a look at chorus. It only has three phrases. But the last
phrase has a similar melody to the verse which it content of two sub-
phrases. The first two phrases contain of two bar each and the last
phrase has the exact similar number of bars and motif.
4. Chord progression
Chords are group of three or more notes played together that have
spatial and tonal relationship to each other. Besides function as
accompaniment to the melody, chord progression can play a strong part
in delivering the message behind the text or lyric.
Chord such as Major usually refer to bright and happy while minor
chord refer to feeling sad and dark. Diminished chord however
refer to tension and danger because of the clashing sound between
each chord notes which is minor second and diminished 4th.
Verse:-
D- E-7b5
Malam lesu terdampar merana
D- G/C D- A
Membisu kata tiada berdaya
D- E-7b5
Senja lah jauh di balik bumi
D- D-
Meninggalkan alam sendiri.
Malam merana start with its home key, Dminor. It create the dark
and sad mood to the song. Then the second chord,E-7b5 fall on
word ‘merana’ which mean sad and that chord definitely pictured
the situation. Continued with second line in verse with D minor,
it ends with chord A, V of the tonic chord. This cadence gave a
feeling of hanging. Resolve back to D minor on the third line and
followed with E-7b5, its end with D minor on the last line of
verse. By maintaining the same chord on the last line of verse,
it gives a static motion and sad mood.
Chorus:-
Dmaj G- C
Bu-lan dan bintang turut sinar-
Bb Bb7 D-7 A7
Lupa kah akan tugasnya
D- E-7b5
Tiada bunga membawa harumnya
D- A7 D-
Membiarkan malam merana
Starting out the chorus with major chord, is the way the composer
describe the beautiful situation in Malam’s dream. Continued wit
G minor and ends with C, the enter the second line with another
major chord,Bb followed by Bb7, D-7 and V7/I,A7, another half
cadence. As the third line continue, the progression of chord
returd to mood sad as this line similar with the verse and it
start with D minor followed by E-7b5. At the last line it used a
perfect cadence of V to I with A7 to D minor.
5. Conclusion
Lyrics are as important as the melody. The construction of lyrics does
require extensive consideration of rhythm, rhyme, form and phrasing.
Most of all, lyrics should equally be meaningful and are able to
capture the listener’s attention and emotions. Good lyrics should hit
the common attributes of the listener so as the listener will be able
to appreciate and take pleasure in the meaning of the song. In order
to be able to write structured and meaningful lyrics, a songwriter
should learn the essential tools to good song writing, taking into
account that lyrics and melody complement each other. Not to forget
that the right use of chord progression chosen will give more impact
to a good song. For instance, an energetic up-beat melody is less
suitable to a melancholic lyric and/or viceversa.
Appendex
Bibliography
Book Reference
Rooksby, R.(2006). Lyrics : writing better words for your songs. San Francisco,USA :Back Beats Book.
Cox ,T.(2000). You can write song lyrics. Ohio, USA: Writer’s Digest Book.
Davis, S.(1985). The craft of lyric writing. Ohio, USA: Writer’s Digest Book.
Kamien, R.(2004) Music: an appreciation. UK: McGraw-Hill Companies In.
Citron,Stephen. Songs Writing
Pattison, P.(1991) Songwriting: essential guide to lyric form and
structure, Boston, MA,USA: Berklee Press. (1991).