by Mark Simos
3.We can also sing successive syllables on notes at the same pitch. Melisma is “singing multiple notes (changing pitches) on a single syllable.” This is the converse: “singing multiple syllables on a single note (pitch).”
In the case of this third texture, we confront a curious lacuna in music theory vocabulary. Melisma is a standard musical term; surprisingly, I’ve found no readily known term for this converse effect. Given this lack of a standard term, I’ll call the effect chanting tones: a passage or portion of a melodic phrase where multiple successive syllables are sounded on one pitch. Despite the lack of a term for the texture, chanting tone texture is anything but an obscure musical technique: singing a sequence of syllables on one repeating melodic pitch is ubiquitous in music of all styles. Like melisma, chanting tone textures also have specific effects and even emotional associations. Melisma and chanting tone textures are thus mirror image effects:
melisma = many tones on one syllable
chanting tones = many syllables on one tone
Most practical settings blend these textural options, as in figure 5.11 (working from the first rhythmic setting, in figure 5.9).
FIG. 5.11. Setting from Rhythmic Lyric to Melody
Option 1, the one-syllable/one-pitch texture, is used on words like “gently” and “aching.” Here, we only keep that locked-in pace for a few syllables at a time.
Option 2, melismatic texture, is indicated with slurs. 15The extended melodic figure on “hold” is a typical melismatic flourish, with clear emotional and dramatic affect on the lyric setting. Other melismas marked in the example are short, even just two notes. These shorter melismatic figures have prosodic effects as well, albeit more subtle.
Option 3, “chanting tone” texture, is used in this example as well,
as indicated with the dotted brackets over phrases like: “Talk to me…” and “[ach] – ing head in…” As with melismatic figures, some chanting tone passages in this example are just two notes long, and others are a bit longer. In one spot, melismatic and chanting tone effects overlap, on the words “your lap.”
Lyric Pace and Melodic Pace
If our goal is to learn how to use the full range of melodic/rhythmic textures in lyric setting, we do want the skill and finesse to make small revisions in the interplay of melodic contour and lyric rhythm. However, our small example might leave you with the impression that we make compositional decisions about lyric/melodic textures as a series of separate, minute, phrase-by-phrase decisions. This isn’t how it works in most practical songwriting.
We generally sustain a given lyric/melodic texture throughout a phrase, sometimes for a whole section or a whole song. This involves the concept of pace, introduced in our earlier discussion of rhythm. In any rhythmic phrase, in any facet, whether highly patterned and repetitive or through-written, pace is a durational norm, a durational value more frequent than others in the phrase.
In melody/lyric setting, the lyric pace is established by the basic tempo and duration at which unstressed syllables land in the rhythmic lyric. In vocal melody, lyrical pace matches our intuitive sense for the flow of natural speaking. Conversational speech rhythm establishes a lyric pace and tends not to make extreme departures from that pace. In more impassioned speech rhythms, the pace itself may change as well as the range of different durations employed. Pace can also be strongly influenced by tempo; a given pace may not be sustainable as tempo shifts dramatically. In notation of vocal melody, it’s usually convenient to transcribe this basic pace as eighth notes. Quarter notes feel “held” a little longer and often receive stressed syllables. Sixteenth notes represent quicker “triplet” delivery of syllables.
Redefining Melodic Rhythm
Against lyric rhythm and lyric pace, we want to be able to sense and work actively with independent patterns of melodic rhythm and the pace these establish. However, just as we ran into a gap in standard music terminology to describe chanting tone textures, here we stumble over our understanding of melodic rhythm in relation to melodic contour. The problem: within melodic rhythm as conventionally understood is a hidden dependency on rhythmic patterns that are intimately tied to lyric rhythm.
The conventional definition of melody is simply a series of notes or pitches moving in rhythm. Melodic contour, understood this way, includes changes of pitch as well as sequences of notes on the same pitch. Melodic rhythm is then simply the rhythm of these successive melody notes, whether sung on the same pitches or at different pitches.
This conventional definition of melodic rhythm misses a critical distinction between instrumental vs. vocal melody. In instrumental melody, consecutive notes can be performed on the same pitch with instrumental articulation: initiating a new bow stroke, plucking the string again, interrupting the flow of air with tongue or throat. It’s different in vocal melody. When we sing, there’s only one way to articulate a new note on the same pitch: sing a new syllable. Here, we make the simplifying assumption about our vocal melody that multiple notes on one syllable will be true melisma—changing pitches. This excludes vocal effects like Buddy Holly-esque glottal stutters that break up vowels, e.g., turning “way” into “weh-eh-eh-ay.” These effects do create a percussive effect of separate notes on the same syllable and same pitch, but for our purposes, it’s cheating! So, way, but no “weh-eh-eh-ay.”
Since each syllable creates at least one note, a melodic contour that contains repeated notes implicitly embeds rhythmic constraints on the lyric. Instead
of being able to freely work between lyric rhythm and melodic contour, assumptions about lyric placement are now present in both rhythmic and melodic aspects. You can see this in figure 5.12, which shows a melodic setting for the first of our two lyric rhythm settings (shown again on the second staff).
FIG. 5.12. Lyric Rhythm Contained in (Conventional) Melodic Rhythm
The first line shows the interwoven lyrical rhythm and melodic contour in our setting (melismas and chanting tones indicated as before). The second line repeats the lyric rhythm we worked from. Since this is a lyric rhythm, each rhythmic hit has a syllable, each syllable a rhythmic hit. The third line shows melodic rhythm as conventionally defined. Note that this rhythm has a hit for every hit in the lyric rhythm—and then a few more. Defined this way, melodic rhythm would always embed lyric rhythm completely, then possibly elaborate it. Melodic rhythm could be busier or more active than lyric rhythm alone (with melisma), but never simpler.
In process terms, here’s the consequence. Setting from lyric rhythm to melody, when I get to a longer duration, I can set to a single melodic note and hold it longer, or break up that duration with several melodic notes as melisma. Setting in the other direction, from melody to a lyric—especially if I’m creating the lyric in response to the melody—I don’t have the same freedom. Where repeated notes occur in the melodic contour, I must—by definition—set a separate syllable on each note. Drat!
The culprit is the presence of repeated notes (our chanting tone friends) in the melodic contour. The remedy is simple: take them out! Let’s herewith redefine melodic contour as consisting only of changing tones. The melodic rhythm we’re interested in, the rhythm we’re overlaying with the lyric rhythm, is the rhythm of this melodic contour—the rhythm of melodic changes. Here’s what that looks like for our example:
FIG. 5.13. Lyric Rhythm and Melodic Contour Moving Independently
The third line now shows the (revised) melodic contour with its rhythmic values. Repeated notes have now been “coalesced” into single durations in the melodic contour.
In this alternate view of melodic rhythm (I could say “melodic contour rhythm”), a rhythmic event is created only when a note changes pitch from its predecessor. There’s still a rhythmic phrase defined, since notes are held for different durations, but consecutive repeated pitches are distilled to a single equivalent duration. Visualize this contour as a landscape or ridgeline, but with only hills and valleys, no plateaus.
This might seem like a nit
-picking distinction. Yet, with this refined definition of melodic contour, we gain a new freedom of motion between melody and lyric. It’s in the rhythmic interplay of this contour with lyric rhythm where all the interesting stuff happens. We are dealing with two interlocking rhythms: the rhythm of where syllables fall (lyric rhythm), and the rhythm of the melodic contour, where the melody changes pitches. Although untrained listeners couldn’t articulate these separate rhythms for you, I truly believe they hear and respond to them. As songwriters, we also sense these rhythms intuitively. By learning to hear them more distinctly, we also learn to vary them independently when experimenting and revising. We could draw an analogy to pulses in medicine. Where Western medicine measures the pulse as a single rhythm in the human body, Eastern medicine recognizes multiple subtle pulses.
Effects and Uses of Melodic
Textures
Melismatic and chanting tone textures are each useful in different lyric setting situations; we want the full spectrum of textures at our command. One strong contrast in the effects of melismatic vs. chanting tone textures lies in ways they move lyric or melodic aspects respectively to foreground or background.
Chanting tone textures simplify and quiet melodic movement, and thus bring the lyric to the foreground and melody to the background. In particular, chanting tones spotlight sense aspects of the lyric as narrative. This can be particularly effective for relatively dense, complex lyrics that require more thought and focused attention from the listener.
Melismatic textures spotlight sound aspects of the lyric (vowels and consonants) and bring the melodic curve itself into more prominence. This still spotlights the lyric, but draws greater prominence to individual words (through the slowed pace of lyric delivery) and particularly to the sound of the lyrics. (It can also draw more attention to the vocal performance itself.) On the other hand, meaning or referential aspects of the lyric move to the background.
Process Considerations
We work differently with these textures depending on the specific process or pathway we’re following. When setting from a rhythmic lyric to a melody, we must choose how to handle syllables held for longer durations. We can simply hold the note, or add melismatic turns and twiddles; the effects are distinct. Melisma intensifies emphasis on a word or syllable differently than simple extended duration (holding the note longer).
Working from lyric rhythm, syllables with longer durations can eventually be set to held notes, melismas, or combinations thereof. When setting from a melodic contour to a lyric, the process is inverted. Here we have a melodic contour (in our special sense), and we’re deciding whether to punctuate a given extended melodic tone with one or more syllables: that is, between a held note and chanting tones. As we’re writing the lyric, we can “drop” more or fewer syllables against the contour. This symmetry and independence of lyrical rhythm and melodic contour (in the sense defined above) supports our overall goal of being able to write in any direction: allowing us to work ambidextrously (ambi-facetedly?) from melody to lyric or lyric to melody.
Melismas and Chanting Tones in Revision
Awareness of melodic contour and lyric rhythm as separable elements allows for a valuable level of precision in experimentation and revision. Returning to our example line on page 116, we can keep melodic contour unchanged but change lyric rhythm to a steadier quarter-note pace:
FIG. 5.14. Changing Lyric Rhythm, Holding Melodic Contour
Changing the lyric rhythm also changed implied “thought lines” and caesuras. “Talk to me gently… hold my aching head…” becomes “Talk to me… gently hold my aching head…” This in turn changes meaning and emotion. For better or worse? Do you want to be talked to gently or gently held? That’s the writer’s decision. What’s remarkable is the way substantive questions about content, theme, and emotion can be sparked by what begin as purely musical transformations, miniscule ones at that.
Understanding the emotional and prosodic effect of different kinds of melodic movement is the best antidote to a kind of lazy or prototype melodic writing that is almost inevitable in creative work. Here’s another example, showing how chanting tones and melismas naturally co-occur in a semi-improvised melody.
FIG. 5.15. Melodic Setting of a Lyric Line. Ad hoc use of chanting tones and melismas.
In revision, we reshape contiguous chanting tone or melismatic passages, sometimes for reasons of melodic design, but always serving the prosody desired. We may strengthen chanting tone or melismatic effects into more decisive statements in phrasing. The more delicate polishing work is pulling extreme chanting tone or melismatic effects towards a steadier matched pace of syllabic rhythm and melodic contour. Revision may require very small changes, such as breaking up chanting tone passages with single neighbor-tone moves, but small changes can have big effects.
Our example line references memory, thoughts, and feelings, and so, it could support a more flowing melodic contour. We might choose to better spotlight the word “all,” a bit buried in the chanting tone passage, and could do this in various ways, some shown in figure 5.16.
FIG. 5.16. Four Ways to Reshape a Chanting Tone Passage
In doing this experimentation, reflect on what works and doesn’t in the different trials. This will rapidly build your skills and insights into effects, while getting you to a better melodic line.
Our first versions of melodies, whether composed vocally while playing or just in our minds’ ears, will always be full of convenient sloppy approximations. In learning to recognize these passages, notation can be a ruthless ally. Dutifully transcribing long passages of inadvertent chanting tone melodies will quickly reveal the differences between thrown-together and artfully sculpted melodic contours. Creative writers like to say writing is rewriting. To apply this to your melody writing, you need strong melodic memory and transformation skills, and an ability to hear the stories your melodies are singing. It’s also wise to know when to stop revising.
Melodic and Lyric Pace Relationships
Overall melismatic and chanting tone textures arise from relationships
between lyric and melodic pace. We could say in melisma, melodic pace moves faster than lyric pace, or alternately, that the lyric moves slower than the melody—if you’re a glass-half-full, lyrics-half-fast kind of writer. (But who wants to write half-fast lyrics?) If lyric pace is generally faster than melodic pace, you get more chanting tone passages. When lyric and melodic pace are relatively matched, you’ll tend to get one syllable per note as the norm, with a few variations thrown in of chanting tones and melismas.
Exercise 5.5. Independence in Lyric and Melodic Pace
Take a lyric line set to a melody with matching pace—that is, a norm of about one melodic note (changing pitch) per lyric syllable. Gradually, transform the line bringing melodic pace faster relative to the lyric pace. To do this and maintain the same overall phrase length, you must either (1) truncate the lyric or (2) accelerate the melodic pace in real duration (e.g., shift quarter notes
to eighth notes). Alternatively, you can (3) keep the absolute melodic pace constant, extend the phrase, and slow the delivery of the lyric. Return to the original and gradually transform the line, this time increasing lyric pace relative to melodic pace, using complementary versions of the three options above.
Comfort Zones in Melodic/Lyric Pace
Many writers have habits or “comfort zones” in terms of where their melodies and lyrics sit in relation to each other. Lyric-driven writers, or writers who prefer to improvise melody and lyric “in one fell swoop,” tend to settle by default into long chanting tone passages. The lyric focus outstrips the capacity to “think melody.” Melodic shapes aren’t supple enough to keep up with the lyric, and the melodic contour slows relative to the syllabic pace. The resulting chanting tone effects may or may not serve the expressive needs of the lyric and the song.
Vocally oriented writers may err in the other direction, overusing melismatic effects not just in performance but in the essent
ial song melody. Melismatic flourishes might sound great but can obscure the clarity, meaning, even the audibility and comprehensibility of the lyric by over-emphasizing unimportant words, or shifting stresses in unnatural ways. In addition, because melismatic texture has prosodic effect, this can add an emotionally heightened layer that may ring thematically or narratively false or overwrought to the listener. To get flexible control over these textures, we need to be able to separately shift melodic and lyric pace.
Phrasing Templates
Chanting tone and melismatic textures are frequently intermixed, even within a single phrase. A common template or pattern is to contrast chanting tone passages (also often rhythmically regular) with melismatic emphasis, either at the start or the end of phrases. A template of this sort is usually mirrored in matching lines. These spotlighting techniques should complement the line’s meaning and emotion, and shifts between textures should make thematic sense. The Beatles were masters at constructing melodic lines this way (e.g., the bridge or “middle eight” of “Girl” from Rubber Soul.)
The same principles can be applied at the higher level of overall sectional form. Varying melodic texture is a powerful means for creating sectional contrast—for example, using chanting tones for a descriptive, narrative verse, and then slowing lyric pace in the chorus through melisma, holding syllables for longer durations, or adding space around key words and syllables.