Mod of the Day

Johannes Brahms | Mir lächelt kein Frühling

Puzzle Canon “celebrates the aesthetic value of symmetry in music. We hope to introduce you to a centuries-old, little-known but fascinating tradition, by featuring outstanding examples by both well-known and obscure composers. On this site, compositions of precise symmetry are featured …”

The site features an a cappella piece Johannes Brahms, improbably arranged for four soprano parts: “The four-voice, posthumously published modulating canon “Mir lächelt kein Frühling” is much like a round, but each new entry enters a melancholy semitone lower than the last. Once all the voices have entered and as each of these voices makes its way through the 16-measure melody, what we hear is a four-measure unit or iteration descending each time by semitone.”

Published in 1881, the short piece marinates in melancholy. Lieder.net provides this English translation of the lyrics:

For me, no springtime smiles
For me, no sun shines
For me, no flower blooms
For me, all is over!

Abba | I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do

“I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do” was the third single released by the Swedish band ABBA for their eponymous third studio album, recorded in 1975. The trade magazine Cash Box praised the tune for its “richly textured vocals, [which] give this fifties sounding shuffle an extra push, push, push, push.”

Beginning in C, the song modulates up to Db for the last chorus at 2:22.

Rumer | Aretha

A submission from Paul “Steck” S., one of our regulars:

“Rumer is the stage name of Sarah Joyce, a Pakistan-born British singer-songwriter who has been very popular in the UK, but less well-known in the US. Her contralto voice is sometimes redolent of Karen Carpenter; indeed, Richard Carpenter wrote her to praise her first album, Seasons of My Soul, released in 2010. She’s released several albums since then, one as recently as 2020.

Rumer has been extensively involved with the music of Burt Bacharach. In 2010, she released a Christmas EP with a Bacharach song; in 2012, she performed at the White House as part of the tribute to Bacharach and Hal David; and in 2016, she released an entire album of Bacharach/David songs.

The tune here, “Aretha,” is taken from the first album; yes, it’s Aretha Franklin that she’s singing about. It’s a tale of a schoolgirl, attending a school where the kids are mean, while coping with a mentally ill mother. Listening to Aretha on her headphones is a refuge. It was written by Rumer and producer Steve Brown.

The song is a soul ballad in the key of B♭, mostly in 4/4 time (with a 12/8 feel), with measures of 2/4 and 3/4 in the verse. The bridge at 1:56 features the singer lightly harmonizing with herself. At 2:30, there’s a modulation to C for the final verse.”

Thanks, Steck, for this submission!

Sting | January Stars

“Ten Summoner’s Tales is, far and away, (Sting’s) best solo album, both as a whole and for the sum of its parts. Released in 1993 and produced by Sting and the brilliant producer Hugh Padgham, the disc is a fusion of elements from pop, jazz, rock, country, classical and numerous other styles … The disc is a unified whole, with a single sound and aim; the song themes generally concern romance, and are written and performed in a similar vein,” (Sputnik Music).

“January Stars” didn’t make the cut as an album track for Ten Summoner’s Tales (best known for the singles “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You” and “Fields of Gold”), but made an appearance as a B-side track.

After the tune starts in C minor, an instrumental interlude in A minor enters at 1:54; we then return to C minor at 2:10. But there’s a recurrence of A minor at 2:24 — all the more striking this time as the vocal melody outlines the downward modulation.

Sting also cranked out a tune with the same instrumental parts — but featuring an entirely separate set of lyrics and a largely new melody — called “Everybody Laughed But You.”

Dwight Twilley | Girls

Released in 1984, “Girls” was one of singer/songwriter Dwight Tilley’s most popular songs, peaking at #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In an interview with Songfacts in 2010, Tilley elaborated on his inspiration for the tune:

Well, as I sit and look back over the years, I’ve written quite a damn number of songs. So to specifically go back and think of the stories for each and every one of them… But I’m a songwriter, so I’m always thinking about what is a song, what does a songwriter do, and really, a person who writes songs is just a communicator. A song is a communication. Sometimes it’s the simplest way that you can say something that everybody knows but hasn’t been said quite the same way. And so it catches their attention, and you make that little bit of communication.

I remember at one point thinking to myself, it’s so basic, but how many people have ever said just “girls”? And what is that all about? What are all the good and bad and the problems, and what is that whole really confusing but really simple problem all about? And after maybe two or three weeks of going around and asking people in a dumb way, “What’s this about? What’s that about?”, it was like summing the whole thing up to three and a half minutes. And so it’s sometimes just that simple.

The tune begins in G and modulates up to A at 3:13.

Gary Burton | Reunion

JazzJournal.UK reviewed Reunion, led by vibraphonist Gary Burton and featuring Pat Metheny on guitar, Mitch Forman (who also wrote the title track) on keys, Will Lee on bass (yes, the guy from the Letterman show band), and Peter Erskine on drums.

“Jazzmen are so unpredictable. Writing on the sleeve of his 1988 Times Like These album, Burton said ‘I still don’t feel that I’m going to work with guitarists anytime soon.’ Yet within 12 months or so, he has taken up with his old sideman Pat Metheny after a break of 12 years. Buoyant and Latinate, this set contrasts significantly with earlier Burton/Metheny liaisons. Burton, reticent as ever about his writing abilities, has employed five composers across 11 tracks (including the excellent Vince Mendoza), but there is no lack of cohesion. Everything is beautifully executed, and Burton and Metheny take a host of solos.”

From the album’s liner notes: “(Burton and Metheny) have been called prodigies. Burton joined George Shearing’s group in 1963 at the age of 19. He met Metheny at the Wichita Jazz Festival in 1973 when Metheny was 18 years old. After welcoming him as a teaching colleague at the Berklee College of Music, he hired Metheny for the newly expanded Gary Burton Quintet in 1974. Metheny left Burton’s group in 1977 to form his own quartet with Lyle Mays.” The two artists had next to no contact for over a decade, until the 1988 Montreal Jazz Festival. “‘My apprehension was immediately erased when I saw how easy it was for us to play together, even after 12 years,’ said Burton. This led to their collaboration on Reunion (1990).”

The album’s title track starts in G minor, followed by a modulation up to Bb minor at 3:21. At 4:23, we’ve reverted to the original key for a final chorus of melody.

Tower of Power | Maybe It’ll Rub Off

“In the realm of power funk and jazz-rock, Tower of Power was an original voice, one carved from a unique place within an exceptionally heady moment,” (AllAboutJazz). “And this convergence of forces, clearly, has yet to cool some 53 years hence. Horns? They’ve carried up to six at a time, to hell with diminished door splits. A big band of scorching funk, Tower of Power traces its roots to 1968 Oakland, where it flourished in a thicket of sound tearing at industry barriers. The band, initially dubbed the Motowns, was founded at the juncture which begat Blood Sweat and Tears, Chicago Transit Authority, and Earth Wind and Fire. Even then, the soul—if you will—of Tower of Power was born in the muscular arrangements and searing leads of the former as much as the latter’s R&B core.”

Tower of Power released Urban Renewal in 1974 — one of three releases by the band that year, just four years into its history. Although the album lacked an uptempo hit like “What is Hip?” or a stand-out lush ballad like “So Very Hard to Go” or “You’re Still a Young Man,” the release was a snapshot of the band hitting its stride.

“Maybe It’ll Rub Off,” built in F major overall, features an instrumental mid-section that meanders through several other keys between 1:45 and 2:31, when it returns to the initial key.

Mrs. Green Apple | Love Me, Love You

Mrs. Green Apple is a Japanese rock band, based in Tokyo. In 2016 they released their first full record, Twelve, on the Japanese label EMI records; they have also written music for popular anime series.

“Love Me, Love You” was the sixth single released by the group, and peaked at #19 on the Oricon chart in 2018. The tune modulates from F up to Ab at 3:36.

George Harrison | My Sweet Lord

According to the video description on George Harrison’s Vevo channel, in honor of the 50th anniversary of George Harrison’s classic solo album All Things Must Pass, “a suite of new releases including a stunning new mix of the classic album by Grammy Award-winning mixer/engineer Paul Hicks, overseen by executive producer Dhani Harrison,” George’s son.

“…That’s the problem with being a really good songwriter in a band with two great ones,” (American Songwriter). “Since Harrison was only allotted one track per side of a typical Beatles album, his accumulation was substantial as the group disbanded around September of 1969. When he started recording what most consider his first solo project in 1970 … those tunes gushed out of him … The resulting collection is on anyone’s shortlist of finest Beatles solo releases, many placing it near the top.”

After starting in E major, “My Sweet Lord,” considered by many to be the centerpiece of the album, shifts to F# at 2:33. The video, released this month, stars dozens of noted actors, artists, and musicians, including Mark Hamill, Fred Armisen, Jeff Lynne, Ringo Starr, Joe Walsh, Jon Hamm, Shepard Fairey, Olivia and Dhani Harrison (George’s widow and son), and many others. Many thanks to our contributor Ziyad for this submission!

Deniece Williams | It’s Gonna Take a Miracle

Written by Teddy Randazzo, Bobby Weinstein and Lou Stallman, “It’s Gonna Take a Miracle” was first released in 1965 by The Royalettes, a four-girl soul/Motown group. The song describes the desperation of someone who is so heartbroken from a breakup that it will take a miracle for them to fall in love again. R&B and gospel singer Deniece Williams released her cover of the tune in 1982, and it sat at the top of the R&B chart for two weeks. The tune moves through multiple tonalities in the bridge starting at 1:52, and returns to the home key of G for the verse at 2:24.