Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong recorded a duet cover of this 1931 Ozzie Nelson tune in the 1950s. Originally released as a single, the track has subsequently been included on many compilation albums featuring the two singers. Starting in C, the tune modulates up a half step to Db at 1:57.
Category: Henry
Eva Cassidy | Time Is a Healer
“Time Is A Healer” was featured on American singer Eva Cassidy’s first studio album, Eva By Heart, released one year after Cassidy’s death from melanoma at age 33. The track, with music by Diane Scanlon and Greg Smith and lyrics by Cassidy, is characteristic of Cassidy’s style — a full-throated soprano infused with bluesy soul and passion. Her work has been met with posthumous success, charting in the top 10 across Europe.
The tune starts in E major and modulates up to F# for the final chorus at 3:22.
Sheena Easton | Morning Train (9 to 5)
The 1980 hit “Morning Train (9 to 5),” written by Florrie Palmer and recorded by Scottish singer Sheena Easton, rose to the top of the U.S. adult and contemporary charts and was certified gold. Originally released in the UK with the title “9 to 5,” it was re-named “Morning Train” upon its US release to avoid confusion with the Dolly Parton hit, which was released that same year. The track has since been featured in numerous TV shows including Will & Grace, Good Girls, and South Park.
Characterized by a driving, insistent quarter note pulse, the tune begins in G major before smoothly transitioning to C for the opening verse at 0:18, and subsequently alternating between C and G for the verses and choruses respectively.
Show Yourself (from “Frozen II”)
Featured in the 2019 Disney film Frozen II, “Show Yourself” recounts Elsa examining her past and the source of powers. The song has compared to the anthem “Let It Go” from the hugely successful 2013 movie Frozen, and hits on many of the same themes of self-acceptance and discovery. Composer Kristen Anderson-Lopez said that her 14-year old daughter was sobbing after the first time she heard the song. “It feels like you’re telling me I can follow my gut and find my own path,’” Anderson-Lopez remembered her saying. “That’s the success of this movie for me. If she can’t hear it from her mom in daily life, she can hear it from her mom through a Disney movie she wrote.”
The music combines cinematic depth and musical theatre sophistication, incorporating other motifs from the score and reflecting Elsa’s evolution over the course of the number. Beginning in F# major, a modulation to G major leads into the second verse at 1:51, followed by a shift to Eb minor at the bridge at 3:27. A modulation up to Ab sets up the final chorus at 3:51.
Whitney Houston | Miracle
“Miracle,” featured on Whitney Houston‘s 1990 album I’m Your Baby Tonight, was her 13th top ten hit, reaching the ninth slot on the Billboard Hot 100. While many interpreted the song to be about a girl who regrets having an abortion, Houston denied this was the case. “I think about the air we breathe, the earth we live on. I think about our children, ” she said in an interview with Jet magazine. “I think about a lot of things, things God put here for us to have, things that we need and we take for granted. I think all of these things are miracles and I think we should try to take better care of them.”
The track modulates from Gb to G at 3:53.
Broadway’s Back, feat. Leslie Odom Jr. (from The Tony Awards)
Last Sunday the 74th annual Tony Awards were presented at the Winter Garden Theatre, belatedly recognizing Broadway shows from the pandemic-shortened 2019-2020 season. Marc Shaiman penned the opening number for the ceremony celebrating the return of live theatre to the Big Apple. Key changes at 1:39 and 2:21.
I’d Rather Be Sailing (from “A New Brain”)
“I’d Rather Be Sailing” is from the 1998 Off-Broadway musical A New Brain, with music and lyrics by William Finn. The show, which traces the story of a composer grappling with an illness he fears may be terminal, is autobiographical. Finn himself was diagnosed with arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in 1992, and made a successful and full recovery. This song, performed here by Jonathan Groff and Aaron Lazar, is sung in the show by Gordon, the composer, and his boyfriend Roger, daydreaming about day spent on the sea. A half step modulation from F to Gb occurs at 1:32.
Will Young | Evergreen
Will Young was the first winner, in 2002, of the British music competition television series Pop Idol. “Evergreen” was one of two tracks slated to be released by the winner, and Young’s cover of the tune (originally recorded by the Irish boy band Westlife) went on to become the fastest-selling debut single in the UK. The song modulates from C to D at 2:53.
John Powers | Test Drive (from “How To Train Your Dragon”)
“Test Drive” is a cue from John Powers’ Academy Award-nominated score for the 2010 Dreamworks film How To Train Your Dragon, accompanying the moment that Hiccup first rides his dragon, Toothless. “I was certainly trying to get a bit more epic,” Powers said in an interview discussing his score. “I just felt the animation and the visuals were giving me a broader palette to play with. As a kid I remember watching The Vikings with Tony Curtis and Kirk Douglas, and I always liked that score.
“[The directors] were really very specific a lot of the time. They did want size and depth and emotion. They wanted a feeling of the Nordic musical past. You could say the symphonic musical past was Nielson, the Danish symphonist. Sibelius. Grieg to a certain extent, although I think he was a little bit more Germanic than he was Nordic.
“We looked at all the folk music from the Nordic areas. And I’m part Scottish and grew up with a lot of Scottish folk music, so that came into it a lot.”
Multiple critics named it as the best score of the year, though Powell ultimately lost the Oscar to The Social Network. The cue begins in D major, and at 1:21 becomes somewhat tonally ambiguous before the sky clears into E major at 1:53.
Jordy Searcy | Better
“There’s something different about Jordy,” said Pharrell Williams, who coached Searcy on the NBC reality singing competition The Voice in 2014. His 2018 EP Dark In The City established him in the Nashville singer/songwriter scene. “Dark In The City is a masterpiece,” said the online music publication The Music Mermaid. “Seven tracks teeming with near-tangible emotion and a wildly impressive ability for heart-gripping.” “Better” is featured on his latest EP, Love? Songs, released in February 2020. The tune modulates from A major to B at 2:41, then reverts to the original key at 2:55.
modulationoftheday.home.blog 