Home Free, an American country a cappella group, won the NBC reality singing competition The Sing-Off in 2013, which led to signing a record contract with Sony. The group, comprised of Austin Brown, Rob Lundquist, Adam Rupp, Tim Foust, and Adam Chance, is actively touring, and their most recent album, So Long Dixie, came out last November
Sea Shanty Medley was released as a single in 2021. There are modulations scattered throughout the track; particularly distinct ones occur at 1:48 and 2:21.
“Maybe It’s Me” is featured on American composer Georgia Stitt’s 2020 album A Quiet Revolution. Stitt, who put together the album during the pandemic, said in an interview with Forbes that “to me these songs highlight some very real, very contemporary characters who are fighting for relevance, meaning, and connection in a world that seems to value those things less and less.”
This track, which opens the album, is performed by musical theatre actress Jessica Vosk. It begins in A and modulates up to Bb for the final chorus at 2:24.
“One of the most compelling new voices in the roots music world, Molly Tuttle is a virtuosic multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter with a lifelong love of bluegrass, a genre the Northern California-bred artist first discovered thanks to her father (a music teacher and multi-instrumentalist) and grandfather (a banjo player whose Illinois farm she visited often throughout her childhood). On her new album Crooked Tree (2022), Tuttle joyfully explores that rich history with bluegrass, bringing her imagination to tales of free spirits and outlaws, weed farmers and cowgirls resulting in a record that is both forward-thinking and steeped in bluegrass heritage,” (MollyTuttleMusic.com)
The Nashville-based Tuttle, a Berklee alumna, began attending bluegrass jams at age eleven. ” … She was the first woman ever named Guitar Player of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association, as well as her voice—an instrument that shifts from warmly understated to fiercely soulful with equal parts precision and abandon, occasionally treating the listener to some high-spirited yodeling … On the album-opening ‘She’ll Change,’ for instance, her vocals take on a breakneck momentum as she pays homage to the type of woman who fully owns her unabashed complexity.”
“[Molly Tuttle] sings with the gentle authority of Gillian Welch, yet plays astoundingly fleet flat-picking guitar like Chet Atkins on superdrive.”
— American Songwriter Magazine
“She’ll Change” is built in B major for the first two verses and choruses, but at 1:31 a multi-section bridge arrives: the first features vocals and stays more or less grounded, but the second instrumental section shifts to C# major (1:45), remaining there for the balance of the tune.
British pianist Alexis FFrench synthesizes soul and classical influences in his music, which has been streamed over 500 million times. His original composition Simple Gifts begins in F# major and modulates up to G near the end at 1:38.
“The strongest bonds never bend, break, or burst. Such a bond forms the bedrock of anything worth fighting for, whether it be a family, a friendship — or a band,” (TheRevivalists.com). “The Revivalists retain this union 15 years into their impressive career as they prepare to unleash their strongest material yet. Standing together, this eight-piece rock ‘n’ roll collective has made the journey from hole-in-the-wall marathon gigs to sold-out shows at hallowed venues a la Radio City Music Hall and Red Rocks Amphitheater, multi-platinum success, numerous national television performances, and more than 800 million streams.
… ‘Art can revive and make life feel vibrant. Live music can especially do that. When we first started out, we were watching New Orleans rebuild after Katrina, and fight to keep the city’s spirit alive. In a way, that’s what we’re seeing now, except on a global scale. Everybody realizes what they almost lost, and it happens to be many of the things New Orleans is known for – being with friends, experiencing things good and bad, building fulfilling relationships, and going to concerts and restaurants. It boils down to the zest for life – that’s what our band name and music are all about.'”
Featuring the legendary Preservation Hall Jazz Band, an ensemble with roots going back 70+ years in the Crescent City, “Celebrate” is often a joyful shout chorus: just about everybody is playing at any given time. But the boisterous tradition of the shout chorus is something of a New Orleans specialty — and it’s used expertly here. At 3:08, a half-step key change appears.
“Maybe It’s My Turn Now” is featured in the fifth episode of the second season of the Apple TV+ series Schmigadoon!, which aired this summer.
The musical comedy series blends satire of and homage to the musical theater catalog, with this season focusing on the Post-Golden Age musicals of the 1960s-1980s.
Written by Cinco Paul and performed by Cecily Strong, this track is a pastiche of the Kander and Ebb anthem “Maybe This Time,” written for the movie adaptation of their 1966 Broadway musical Cabaret. It begins in G major and modulates up a half step to Ab at 2:03.
“Peter Foley (1967-2021) was an award-winning composer, lyricist, arranger, orchestrator, and music director. His musical theater works include The Hidden Sky, The Names We Gave Him, I Capture the Castle, Bloom, Whitechapel, and The Bear …” (Peter Foley Music Project). “Peter’s songs have been performed at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook, Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, the New York Festival of Song, Symphony Space, Town Hall, Joe’s Pub, 54 Below …
Peter also composed scores and themes for numerous television shows and documentaries, including Listening to America with Bill Moyers … An accomplished pianist and expert in music notation, he served as musical director/keyboardist for the premieres of Rinde Eckert’s Highway Ulysses, Kenneth Vega’s Heartfield, and concert performances with Manoel Felciano. He was the music assistant for the Broadway production of Sting’s The Last Ship, associate music director for the developmental workshop of Elvis Costello’s A Face in the Crowd, and music preparation supervisor for the Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical The Band’s Visit …
Loosely based on a true story, The Names We Gave Him is about an amnesiac veteran of the First World War, the doctor who treated him, and the many women who, in denial of their grief, claimed him as their lost beloved. With a richly textured, dramatic score and riveting choral music, this new musical explores the agony of war for both the soldiers and the families they leave behind, the distorting power of loss, and the insistence of love. What is a country’s identity in the aftermath of such devastation? What is a self without memory?”
The duet “Yellow Field” from The Names We Gave Him (music by Peter Foley / lyrics by Ellen McLaughlin, 2021) begins with a spare accompaniment, with the voices occupying separate, alternating spaces as the narrative begins to unfold. But the first appearance of the refrain in E major (0:46) provides a solid platform for the duo to join in unison and octave unison. As the characters’ memories tumble forth, the sonic intensity grows. 2:41 brings another refrain, this time in Bb major. A gentle yet insistent repeated Bb from the piano provides connection into a final pass of the refrain at 4:20, this time in Eb major.
“Opening hearts has been my secret agenda in my entire musical life, really. I know it sounds pretentious, but I’m not afraid to say it. I just want to change how you feel for a couple of minutes, and maybe put you back in touch with some feeling that you haven’t felt in a while. That really was my whole goal.”
— Peter Foley
for Scobie
This live performance, featuring Briana Carlson-Goodman and Jason Gotay, has somewhat lower sound quality:
Jacob Collier’s original song “I Heard You Singing” is included on Djesse Vol. 2, the second installment on a planned four-volume set. On the album the track features vocalist Becca Stevens and mandolinist/singer Chris Thile; this intimate version is performed by Collier from his studio/bedroom. It begins in F, wanders into Db around 2:18, and continues into various other tonalities from there.
“If you were alive and anywhere near a radio or MTV in the late ’90s, you heard ‘Barbie Girl,'” (Slate). “Its mercilessly chirpy Europop lyrics (‘I’m a Barbie girl in the Barbie world / Life in plastic, it’s fantastic’) were set against a relentless post–Spice Girls beat. Norwegian lead singer Lene Nystrøm playacted as Barbie and Danish singer-rapper René Dif played Ken. Dif’s gruff ‘Come on, Barbie, let’s go party’ is one of the song’s most unkillable earworms.
… whatever rock snobs think of ‘Barbie Girl,’ the song is now so durable that, earlier this week, no less a rock star than (Coldplay’s) Chris Martin was asked by two fans to sing it live onstage. Though it’s been 26 years since Aqua’s infamous anthem was first unleashed, Martin still remembered the melody.”
Against this backdrop of pop ubiquity and this summer’s cinematic extension of the Barbie franchise, cellist Josep Castanyer Alonso has produced his take on how six different classical composers might have approached the “Barbie” theme. Belying his top-drawer resumé, Alonso’s YouTube bio simply reads, “I am a cellist in the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. I also play the piano a bit …” There are key changes between the various variations, but also a few modulations within a given variation (each carefully labeled); 1:16 is just one example.
Staying within just one era/style, here’s a shorter fugue by Alonso as well:
A live-action adaptation of Disney’s beloved 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid, starring Halle Bailey, was released this past May. Alan Menken, who wrote the music for the original film, collaborated with Lin-Manuel Miranda on some additional songs, including the one we are featuring here. Menken’s trademark soaring melody is performed by Jonah Hauer-King, who portrays Prince Eric.
The track starts in F minor and modulates up a 4th to Bb at 2:08
modulationoftheday.home.blog 