"As" Stevie Wonder - SONGS IN THE KEY OF IFE - the greatest solo studio double albums in musical history? I think so.
“As” / Stevie Wonder / SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE
tempo map - Stevie Wonder - SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE - as VP
I looked around the internet and beyond in 1988 for a book in which the exact speeds of songs were listed. I looked for years. Then I found Bruno Repp of the Hastings Lab, associated with Yale in New haven, who rightly told me that I had not “READ MUCH OF THE EXTANT STUDIES IN THIS AREA OF STUDY.” This was in 1990, very pre- internet, but I admit now he was right. But I have had many years to catch up to both the “extant” (I had to look that up – it means a ‘a heck of a lot’). Still, as the saying goes, the more you know the more you realize what you do not know. I think this song is archetypical of songs in 4/4 time – “As” being the perfect title to a speed where from 98-105 beats per minute the songs are predictably natural, easy, just: THERE. I try to describe the speed territories with nouns. So said, if one had to be a verb or verbal phrase (see Newman Tempo Chart on the right) it would be songs in this category, the working title of which and still ism to be candid, “CARPE DIEM.” As by Stevie means it is what it is, as, well, it is and that, as every American knows, and I know as the Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, as myself, attorneys who passed the bar in their home state and have moved around, what the meaning, in a given context, of what is is. This matter of defining a verb would be an element of journalism and not a laughing point on the part of non-lawyers if journalists would present themselves as either presenting fact, opinion, or a mixture of both. The mean frequencies for the live version of “As” by Stevie Wonder are: meanspeed=102.1 beats per minute meanemotion=natural meanbeat=1.702 meanspace=588 milliseconds per beat. meanspace=2351 milliseconds per measure. meanphase=1.702 cycles per second. meanpitch=435.627 Hertz, 82 cents above G#4/Ab4=415.305 Hertz, 18 cents below A4=440.000 Hertz.
/Ian Andrew Schneider/
meanspeed music school
June 14, 2009
revised and extended from information originally measured in July, 1988
These are three speed charts of the song The Sounds of Silence, one of the themes for the movie The Graduate, by Simon & Garfunkel.
This song: another in our continuing series of what happens when you put a song on a minor key—or rather—it was in a minor key (sad key) anyway, and the results are such: in this song, what would be an other wise TV-theme from the 1970s type syrup-like sound IF the song had been in D major. It is not in D major. D minor—the saddest key of all, according to Christopher Guest in This Is Spinal Tap—just think of the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven, Bach Piano Concerto in D Minor—one of the most amazing pieces ever.
And so here: a lot of sad surreal ethereal eeriness, mixed with the speed of lust—and here you have the makings of a base of what has become a true classic for the ages of popular Western music.
The frequencies for The Sounds of Silence are: mean speed, Expected Average Tempo=106.4 beats per minute mean-emotion according to the meanspeed music school=LUSTFUL average length, beat- herem a quarter note=564 milliseconds per beat. average length, whole note=2256 milliseconds per measure. beat phase=1.773 cycles per second. meanpitch=453.97 Hertz, 53.5 cents above A4=440.000 Hertz and 46.5 cents below A#4/Bb4=466.164 Hertz.
mean speed/average tempo/media velocity=67.2 beats per minute
average beat=0.672 seconds
emotion concept predicted by the meanspeed conjecture=ceremony. Emotions and speeds and their relationship are found on the Newman Standard Tempo Scale
emotional concept as I heard it=ceremonial in the ritual of the treating the physically and mentally ill with quiet yet intense respect
I was struck by the subject matter and presentation of Michael Moore’s movie SICKO, an exposure to the disgusting, greedy insurance company driven health “industry” (it once was a profession).
In Ricky Gervais’ EXTRA, the song Tea for The Tillerman by [Cat Stevens] was used to end the show every episode. I think ending the film with this song was Moore’s tribute to Ricky – Ricky is a modern Charles Dickens, and Michael Moore is finding a voice as the contemporary Upton Sinclair.
The song’s beatific ceremonial nature is such a stark contrast to the embarrassing and gauche “health care system” that is just – *works* – interesting movie, fascinating song choice for the ending.
done
Many have covered this song – there are at least 3 Eddie Vedder versions on “The Tube” – it’s a very soothing piece. Complex in its simplicity, as a typical Cat Stevens song as Neil Young, Pat Metheny or Peter Gabriel.
“To whom much is given, much is expected. To whom much more is given, much more is expected” – The Gospel According to St. Luke, quoted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt
