I love Christmas music.* A few years ago, I discovered a beautiful song on a Christmas compilation CD I bought this particular set because it contains all of the versions of the songs that you tend to associate them with: Mel Torme's "Christmas song," Arthur Fiedler's "Sleigh ride," etc. But there was one song on there that I had never heard and I was quite struck by its beauty. The song is titled "Koppangen" and it's sung by Anne Sofie von Otter.** You can listen to it here.
So I've set out to discover why this song is so interesting and appealing to me.*** Here are some thoughts:
1. The setting is remarkably intimate. The quiet classical guitar, solo violin, cello, and accordion could easily fit into a small room. They do not appear to be amplified or altered in any substantial way. von Otter's voice is rather soft and not forced. She also doesn't use terribly much vibrato: she doesn't need to project over an orchestra as if she were in an opera.
2. Suspensions, suspensions, suspensions! There are lots of them. The first line features 9-8 suspensions at the beginning of each phrase (click on the image for a larger version):
The beginning of the B section of the song features quite a few suspensions, including a chain of suspensions at the end of the section:
The suspensions behave as our textbook says they should, and this predictability I think is satisfying.
3. Plagal harmonies. The song features more plagal harmonies than dominant harmonies. Here, I'm taking plagal harmonies to include ii, ii7, IV, and IV7. Dominant harmonies tend to occur very briefly to mark the ends of phrases. The absence of the leading tone serves to relax the song quite a bit, I think. The song also begins "la-ti-do," not "sol-ti-do:" the latter to me is more directed. Throughout the rest of the song, there is quite a lot of emphasis on scale degrees 4 and 6, usually as upper neighbors to tonic-triad tones.
3 1/2. The big pedal point at the beginning of the C section. The C section ("And I know that those...") begins with a tonic harmony (A major); proceeds to a 6/4 harmony (D major with A in the bass); moves to an dominant harmony (E major, still with A in the bass, creating quite a bit of dissonance); and then--much to our surprise--resolves not to tonic, but to IV, D major. (The progression V-IV is actually considered a retrogression--a "motion backwards"--in common-practice harmony.)
4. The text. I don't think the text has terribly much to do with the beauty of this song. This song in particular gives us an interesting laboratory since versions exist in both English and Swedish. I don't speak a word of Swedish, yet I think that version of the song is just as beautiful.
*Despite the fact that Klumpenhouwer networks reveal a lack of second-order recursion in most of it.
**It originally appeared in both Swedish and English versions on her Home for Christmas CD. Incidentally, the "a" in "Koppangen" should have a dot over it. The transcriptions are by me.
***This song is evidently appealing to a lot of other folks too. A Google search will turn up a variety of people who indicated that they bought the CD for this track alone.
So I've set out to discover why this song is so interesting and appealing to me.*** Here are some thoughts:
1. The setting is remarkably intimate. The quiet classical guitar, solo violin, cello, and accordion could easily fit into a small room. They do not appear to be amplified or altered in any substantial way. von Otter's voice is rather soft and not forced. She also doesn't use terribly much vibrato: she doesn't need to project over an orchestra as if she were in an opera.
2. Suspensions, suspensions, suspensions! There are lots of them. The first line features 9-8 suspensions at the beginning of each phrase (click on the image for a larger version):
The beginning of the B section of the song features quite a few suspensions, including a chain of suspensions at the end of the section:
The suspensions behave as our textbook says they should, and this predictability I think is satisfying.
3. Plagal harmonies. The song features more plagal harmonies than dominant harmonies. Here, I'm taking plagal harmonies to include ii, ii7, IV, and IV7. Dominant harmonies tend to occur very briefly to mark the ends of phrases. The absence of the leading tone serves to relax the song quite a bit, I think. The song also begins "la-ti-do," not "sol-ti-do:" the latter to me is more directed. Throughout the rest of the song, there is quite a lot of emphasis on scale degrees 4 and 6, usually as upper neighbors to tonic-triad tones.
3 1/2. The big pedal point at the beginning of the C section. The C section ("And I know that those...") begins with a tonic harmony (A major); proceeds to a 6/4 harmony (D major with A in the bass); moves to an dominant harmony (E major, still with A in the bass, creating quite a bit of dissonance); and then--much to our surprise--resolves not to tonic, but to IV, D major. (The progression V-IV is actually considered a retrogression--a "motion backwards"--in common-practice harmony.)
4. The text. I don't think the text has terribly much to do with the beauty of this song. This song in particular gives us an interesting laboratory since versions exist in both English and Swedish. I don't speak a word of Swedish, yet I think that version of the song is just as beautiful.
*Despite the fact that Klumpenhouwer networks reveal a lack of second-order recursion in most of it.
**It originally appeared in both Swedish and English versions on her Home for Christmas CD. Incidentally, the "a" in "Koppangen" should have a dot over it. The transcriptions are by me.
***This song is evidently appealing to a lot of other folks too. A Google search will turn up a variety of people who indicated that they bought the CD for this track alone.