Measure For Measure: Robert And Brandi

When I heard that Robert Plant and Brandi Carlile would be featured in this issue, it set my idle mind to wondering whether they’d ever met up in real life. After all, they come from different generations and different worlds of music. Turns out they have met at least once: at the Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts in Virginia, July, 2015, where Carlile sang “Going to California,” a song that Plant wrote for Joni Mitchell in 1971.

This gave me an idea: Why not compare wildly different songs by Plant and Carlile and see how “Going To California” might merge elements of both?

To keep the discussion focused, we’ll concentrate on one area of songwriting: form. Phrases are the building blocks of form, and phrase endings define the boundaries of phrases. Skillfully wrought endings, or cadences, are where hard rock meets Americana and smiles.

“The Immigrant Song”

Listen to this Led Zeppelin classic and note the moments when Plant takes a breath or when the music changes. These phrase-defining breaks are called cadences. (Cheat sheet: end of guitar intro, .09; end of screaming, .17; “…hot springs blow,” .23; “…gods,” .26; “…new lands,” .30; “…I am coming,” .41; “…western shore,” .53; end of verse 2, “overlords,” 1:29.)

Comment: Jimmy Page’s guitar hammers that octave riff throughout, generating a head-banging, hypnotic drone. But lyrics come in English phrases, which require punctuation. Chord jabs punctuate big junctures, such as “the land of ice and snow,” but elsewhere, rhythm is the shaping force. Plant’s breath pauses—which occur in measures 4, 8, 12, 16, etc., same as in pop or folk songs—are rhythmic cadences.

Note that the melody lands on home base, the tonic, only at the ends of major sections, such as “com-i-ing,” “over-lo-rds,” and “losing.” These cadences are “closed,” implying finality. All others are “open,” implying “more to come.”

Challenge: Improvise hard-driving, riff-based phrases, two to four measures long. Add lyrics wantonly. Concatenate to create a rock song (AABA with intro and outro). Keep the melody simple and land on the tonic gingerly, at the end of A or B. Let the singer take a breath every two to four measures. Raise pitch level and change melodic rhythm in the B section. Brief chordal punctuation is okay in measures 9, 17, etc. Stay angry!

“The Story”

Composed by Carlile collaborator (and brother-in-law) Phil Hanseroth, this is one of the few songs Brandi has recorded that she did not write. It was, however, her breakout song, and her interpretation is stellar.

Here, harmonic cadences define phrases. Listen to the following endings and classify as open or closed: (1) end of the intro; (2) “…who I am”; (3) “…where I am”; (4) “any-thing”; (5) “it’s true”; (6) “I was made for you.” Note how the melody outlines the chords.

Comment: A series of open cadences drive toward a final, closed cadence. (1) Open: B-Bsus4. The top note yearns to fall a half-step to the 3rd of B, but hangs on like a question mark. (2) Open: B-F#7, implying a return to B. Instead we veer to G#m in (3), a “deceptive cadence.” (3) Open: G#m-Eadd9. (4) Open: B-F#7. (5) Semi-closed: G#m-Eadd9-B, with melody pausing on “Mi.” (6) Closed: F#7-B, with melody ending on “Do.”

Challenge: Improvise four-measure phrases, targeting tones of I or V in measure 4. This requires chops and theory knowledge, but here are some examples in C:

Open: | C | G | C | G(B) |,   | C | Am | F | G(D) |,   | E7 | Am | Dm | G7(G) |

Closed: | G | C | F | C(E) |,   | A7 | Dm | G7 | C(C’) |

“Going To California”

This folk/rock classic leans toward folk, with lightly amplified acoustic guitar (Page) and mandolin (John Paul Jones), and Plant’s vocals, which briefly go electric at 1:40.

In common with “The Immigrant Song,” “California” has a hypnotic octave riff, which finds a folky home in the open strings of Page’s guitar, drone-tuned to DADGBD.

Like “The Story,” harmonic cadences move the music forward. The type of cadence is ambiguous because the V of D (A) is long delayed, until the bridge at 1:40 (“It seems that the wrath of the gods…”), so the main progression, G to D, might be IV-I in D or I-V in G. The instrumental break (0:48) further blurs the lines with bluesy scale tones b3 (F) and b7 (C).

The melody cadences in measure 5 of the 8-bar phrases, leaving a lot of open real estate in bars 6-8: Time to drone. Increase the dreaminess.

Challenge: Write a dreamy AABA song in D major using a droning bass. Study the ambiguities of harmony and rhythm in “California” and imitate. Change modes to Dm in the bridge. Flavor the melody with b3 and b7 (F, C).

Parting thoughts: In Music 101 classes, cadences are defined by chord formulas alone. The songs above show that harmony, melody, rhythm, and lyrics all converge in cadences, offering limitless possibilities. The ultimate challenge is to make your choices intelligent and intentional. Confidence, ease, and precision with cadences is a mark of high craftsmanship.