Musical Analysis #2: Cleopatra

This is such an amazing song with a story behind it that makes you really feel the lyrics. There is a video where one of the band members tells you the reasoning behind the lyrics which I highly recommend you watch ( video attached right under this). But to sum it up it is a song about a female taxi driver who has lived an unfulfilled life. When she was young she wanted to marry a man but her father dies and around that time is when he asks her to marry him. She doesn’t respond to him and he leaves her. Each verse in the song a an a significant event in her life.

Beat:

This beat also has a fairly fast paced tempo for how sad the song is. The chorus is about how she is late for various events in her events in her life but you slowly realize she is reflecting on her life. But the band member who explains the song’s meaning says that Cleopatra “isn’t this person’s name this is this idea that when we’re young, we feel … like we are destined for something bigger than our small town or destined for greatness or something.” So I think the pace is fast to show ho she is remember this idea or way that she felt, how happy she was to be married.

Meter:

This song like most is in common time or 4. The guitar surges in between some of the meters to identify when it changes.

Pitch:

There are few changes in the pitch for the guitar but he mostly plays the same note two notes over and over again. The change is a half step and part of what I think makes the song so catchy. You can hear it right from the being in the intro.

Range:

The song is sung by a male singer in Eb4-Ab5 which is the range of a bass singer and or a baritone. He usually reaches the highest range in the middle or the end of the meter or phrase that he is singing and starts off the meter in a mid to lower range. Nearing the end he emphasizes the words late in the chorus and die which shows some significance to those words in particular to the meaning of the song.

Timbre:

While the singer does have a pretty average sounding voice, it fits really well with the story telling and folky aspects of the song. The female back up singer gives the sound a beautiful light harmony to go with the upbeat tone of the song.

Works Cited:

Michaela, et al. “Vocal Range Chart.” BecomeSingers.Com, 16 Mar. 2019, http://www.becomesingers.com/vocal-range/vocal-range-chart.

“Unit 2 – Elements of Music.” Explorations in Music, Lisa Kljiach, mus200x.community.uaf.edu/2-elements-of-music/.

Jeremiah, et al. “The Lumineers ‘Cleopatra’ Sheet Music in Ab Major (Transposable) – Download & Print.” Musicnotes.com, http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0167596&cmpid=sem_roirevolution&gclid=CjwKCAjw3azoBRAXEiwA-_64OmEAOnbZTtFGXMEm6w-aGRDoOue373atDMs_HW0uPfNg3c0wFfBgXhoChdUQAvD_BwE#ProductDetails.