Description
Book SynopsisWhat, exactly, gave Queen's songs their magical and distinct musical identity? Rock and Rhapsodies answers this question through a fascinating musicological study of the band's output.
Trade ReviewBraae weaves music analysis, critical theory, and production techniques to investigate the band and their work from an impressively large range of angles. Not only is this book for those of us who think Queen is the greatest band to ever grace the world stage, but the ideas and methods herein are also incredibly useful to scholars interested in popular music analysis more generally. * Justin Williams, Senior Lecturer in Music, University of Bristol *
While Queen's output may now be historical, Braae draws upon and synthesizes a wide range of current theoretical positions, extending outside music itself, in order to encapsulate it. In asking many apposite questions, the book is excellent in seeing behind individual songs, towards what makes them tick as a body of work. It is also engagingly written, a model both for understanding Queen and for addressing any band's idiolect. * Allan F. Moore, Emeritus Professor in Music, University of Surrey *
Braae's book is a brilliant analytical journey of how Queen created their unique and identifiable sound. It is an insightful, original and much-needed text that explores not just the notes, but also the historical, performative and production contexts that shaped their music. * Jadey O'Regan, Lecturer in Contemporary Music, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney *
Table of ContentsNotes on Musical Examples Acknowledgements List of Tables and Figures 1. Introduction The Book The Study of Queen Issues of Style 2. Queen's Idiolect: A Primer Harmonic Structure and Gestures Textural Foundations and the Sound-Box Arrangement and Performance Gestures Sounds Like Queen, and other Conclusions 3. Artistic Craft and Crafted Artistry: Queen's Structural Archetypes Introduction and Definitions Conventional Forms Variations on Conventional Forms Episodic Songs Artistic Craft and Crafted Artistry 4. Temporal Processes in Queen's Large-Scale Songs Time and Popular Song Phrase and Intra-Sectional Linearity Sectional Temporality Closure Queen's Temporal Processes and Exceptions 5. Brian May and Roger Taylor Analyzing the Voice The Voices of Brian May and Roger Taylor May, Taylor, and Rock Authenticity 6. Freddie Mercury The Voices Structural Dynamics Stylistic Incongruities, Queer and Camp Voices, and the "Real" Freddie Mercury, Rock Authenticity, and Interpretation Coda 7. Hard Rock, Glam Rock and Progressive Rock in the 1970s Commentary and Conceptual Considerations Queen's "Dominant Voice": The Hard Rock Connection The Glam Rock Connection: Exaggeration, Irony, and Play Progressive Rock, and Interplay 8. The Musical World(s) of Queen A "Unique" Sonic Fingerprint and Pastiche in the 1970s Queen's Sonic Patterns and Stylistic Connections The Musical World(s) of Queen 9. A Day at the Races and the Gestural Unity of Queen Queen in 1976 and the Ideal of Evolution The Notion of Gestural Unity: Idiolect Revisited A Day at the Races The Gestural Unity of Queen 10. Was It All Worth It? Queen in the 1980s A Decade of Changing Fortunes From "Save Me" to "Staying Power" The Rock Ballads Revisited Hard Rock by Numbers Was It All Worth It? 11. Queen's Jubilee: The Late Style of Innuendo Introduction "Innuendo" "The Show Must Go On" A Late Style of Queen 12. Legacy Post-1991 Replacing Freddie "No One But You" We Will Rock You The Influence of Queen The End of the Story Bibliography Appendix A
