2020 IB Extended Essays

released during 1970. Close to You recorded by The Carpenters stayed at the number one Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks. (Owerkowicz, 2018) Close to You is a love story where the girl describes the boy of her dreams. The piece is in Verse-Chorus form. In the Carpenters version, the female vocal solo is accompanied by piano, bass, backing vocal harmonies, drum kit, synthesiser and string pad. There is a trumpet solo in the middle of the section. Jacob Collier’s version consists of the same structure, however, through the manipulation of the musical elements he has created a unique version of the song featuring an individual approach to instrumentation. (Schmidt, 2010) Both pieces begin with an instrumental introduction. The Carpenters version is in G major commences with a three-bar piano introduction featuring C and C 9 chords as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 – The Carpenters

This sets the tone and mood of the piece as light-hearted and easy going. Furthermore, the rhythm is swung which adds the light-hearted mood and the metrical sense of the introduction which doesn’t occur in Collier’s version of the piece.

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