2020 IB Extended Essays

backing vocals throughout the coda is quite different. The full sound of descending notes with a decrescendo represents the falling action, musically representing the falling in love. The decrescendo pairs well with the chromatic long held notes from the vocals bringing the work to a gentle close similar to that of the original. It concludes with a descending the melodic contour (shown in Figure 13).

Figure 12 - Jacob Collier’s Transcript

Through the manipulation of musical elements of Bacharach/David’s song we can see how it can change an original piece of music to a whole new sound. In comparison to Collier’s version, the original has are no added chords (it does have added notes chords but not the chromatically complex ones found in the Collier) and it is based on a simple chord progression, it is able to shift the mood between sad, happy and confused with increase in timbre, texture and change in pitch. We see from the beginning a piano playing triads, verse 1 the lead vocalist enters, verse 2 drums and a backup vocal singers join, strings are added on, trumpet solo being modulated to A flat major.

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