Ok. Taking a stab at the Strong Songs Melody Homework Assignment. I'm not really sure how to go about doing this. I have zero experience in any of these categories in this way, & I never heard the word prosody before this. I'm feeling pretty vulnerable about this analysis. Not sure how in depth I need to go with this either.
The song I picked was "Just The Way You Are" by Billy Joel. Here goes.
Prosody - The entire song Verse & Chorus is super conversational. In fact the whole song is a dissertation/speech. The lyrics & the melody almost match perfectly, including the rhythm & inflection between the lyrics & the melody.
Stability - The whole song is mostly stable, with maybe a little instability in the 1st & last lines of the Verse. So the Verse has a mixture of Stability & Instability, the Chorus is Stable.
Movement - The song is a mixture of all three types. The 1st line of the verse is basically stepwise & chromatic, with a leap in the beginning with the word 'go," the 2nd line is step wise & chromatic, the 3rd line is the same stepwise & chromatic with a leap at the end on "familiar," & the last line adds in a leap along with the stepwise & chromatic for words "I" & 'you." The Chorus is pretty much the same. Stepwise & chromatic with a leap in the1st line on "I" & "not," then another leap in the 3rd line on "times," then a final leap in the last line on "are."
Rhythm - The rhythm is syncopated in the verse & chorus with a mixture of short notes & longer notes. The 1st & last lines of the Verse have a mix of short & long, where the middle to lines are more longer notes. The Chorus is the same, with a mix of shorter & longer notes in the 1st & 3rd lines, with the middle 2 lines being mostly longer.
Shape - Both the verse & chorus are a very low almost straight wave with the occasional spike for the words "go, familiar, I & You," in the verse, the chorus starts with a spike for "I," then down for would but back up for "not," then a low straight-ish wave till it spikes again at "times, back to the same low wave till a spike on the last word "are."
So there it is. Please be gentle in your criticism lol.
The one thing I noticed in this song, which I don't think I ever have before, is that the Choruses are not the same. Usually the chorus is the exact same wordage throughout a song, in this they are completely different except for the one line "just the way you are." The entire song is a one sided conversation. I guess that's why Billy Joel is a master songwriter. Little factoid, I heard him in an interview once saying that he regards himself as a songwriter & not a singer, & that he hates his voice.
