Nostalgic Blog Post: The Feeling We Once Had, from The Wiz

This song is for solo voice and orchestra, and comes from the musical The Wiz, written in the 1970's. We can see this because of the compositional devices used in the song. For example, the song uses a lot of rubato and improvisational ornamentation in the voice. This is typical of the ballad style, from which the song obviously comes, due to its rich harmony and meaningful lyrics. Some of the instruments used are also modern, for example the electric keyboard and synthesised instruments.
The song begins with just one chord on the electric keyboard (BM), and a slow drum beat, that plays on the off-beats of the bar (beats 2 and 4- another typical feature of modern ballad music). The voice comes in on the tonic note (B), and its melody has a pivotal contour, centred around the B. The chords of this part are BM and CM only, alternating. Next the synthesised solo violin comes in at 0:23, with a short melody that follows on from the vocal note (beginning on it, a G), then has a suspension note (D), which resolves to a C (chord V in G) and then returns to the tonic, G. At 0:45, the accompanying instruments have an ascending counter melody/pedal notes that take the song up to the key of Eb, which then repeats. At 1:26 we get a change in section, which is highlighted by the sudden quaver-movement drum beat and more interesting accompaniment (the violins suddenly have a syncopated counter melody that incorporates staccato as well as the usual legato notes, adding interest to the music. At 1:55, the violins have a descending chromatic scale, that builds tension because of its atonal quality. This however leads into a more resolved section, where they have sustained notes again, as before. At 2:39 the violins have the syncopated section that has the different types of articulation again, giving a sense of balance and coherence to the song. Then follows a period that is almost stretto-like in nature, although the sections come horizontally, rather than vertically (they come one-after-another in quick succession rather than all at once). This, as with stretto, builds interest and tension, before finishing the song.

I used this recording and my perfect pitch to work out the notes used in the song.