This composition is Pat Metheny's "Bright Size Life" recorded in 1975. It features Metheny on guitar, Jaco Pastorius on bass, and Bob Moses on drums. The form is AA'BA'' with choruses alternating between the theme, guitar solos, and bass solos. The analysis examines the harmonic structure and development of three melodic ideas throughout the piece. Key elements include hybrid phrases, modal mixture in the harmony, and sequencing or fragmentation of the initial motives.
This composition is Pat Metheny's "Bright Size Life" recorded in 1975. It features Metheny on guitar, Jaco Pastorius on bass, and Bob Moses on drums. The form is AA'BA'' with choruses alternating between the theme, guitar solos, and bass solos. The analysis examines the harmonic structure and development of three melodic ideas throughout the piece. Key elements include hybrid phrases, modal mixture in the harmony, and sequencing or fragmentation of the initial motives.
This composition is Pat Metheny's "Bright Size Life" recorded in 1975. It features Metheny on guitar, Jaco Pastorius on bass, and Bob Moses on drums. The form is AA'BA'' with choruses alternating between the theme, guitar solos, and bass solos. The analysis examines the harmonic structure and development of three melodic ideas throughout the piece. Key elements include hybrid phrases, modal mixture in the harmony, and sequencing or fragmentation of the initial motives.
This composition is Pat Metheny's "Bright Size Life" recorded in 1975. It features Metheny on guitar, Jaco Pastorius on bass, and Bob Moses on drums. The form is AA'BA'' with choruses alternating between the theme, guitar solos, and bass solos. The analysis examines the harmonic structure and development of three melodic ideas throughout the piece. Key elements include hybrid phrases, modal mixture in the harmony, and sequencing or fragmentation of the initial motives.
Edoardo Cimino In this Portfolio you will nd the following: - brief history of the composition - Description of the recording - Analysis of: form, phrases and harmony. - Variation composition fi Title: Bright Size Life Album: Bright Size Life Recorded: December, 1975/ Released January 1976 Personelle: Pat Metheny(guitar), Jaco Pastorius(Bass), Bob Moses(Drums).
Additional info Gary Burton at that time was Metheny’s mentor and helped him arrange the songs for his album. In 2020 the album was deemed “ culturally, historically and aesthetically signi cant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry.
Recording
Chorus 1 Theme
Chorus 2 Guitar solo
Chorus 3 Guitar solo
Chorus 4 Bass solo
Chorus 5 Bass solo
Chorus 6 Theme
The Head of the tune is always played by the guitar.
fi Form The form of this composition is AA’BA’’, it is built with 8 measure section, but the length of the phrase is determined by the rst BI. Every A section has a different ending.
fi Phrases
It is really interesting to see how these idealized phrases are used, there two features that are really smart: the rst is that the phrase beginning in Anacrusi and the second is that the phrases are not using archetype model, but are Hybrid form phrases. On the big picture the Form is a sentence A(BI) A’(BI) B(fr) A’’(Cad).
A and A’ With the round brackets i delineate the phrase of the A section. The square brackets underline the BI, the CI, the fragmentation and the cadence. The Fragmentation is constructed by stretching the CI. The second box ends with a PAC that leads to the B section, the rst is an HC.
In the beginning the phrase looks like a period but it develops differently, this phrase is an Hybrid model. fi fi B The B section is the development of the “sentence”, I will explain later why this it is a development, but for now it is possible to see that the B is built with a 7 measures Hybrid phrase plus the pick up of the A.
A” The A” is identical to the previous one except the ending. The last two bars are the only different features of the A” section. The composition ends with a PAC. Melodic material In the entire composition are used and developed just three ideas.
1: this is the rst idea based on sequence of fourth.
2: this is a fragment of the scale,
resolving with a descendent interval (fourth).
3: this is not a complete new idea is a fragment of the
second idea reversed and transposed.
Melodic material development
In this part I am going to explain how these three ideas are developed through the composition.
These three bars are the previously mentioned fragmentation of the rst Hybrid phrase, it is basically the motive of the second idea stretched over three measures. fi fi The B section, is composed only by mixing these ideas. In these case the rst two bars are the combination of a sequence of seventh( rst idea) and a cell originated from the second idea.
The following two measures of the B are again a variation of the second idea.
This is another fragmentation, again
is possible to see a sequence of seventh and a scale fragment evoking the idea 2.
The phrase ends with a similar cadence of the rst phrase.
The section ends with the pick up of the A”.
fi fi fi Harmonic Analysis These are the changes of the rst A
Gmaj Gmaj Bbmaj7/A Bbmaj7/A
IV IV V V
The Bbmaj7/A can be written also as A7sus4b9b13 that’s why it is a V.
D D/C Bbmaj7 G/A
I V of IV VI(root resolution) V
G/B D
IV6 I
I the second bar of the second line D/C (D7) is the V of the IV degree. Since the seventh is in the bass the right resolution is in this case V to IV6. The Bb at on bass becomes the root and instead of writing G/Bb the result is Bbmaj7. fi fl B
G/A G/A F/G F/G
V V IV(modal coloring)
G/A is again a V chord because it sounds like an A7sus4, the IV is the same is a G7sus4 and use the modal coloring. The IV should be Gmaj7 but in these case F and C are not sharp and instead having a lydian sound the result is mixolydian.
A7/E A7/E D G/AV V
I V
Last A
The last A is almost the same of the rst except the last two bars.
D D/C A7 D
I V of IV fi Bright size life (variation 2) GŒ„Š7 ‘ B¨Œ„Š7(#11)/A ‘ ## 4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ° ™ œ œ j œ ˙ ™ œ œ & ™ œ #œ ™ œ ˙ Œ œ Œ Ó 4œ ¢ 3
1. 6 D D/C B¨Œ„Š7 ## œJ œ œ b œ j œ™ œ ˙ œ œ œ œ œ œ J Ó œ œ œ œ œ ™™ ü & œ † 3
2. GŒ„Š7 D(“4) G/A G‹/A 10 w b œ œ nœ ## ˙ œ œ n œ œ & Ó Ó Œ 3 3
F/G F‹/G B¨/A
14 A7 ## w b œ œ bœ œ œ n œ nœ ˙ & Œ bœ œ œ J Ó 3 J 3
