Is that your real life?

Analysis for Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody

Here are some youtube links to some rather interesting interpretations and arrangements for Bohemian Rhapsody:
The original music video
Live at Wembley
Mnozil Brass’s interpretation
Just for Laughs
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Queen Symphony (also by RPO) This Epic is a 6 movement symphony. BR is featured in the 5th mvt.

Score for viewing: its mine so there’s no copyright!


Lyrics

An introduction to BR:
The piece was written by lead singer of rock band Queen, Freddie Mercury, and is from the album “A Night at the Opera”. An intriguing piece that was never expected to become a worldwide hit, shot to fame and was stuck at the top of the UK singles charts for 9 weeks. Though many critics slammed the piece as being a ‘superficial’, meaningless random rhyming nonsense, it turned out that the general audience thought otherwise.

The birth of a rhapsody:
Said to be “all in Freddie’s mind” long before Queen got down composing the piece proper, most of the piece’s skeleton was written in Freddie’s home. He played the ballad section to his producer and suddenly stopped, saying, “This is where the opera section comes in!”

About the piece:
BR boasts an unusual style that leans more towards classical influences rather than mainstream pop music of the 80s era. Unlike the typical (verse-chorus X 2), bridge, chorus, coda form, the piece takes on an unusual structure – introduction, ballad, (bridging) guitar solo, an operatic segment, a hard rock section and a coda. There are suggestions (eventually confirmed by Brian May) that the piece had references to Freddie’s personal concealed problems and traumas. Till today, the band is still protective of the piece’s secret meanings. Some interpretations state that the piece was a story about a man who killed someone and sold his soul to the devil, similar to the fictitious German legend, Faust. Right before his execution, he cries out to God in Arabic, Bismillah! (Basmala) and is saved by angels from the devil, Shaitan.

For those who speculate the piece having a more in-depth meaning revolving around Freddie’s life, some believe that the piece was an emotional cry for freedom from despair. It was notably written in 1975, the turning point of Freddie’s life. He had been living with Mary Austin, his girlfriend, for seven years and was just involved in his first gay love affair. Words like “Mama” could have referred to Mother Mary… Mary Austin, and “Mama Mia let me go” with the connotations of wanting to break free from the relationship.

 About the piece’s musical structure:
I shall comment on the first verse (Mama, just killed a man – carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters). Starting on the strong tonic (T) in the key of Bb major by the bass guitar, there is a tonic extension involved that is 2 bars long. This is the part where Freddie crosses his hands to play the G followed by F twice, followed by entry of the lyric “mama”. Immediately after that is the Predominant (PD), a vi – ii – ii chord with lyric “killed a man. Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger now he’s” “dead” is the Dominant chord (D) at F major. Thus the progression is I – vi – ii – V – I (where I is shared with the next phrase)

This STUPID BLOGGER simply cannot understand spaces. I guess I have to notate by using '_'.

Here’s the next phrase:
Mama, life had just begun. But now I've gone and thrown it all away____
Bb: I _______ vi __________ ii ____________ vi _______ V6 – v6
__(T)______ (PD)________________________________ (D)

 Next is a modulation to subdominant major, Eb major.
Mama, ooh. Didn't mean to make you cry. If I'm not back again this time tomorrow
Eb: I __ vi _______ ii ________________ V ______________________ I
__(T)_ (PD)_______________________ (D)_____________________ (T)______

Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters
_____V6____ vi _____ iv _________ I____
_______________ (tonic extension)_______


The minor iv used was to enhance the music and produce a sort of 'sad' resolution back to tonic. I didn't notice this but I guess this is how "Amen" in minor sounds like!
Just something interesting I found out while researching this piece: The climax of the piece after the hard rock section has an ascending mixolydian scale! (During a climatic guitar solo section which is after the lyric "Just gotta get right out of here" or somewhere around 4:45 of the original music video) Cool stuff!
Any way the wind blows.
~Pianist is wEird~