Revolution Number 9 - from Ian's Hammond's Beathoven, The Beatles' White Album's Revolution Number 9 analyzed

Beathoven
Studying the Beatles

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This is the fifth post in a series dedicated to examining Revolution 9. The first three posts studied the first two minute section. The fourth post discussed the structure of the piece. In this article we begin to examine the second section.
Section two corresponds to a development area, which we can split into three strips and a stretto. The names of the strips refer to the characteristic crowd sounds they contain.
2.00 Rabble strip
3.00 Kids strip
4.00 Demo strip
4.30 Stretto
The same basic skeleton is found in each. The third strip drops bits to fit into the shorter 30 second time frame.
1) Each strip begins with JohnAndGeorge and Number 9. The Palestrina choir also opens the first strip.
2) A String Plunge replaces the Stasis Strings of the first section. It performs cadential duties in the first two strips.
3) Each strip ends with a crowd scene, usually a lull and Alright or some utterance from Lennon. The crowd scenes were dubbed.

Rabble Kids Demo

1. 2.10 3.00 4.00 "Number nine"
2.00 3.00 Choir
2. 2.20 3.25 Plunge
3. 2.40 3.25 4.10 Crowd
2.40 3.50 4.10 "right"

One thing I have to do is justify calling this a new section. I've marked the new material in the strip graph above with '#'. You'll see that it's mostly new. The only surviving voices from the previous sections are the three main seating voices: the Waltz, Number Nine and the JohnAndGeorge dialog. The exception is the guitar unison at 2.28 which appeared briefly in section one.
Where the first section was mainly instrumental, this section brings in two choirs and three crowds. Where the first section was mainly articulate and Western, this section is inarticulate. The section closes with a stretto that develops the stretto material from the first section.
Section 2.1 -- Rabble Strip

2.00 D5 "Baby" entry
(CE) Source: EMI Effects tape
A baby's voice is dubbed rather ingeniously to end Section 1 and begin Section 2.
2.00 L10 "Roman" Backwards Choir. 3/4. A little sharp?
a: Source: Unknown. "miscellaneous operas"?
Style: Heroic, 1900's. Verdi???
Forward:
|d e a |d c |d f] Treble
|d c |d d e c | | Alto
| a |d a |d d| Chord
Backward:
|f d |c d |a e d | Treble
| |c e d d |c d | Alto
|d |a d |a | Chord
GH: "Who's to know..."
This short backwards choral fragment is played twice.
2.06 L11 Backward Sitar. 9/8.
E: Source: Unknown. A Beatle fragment?
Style: Raga "riff" style
Forward:
E |B E|A A* G#E|G# A G# |
Where "*" is G#AG#E
Backward:
|G# A G#|EG#*A |EB | E
If we think of the loops as freezing small performances in time, then we have to admit Lennon certainly chose moments of great beauty, such as this sitar, played backwards. It appears to answer and duet with the utterances of the baby.
2.11 (B-Bb) "Number Nine" + Choral shouts
The shouts are synchronous with "Number 9" It is very difficult to separate the two parts The choral shouts follow the choral fragment at 2.00, forming a continuous 10 second choral patch.
The Baby and Roman Choir do not repeat or appear again, in line with the Claret dialog which opened section one.
2.20 L12 String Plunge. 4/4? C:
2.20 (B)C Plunge. Final chord of Sibelius's 7th Symphony
Backwards (or edited) with timpani added
|B |G | Tune
| |C | Chord
At 2.20 the String Plunge is introduced, edited from the close of Sibelius's 7th Symphony, with Timpani added. A phenomenal sound. The Plunge is used to signal a dramatic turn of events. It replaces the Stasis Strings of the first section as a cadence theme. Melodically it's a fall of a major seventh, from B to C. Music is not usually geometric. But, the interval of a major seventh is quite distinctive, and now we have two: a leap from B to Bb (Number 9), and fall, a semitone higher, from B to C.
2.22 GH: business deal falls through
2.23 JL: forced him on the third night
2.25 GH: fortune gives
2.26 L13 Shimmer Theme. 4/4? C:
(DCAEb) Source: Unknown.
Style: E-Guitar blues riff. Strobed.
|DC#D C AG EbDC |
JL: "On the third night..."
A shimmering guitar-riff overlays the repeat of the Plunge. I can't identify the instrument, but it could be a distorted guitar, and is perhaps one of Lennon's home tapes that Lewisohn mentions. It does not reappear.
The first 30 seconds has been built almost completely from material in A minor and C major. The bright E major sitar provides the major exception.
2.27 L14 Choir
2.27 F7 Bb7 Backward Choir. 3/4. (A little flat)
Source: Unknown.
Style: Church. Indeterminate.
The transcription was problematic.
Forward:
|d |d c d |eb f | Parts
|c bb ab|g |g a a |
Bb g Eb F7 Chord
Backward:
|f c |eb d c |d ab bb|c Tune
|f a eb|d c d |d | Parts
| g |g |ab bb c |
F7 Eb g Bb Chord
A new seating voice, the Choir is introduced. A haunting fragment of a religous piece, played backwards, and possibly sped up.
A rather complex episode follows:
2.29 (A) Unison guitar
2.30 L15 "Geoff" (see below)
2.30 bb: Clarinet doodle
bb c |db f c db bb db eb |f
2.30 D6 Rabble Crowd
Source: EMI effects tape
Rabble crowd
This is first of about different kinds of crowd sound to be heard. Each development strip has its own characterising crowd sound.
2.33 "Ssshhh" with heavy echo
2.34 A5 Metallic pluck (open top fiddle strings).
2.36 (B-Bb) Number nine (half way)
2.42 "Geoff, turn the [red] light on"
George Martin saying "Geoff [Emerick] to put the red light on", heavily echoed according to Lewisohn. The clarinet, ssshhh, echo, metallic pluck, Geoff, turn the light on, and bulge of electronic interference, belong to a single compound 6.5 second loop, probably taken from the rehearsal for A Day In The Life.
0 5 10
+----+----+
@@@ | | bb: Clarinet
| @ | | Sshhh
| @| | (AE) Pluck
| @@@ | "Geoff"
| @@@ | (AD#)Interference
+----+----+
0 5 10

The loop captures a moment in time. It's the second reference to George Martin, the speaker. Geoff is Geoff Emerick, their main engineer. Lennon uses the loop as a whole, or just bits of it. By 2.40 a transformation has occurred: we have the Choir, Rabble Crowd and Lennon's right. Twenty seconds of voice only, emphasising the choral nature of this piece.
2.44 L16 "right"
(A) Source: "Revolution 1" outro. Lennon singing. Some of the original outro of Revolution 1 finally peeks through. I've got it down as a loop, even though it doesn't repeat. The texture thins to the Rabble Crowd and Lennon's ur-right, with panning, to conclude the section.
2.53 (C) "right" and Zombies only
2.56 (DCA) "right" only
2.59 The rabble return briefly
Tonally, the second half emphasises the notes A, C and Eb. The next section starts at 3.00 with the return of Number nine and the JohnAndGeorge patter.
Let's review this section.
Beginning with dubs and the standard seating, the Plunge and Guitar lead us to the second half, which is mostly vocal. The dynamics come down to pp to close the strip. The articulate, refined Western fragments of the first section have been largely replaced by inarticulate, noisy non-Western sounds. Vocal, rather than instrumental sounds dominate.
2.0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
@@@ | @@JohnAndGeorge@@@@ | | | | | | |
| | | @@Waltz@@@@@ | | | | | | |
##Roman Choir###### | | | | | | | | |
@@Baby@@@@@@@ | @ | | | | | | | | |
| |#Sitar###| | | | ###### | | | | |
| | |@@Number9@@ | | |@@@@| | | | |
| | | | ##Plunge#### ######## | | | |
| | | | | |#Shimmer#| | | | | |
| | | | | | #Choir# | | ########### | |
| | | | | | @@Guitar@@ | | | | |
| | | | | | ##Geoff###### | | | |
| | | | | | ##Rabble################### ##
| | | | | | | | | ####Right#########
+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60

The next article examines the second strip of this section.

Filling me up with your rules...
================================
I have employed a number of conventions in these articles. You will need to use a fixed size font to read these posts sensibly. In the first column I indicate the time, in minutes and seconds, as it occurs on CD. I'm not always exact to the second when referring to the time in the main text. This is not physics.
1.50 (A) This is something that happened at 1 minute 50 seconds In the second column of titles I use "D" to indicate dubs (e.g. D1) and "L" to indicate loops.
In the second column of examples I indicate the notes, chords or key of a section, using the following conventions:
(A) the note A. (ABC) implies the notes A, B and C.
a the chord a minor
A the chord A major
a: the key a minor
A: the key A major
[A] square brackets enclose almost inaudible sounds
The third column may have quoted text, which is preceded by the initials of the speaker, if known. JL, GH, YO and GM are obvious. AT: is Alistair Taylor. The text is highly conjectural in places. In melodic examples, "'" and "_" are used to indicate non-intuitive jumps. "a' b" indicates the "a" is above the following "b". "b_ a" indicates that "b" is below the following "a".

IAN HAMMOND'S BEATHOVEN: PAGE 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, - Back To Revolution Number 9

REVOLUTION NUMBER 9 PT 5BY IAN HAMMOND

REVOLUTION NUMBER 9
PT 5
BY IAN HAMMOND