Labelling the sections of a rock song – verse, chorus, bridge, etc. – initially seems like a simple task. However, as one compares the song with others with the same layout, the broader context introduces increasingly complex problems. One might identify the same section – such as a bridge – in two different songs, but they can have vastly different narrative and dramatic effects. The more precisely one defines the features of a particular formal region – such as a prechorus – the more one encounters exceptional or ambiguous cases. To further complicate matters, expert listeners frequently give different formal readings of the same song (de Clercq Reference de Clercq2017, [1.3]). These problems lead to two questions: (a) how can we devise consistent criteria for formal analysis while also accounting for the diversity of songs within the genre; and (b) why should we care about having them?
Form as Harmony in Rock Music addresses the first of these questions by arguing that the interaction between chord progressions and phrases plays the main role in defining formal regions. The book implicitly addresses the second question by showing the interpretive insights that can be gained only from a rigorous analytical framework.
The book's analytical system is founded on the argument that rock songs typically go through one or more ‘functional circuits’ – that is, they establish an initial key, depart from its stability, lead to an unstable chord that strongly points back to stability, and return to a stable key – not necessarily the same one as the first (p. 207). The book labels these stages tonic, predominant, dominant and tonic, but these terms do not describe specific chords; rather, they define a sequence of harmonic events that spans across one or more sections (pp. 5–12). In other words, a dominant-functioning chord could be V, but it could also be iv or bVII, if one of these chords appears at the penultimate stage of a circuit and strongly predicts resolution to the tonic. Certain types of progressions can cause a single functional stage to extend across several chords; they include passing- and neighboring-chord progressions, bass arpeggiations, and repeating loops of two to four chords (pp. 17–25).
Formal regions such as verses and choruses combine with functional circuits in multiple ways. Each region can proceed through one rotation of a circuit, or the verse can traverse one part (for example, the initial tonic) while the chorus traverses the rest. Because of these different possibilities, sections that are usually given a single label are classified by the book into several subtypes. To borrow the book's language, there are multiple types of a single formal function (p. 93). Verses can be ‘initiating’ or ‘sectional’; choruses can be ‘sectional’, ‘continuation’ or ‘telos’ (pp. 40–70). The book similarly identifies different types of bridges based on their harmonic trajectory (pp. 106–114).
Later chapters discuss each formal type in greater detail, and they broaden the scope to discuss texture, hypermeter, proxemics and other issues, giving a valuable introduction to many of the non-harmonic issues related to form in rock. Some songs do not fit comfortably in the categories defined in the first part of the book. For example, a verse and prechorus, which normally lead to an extended tonic arrival in the chorus, might lead instead to another harmonic departure (p. 231). Later chapters analyse some of these exceptional cases by treating them as hybrids that combine aspects of multiple forms.
Researchers who adopt the analytical method presented in Form and Harmony in Rock Music will discover many insights into the rock style. The book shows how small-scale repeating progressions (analysed by Tagg Reference Tagg2009 and Doll Reference Doll2017) and Schenkerian reduction (pioneered by Everett Reference Everett2001 and Reference Everett2004) can be brought together into a single mode of analysis. Moreover, the book identifies where, within a formal layout, different types of progressions are likely to occur, a new and valuable observation. Dividing a single formal function into subtypes helps to capture the different dramatic effects it can have. The book shows the harmonic relationship between small-scale blues and SRDC (statement–restatement–departure–conclusion) patterns and larger verse/chorus and verse/prechorus/chorus forms, a critical idea in any study of rock form. In addition to these virtues, the book is admirable for its accessible prose and for its excellently transcribed musical examples that are curated to illustrate each concept without overwhelming the reader.
The book makes a persuasive case that the relation between phrases and harmony often plays the main role in determining form. It does not convince me that it always does. To choose just one counterexample: ‘Beauty is only skin deep’ and ‘The girl's alright with me’, both recorded by The Temptations, sound as if they were derived from an identical schematic layout. Both have an instrumental introduction, a solo voice passage, a passage of building intensity and the title lyric repeated by multiple voices. These sections resemble each other in their rhythms, bass lines, textures and where chord loops and repeating riffs are introduced and abandoned. However, as far as I understand, Form as Harmony would suggest that the buildup section in one song is categorically different than the other. One of them begins with a I chord, continuing the tonic function of the previous section, while the other begins with ii7, indicating a predominant function. (The book identifies exceptional cases of prechoruses that begin on I on p. 102, but the criteria for this event – mode change or phrase overlap – do not apply here.) To my ear, the other parallels between the songs suggest that the two sections are fulfilling the same formal role. The difference in harmony is interesting but less significant for my formal interpretation. The book addresses some situations where harmony either plays a less central role or does not conform to its models (p. 68, pp. 169–74). However, there are more that could be explored, and there might be some songs where considering several musical features in combination is more appropriate than primarily focusing on harmony (for brief examples of alternate approaches, see de Clercq Reference de Clercq2012 and 2017; Summach Reference Summach2012; and Heetderks Reference Heetderks2020).
Several observations throughout this book show that a rigorous form–analysis system has important ramifications for interpretation. Here are but a few examples: many transcendent rock moments – such as Janis Joplin screaming ‘take it!’ in ‘Piece of My Heart’ – lose their effect when divorced from the formal context of the entire song (p. xiii). Formal subtypes prompt different types of engagement from the audience, so a precise formal analysis helps uncover a song's sociological function (p. 70, p. 202). Formal analysis allows us to understand how different sections evolved over time, enriching our understanding of the history of a style (p. 107, pp. 139–41). Songs can thwart schematic expectations for narrative or dramatic effect – or, to quote the book, ‘expressive significance arises from their dialogue with the established norms’ (p. 234). The book's many insights make an eloquent case for the importance of large-scale form in rock music.
