jambalaya (1952)
Hank Williams Sr. country/cajun, Alabama USA
key: C major
mode: C D E F G A B C
melody: d r m f s l t d' r' m'
form: verse-chorus
meter: duple
English function names: tonic dominant
Tagg (modified): home counterpoise (away)
Riemann: T D7
Scale degrees: I V7
Chords: C G7 C G C
|:////|////|////|////:|Here it is, the textbook example of the counterpoise sandwich: a filling of counterpoise (in this case the dominant) between two slices of tonic. Yet, because this four-measure phrase repeats for the entire song, it is also a loop. Here, the V chord is both the outgoing chord (the chord leaving home, the tonic) and the incoming chord (the chord leading back to home, the tonic). The classical part of me has wondered why we need to introduce new terms, when we clearly have a “normal,” in the European Classical Music sense, tonic-dominant relationship with a Perfect Authentic Cadence. But I do also have a (increasingly larger) part of me that agrees with Tagg: Classical music of the Common Practice Period rarely uses merely two chords, and certainly not for an entire song or piece. Loops in classical music tend to be long, like a chaconne or passacaglia (or other versions of ground bass) and still feel much more like a long line than a loop. The way the chord progression works in a song like this is markedly different and deserves a different way of looking at it and talking about it.1
Now, if I’m working with kids, they do not necessarily have all this background in listening to classical music like I do — and let’s face it, your average adult doesn’t either. But the issue is partly that much of the theory and terminology is coming out of the Euroclassical tradition and often the terminology is confusing when applied to folk, rock, pop, and other “vernacular” styles, that have much in common with Euroclassical (which, of course, comes out of and develops alongside European Folk musics and subsequently American Folk musics) but are not the same. I am not suggesting throwing out the Euroclassical terminology, but extending it and adapting it where necessary.
As I am always wont to do, I worry about lyrical content. Just who is this Yvonne, anyway? Something makes me think she is not a girlfriend. I have come to suspect she is a whore, a sex worker, a lady of the night, me-oh-my-oh. I have also decided that no parent or administrator is going to come after me about the lyrics to this song, certainly not in Prague. The students I teach are definitely not thinking that hard about it.
other recordings:
Professor Longhair, Rum and Coke, The Tomato Musicworks Limited. C major.
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, All the Good Times, Capitol Nashville. D major.
John Fogerty, The Blue Ridge Rangers, BMG. G major.
Sergio Mendivil y sus Huellas, Sergio Mendivil y sus Huellas, Musart-Balboa. G major. (in Spanish!)
Emmylou Harris, Elite Hotel, Rhino Records. A major.
Brenda Lee, Brenda Lee, MCA Nashville. Bb major
I am also finding that even in classical music, at the phrase level using the Tagg terminology makes sense. A dominant chord, depending on its temporal place in the phrase can serve different functions, as it does here. We can start to really understand the construction of a phrase by combining the ideas of harmonic function with temporal function.