Hi floyd,

I'm sorry that it's taken me so long to get back to this! I promised I'd return but I didn't anticipate it taking quite so long.

Wow this is good! Incredibly good. You've pulled out all the songwriting tools with this one and you've crafted an outstanding work. The lyric, the melody, the harmony, the production, every aspect of this song focuses and magnifies the emotional intensity of the situation the poor woman finds herself in.

The fact that you don't finish melodic sections on the tonic note leaves the music dangling unresolved, like it's ended but not ended. What perfect prosody for the lyric!

As I mentioned in my original post, the lilt of this music has a 6/8 feel rather than a waltz feel (to me, at least). I've puzzled over that a great deal. A number of mornings as I've driven to work, I've found myself wondering, "When does 3/4 sound more like 6/8?" I've even taken some Strauss waltzes along with me to help me answer the question.

If you have a listen to the "Danube Waltz" at the below link, it's so easy to hear 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3 where each beat "1" is a strong beat. (After the introduction, you'll hear what I mean at around 1:30.)



Now when I put your song on, I sometimes hear 1-2-3 1-2-3, just like a waltz, but mostly I hear 1-2-3-4-5-6. The difference between these two time signatures is that in 6/8, beat 1 is strong and beat 4 is less strong. The other beats are all weak. The net result is that this time signatures goes "STRONG weak weak MEDIUM weak weak" at slower tempos. This alternating between STRONG and MEDIUM with a pair of 'weak' beats between gives me a kind of to-and-fro feeling, like swinging. This is what I call the 6/8 lilt (my terminology).

If you have a listen to the following 6/8 song sung by Il Divo, I think you'll hear the slow 6/8 feel as I hear it.



At it's faster tempos, 6/8 has a kind of swinging march feel. Sousa often used this (like below).



As you can see, there's been a lot of action on my car stereo smile

At the end of the day, the reason that I hear your song as 6/8 is mostly to do with the lyrics, I think. I'm still pondering this but it seems to my ears that your lyrics tend to have a word that attracts stronger stress on the first beat 1 and a word that attracts lesser stress on the second beat 1. In other words (no pun intended), your lyrics are following the "STRONG weak weak MEDIUM weak weak" pattern. While the accompaniment kind of alternates between a "Strong Bar" and a "Less Strong Bar", your lyrics definitely capitalise on this. The net effect of these lyrical and musical interactions is that the song sounds more 6/8 to me than 3/4. It's a great feel.

Phew! I'll be able to go back to listening to other stuff now! My car stereo will be thankful.

I learn so very much from your songs because you force me to think outside the proverbial box and that is incredibly valuable for me. Thank you!

All the best,
Noel

MY SONGS...
Audiophile BIAB 2025