Grace General Points

- Composed by Jeff Buckley.
- Released in 1994.
- Grace is a Rock Ballad.
- Buckley only completed 1 album 'Grace' before dying at age 31 in 1997.

Instrumentation And Texture

- Buckley is a vocalist who is accompanied by guitars, bass guitars, synthesizer strings and a drum kit.
- The guitar is in Drop D tuning.
- Synthesizer strings drop in and out to add effect and vary texture.
- The texture thickens throughout the piece, especially in the coda.

Use Of Technology

- The use of modulation on the synthesizer at the start of the song.
- The use of distortion and flanging on the guitar.
- The use of EQ in the final verse.

Structure

1) Intro - Verse 1 - Pre chorus - Chorus
2) Link - Verse 2 - Pre Chorus - Chorus
3) Middle 8
4) Link - Verse 3 - Outro

Tonality And Harmony

- The song is written in E Minor although it's often ambiguous.
- The intro focuses on the chord of D and the key only becomes clear halfway through the first verse.
- Chromatic chords that move in a parallel motion.
- The use of dissonant harmonies.

Melody And Word Setting

- The vocal part ranges over 2 octaves and sometimes sound is improvised.
- Falling vocal phrases reflect the sadness of the song.
- Most of the word setting is syllabic although there is use of mellisma on certain words.
- In the bridge there is vocalization or wordless singing during which Buckley uses falsetto.

Rhythm, Metre And Tempo

- Time signature of 12/8.
- Lots of syncopation in vocal melody and bassline.
- Vocal melody is very rhythmically free.
- Use of cross-rhythms.

Comments

Philip Schlemenson on June 06, 2017:

Inspirational, enjoying blog a lot, thanks

Dulan Abeysundara on April 15, 2017:

Er... it's flanger, not flanging and I don't think you can call a part of this song the CODA because its not classical music?

sam on January 29, 2017:

keep up thew good work its really helping me to progress in music gcse

Adam on June 22, 2016:

This has really helped however I wouldn't mind a section on dynamics

Raph on April 17, 2016:

Maybe u could add what two main styles of music are combined to create grace? But the rest is brilliant, thanks it helped a lot

ice on May 31, 2014:

thanks so much for this :)

Carter Drakes on April 27, 2014:

Thanks, this helped a lot

poop on February 10, 2014:

cemcgee

Joe Salmon from Newport, Isle of Wight on May 23, 2013:

I love Jeff, this is brilliant!

jeff davis on May 23, 2013:

help me