Essay on Strange Fruit as Done by Cassandra Wilson

"She could only just recognise the tune for what it had once been. Not that coarse parody, stilted and mechanical, a tin brashness, a gaudiness of noise." Unpleasant and irritating sounds and noises suggest the lady's discomfort, as if the song was

Strange Fruit is extremely valuable today and especially in the 1930’s. The 1930’s was a rough time for society. No one should have to live through the deaths of innocent humans but unfortunately that happened in the past and still happens today in different forms. Strange Fruit was the first controversial song that ever spoke out about the cruelty of the lynching of African Americans. It gained attention throughout the years of Holiday performing it, which gives it tremendous value. The sadness and disturbing imagery portrayed in the song, gave it a positive effect considering it gained support towards the Civil Rights Movement. The song sends out a clear message in an unusual way. Painting a disturbing picture into the listener’s mind through words makes the person perceive the message to be to end lynching. “Strange fruit hanging from the poplar tree” (line 4). The strange fruit is a black person being hanged from the tree. That is a deep message that was made to get into everyone’s head to push for a change in the unfair society.

He is able to use these parts to manipulate the audience’s emotions. The music playing from the car is an on-screen sound. As the man gets attacked, the volume increases. The sound helps intensify the scene that has been created by the film’s visual elements. The audience then subconsciously forms ideas, opinions, and feelings about what they are seeing. The viewers develop scared feelings as the scene intensifies to the happy upbeat tune. The increasing volume of the cheery song reflects the violence and the sinisterness of the scene. The song stops with the slamming of the car’s driver-side door as the man is abducted. There is a moment of silence and then a new song abruptly entered the silent scene. The music is non-diegetic and is an offscreen sound. The song is screechy, high pitched, and jagged sounding at first, continuing the anxious and scared mood. The song shifts into a sort of soulful hymn. The tone shifts along with the song. The audience begins to feel relieved and relaxes to the peaceful song.

0:11- You begin to hear Amy Lee’s voice at this point of the song. The addition of her voice magnifies the sadness the person is feeling and adds to the suspension of the song. Her voice is consistent and draws out certain lyrics like see and doors. This is important because it’s the beginning of the emotional journey of the person being woken up from their depression. Her voice harmonizes with the melody in the background.

Musically a return to verse one but Anita's snaky, swinging triplets in the vocal part make more of her suggestive nature (rather than the rather direct and unsubtle quavers of Riff and Bernardo)

The song incorporates a slow-mid tempo, complex harmonies, appropriate use of legato and staccato, slightly swinging rhythm, warm and thin timbre, minimal vibrato, smooth melody, and a calm dynamic performance. The instrumentation of this song is composed of mainly R&B instruments such as: electric guitars, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, organ, electric pad, keyboard, strings, and a drum set with auxiliary percussion. The song is comprised of mostly minor notes and high pitches, making the vocals vary in range. The use of these musical elements makes the song delightful to listen.

Darl realizes that the burial of their mother isn’t worth their losses. Consequently, he sets out to incinerate her coffin by setting fire to the barn she was located in. Although Darl and Jewel have had minor conflicts in the past, the incineration of the barn was the turning point for Jewel and Darl’s relationship in the book, and the basis in which Jewel threatened to send Darl to an insane asylum. The song I composed is centralized around the conflict of these two characters. At the beginning of the song I used a pattern of octaves in the bass clef to reflect the hostility in the situation. The depth of the octaves contrast with the slightly quicker melody in the right hand to give the song a worried, detached feeling. I also integrated accidentals such as “F” sharps and ‘B” flats into the song to further a “darker” feeling. The song then changes into a waltz, where I hoped to imitate a quirky, almost insane sounding melody. The change from the darker theme and the quirkiness of the waltz was to incorporate the same change that’s seen in the

The suspense and creepy mood only continues to grow as it describes “the rustling sounds of the purple curtain” getting closer, and closer listening to the sounds it describes the speaker freaking out

The instrumental of the song starts off very slow at the beginning we can hear a piano in the background that slowly begins to play. Over this soft piano sound we hear Nina Simone break through. She sets us up with an interesting imagery of strange fruit hanging. But she doesn’t get to the part that they are bodies just yet. The listener is confused by exactly what she means by the meaning of “strange fruit” since there is no context of what she is referencing inside of the song. Almost

As I was analyzing the song, I was listening for specific sounds and noises that would

The performance would have one or two electric guitar, a bass guitar, drums, and keyboard. The stage would have dim light, but just enough to see the band and the sings but will have several mini stoplights that travel around the stage and audience during the performance, and a fog on the stage just above the performers’ feet. The song tempo will start out slow with the keyboard and the bass guitar playing as main instruments with electric guitar and drums only lightly as backup and the singer singing in monotone, but after the first verse the song grows more intensely as the electric guitar and drums start playing as the main instruments and the singer singing more dramatic, more demanding, almost angrily as the song progress until the fifth verse where the topo briefly goes back to topo of the first verse, but by the third line of the fifth verse the topo will start to regain the intensity and the singer holds the note at end of the fifth verse, while the electric guitar begins playing a solo to regain the remaining intensity topo, in a similar why to the guitar solo in Egypt Central’s “15 minutes”, before the singer sings the final

On the 23rd of September 2015 Disclosure released their second studio album titled Caracal which displays the English born brothers signature electronic style. Among Disclosure’s many works on this album is a collaboration with New Zealand born singer Lorde, Magnets. The song begins with a soft hiss and a chord progression begins to rhythmically fade in and out while a syncopated drum groove is laid down. While the introduction proceeds, a bass drum line begins with a four on the floor pattern and klave can heard on beats two and four moments before the songs vocalist, Lorde, begins. This introduction has a relaxed, laid back, eerie vibe but still feels vibrant by its switching from a minor tonality

The melody in When You Sleep by My Bloody Valentine is one of my favorite melodies. For the longest time I couldn’t figure out what instrument was playing the melody, but after seeing them perform live I realized that it was a keyboard. The melody can be described as cute and ‘tingly’. Surrounded by heavily distorted guitars and a wall of noise, the melody falls back in the mix, but is still audible and clearly distinct.

The third stanza is when the narrator has something physical. He mentions how he has an apple and his enemy knew that the apple was his. The

Lines 17 and 18 are interesting because the alliteration crosses over from the th sound of thoughts and