Rhapsody in the Key of G

Somebody to Love Queen. Its quite long about 12 pages but Did you find this review helpful? LOG IN to comment on this review. Love this song, and I think it will be a lot of fun to learn how to play it - will probably take a good while! I found a few differences in some notes so had to change a few but isnt too bad, as long as you know the song. Musicnotes Pro Send a Gift Card. Save on Every Order! Become a Member Today! Add to wish list. C Major Product Type: The Arrangement Details Tab gives you detailed information about this particular arrangement of Bohemian Rhapsody - not necessarily the song.

Not the arrangement you were looking for? The last measure continues the chromatic descent of the third one i. F - D , resting for a moment on Db, then reaching A through a dramatic triplet on the downbeat of the next measure that already belongs to the Opera section. The harmony of the last measure is predominantly chromatic-driven, not functional.

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The closing A-chord is the new tonic of A-major, a key very distant from Eb-major, as you can sense. The solo itself takes over the leading role from the vocal at its climax. Its tune climbs higher and higher with momentary step-backs while the rhythm guitars play downward figures. Note the short motif appearing in both half of the solo. The solo reaches the peak in the 18th measure, and then descends as the step-backs are longer than the ascending gestures. Octave-long ascending Mixolydian scales here: Bb to Bb' in the key of Eb are also featured in Bicycle Race.

Some Italian words and names let the listener associate with the world of Italian opera of the 19th century. The multitrack choir parts sometimes are backed with piano, bass, and drums, the latter two applied during the fortissimo parts only. There the choirs are mixed more stereo as well.

This section starts with a double-time feel: Walktrough subsection by subsection: The first two measures present a mini-intro exposing the home-key and the doubled tempo. The abrupt simplification of the arrangement is remeniscent of the intro of Death On Two Legs and the middle break of The Millionaire Waltz, also the intro of The Miracle. The second phrase features the variant of the third phrase of the Intro. Harmonized vocals enter on the 4th beat of measure 4. Note the lack of syncopation. The harmony of the last phrase has some built-in chromatic cross-relations.

Note the lack of minor chords, and the soprano voice added in the last measure. The strong beats also get some emphasis "Gali-LE-o" , by a melodic spike. Arguably we could use different division to measures, but I'm afraid, the disorienting flavor of this phrase cannot be eliminated. They go into harmony in the third measure, very unusual parallel twelves.

There's no chord support; the piano only doubles the open fifths. Note that before this sub-section we were in A-major and soon we find ourselves back in Bb-major. In pop-music the normal way for such a modulation is to simply shift the key.

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Freddie provides something more adventurous this time. The minor flavor is stronger especially when compared to the "mamma mia" phrase yet to come. So the first step was a "weak" modulation to the parallel minor key granted we can't speak about proper modulation in a scalar enviroment like this and its relative major.

And here we are again in the key of Bb-major: The lead vocal in the first phrase speaks in first person, and the choir, like it does in ancient Greek tragedies, comments in the third person see also Somebody To Love. In the first four 2x2 measures we can hear the two already familiar variants of the third phrase of the Intro next to each other. The first two measures repeat the melody of this third phrase, while the first measure takes the lyrics from the second phrase of the Intro. This time the lead vocal is not harmonized, but the piano plays the same chromatic chord progression; the tempo is doubled.

The recitative fixed note on bottom Bb is doubled on the top of the harmony. One of the the inner voices is also octave-harmonized, and each part is sung by more voices or doubletracked? Read Philipp's article for details! Note the "vivace" vibrato applied in the voices " The next subsection is preceded by the same one-measure piano figure in double time that we heard at the end of the first Verse.

Words and Music by Freddie Mercury

The following choir part is completly different, though. The rhythm is disorienting to an extent where we can't speak about syncopations at all. Before speaking about measures and phrases, let's look at the beat map first from "BISmillah": The first "no" marks the first more or less clear downbeat. Until this point the downbeats cannot really be located, although retrospectively we can find them: The vocal harmonies of the first measures are built upon simple I and V chords ie.

The harmonies are four- or five-parted, each double-tracked probably. The Bismillah's are unisono. The chord build-up uses the same syncopated rhythm as the first Magnifico-o, but the chord is different: The "no-no" harmonies are among the craziest that Freddie ever arranged: Just play each of these parts separately on an instrument! It's incredible how these three insane tunes go into one nice polished harmony.

Also surprising is that each chord of the harmony is in root position. The bottom part is doubled by the bass and oscillates. Note that the middle and the top parts cross at the 5th beat. This harmony is non-functional, but it's not driven by a straight chromatic line, either, like we saw in the "thunderbolt" harmony. On the other hand, the middle part is dominated by successive whole steps playing major role in the unusual feel.

Indeed the Eb chord turns out to be the new tonic. The three-eight upbeat is very disorienting, but the melodic peak mammaMIa marks the downbeats, like we saw with the Galileos. The "let me go" part is harmonized. One of the parts goes againts the descent, and the following "Beelzebub" phrase also has some walking tones among the six parts twelve voices, as Roger mentioned in an interview.

The dramatic climax is articulated by the ascending-desending lead part, and the rhythm guitars fading in. The sustained dominant seventh chord and the crescendo drum figure raise the tension that explodes on the downbeat of the next coming "Rock" section. Again, simple but most effective.

Note Roger hits the high Bb note, in close contest it is the highest sung note in the Queen-catalog. Double-tracked guitars and bass play the tune and somewhere in the background piano provides backing chords. The rhythm of the riff features triplets more accurately: The fourth measure is the shifted version of the second measure. The closing V-of-V chord and the much air-time given to the Bb chord create a feel of modulating to the key of Bb-major for the next phrases, but note the b7th appoggiatura in the lead vocal with a modal flavor in context of Bb-major key.

The "body" of the section with lead vocal is The guitars play mostly power chords i. The last measure of the first phrase is a mini-break with syncopated rhythm and a chord borrowed from the parallel key. This dilated resolution is reminiscent of this section's introduction - with a sustained dominant chord although that was more effective.

The figures of the lead vocal converge to F, then finally resolve to Eb. The section closes similarly to how it started. This riff expands into a connector filled with scale-wise ascending figures, in the triplet-driven rhythm. The first measure of this expansion m.

The tonality of the connector part is ambiguous throughout. Measure 6 is backed with B5 powerchord and the pitch set of B-Mixolydian Measure 7 is backed with Ab5 powerchord and the pitch set of Ab-Mixolydian Measure 8 is backed with Bb5 powerchord and the pitch set of Bb-Mixolydian or Eb-major. The missing thirds can be found in the lead-part. Note the unusual chain of major chords: The chord progression of the fifth measure is not "functional"; it seems to shift along the ascent of the guitar figure.

The chords in the second phrase support the step-wise moving lead guitar figures using the Mixolydian scale upon the root of the actual chord see "Bicycle Race" for the same gambit.

Still, the second phrase seems to have a functional chord progression, and the closing Bb-Mixolydian scale can be interpreted as a regular Eb-major scale. For the last two measures the piano takes over the lead with parallel-octaves foreshadowed by the parallel octaves guitar harmony in measure 8 and slows down to the beat of the Verses half-time feel , creating a high-level ABA tempo-structure.

Outro The first measures reprise the harmony of the second half of the Verse, but it changes very soon. The quick harmonic rhythm does not reinforce the half-time feel I talked about, but toward the end of the section it settles down. The first phrase is just instrumental:. The fanfare-like ascending guitar fills go into a two-part harmony in the second measure third beat for the first time in the song.

The last beat of the third measure adds three-part guitar harmonies in the treble range featuring bent notes and vibrato. The fine parts are picked with finger as Brian often does when he wants to aviod the noise of the sixpence used as plectrum attacking the strings. The arrangement features piano, drums the pattern is reminiscent of the Verse , bass note the downward run in measure 3 , "ooh" vocals, and guitar harmonies. The "ooh" vocals omitting some octaves go in parallel third with the descent of the bass in measures 1 and 2.