Song Character Analysis Worksheet - The University of North ...
Song Character Analysis Worksheet - The University of North ...
Song Character Analysis Worksheet - The University of North ...
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I 2-1/6 vi 7-6 bVI 7 V 7<br />
Figure 1. “Can’t Help Lovin’ ‘dat Man” title phrase. 54<br />
Kern used an ingenious v-shaped melodic line that descends with angular perfect inter-<br />
vals that ascends by an arpeggiated major triad to g-flat, before it resolves by step to the<br />
tonic e-flat. This melodic shape portrays an ambivalent quality to the text. <strong>The</strong> love is<br />
inevitable, but does it make her happy? <strong>The</strong> c-flat on “lovin’” is the “blue” note, as well<br />
as the lowest pitch <strong>of</strong> the melody, but it feels higher because <strong>of</strong> its intervallic relationship<br />
to the initial pitch as a major seventh. This placement (and the enharmonic spelling)<br />
presents a challenge for the singer to approach it vocally. <strong>The</strong> harmonic progression <strong>of</strong><br />
the phrase reinforces the quality <strong>of</strong> strangeness (perhaps Otherness?) with its delayed<br />
resolutions. I find it curious that Kern subverts the status quo <strong>of</strong> a standard cadential<br />
pattern by inserting a chromatic (yet distant) major triad on the text, “lovin’ ‘dat man.” It<br />
provides another ambiguous quality for subversive characterization from a gender<br />
context, yet the song as a whole perpetuates the hegemonic standard <strong>of</strong> woman’s role in<br />
relationship to “her man.”<br />
54 Jerome Kern, “Can’t Help Lovin’ ‘dat Man,” mm. 5-7, Show Boat Vocal/Piano score (Burbank:<br />
Polygram International Publishing, 1927; distr. Hal Leonard Corporation), 58.<br />
I<br />
105