Byrds harmonies

Subject: Byrds harmonies
From: GUEST,john
Date: 27 Dec 19 - 10:21 PM

I am trying to nut out the harmonies to the Byrds arrangement of Chimes of Freedom. Does anyone know the voicings or can send a link explaining them? Also, what is the secret to their unique sound. It was more than just 3rds and 5ths. I have heard somewhere that ALL their harmonies were above the melody?

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: Helen
Date: 30 Dec 19 - 03:56 PM

Hi john,

I don't know the answer to your question but someone here will know. I'm bringing this back to the top to see if anyone more knowledgeable than me about harmonies can tell you.

My only thought is that the high harmony is maybe a third or a fifth above the melody.

The Chimes of Freedom, The Byrds

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: gillymor
Date: 30 Dec 19 - 04:02 PM

I remember reading an interview with McGuinn where he said that in the original line up he and Gene Clark generally sang the melodies together and Crosby sang the harmony parts, changing intervals and going lower and higher all in the same song.

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: Stanron
Date: 30 Dec 19 - 06:39 PM

The Everly Brothers used that third above style of harmony, modified if the current chord required it of course, and this does sound different. There is a lot of single note harmony above the melody, that single note following the current chord but then again the melody has a lot of single note parts as well. Do you read notation? If you do I might be able to transcribe the harmonies in the chorus for you over the next few days.

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: Helen
Date: 30 Dec 19 - 06:42 PM

Mr g, do you think the higher harmonies are a third up, or a fifth, or something else? Any ideas? When I mentally take the melody up a third it seems to fit, but not being a singer and also being unable to play things by ear makes it difficult to figure out the melodies and their associated harmonies.

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: Helen
Date: 30 Dec 19 - 08:15 PM

We'll have to wait and see if Guest, john checks back in. He posted the question three days ago so he might think we aren't going to answer his question.

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: gillymor
Date: 31 Dec 19 - 06:37 AM

Ms. H, Here are a couple of excerpts from a Slate article that might shed some light on the subject (although McGuinn's second sentence in the quote below doesn't make much sense to me, maybe the word "but" was omitted). I can't get the link to work but you might be able to find it here-

https://slate.com/culture/2015/06/the-byrds-isolated-vocals-mr-tambourine-man-and-turn-turn-turn-are-stripped-down-to-their-vocals-video.html

and perhaps Stanron will chime in again:


“We sang together well…I give the credit to Crosby. He was brilliant at devising these harmony parts that were not strict third, fourth, or fifth improvisational combinations of the three. That’s what makes the Byrds’ harmonies. Most people think it’s a three-part harmony, and it’s a two-part harmony. Very seldom was there a third part on our harmonies.”[McGuinn]

This two-part style distinguished the Byrds’ music from that of the Beatles, who favored three-part harmonies, and the Beach Boys, who used all five band members to animate Brian Wilson’s complex arrangements. Acts like the Everly Brothers also used dual harmonies, but, as Peter Lavezzoli notes in Dawn of Indian Music in the West, “Crosby took the two-part approach a step further,” using his knowledge of jazz modes to “move freely between a perfect fifth, flatted fifth, third, or seventh” as McGuinn and Clark sang in tandem. The result is a sound that can flit between angelic and eerie in an instant. (end of text)

Happy New Year, Byrdmaniacs

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 31 Dec 19 - 12:17 PM

Can't add to the info re harmonies, but I thank you for mentioning this song. (Though to my untutored ear, I still hear the foundation of Everly Brothers in there)

Went to Youtube to listen to Chimes - a great one, and the lyrics and outlook just as just as urgent today as then ( that Dylan guy sure knew how to write a song- and he still does imho )

Happy New Year to everyone, &   especially to all those underdogs ;)

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: Helen
Date: 31 Dec 19 - 01:49 PM

Yep, that seems to explain it a bit better, gillymor, but I guess it also makes the process a bit harder for someone trying to work out the harmony lines unless they know enough about jazz modes.

I did a Google image search on the sheet music but the images I looked at didn't have high harmonies written in, although some of the pages had lower harmonies. The trick is to search on song title and maybe artist and "sheet music" and then click Search and then click the Images tab.

"Chimes of Freedom Byrds sheet music"

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: Stanron
Date: 31 Dec 19 - 05:19 PM

OK. If anyone is interested I've notated the first chorus. It's done on Musescore. If anyone wants a copy of the file PM me with an email address and I send it. I might ghet round to doing an abc file tomorrow.

Best wishes

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: Helen
Date: 31 Dec 19 - 05:27 PM

Thanks Stanron. We'll have to wait and see if the original poster comes back.

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: Joe_F
Date: 31 Dec 19 - 06:30 PM

Glad to see someone has rewritten that embarrassing line "Trapped by no track of hours they hanged suspended".

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: keberoxu
Date: 31 Dec 19 - 06:33 PM

Yes, I remember those Byrds singles from the radio
during my childhood.

The two distinctive things about Byrds singles were
the harmonies -- McGuinn is right about Crosby,
and Crosby kept playing around with this even in the
three-part harmonies of Crosby, Stills and Nash --

and, secondly,
those jangly chime-like guitars.

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: Stanron
Date: 01 Jan 20 - 02:40 PM

Here's the abc file;

X:1
T:Chimes Of Freedom
T:Byrds First Chorus
C:Bob Dylan
K:G
M:4/4
L:1/8
V:1 name="Harmony " clef =treble middle=B
V:2 name="Melody" clef =treble middle=B
[V:1]"D7" dd3d2d2 | ddd4d2 |"G" g2g2g2g2 | g8 |
w:flash-ing for the war-i-or who's strength is not to fight
[V:2] AA3A2B2 | ccc4c2| B2B2B2c2 | d8 |
%
[V:1]"C" g2g2g2g2 | "G"gg3g2eg | "Am"e2d2d2 B2 | "D7"d6gg|
w:flash-ing for the ref-u-gees on the un-armed road of flight and for
[V:2] e2e2e2e2 | ed3d2BB | B2A2A2B2 | A6dd|
%
[V:1] "G"g2g2g2g2 | "C"gg3g4 | "G"g2g2g2e2 |"C" e6dd |
w:each and ev-ry un-der dog sol-dier in the night and we
[V:2] d2d2d2d2 | dd3d4 |d2d2d2B2 | c6BB |
%
[V:1]"G"d2d2d2d2 |"C" g2e2"D7"c2c2 |"G" cB3-B4 |z8 |]
w:gazed up-on the chimes of free-dom flash-ing.
[V:2]B2B2B2G2 | c2B2A2A2 | AG3-G4 |z8 |]

If anyone wants it I also have it as a musescore file, .mscz, and as a .pdf file as well. I could do it as a Lillypond file but it would probably take some time to remember how to do that.

This displays OK at

http://www.mandolintab.net/abcconverter.php

copy and paste into the window and press 'submit'.

So what is happening in these harmonies?

The first two bars are on the chord D7. The melody starts on A, passes through B to C, which is the note that makes a D chord into D7.For the whole of these two bars the harmony is on the D above the melody. The interval between A and the higher D is a 4th. Between the B and the higher D the interval is a third but this is just a single passing note. The second bar is melody of C with the harmony D above it. This interval is a second, normally found to be dissonant, in the D7 context it works.

In bars three and four the chord becomes G, the key or root chord. The melody goes from three Bs through a C to a sustained D. The harmony goes right up to the high G and stays there. The interval between B and the higher G is a 6th. The interval between the C passing note and the higher G is a fourth but it is for one note only and then there is a 4th interval again between the melody D and the harmony high G.

That change between D7, the subdominant or chord five of the key of G, and the chord G itself, the tonic or chord one, is called the 'perfect cadence'. It sound like coming home. When he hits that high G he really nails that home feeling and also that's a note that is higher than the average untrained male voice can reach. Why would you not sing that if you could?

Although this may seem simpler than parallel 3rd harmonies in my opinion it is more sophisticated. It follows the chord structure rather than the melody, except it aligns with the melody in it's rhythm.

The rest of the chorus follows pretty much the same pattern with a resolved sus 4 at the end.

Happy new year.

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: Stanron
Date: 01 Jan 20 - 04:59 PM

I found a couple of typos in the above. It should read

In bars three and four the chord becomes G, the key or root chord. The melody goes from three Bs through a C to a sustained D. The harmony goes right up to the high G and stays there. The interval between B and the higher G is a 6th. The interval between the C passing note and the higher G is a 5th but it is for one note only and then there is a 4th interval again between the melody D and the harmony high G.

That change between D7, the subdominant or chord five of the key of G, and the chord G itself, the tonic or chord one, is called the 'perfect cadence'. It sounds like coming home. When he hits that high G he really nails that home feeling and also that's a note that is higher than the average untrained male voice can reach. Why would you not sing that if you could?

Cheers

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: gillymor
Date: 02 Jan 20 - 07:23 AM

Very cool, thanks.

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: GUEST,John
Date: 03 Jan 20 - 01:10 AM

Thanks everyone. You've all given me a lot to work on. Most appreciated. I reckon I'll nail it now from the info supplied. Thanks again...and HNY

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: Helen
Date: 03 Jan 20 - 01:39 AM

Thanks especially to Stanron for all that work on the problem.

Subject: RE: Byrds harmonies
From: GUEST,DrWord
Date: 03 Jan 20 - 07:59 PM

Where but Mudcat would threads like this happen? I’ll second Helen’s nod to Stanron~cheers! Very much appreciated. The octave G on the 12string helped make the chimes too.
keep on pickin’
dennis