A Rough Guide to Bright Was The Night

Rhythm

The metre is 4/4 but consideration of the other elements suggests that rhythm is not a strong feature. Indeed, given past performances, it would be a brave (or foolish) performer who would attempt to set it in strict tempo, especially the verse. It is easier to envisage the chorus a tempo because of the call and reponse nature of the lyric but, even so, rhythm cannot be considered a strong feature.

Melody

The melodies of the verse and chorus are quite different in character. The chorus is in an older idiom with short phrases and long held notes (c.f. "When you were sweet sixteen", "Sweet Adeline", "Bill Grogan's Goat!"). The verse has a more modern feel with phrases that fill the music. The melody in the verse naturally complements the lyric rising on "moonbeams" and falling on "deep within my soul" and "whispered low". The melody of the chorus is plainer but manages to rise and build to support the climax on "be my bride".

Lyric

The verse is well structured with a clever rhyming scheme. In the first phrase, there are internal rhymes on "there","hair" and "fair" with the phrase finishing on "around her". The second phrase has somewhat stretched internal rhymes on "hold", "soul" and "low" and finshes by rhyming "I found her" with the first phrase's "around her". The four bar insert that finishes the verse nicely introduces the rhyme in the chorus.

The chorus is not so clever! There are internal rhymes in the first phrase on "night" and "bright" and it finishes on "Sue". This would be fine except that "bright" is the word that starts off the chorus so using it at the end of the phrase as well is a bit clumsy. The second phrase has internal rhymes on "me" and "be" and finishes on "day" which doesn't rhyme with "Sue"!

The suggestion is that sometime (maybe yesterday or maybe 50 years ago) the singer met a girl for the first time and was stunned by this vision of loveliness against the backdrop of the evening sky with its full moon. He somehow managed to engage her in conversation which ended with her pledging eternal devotion (in the form of marriage). We have no idea what happened next!

The song, then, is not really a story, more of a photograph, a snapshot of a particular moment in time that the singer cannot get out of his head. The subtle implication is that the promise was never fulfilled - "there never was a night" and "she would be my bride some day" and the fact that the story doesn't go on as you might expect it to. There are wistful undertones here, not sad but a feeling of unrequited love rather than of lost love. However, it may be that this event only happened yesterday, in which case, the mood of the song is more about what will happen rather than what has already happened.

The lyric is, ovbviously, an important element of the song.

Harmony

The verse is much more harmonically interesting than the chorus. It starts in a minor key (Em) and rapidly modulates to G major through the first line. The full circle movement in line 2 (I - III7 - VIm - II7 - V7 - I) is echoed in line 3 and repeated in line 4. The descending melody on "deep within my soul" is is enhanced by the swipe to IVm6 on "soul" giving it a soulful feel. The last four bars of the verse set up and establish the key change into the chorus so that you hardly notice it.

The harmony in the chorus is much simpler being basically I, IV, V with a brief excursion to II7 on "sweetheart" and "bride".

The harmonic 'pyrotechnics' are reserved for the tag with the long swipe on "bride" being a particularly scenic route between II7 and the final, climactic V7. It is finished off with a delaying chord on "some day" and the strong resolution from bVI7 to the final chord. The high voicings of the final bars have a triumphal feel to them which is somewhat at odds with the lyric suggestion of wistfulness and may persuade you that this is a recent event and that the good stuff is yet to happen.

Structure and Form

The basic structure is verse - chorus - tag.

If we think of the verse as 4-bar phrases, there are five of them (unusual). The first 4 follow the slightly unusual form of ABCB and the fifth would be D. The chorus is the more common ABAC pattern.

The only unusual feature of the structure is the fifth phrase of the verse which is more like a connector between verse and chorus and may demand special treatment.

General Performance notes

Starting on a minor chord will give some performers problems and the danger that is that it won't be well tuned until the B7 on "there".

Bar 16 needs careful ennunciation otherwise it will sound as though someone made a mistake!

There are crucial Chinese 7ths on "right" at the end of the verse and at the end of the "bride" swipe in the tag.

Don't ignore the fact that the melody goes to the basses in bars 30 and 31.

The decision must be made about whether the song is a wistful reminiscence of a moment in time or a shout from the rooftops of your success in love (or something in between). This decision will guide the vocal quality and dynamic plan.

Directing skills

The primary theme of the performance is probably going to be lyric with a switch to harmony in the tag. This will demand good directing support of the phrasing, dynamics and support at the ends of phrases. Ability to combine this with, at least the hint of a pattern (especially in the chorus) will help maintain the sense of metre.

Postscript

At the College, Colin Touchin provided an alternative background story for the song which fits all the facts. He suggests that it is being sung by a grandfather to his grandchildren, relating the story of how he first met their grandmother.

Neil Watkins