Daft Punk – Pentatonix · 2016. 9. 14. · Daft Punk is also a key element which ties this song within an EDM style. Fig. 8: Section B’’, Bars 103-109 This sound, often created

CAMS 231 Major Essay Elysse Turner – 4503235

Daft Punk – Pentatonix

Elysse Turner CAMS231 4503235

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Pentatonix, a five piece a cappella band, have been tearing up the charts

recently, redefining a genre, which is often overlooked in the music industry.

They have faced hurdles because of their genre throughout their career, but

their goal remains consistent: "to break through the a cappella connotation

that people have of it. We want to make it a mainstream thing." (Hoying in

Parker 2015) And through their adaptions on the genre as well as shows like

NBC's The Sing Off (2009), Fox's Glee (2009), and movies such as Pitch

Perfect (2012), it is clear a cappella is making a breakthrough to the masses.

This essay will look at the unique sound of Pentatonix, through the analysis

of their Medley Daft Punk (2013), focusing on the techniques they use to

incorporate the musical styles of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) into their a

cappella sounds.

A Cappella has its roots in the church, "it is Italian for 'in the style of the

church', and that refers to music for unaccompanied voices" (Harding and

Sloan 2015). Stemming back to the middle ages with gregorian chants,

where the musical styles usually consisted of unaccompanied, modal,

monophonic singing. This style was then developed into organum, which

consisted of polyphonic melodies, often moving in parallel, a perfect 4th or

5th apart, or later on in the period, moving in contrary motion. However,

the golden age of a cappella was not in the middle ages, but in the

renaissance era, as music moved away from being used as just a form of

religious worship, and started to become more of an art form. As a result of

this shift in audience, madrigals were developed - secular vocal music, which

was often sung a cappella, or without instruments, by a small group of

singers. Harmony was also developed, favouring 3rds and 6ths, moving

away from the 5ths previously used, yet it still sought to allow equal

attention to each part. Though the baroque period is not known for a

cappella, it did bring about a change in structure for choral pieces. Instead

of giving equal attention to each part, it instead allowed the highest and

lowest registers to become more prominent and stand out, reflecting our

modern structures for pop songs, where the lead singer is often the highest

voice. (Narushima 2014).

A Cappella music experienced a resurgence in the 20th century through

barbershop quartets. These groups typically had 4 people of the same

gender with 3 of the voices harmonising to the fourth voice, which carried

the melody. These groups worked with close harmonies and utilised tempo

variation, dynamics, diction, colour and phrasing to create interest within

their performances. (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2015) This style was often


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very improvised, however there were a few key elements which set

barbershop apart from other a cappella waves. It generally followed a

homophonic pattern, with groups singing the same words at the same time

in harmony, while the melody was in the second highest voice, sung by the

lead. The vocal parts, from highest to lowest were tenor, lead, baritone, and

then bass. Barbershop also has a unique tuning which creates a sharper

sound, this is because the "the goal in barbershop is to create what are

called overtones, which are when you lock into a chord, […] to create a high

pitched ring, and that is seen as the goal of barbershop, to create as many

of those overtones as possible" (Roose in Harding and Sloan 2015). These

overtones, sometimes referred to as 'the angels notes' create the illusion of

a 5th singer in the group as it produces the sound of an extra note. (Harding

and Sloan 2015)

A Cappella Music in the 21st century is experiencing another rise in

popularity, featuring in Hollywood, prime time television, the Grammys and

within colleges. Internet culture, surrounding YouTube in particular has

helped create this new interest in a cappella, with a large range of covers

being uploaded in this style. The benefit of this platform allows users to

become an a cappella group with no other people. The style of a cappella

has also progressed since the barbershop wave, introducing more complex

harmonies, polyphonic melodies, and beatboxing. Furthermore, a cappella

music today attempts to emulate instrumental sounds, to create interest

within the style. This new approach to a cappella music is creating a whole

new market for the music industry. It is moving away from a college-based

hobby, towards a professionalised industry. "A Cappella has really come full

circle, it was the most popular music half a millennia ago with gregorian

chant, and then the composers became more ambitious and started putting

in instrumentation, and now we're back to where we came from." (Harding

and Sloan 2015)

Pentatonix or PTX as fans call them, is a modern day a cappella quintet who

have risen to success since winning NBC's 3rd season of The Sing Off in 2011.

Through YouTube, they were able to maintain their rise to fame by posting

covers to popular songs and originals, gathering a worldwide audience for

their artistic style. Their channel PTXofficial is currently ranked at #42 for

subscribers with over eight million, and has amassed over 944 million views

across all their videos (SocialBlade 2015). Since 2011, they have released

three mainstream albums and two Christmas albums, as well as making a

cameo appearance in Pitch Perfect 2 (2015). They have toured the United


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States, Canada, Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia and South East Asia,

and have been nominated for a variety of music awards — the Grammys,

Billboard Music Awards, YouTube Music Awards, Shorty Awards, and

Streamy Awards — as well as presenting at the American Music Awards. The

group consists of Scott Hoying, Baritone; Mitch Grassi, Tenor/Counter

Tenor/Alto; Kirstin Malando, Alto/Mezzo Soprano; Avi Kaplin, Baritone/Bass;

and Kevin Olusola, Beatboxer/High Tenor.

The song I am analysing simply titled Daft Punk (2013) is their highest

achieving arrangement, with over 135 million views on YouTube and winning

a Grammy for 'Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella' in 2015. The

piece is a medley of 8 different songs from the band Daft Punk including

Around the World (1997), Television Rules the Nation (2000), One More Time

(2000), Harder Better Faster Stronger (2001) Digital Love (2001),

Technologic (2005), and Get Lucky (2013).

When composing this piece, the group first established the songs they

wished to include by choosing from their own favourites and narrowing it

down by looking at the most recognisable pieces from Daft Punk. From

there they created a structure, which would allow the songs to flow from

one to another easily. After the order had been established, keys were

chosen to suit the lead carrying the melody for each section, and transitions

were incorporated to make these changes seamless. From here, the process

included filling up the sound with techniques to make it sound larger than

just five vocalists and tweaking areas to make them more complex, for a

true reflection of dance music. (Grassi 2015)

SECTION TIME BAR SONG EXCERPT A (Intro) 0.00 1 Technologic B 0.28 17 One More Time C 0.40 25 Get Lucky D 1.32 52 Digital Love B' 2.07 72 One More Time E 2.22 80 Harder Better Faster Stronger F 2.51 96 Television Rules the Nation B'' 3.06 104 One More Time C' 3.33 120 Get Lucky G (Coda) 3.49 128 Get Lucky, Around the World, One

More Time, Harder Better Faster Stronger


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The song starts off with a 4/4 rhythm and in the key of D major, however

this changes twice - to A major in bar 24, and back to D major again in bar

52. Mitch begins the song, creating a monophonic texture, until Scott joins

him 4 seconds in, creating a homophonic texture which lasts until the end of

section A.

Fig. 1: Section A, Bars 1-3

Sections B, B', B'', F, and G introduce a Polyphonic texture into the mix, while

sections C, D, E, C' returns to the homophonic texture.

Fig. 2: Section F, Bars 99-102


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Fig. 3: Section C, Bars 50-51

Section E, utilises a monophonic texture through stagger entry from each

vocalist, resulting in one voice at a time up until bar 88 where it breaks up

into a polyphonic sound.

Fig. 4: Section E, Bars 81-83

The dynamics for the piece remain fairly constant, with the most significant

volume changes occurring either on singular notes to emphasise the sound

or in the vocal percussion line. Since the melody line of the piece is split

across 4 different vocalists with different natural ranges, the melodic range


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covered in the piece is quite wide, from the lowest note being B1 to the

highest note of A5.

Fig. 5: Daft Punk Melodic Range

Pentatonix is able to incorporate EDM like sounds into their piece by

emulating the styles of that particular genre. Their voices in a sense

become synthesisers for the stylistic attributes, which identify EDM and pop,

using this to create the illusion sounds, which appear to be manufactured or

edited. Avi believed that this was one of the most difficult songs because of

this, "having to sound all like all those different [elements] and just with our

voices." (Kaplan in Yogaku Express 2015) There are a number of ways,

which they do this, but their primary techniques are through the tight

harmonies, rhythm, and the use of tone colour for their voices which

changes throughout. Mitch credits the digital sound of the group to the

"polyphonic and very quick moving [parts]" (Grassi in Yogaku Express 2015).

Section A draws upon emphasis of annunciation and the monotonous almost

drone like effect of sticking to the same note for a period of time to create a

very electronic sound. For the first 8 bars, each two quaver note phrase is

also emphasised through the use of tenutos on each beat.

Fig. 6: Section A, Bars 4-6

Section B creates a staggered sound that almost appears to be similar to a

CD that is having technical difficulties, by having each note last for 1 and a

half beats, and the voices dipping on the notes.


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Fig. 7: Section B, Bars 16-19

Syncopation between the harmonies/bass/vocal percussion create the

illusion of a more instruments/singers, helping to emulate the busyness of

EDM music, and this is something which Avi and Kevin work on often, with

one emphasising the front side of the beat while the other emphasises the

back side. This allows for tighter and more specific beats and sometimes

even counter rhythms to occur. The sweeping whoosh which, sung in a

tumbling contour shape, before a continuous descending, is used often in

Daft Punk is also a key element which ties this song within an EDM style.

Fig. 8: Section B’’, Bars 103-109

This sound, often created by Kevin, but sometimes also doubled up on by Avi

to create a layered effect results in a sound that seems otherworldly and

synthesised. Offset rhythms, which can be heard most notably in section F,

are also utilised in the piece, which is the most difficult part for Kevin in the

piece, particularly in live performances. "It just gets faster and faster, but

making sure that I'm continuously in time the whole time." (Olusa in Yogaku

Express 2015)


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Fig. 9: Section F, Bars 95-98

For section E, the electronic sound is achieved through crisp, disjunct

melody lines. This is achieved by having each vocalist sing within a

particular range while the others pick up another range. Scott commented

with "That part is the hardest just because you have to stay focused for

when your moment comes. You have one second to sing it, [before you wait

another five seconds to sing again]" (Hoying in Yogaku Express 2015)

Kirstin however wasn't able to sit in a smaller range as comfortably as the

other vocalists, and so she comments that this was the hardest part for her

as it "goes back and for the between the lowest and highest parts of [her]

range" (Malando in Yogaku Express 2015). This dramatic shift in range

allows for an instantly memorable section, as most pop songs tend to stay

within a one octave range (Continuum Encyclopaedia 2003)


"We've found that tight three-part harmonies make the track seem a lot

fuller. Amping up the low end of the bass and capturing all the

discrepancies of the percussive elements really helped, too." (Grassi 2015)

And this full effect is needed to truly capture the styles of EDM to allow for

drops, as seen at the start of section E and B''



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Fig. 12: Section B’’, Bars 103-106

The raw talent of these a cappella virtuosos however doesn't mean they

don't use editing techniques for the piece. It is no secret that the group use

reverb to create a fuller sound for the bass and vocal percussion,

particularly when overtones are being used in the song as it allows them to

be picked up more. In addition to this, the vocals would have been recorded

in a dry acoustic setting with close microphones to allow for a clear sound.

Furthermore, there is no evidence of the sound of breathing within this

production of their piece, and it can be assumed that their breaths have

been edited out as well. For the most part however, the group try to create

an honest vocal sound which is "raw organic sound" (Hoying in Greenburg

2015) "While Pentatonix does have really good mixing and mastering, their

mastery comes much more from the sounds they can actually create with

their voice" (Harding and Sloan 2015). For a piece of art which was

"recorded in a bedroom closed [and] filmed in the kitchen" (Hoying in

Greenburg 2015) it just goes to show how talented this group is. Their ability

to emulate other instruments is shaping a new style of a cappella which is

starting to reach mainstream media. The success behind Daft Punk has

come about because of their ability to incorporate different musical genres

and styles into their own a cappella mould, blending modern trends

associated with EDM and pop to create an a cappella super song.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Continuum Encyclopaedia 2004, 'Melody', in Continuum Encyclopedia of

Popular Music of the World: Volume II: Performance and Production, J

Shepard, D Horn, D Laing, P Oliver, P Wicke (eds.), vol.11, Continuum, London.

Encyclopaedia Britannica 2015, Barbershop Quartet Singing, Encyclopaedia

Britannica, viewed 10 May 2015,

Grassi 2015, The Making of Pentatonix's "Daft Punk", Grammy.com, viewed

18 May 2015

Greenburg 2015, Pentatonnix Wins First Grammy in Watershed Moment for A

Cappella, Forbes, viewed 15 May 2015

Harding, C and Sloan, N 2015, 09 A Cappella Dreams, Podcast, Switched On

Pop, iTunes, viewed 10 May 2015

Narushima, T 2014, Week 2: Music of the Middle Ages, CAMS232 Critical

Studies in Music 2, University of Wollongong

Narushima, T 2014, Week 3: Music of the Renaissance, CAMS232 Critical


Narushima, T 2014, Week 4: Music of the Baroque Period, CAMS232 Critical


Parker, L 2015, Pentatonix on their Pitch Perfect, Platinum Career, Yahoo!

Music: Live Nation, viewed 15 May 2015

SocialBlade 2015, Top 100 YouTubers by Subscribed, SocialBlade, viewed 11

May 2015,

Yogaku Express 2015, Pick Up: Pentatonix, Interview, Yogaku Express, MTV,

viewed 13 May 2015


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IMAGE REFERENCES

Fig.1-4; 6-12

Pentatonix and Landig, J 2014, Daft Punk, Universal Music Publishing Group.

Fig.5

Thomas, R 2009, Octave Registers, image, viewed 20 May 2015, < http://micrologus.retmusic.com/tag/octave/>

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Daft Punk – Pentatonix · 2016. 9. 14. · Daft Punk is also a key element which ties this song within an EDM style. Fig. 8: Section B’’, Bars 103-109 This sound, often created