Tim Smith - "Veronica In Ecstasy" Analysis

This is yet another look at a song by musical mad genius Tim Smith. I looked at the song Eat It Up Worms Hero a couple months ago, and here's another song that demonstrates many of his characteristic tricks. Listen to the song here and see my transcription here.

The form is a bit peculiar but simple; an 8-bar intro, a 10-bar verse section that's varied into 8 and 5 bars later, a 5-bar B section and a bridge. I guess we can notate it as IABA'BCB, but one issue is that there's a 5 bar instrumental A reprisal that is so short you probably consider it apart of the B section. However, it's so tonally different from it that I choose to interpret it as a brief interlude.

The introduction establishes the tonic of the song; a G major drone with no accompaniment, something very obvious and straightforward. The verse follows this, making the tonality clear as it mostly hits G major keynotes- the only real thing of note is the phrasing, which has long, sustained notes followed by tied short ones and some syncopation, which makes it sound a bit floaty.

The transitional section from A to B complicates this established tonality by introducing a sharpened C and D, which explicitly hints at either G lydian or a G whole tone scale. This is immediately followed up by a motif with a natural C and a near-outline of a G major chord. So, the feeling you get is that it kind of juggles between some modal form of G and regular G major. This tonal ambiguity is done to prepare us for the B section/the chorus.

The chorus is quite a lot harmonically, but it has a lot of Tim Smith's musical language, like strings of major chords, fast-changing chords (they change every beat!), chromatic mediant/dominant-based progressions, and whole tone melodic movement. It starts off with F# over B and then F#, which tonicizes both B and F#, shifts down to E over A, tonicizing that, E and F# over C which tonicizes C lydian, but then shifts to G, C, D over Bm, which is the 1-4-5 over the iii of G major, D, E, F# over D major, a C# major arpeggio over C#, the tonic over G#, A-C#-D over A, then it goes back to F# over B, a second-inversion C# major arpeggio over C#, Ab and F over Fm, the first 3 notes of Bb major over Bb, G# over E, C#-D-E over A, and then FINALLY ends with the first 3 notes of Bb major over Bb resolving to Ab over F minor, and then has a characteristic I-II progression in E (E-F#) with the Ab turning into a G# pedal tone. There's a LOT going on here, but the basic gist is that he rapidly modulates according to each chord change, always making references to keynotes and never quite staying in one spot. It's also very interesting rhythmically due to all of the triplets He also varies using the tonic, third, and fifth as a focus on the keynote for variation.

The restatement of the A section contains a new vocal melody; with Bb and D# over G major complicating the harmony and suggesting either a minor or lydian mode. We have another juggling of sharpened and flattened notes with a D and D# featured prominently in the melody, clashing against the normal D in the chord. The feeling of tension this creates is prolonged by the ending which ends on F#, the 7 of G major, which transitions into the little interlude between  A and B.

The B section is repeated twice before transitioning to the bridge, which complicates the rhythm by shifting into 13/8, 10/8 and back to 4/4. The harmonic content is similarly strange to the chorus; G#-B-F#-C#-G#-B-F# (and then truncate it off by two in the second repeat) before resolving to B-F#-A-E. This is odd, but the chords are related by chromatic mediants or subdominant/dominants, which is common in Tim Smith's music. The ending is just a triple plagal cadence, which also happens in "Odd Even". The melody follows in a similar fashion to the chorus, referencing the 5 or 3 and sometimes the tonic, relying on common tones between the chords for smooth voice leading despite the odd harmonies. After this follows a quite remarkable chord sequence (that I probably got wrong); G-Gsus4-G7-Edim-Gaug. This is extremely odd, and the best interpretation I have of it is that it's just supposed to slam the G into your head again but weakens it with odd chord choices and an Edim that suggests some form of F. After this comes a restatement of A, then B for the remainder of the song.

So; for a summary of the song, we have:

• quick chord changes
• a sort of battle between G and a variety of other keys
• some phrasing and rhythm complications, most prominently syncopation
• melodies reliant on common tones and the 5 and 3 of chords
• whole-tone melodic movement