ANZCA Modern Pianoforte Grade 1: Song Analysis - Scoobie Du Wup

ANZCA Modern Pianoforte - Grade 1

Piece: Scoobie Du Wup

About the composer:

Kerin Bailey (born 1949) is an Australian composer. He mainly plays the piano, flute and trumpet. He studied classical piano at university and his pieces are written fro young instrumentalists. He also has interest in jazz and so pieces like Scoobie Du Wup have a strong classical basis but still have strong elements of jazz. He is best known for his ability to write and play pieces which sound as though they are mix of classical and jazz.

About the piece:

This is a piece written in a swing style. Swing come from jazz music and refers to the way you play the quavers. If asked, give a demonstration of non-swing quavers, then play swing quavers. The name Scoobie Du Wup is based on the way a jazz singer might sing this music. Jazz singers would often sing using nonsense words like ‘doo doo’. This is called scat singing.

The speed of this piece is about 112 beats per minute.

Another element of jazz which can be found in this piece is the use of complicated harmonies.

• From bars 1 to 8 it is in C Major, which is the most important key of this piece. If asked what key the entire piece is in, say C Major. The reason why it has E flats is to do with the sometimes strange harmonies of jazz. These are called blue notes and give the piece a bluesy feeling.
• From bars 9 to 16 it is in F Major. This also has blue notes- the Ab’s.
• From bar 17 to the end it returns to C Major.
• At the very end the F# is a very odd note. Jazz often ends on uncertain notes which don’t sound like the piece has ended, and this piece does the same. The F# is a tritone away from C. A tritone is a certain distance from one note to another which sounds particularly odd. It makes the piece sound unfinished at the end.
• This piece has a range of articulations, including accents, staccatos, legatos, slurs and ties. (a tie is between two notes which are the same pitch, a slur is between two notes of different pitch)
• Note the fermata (pause sign) at the end.