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A* Essay Plan - Kate Bush 'Hounds of Love'
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A* essay plan for all potential questions on Kate Bush's Hounds of Love, with Wider Listening examples
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Bush- Hounds of LoveContext
Kate Bush was born in Kent in 1958
Her early music was noticed by David Gilmour (guitarist with Pink Floyd) who recommended her to EMI
Her first album was called ‘The Kick Inside’ and featured ‘Wuthering Heights’, her most famous song
She was musically self-taught, which means she doesn’t conform to traditional harmony
Progressive pop describes music that attempts to break with the pop genre’s standards- it was very popular
during the 70s and 80s and was also used by bands such as the Beatles. It involved:
o Eclectic instrumentation
o Unconventional use of harmony
o Longer songs (over 2.5 mins)
o Focuses on relatively complex melodic writing
o Elements of jazz, folk or classical music
o Poetic lyrics
o Early use of music technology
Hounds of Love was Kate Bush’s 5th album, released in 1985
She produced and recorded the whole album as studio fees for her previous albums had been too high
Kate sings vocals, plays piano and uses Fairlight CMI (computer musical instrument-early form of synth)
There were 2 sides to the vinyl album- the first comprising of more upbeat poppy songs, and the second
involving more artsy retrospective music
The two sides of the Vinyl were named as two suites- ‘Hounds of Love’ and ‘The Ninth Wave’- ‘The Ninth
Wave’ could be described as a mini concept album (an album which tells a story)
Cloudbusting inspired by ‘A book of dreams’ by Peter Reich- about a ‘cloudbusting’ machine which was said to
engineer changes in the weather- Wuthering Heights also inspired by Literature
Instrumentation and dynamics
Cloudbusting
Dramatic Soprano sung by Bush
3x keyboards played by the Fairlight CMI- early use of music of technology (progressive pop)
String sextet- Medici Sextet- strings also used in Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles
Balalaika- Russian string instrument
Very thin use of percussion
Pre-recorded vocal samples
And Dream of Sheep
Vocals
Shipping forecast- spoken vocal samples
Piano- simple instrumentation like ballads from earlier career
Irish whistle- Tomorrow Never Knows by the Beatles- uses Indian instruments such as a Sitar (progressive pop)
Bouzouki- Greek stringed instrument
Dynamic contrast (mf to p)
Under Ice
All synth created by Fairlight CMI- synth pad, synth strings- Whitney Houston ‘I wanna dance with somebody’-
more characteristic of other pop music of the time
No warmth in synth sounds
Alto voice range, male voice used
Dialogue used- prominent in ‘Waking the Witch’ (same album)
Final chord is filtered to sound like a Mongolian throat singer- shows Bush’s knowledge of world music
Fairly wide range of dynamics
Melody
Cloudbusting
Mostly syllabic- common in popular music
Unprepared 7ths used in the verses
Falling 5ths- hint at doom
Mostly syllabic but some slurred melismas
Improvisatory feel
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