Eleanor Rigby
Instrumentation
Most pop song of the period used standard rhythm guitar, lead guitar, bass guitar and drums. This song was innovative in its use of string quartet textures; 8 instrumentalists - 2 players on each part.
Double stopping, occasional divisi, staccato and accented block chords.
Cellos play more sustained in the last verse, they double the voice in one section of the verse.
Violas have a 4-bar repeated descending chromatic phrase in semibreves in the chorus.
Strings also play occasional phrases to fill between the local lines.
Structure/Tonality
E minor with modal inflections
8-bar intro, 3 verses with refrains, bridge and outro. Each verse consists of a section with an unusual 10-bar length followed by an 8-bar refrain.
Outro combines elements of the intro (backing vocals) and refrain.
Harmony
2 chords: C and Em used for most of the song (Am at 56-57); harmonic rhythm is slow.
Refrain made up of single chord of Em; chromatically descending viola part adds dissonance.
Vocal part frequently adds mild dissonance.
Texture
Melody dominated homophony.
Backing vocals in 3rds.
Use of block chords.
Melody
Melody in the verse is Dorian mode, whereas backing vocal are aeolian.
Melody in the verse is mainly conjunct whereas the refrain has a distinctive octave leap, extended later to a rising 10th at bar 68.
Rhythm/metre/tempo
Distinctive repeated crochets from the start; sustained semibreves in the refrain.
Vocal phrases have continuous quaver movement with syncopation.
Different subject matter to the usual love song of the time - loneliness and ageing. The story of 2 lonely characters, Eleanor Rigby and Father Mackenzie, whose paths cross when Eleanor dies and Father oversees her burial.