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Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes - Coggle Diagram
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes
Structure
This song has a verse and chorus form with a few changes. Firstly there is an extended introduction sung by Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Paul Simon together.
Ladysmith begins by singing ‘A-wa, A-wa’ and some Zulu lines which translate as ‘it’s not usual, but in our days we see these things happen; they are women, they can take care of themselves’.
Paul Simon joins in, setting the scene for the story of the song, ‘she’s a rich girl… he’s a poor boy’, with seven repetitions of ‘diamonds on the soles of her shoes’.
The whole section is unaccompanied and sung in the Isicathamiya style.
Structure
Intro
Ladysmith Black Mambazo singing in unaccompanied chordal harmony.
Paul Simon joins at 0:15, introducing the song; seven repetitions of 'Diamonds on the soles of her shoes.'
Instrumental lead to verse 1
Change of tempo and key; band enters
Verse 1
Narrative, sung by Paul Simon
Chorus
'Ooh' on high notes sung by Simon
Instrumental break
Repetitive chord progressions in band accompanying trumpet, tenor sax and alto sax
Instrumental lead to Verse 2
Verse 2
Chorus
Instrumental break
Outro
Short vocal section followed by repetitive ‘ta-na-na-na-na’ by Simon and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. All instruments except djembe drum stop. Music fades at the end
Tonality
The tonality of ‘Diamonds’ is mistakenly major throughout. The intro is in the key of E major, and the key signature and scale for that key are given below. The music is diatonic.
The key of E major is firmly established at the beginning, with the initial section using only the tonic chord of this key.
At 0.58 the tonic rises by one semitone to the key of F major, introducing a new key. This is an unusual tonal transition as these two keys are unrelated.
The song starts in E major, modulates to F major at 0.58 and then remains in F major
At 0.58 the tonic rises by one semitone to the key of F major, introducing a new key. This is an unusual tonal transition as these two keys are unrelated.
The song starts in E major, modulates to F major at 0.58 and then remains in F major
Melody
The melody of the intro is quite simple and repetitive, and is dependent on the added harmonies for its character
A range of less than an octave (a minor 7th, B-A)
Many repeated notes, especially E and G#
A mixture of conjunct, disjunct and repetitive movement
The opening three phrases sung by Ladysmith Black Mambazo are all quite similar, with the distinctive leap of a perfect 4th between B and E.
The hook of the song, ‘diamonds on the soles of her shoes’, is sung seven times in the intro and is slightly varied in some of the repeats.
The melody of the two verses moves to a higher register and is mostly syllabic, with one note per syllable. In the last line of verse 1, however there is a melisma on the word ‘diamonds’, and in verse 2 there is a slight change with the word ‘their’ instead of ‘her’ shoes.
Simon’s lyrics are complex, syllabic and rhythmically difficult to notatem and have an irregular melodic shape-
The melody of the chorus begins with a very high ‘oo’ melisma, sung by Paul Simon in a falsetto voice.
In the outro, there are many repetitions of ‘ta-na-na-na-na’, sometimes with Simon improvising above in his falsetto range. Note that the second bar has the same pattern as the first bar, but one note higher - this is called a sequence.
Harmony
The repetitive use of primary chords (I, IV, V) is very typical of both American folk rock and African music, and this harmony is used exclusively in ‘Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes’.
The song starts in the key of E major, and so the primary chords in this key are E major (I), A major (IV) and B major (V)
At 0.58, the key changes to F major, and the primary chords for this key are F major (I), Bb major (IV) and C major (V)
There is an interesting variety of harmonies for the seven repetitions of ‘diamonds on the soles of her shoes’ 0.33-.57, although the melody is similar each time. The first one, in bar 12, is harmonised just with the tonic chord of E.
From 0.58, where both the key and tempo change, the harmonic rhythm (rate of chord change) also becomes faster. The intro has the extended tonic chord followed by one chord change over bar
The harmony in this song is mostly consonant.
Instrumentation
Texture
Most of the song has a homophonic texture.
The first section is entirely based on one chord, E Major.
In typical isicathamiya style, the opening bars are sung in close, unaccompanied harmony by Ladysmith Black Mambazo, all in the same rhythm.
Unaccompanied singing is called a capella
Tempo, Metre, and Rhythm
Dynamics and Articulation
There is a gradual crescendo in this song.
The intro is sung mezzo piano, sounding almost as if heard from a distance.
There is a rise in the dynamics level (mezzo forte) from 0.58 at the change of key and tempo.
There is no change in dynamic level from the verse to the chorus
There is another increase in dynamics from 2.18 for the instrumental break, to forte
The pattern is repeated for the second verse and chorus
The outro drops down to mezzo piano again
There is a sudden drop in dynamics for the fade at the end
The articulation is legato throughout, with the verses and chorus sung in a narrative style.