Simultaneous duets?

April 9, 2009 6:36 PM

Music: Looking for examples of a kind of duet where both people sing different lyrics to different, complimentary melodies at the same time throughout; one gets louder and one quieter periodically, switching sometimes, with the quieter one essentially acting as the louder one's backing instrument.

As if the quieter one's melody line were a guitar playing a particularly melodic riff.

I'm sure this exists. I'm even sure that it's been invented, named, done to death and long-abandoned somewhere in the classical or Broadway field, but I've never heard it done, and don't have the formal knowledge to search out the term. I had the idea for a musical I would like to write, but unfortunately the ability to actually do that is beyond me at the moment, and I would just like to hear what it would sound like.

Please let me know if you are interested in helping me with this, but my question does not make sense.

posted by thesmallmachine to media & arts (41 comments total)

Jimmy Eat World - Praise Chorus?
posted by santojulieta at 6:39 PM on April 9

You could call the technique "counterpoint", although there might be other names for it too.

There's a wicked example of this in the musical Les Miz, between good guy Valjean and bad guy Javert. It's called "Confrontation". (They sing seperately at first, but then overlap. The lyrics are here.)
posted by pseudostrabismus at 6:42 PM on April 9 [1 favorite has favorites]

Previously.
posted by unknowncommand at 6:47 PM on April 9

Dean Martin's Memories are Made of This
posted by phunniemee at 6:47 PM on April 9

Simon & Garfunkel's version of Scarborough Fair is kind of like that.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 6:48 PM on April 9 [1 favorite has favorites]

There's a song at the beginning of Act Two of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog where Neil Patrick Harris and Felicia Day do this.
posted by Nedroid at 6:51 PM on April 9 [1 favorite has favorites]

Oh, here's another.

Fish and chips and vinegar, vinegar, vinegar. Fish and chips and vinegar, pepper pepper pepper salt.
Don't throw your junk in my backyard, my backyard, my backyard. Don't throw your junk in my backyard, my backyard's full.
One bottle of pop, two bottles of pop, three bottles of pop, four bottless of pop. Five bottles of pop, six bottles of pop, seven, seven bottles of pop.

In that YouTube clip they sing it as a round, but when I was a kid we didn't sing it as a round. At any rate, once all three of them are going at the same time, you're getting counterpoint melodies.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 7:02 PM on April 9

There was a group 40 years ago (My God, has it been that long?) called "Guess Who" who had two songs called "No Sugar Tonight" and "New Mother Nature" which they also performed simultaneously. You can listen to it here.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 7:05 PM on April 9

Inchworm, performed on the Muppet Show - fast forward to 2:25 unless you feel like watching Fozzie's comedy act.
posted by LionIndex at 7:13 PM on April 9

The Moldy Peaches - "Steak for Chicken" (LYRICS NSFW/IMAGERY ODD): Adam and Kimya sing directed over each other with different lyrics. Mostly they sing the same melody, but at some points they diverge while complementing each other in rhythm. I'm thinking especially 1:15-1:25 or so.
posted by 2bucksplus at 7:16 PM on April 9 [1 favorite has favorites]

I came in here to suggest Steak for Chicken as well - hilariously great song.
posted by davey_darling at 7:40 PM on April 9

The term for multiple independent melodies played at the same time is polyphony or the aforementioned counterpoint.

This technique is extremely common, though perhaps not so much in modern pop music. Musical theater and the popular music of the early 20th century are two places to look for this kind of thing outside of art music.

One of the first examples that popped into my head was Baby It's Cold Outside. Another one is Jesus Christ Superstar, which is a great rock opera and features this kind of thing a lot.
posted by ludwig_van at 7:42 PM on April 9 [1 favorite has favorites]

Lida Rose/Sweet and Low (at 3.50)

Pick a Little, Talk a Little/Goodnight Ladies (at 2.17)

posted by aquafortis at 7:48 PM on April 9

Father and Son, by Cat Stevens when he was still in a live and let live frame of mind.
posted by fish tick at 7:49 PM on April 9

A Weather's Screw Up Your Courage sort of does this.
posted by spiderskull at 8:03 PM on April 9

Águas de Março
posted by kurtroehl at 8:25 PM on April 9

Irving Berlin's You're Just in Love (as performed by Cleo Laine and the Swedish Chef)
posted by prinado at 8:44 PM on April 9

I'm not exactly sure what the answer is, but I'll throw out Damien Rice - 9 Crimes. That duet plays on control and back and forth.
posted by sanka at 9:13 PM on April 9

There was a section of the Hayden Mass that we performed in our choir that arranged the Lord's Prayer just like this. Each section sang completely different lyrics.
posted by divabat at 9:28 PM on April 9

Caetano Veloso - You Don't Know Me, but only for about 15 glorious seconds
posted by hydrophonic at 9:58 PM on April 9

Thank you! I love not only that there ARE tons of examples, but that they come from such completely different musical planets.

I'm sorry there was a previously; I didn't hit on the right search terms during my check.
posted by thesmallmachine at 10:25 PM on April 9

The Halo Benders - Your Asterisk
posted by one_bean at 10:51 PM on April 9

Yes it's called counterpoint. Here's another version of You're Just in Love - the counterpoint really kicks in around 1:48.
posted by w0mbat at 11:11 PM on April 9

pseudostrabismus: There's a wicked example of this in the musical Les Miz, between good guy Valjean and bad guy Javert. It's called "Confrontation". (They sing seperately at first, but then overlap. The lyrics are here.)

Les Misérables is chockful of polyphonic counterpoint, On My Own also features it and I'm positive there are more examples in the musical.

Also, Mike Mills often sings counterpoint to Michael Stipe, with different lyrics, though he's usually fairly clearly the back-up singer. Fall on Me, however, is definitely what you're looking for.
posted by Kattullus at 12:05 AM on April 10

Quartet from Chess the Musical
posted by dirm at 12:10 AM on April 10 [1 favorite has favorites]

Gang of Four does this on their song Anthrax in very strange and fairly unique fashion.

Not sure if stripped down funky post-punk is your thing though.
posted by namewithoutwords at 2:42 AM on April 10

It's very common in opera and musicals, as several people have pointed out. Verdi's Nabucco (and his work generally) has more than you can shake a stick at, although they're in Italian so they lose some impact for me. There's a good one at the start of Act 2 of The Phantom of The Opera, and at least one fun one in Carosel.

Dr Horrible's sing-along blog has already been mentioned, but if you like Buffy there is at least one good example toward the end of the musical episode.
posted by metaBugs at 2:53 AM on April 10

A few more examples...

Sting likes to do this. Gabriel's Message is the most prominent example, though there's also a little in "Can She Excuse My Wrongs" (on Songs from the Labyrinth).

Black Sabbath's Psycho Man has it in the chorus.

In general though, Bach's got to be the god of counterpoint. He used it in pretty much every mass and cantata, not to mention fugue, that he wrote. Here's a dramatic example.
posted by epimorph at 3:51 AM on April 10

Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland doing Happy Days are Here again / Get Happy.
posted by FreezBoy at 5:48 AM on April 10

what about a quintet? the ukelele orchestra of great britain.
posted by beige at 6:33 AM on April 10

Bing Crosby and David Bowie. Mashed up Little Drummer Boy and added lyrics in counterpoint because Bowie didn't want to sing pa rum pum pum pum
posted by Gungho at 6:40 AM on April 10

Was gonna suggest Moldy Peaches and Halo Benders, too.

But your description initially made me think of that cheesy mockingbird song, but they aren't singing different words, just at different speeds, like here.

I was trying to find the clip from National Lampoon's Vacation, but I found that instead.
posted by fructose at 6:49 AM on April 10

Guster does this in their tune "All the Way Up to Heaven."
posted by PFL at 6:52 AM on April 10

Mates of State do this a lot.
posted by snofoam at 7:11 AM on April 10

South Park's Dreidel Song
posted by NoraCharles at 7:22 AM on April 10 [1 favorite has favorites]

Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer: Tanglewood Tree, Kate and the Ghost of Lost Love (starts at 5:10 there and that appears to be an Amtrak train vid - I didn't know those existed). We're About 9: Reading You. (They are inexplicably not famous enough to be on YouTube). The Long Winters: Stupid; for a fun listening exercise, try to figure out exactly what Sean Nelson is shouting.
posted by clavicle at 9:14 AM on April 10

Many Sleater-Kinney songs, for example, "Burn Don't Freeze".
posted by IvyMike at 9:29 AM on April 10

There is a version of "This Land is Your Land" which has a counterpoint melody chorus, but I can't seem to find any music or videos of it.
posted by lunasol at 9:39 AM on April 10

"All For the Best" from Godspell.
posted by ottereroticist at 10:05 AM on April 10

In this TV show (1960), Frank Sinatra sings "Love Me Tender" while Elvis Presley sings "Witchcraft".
posted by iviken at 2:15 PM on April 10

Not exactly what you're looking for, but they did this in an episode of the Sopranos with a Peter Gunn/Every Breath You Take mix.
posted by ellenaim at 6:02 PM on April 10