Believe Me If All These Endearing Charms sounds like Home on the Range
April 25, 2011 8:54 PM Subscribe
Why do parts of the song Believe Me, If All These Endearing Young Charms sound like Home on the Range?
Every time I hear the song Believe Me, If All These Endearing Young Charms, I can also hear parts of Home on the Range as well.
For example, in this rendition, at 0:27, I can hear "where seldom is heard a discouraging word".
Why (in music theory) could they sound similar?
I'm thinking it could be similar chords or maybe notes that are very close.
A basic explanation is appreciated, because my only music experience was taking a basic keyboarding class a few years ago.
Every time I hear the song Believe Me, If All These Endearing Young Charms, I can also hear parts of Home on the Range as well.
For example, in this rendition, at 0:27, I can hear "where seldom is heard a discouraging word".
Why (in music theory) could they sound similar?
I'm thinking it could be similar chords or maybe notes that are very close.
A basic explanation is appreciated, because my only music experience was taking a basic keyboarding class a few years ago.
For instance, the line "where seldom is heard" in "Home on the Range" is basically an arpeggio — those notes are all in the I chord (e.g. the chord C major if it's played in the key of C major) except for the word "an" (which you could thus call a "passing note").
Well, obviously that's not quite what I meant. I meant the notes of "where seldom is heard" are all an arpeggio of the I chord except the word "is."
posted by John Cohen at 9:25 PM on April 25, 2011
Well, obviously that's not quite what I meant. I meant the notes of "where seldom is heard" are all an arpeggio of the I chord except the word "is."
posted by John Cohen at 9:25 PM on April 25, 2011
I think the most likely reason is that "Believe Me..." is an Irish folk song and the guy who wrote the music for "Home..." was named David E. Kelley, who, if you go by the name (there doesn't seem to be much easily-found info), was likely Irish. That many songs of the time use the tune "Believe Me..." is based on would seem to increase the likelihood. Kelley was born right in the middle of the Irish Potato Famine, as well, so there's that.
tl;dr: they're both based on the same tune.
posted by rhizome at 9:31 PM on April 25, 2011
tl;dr: they're both based on the same tune.
posted by rhizome at 9:31 PM on April 25, 2011
A little more info at Wikipedia, if you change "these" to "those."
posted by rhizome at 9:34 PM on April 25, 2011
posted by rhizome at 9:34 PM on April 25, 2011
Some of the last few notes of the melody of "Believe Me..." seem to mimic the "skies are not cloudy" part of "Home on the Range" — but if you sang them over top of each other, they'd be harmonized in thirds, with "Home on the Range" a third above "Believe Me..."
Sorry, this was another mistake on my part: I should have said "Believe Me..." would harmonize a third above "Home on the Range" near the end of the melody if you sang them simultaneously. (If they were both played in the key of D major, you'd have the notes A G F# E D E D in "Believe Me...," while you'd have F# E D C# D E D in the "skies are not cloudy all day" part of "Home on the Range.")
posted by John Cohen at 7:44 AM on April 26, 2011
Sorry, this was another mistake on my part: I should have said "Believe Me..." would harmonize a third above "Home on the Range" near the end of the melody if you sang them simultaneously. (If they were both played in the key of D major, you'd have the notes A G F# E D E D in "Believe Me...," while you'd have F# E D C# D E D in the "skies are not cloudy all day" part of "Home on the Range.")
posted by John Cohen at 7:44 AM on April 26, 2011
« Older Please help me be happy in Kalispell. | Where do the really good custom CMS creators show... Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
They both have a similarly relaxed feel and start out by going from the I chord to the IV chord. (In that YouTube, it goes from D major to G major.)
They both have melodies that use ascending arpeggios, which just means individual notes of a chord going upward. For instance, the line "where seldom is heard" in "Home on the Range" is basically an arpeggio — those notes are all in the I chord (e.g. the chord C major if it's played in the key of C major) except for the word "an" (which you could thus call a "passing note").
The melody of "Believe Me..." (which I hadn't heard before, so I'm purely going on that guitarist's interpretation) is almost identical rhythmically to the melody of "Home on the Range." I'm imagining someone just tapping out the "melody" without the actual notes so you're just left with the rhythm — they'd sound very similar.
They're both in a waltz-like feel (3/4) instead of the more common 4/4 meter.
Some of the last few notes of the melody of "Believe Me..." seem to mimic the "skies are not cloudy" part of "Home on the Range" — but if you sang them over top of each other, they'd be harmonized in thirds, with "Home on the Range" a third above "Believe Me..." In addition, the last two notes of the "Home on the Range" melody ("all day") seem identical to the end of the "Believe Me..." melody. (This is all assuming you played the songs in the same key.)
posted by John Cohen at 9:19 PM on April 25, 2011 [1 favorite]