Strength - Music Analysis#1

 

This song was originally created and performed by Simon & Garfunkel. Simon & Garfunkel were considered the folk rock genre. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel meet in school in the town of Queens New York, where they started singing under different names until they ended up with just their names Simon & Garfunkel. It was an amazing song then and still is. When the band Disturbed did the cover of this song it really hit home and I could relate it more to my life while serving in the Army and combat. It really makes me think and remember the hard times we went through and the struggles. This song could bring the same feelings to anyone in any situation.

Timbre

David Draiman the lead singer of Disturbed said he wanted to keep this cover as original as possible with some heavy metal added. So, he kept it acoustic and had an orchestra to accompany his voice. This version is also a little slower than the original song and much darker. It is supposed to make people listen to the words and think on what they mean. How does it relate to your life and how do we actually communicate with each other. For example "People hearing without listening".  Towards the end of the song he adds his metal voice, gravely and angry toned that really drives home the point of the last verse and a half. They also added in some bass drum and sped the tempo up. Then at the end back to the piano and a soft voice "Sound of Silence". It gives me goose bumps just writing about it.

Melody

The melody of this song has a few different things going on. The song originally was written when Paul Simon was 21 years old. He never produced it though until the 60's. During that time frame a lot of stuff was going on JFK assassination, Vietnam War, segregation, and many more. So, it seemed like the right time to record it. When Disturbed covered the song in 2015 the Country had a lot going on with the Afghanistan war, Iraq war, The World Trade Center collapse, and many other political issues. So, luckily the Lyrics were already taken care of and were written perfectly. The piano piece is a quadruple meter which is common time. About two thirds of the song is just his voice with the orchestra backing him up with a slow pace. It also gives that dark and lonely feeling. This versions range starts out slow and slowly builds and BAM the accent, right in your face so to speak.

Texture

Both versions of this song were homophonic. The Disturbed version is mainly the lead singer and a piano. With each verse the song builds and adds instruments. The second verse a guitar is added with the piano, third verse some bass drum came in, and finally complete orchestra sound was backing up his voice. As the song went from verse to verse you could hear the anger and frustration build in his voice and the instruments.

Sources

"The Sound of Silence.", Wikipedia, 18 September 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_of_Silence

"National Rock Review - The Sound of Silence by Disturbed.", national rockreview.com, 10 February 2016, http://www.nationalrockreview.com/music-videos/the-sound-of-silence-by-disturbed

"The Pop Song Professor.", youtube.com, 06 February 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld4s-RYHmi8