Struggling to revise for A Level Music: Here, There and Everywhere? Well, struggle no longer – this is the place to be!
Struggling to revise for A level music: Here, There and Everywhere, and not sure where to start?
Panicking because there are only a few months left until the exam?
Not to worry, this is the place to be!
As an A* ex-A level music student myself, I know all the best tips and tricks for doing well in your exam. I have tried to make all this information as concise as possible so you can get the best value for your time spent reading. Using this guide to the Beatles’ Here, There and Everywhere, you can boost your grades with as little effort as possible!
Make sure you write EVERYTHING down and learn it thoroughly. Reading alone will not help you absorb this information!
This post is all about A level music: Here, There and Everywhere.
A Level Music: Here, There and Everywhere
To start with, here is a link to the Beatles’ recording of Here, There and Everywhere.
Youtube: Here, There and Everywhere
I’m tentatively assuming most of the people reading this will already have the A level Anthology of Music recommended by Edexcel. If not, here is a link to where you can buy it.
Amazon: A level music anthology
Unfortunately, the anthologies are very expensive. However, if you are lucky, you can find a second hand one on amazon or ebay.
Here, There and Everywhere is not yet out of copyright – and won’t be for at least seventy years! – so you will not find it online anywhere. Legally, that is…!
Context of Here, There and Everywhere
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Context of Here, There and Everywhere
The Beatles wrote Here, There and Everywhere for their seventh studio album, Revolver. They recorded it at EMI studios in Abbey Road. This was the first album the Beatles did not intend to perform live: in fact, they stopped touring that year. The band’s bassist, Paul McCartney, wrote it. However, as was convention for the Beatles, the song is credited to Lennon-McCartney.
The Beatles are to this day considered the most influential popular music act of all time. They are also the most successful of all time, outselling every other artist by some considerable margin. They caused such hysteria in the 60s that the phenomenon was dubbed Beatlemania. Although they began as a rock and roll cover band, as the years went by the created works of Baroque pop, psychedelia, and folk rock, to name some examples.
The members of the Beatles were John Lennon (rhythm guitar), Paul McCartney (bass guitar), George Harrison (lead guitar) and Ringo Starr (drums). All of them sang some songs in the Beatles catalogue.
Here, There and Everywhere is a ballad and love song, where Paul expresses a desire to always be with his lover.
Before we dive right in, I must make one quick clarification. In this article, I will be referring to the Beatles’ works as pop music. I mean this in the vague, general sense of all post 1950s popular music, much like all music of the 1600s to the 1900s is labelled as classical. Don’t worry, I know that the Beatles are very different to the pop music of today – it just makes life much easier for me!
Structure of Here, There and Everywhere
The overall structure of Here, There and Everywhere is AABA. Well, it’s slightly more complicated than that – this is the Beatles after all! AABA was a common song form in the 50s, a decade from which the Beatles took a lot of inspiration.
Here, There and Everywhere begins with a short, 3-bar introduction. This is quite unusual, as phrases are normally 4-bars. This therefore shows the Beatles pushing the boundaries of pop music.
The first A section begins in bar 4, which is then repeated. After this, Paul moves us on to the bridge (also knows as the B section). This begins in bar 13.
However, the bridge is only four bars long, which is quite short. This means that by bar 17 we are back in the A section. The bridge and final A section are then repeated one more time, using the same lyrics.
The song ends with an outro at bar 26, which sums up the song nicely. Even the lyrics summarise everything – the final words are, fittingly, “here, there and everywhere”.
Instrumentation of Here, There and Everywhere
There is one thing to remember about Here, There and Everywhere: there is NO piano!
Yes, I know that there is a piano in the score. However, there is no piano in the recording. The piano part is just an arrangement made from the guitar and bass parts so it is easier to read. The Beatles do not actually play this part.
Paul McCartney sings Here, There and Everywhere, as he is the song’s principal songwriter. He is a tenor, and he sings the melody an octave lower than written.
Paul’s vocals are double-tracked. This means that he recorded the song twice, and both takes can be heard simultaneously on the recording.
You can also hear backing vocals on the recording, and Paul, John and George sing them together.
Apart from the singing, the instrumentation of this song is fairly simple: guitar, bass guitar and very restrained drums. The guitar uses spread chords in the introduction. Unusually, however, there is no lead guitar.
The unusual sound in bar 15 is an electric guitar run through a Leslie Speaker, which makes it sound like a mandolin.
There is reverb throughout the track, which is what makes it sound so echoey and big.
Tonality of Here, There and Everywhere
The overall key of Here, There and Everywhere is G major. However, it moves through lots of other keys, demonstrating the Beatles’ desire to push the boundaries of pop music.
The first three bars of Here, There and Everywhere are very tonally ambiguous. Although we start with a clear G major, by bar 2 we have a Bb major chord, suggesting we have already modulated. The next bar, however, we have once more returned to G major.
By bar 8, we have moved to E minor, which is the relative minor of G major. However, we don’t stay here for long, as we have returned to our tonic key by bar 11.
For the bridge, Paul moves us to the completely unrelated key of Bb major. However, although Bb is an unrelated key, this modulation is not entirely unprepared. Remember that brief modulation in bar 2? This serves to prepare the listener for the bridge modulation so it doesn’t sound quite so out of place.
Once again, however, we move very quickly to a different key. By bar 14 we have moved to G minor, the relative minor of Bb major. We don’t stay here for long though, as we have returned to G major for bar 17.
So, all in all, most of the time we are in G major, with brief modulations to different keys throughout the song.
Harmony of Here, There and Everywhere
The backing vocals of Here, There and Everywhere are characterised by close harmony, in the style of American barbershop groups. Here we can see the influence of the Everly Brothers, a 50s duo much loved by John and Paul, on the Beatles.
The harmony of the introduction is quite unusual. Bar 2 uses a bIII chord (Bb major). This chord is not part of the key, creating an unsettled, tonally ambiguous opening.
From bar 4, the backing vocals move in rising, parallel, root position triads. Our chord progression is I II III IV, which is a rather unusual sequence, as there is no chord V, the dominant.
Listen out for the vocal harmony of bars 20 and 22. This is the first time the backing vocals have lyrics.
Here, There and Everywhere moves through many different keys (see the tonality section for more on this!). However, Paul fully prepares each one so it does not sound out of place. For example, the return to G major in bar 4 is prepared by a II/V chord sequence in bar 3. The same technique is used in bars 8-9, where Paul prepares us for the E minor of bar 10. This perhaps shows the influence of jazz music on the Beatles, as in jazz a II/V chord progression is often used to establish the key.
In bars 9-10 Paul uses a circle of 5ths to move us back to G major.
In bar 9, Paul uses a false relation between the lead vocals and the backing vocals (or electric guitar – both work!). This creates some mild dissonance.
We can find perfect cadences throughout the song, which help cement the key centre, often after a modulation. There are examples in bars 3-4 and 12-13. However, the song ends with a plagal cadence, creating a hymn-like atmosphere.
Rhythm, metre and tempo of Here, There and Everywhere
As per usual with pop songs, Here, There and Everywhere has no tempo marking. However, it does have a metronome marking of 84 BPM, which is a moderate speed.
The Beatles perform the song with rubato, which means there is some give and take with the speed. This lends a conversational tone to the music and allows Paul to emulate natural speech.
The main metre of Here, There and Everywhere is 4/4, the most common metre of pop music. However, Paul throws in a sneaky 7/8 bar in bar 2, which adds again to the conversational tone.
The lead voice does not enter on the first beat of the song, which fits the lyrics and helps Paul emulate natural speech.
Interestingly, the emphasis of the guitar part is NOT on beat 1 – it is on beat 3. This is quite unusual, but it lends a lilting, slow-dance feel to the song.
Paul uses gentle syncopation throughout the song to fit the lyrics and make it sound (surprise, surprise!) natural. Good examples of this are bars 4 and 14.
The A section of Here, There and Everywhere uses lots of quavers to keep a steady beat. However, Paul switches things up for the bridge, using much more syncopation. There are also some scotch snaps in bars 14 and 16. This ensures there is musical variety and helps maintain the listener’s interest.
The song ends with a fermata, or pause, which helps establish a hymn-like feeling of peace and contentment.
Melody of Here, There and Everywhere
Here, There and Everywhere is almost fully syllabic. However, there are a few small melismas, such as in bar 27. Nevertheless, these act mostly as passing notes, making the song more easily singable.
This song is unusually disjunct for a pop song. Thirds are a common interval (e.g. bars 4-5), although there are also some bigger leaps. A good example is the major 6th on “life with” in bar 7. However, there is also some conjunct movement to ensure the melody is still memorable.
The melodies of the introduction outline the triad in the second inversion – we can see this is bars 1 and 2.
The range of this song is a compound perfect 5th, from D to A. This is a relatively wide range, reflecting the emotional nature of the song.
Paul uses lots of ornamentation to create a natural, speech-like melody. This consists mainly of acciaccaturas, which can be found in bars 3, 7 and 9, for example.
In bar 5, Paul uses an appoggiatura on “each”. This creates some mild dissonance and adds to the sense of yearning.
Texture of Here, There and Everywhere
The overall texture of Here, There and Everywhere is melody dominated homophony.
To be honest, there is only one interesting textural moment to point out. In bar 15-16, the guitar plays a counter-melody. This helps to liven up the bridge and create some variety.
Well, that was nice and easy!
Coda
And there we have it! A rather detailed dissection of everything you need to know for A level music: Here, There and Everywhere, from harmony and tonality to structure and tempo.
This article was all about A Level Music: Here, There and Everywhere.
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