As promised, here is an analysis of Alice in Wonderland; I will address fours bars at a time (mm.1-16).
Click to hear the first sixteen bars:
If you are familiar with this tune, you’ll notice that Bill’s version, in terms of harmonic movement, is exactly what we’d expect. So, how is it innovative? Let’s begin at the beginning!
Measure 1
The song starts with a predominant, supertonic seventh chord, a ii6. Traditionally, we would expect some kind of Dmin7 chord; which, if you are familiar with Bill’s harmonic sensibility is what he plays. Looking at the left hand, you’ll notice the bass note is the 4th or 11th of a Dmin7 sonority. Bill creates, as he often does, a sense of tension between the G3 and A3. He completes the left hand voicing with the seventh of chord. In the right hand, he plays a F4, C5 and the melody note, G5. What’s missing?
As an aside, other pianists may have chosen a different a approach — especially in the left hand. For example, Bud Powell, who you’ll remember Bill cites as an early influence, may have played a shell-voicing of the root (D) with the 7th (C).
Measure 2
The tune continues with the dominant-7th chord, the G7. In the left hand, Bill beautifully voices the harmony with a (G3-Cb4) and a tri-tone (Cb4 – F4). This creates a characteristic dissonance for which Bill seemed to have an affinity. The Cb4 can be read as a flat-11, but really serves as the third of G7 chord. In the right hand, Bill chooses a flat-9 (Ab4), flat-5 (Db5) and the suspended melody note continues to ring; it ultimately resolves on the final beat.
Measure 3
As is conventional, the tune continues from the V7 chord to the tonic sonority in bar three. Bill voices the CMA7 chord with the seventh of the harmony as the bass note, creating a dissonance with the root, which lies a minor second above it. The third of the chord is voiced above the C4. The melody continues to descend from the F5 to E5. The bar concludes with the simultaneity of A4 and C5.
Measure 4
The left hand is simply a FMA7 chord in a rootless voicing, while the right rests on the melody note of G4.
More to come…
MC
