Billie Holiday's performance of "I Get a Kick Out of You"
is an excellent example of music that has a strong relationship to the
text. Not only does Billie's voice
employ word painting throughout the song by working with timbre and pitch, but
the instrumentation responds to the text with the use of call and
response. In addition, the harmonies
often reflect the lyrics of the song.
Word painting is an important way that Billie strengthens the
meaning of the text. The word "kick" is sung eight times throughout
the song, and each time Billie sings it in a curt staccato. She places little emphasis on the second
"ck," as if she wants to get the word out as fast as possible. It sounds like a quick kick itself, and after
each time she says it there is a pause in the phrasing as she takes a breath;
she never connects "kick" to the word that follows it, as if she
needs to get her feet back on the ground to continue singing.
Another example of word painting is the word "don't" in
section B (the second time it's sung). "You obviously don't adore me," Billie sings, and the word "don't"
is accentuated as the pitch of her voice rises.
The timbre of her voice is more like speech than song, and she exclaims
the word a short staccato. By singing it
in this way, Billie sounds surprised that someone does not like her, adding meaning to the word choice of "yet"
in "yet I get a kick out of you."
The person she is singing about obviously doesn't adore her, and ideas
or events that are might be considered exciting to some (drugs, alcohol,
planes) don't entertain Billie at all.
Yet she is still amused by this person.
The amusement can be
heard in the timbre of her voice; it's more playful and rough—even laughing at
times—instead of beautiful and melodious as a song like a love ballad might
sound. The instrumentation, as well,
sounds lighthearted and jocular, and in the first and second saxophone solo the
melody bounces along in good humor.
A third example of word painting is in the third A section. "Flying too high with some guy in the
sky," Billy sings, and the notes rise higher and higher in pitch,
corresponding with the height described in the lyrics. Finally, with "my idea of nothing to
do," the melody drops in pitch, reflecting her boredom with planes, and a
slight upward inflection in pitch is heard in the word "nothing," as
if Billie is trying to spice up the boring nature of planes.
Instrumentation interacts directly with the text in "I Get a
Kick Out of You" by making use of the call-and-response technique. After every two measures of singing, a muted
trumpet plays a snippet of music, answering the vocals and creating a musical
conversation between Billie's voice and the trumpet. Music responds to the text even more in the
third A section; in response to Billie's "I get no kick in a plane,"
the muted trumpet soars up and down as if the melody itself were on a plane.
Even the harmony interacts with the text in this song. Whenever the harmony moves from a V
(dominant) chord to a I (tonic) chord—an authentic cadence—the text seems to be
asking a question or needing a response.
"So tell me why should it be true" is on the dominant chord,
and just as the dominant always wants to resolve (usually to the tonic) so too
does this line pose a question. The
answer in the text never comes (as expected) but the next line's harmony
resolves on the tonic chord, and so the listener is
satisfied. This harmonic progression happens again with
"That would bore me terrifically
too," and "my idea of nothing
to do." Both are statements
that want something more interesting (bored/nothing to do) to be said. "Yet I get a kick out of you"
remedies Billie's boredom both in the text's subject (whoever the song is
about) and in the music (by resolving on the tonic chord).
The interaction between music and text can play a very important
role in conveying a song's meaning, as in "I Get a Kick Out of
You." Not only does Billie Holiday
alter the timbre, pitch, and dynamics of her voice to better express the
meaning of the words she is singing, but the instrumentation responds to the
words as well with its call and response, timbre, melodies and harmonies.
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