A piece of music is a complex structure made up of many parts. To analyze a musical composition, it is necessary to know the basic elements of music. According to Estrella (2019), the basic elements of music are Beat and Meter, Dynamics, Harmony, Melody, Pitch, Rhythm, and Tempo. To analyze the song With Arms Wide Open by CREED, it is necessary to evaluate the elements mentioned above in this musical composition.
The evaluation of the rhythm is one of the main ones in analyzing the musical composition. Rhythm represents the element of time in musical composition (Estrella, 2019). Rhythm consists of duration, tempo, meter, and other terms. The Duration of With Arms Wide Open is 4 minutes and 38 seconds. To measure tempo, it is necessary to calculate the number of beats in a musical composition per minute. Using a timer to calculate beats in With Arms Wide Open, 71 beats were counted. When there are 66-75 beats per minute in a song, this is adagio tempo, which means the speed is slow (Estrella, 2019). Further, it may be helpful to analyze the meter. It is a pattern of beats one can hear or feel while listening to the song (Estrella, 2019). With Arms Wide Open song has duple meter beats, meaning that the pattern of beats is one beat, strong second beat, weak one strong second weak, and further.
Another essential piece of music analysis is Dynamics. Dynamics is music’s relative loudness (or quietness) (Estrella, 2019). When listening to With Arms Wide Open, one might conclude that the song has mezzo-forte dynamics means it is moderately loud also, with crescendo means the song is gradually getting louder (Estrella, 2019). The melody of this song can be described as a conjunct. That means the song is easy to play or sing because it does not have a significant high or significant low sound (Estrella, 2019). In addition, it is necessary to determine a music style that is Modern for With Arms Wide Open.
References
CREED. (1999). With arms wide open. On Human Clay [Album]. Wind-up.
Estrella, E. (2019). An introduction to the elements of music. Liveabout.