The Breaking Heart under a Microscope: Tony Braxton’s Un-Break My Heart

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Table of Contents

Introduction: The Story of a Heartbreak
Back to the Basics: Key Characteristics
Concerning the Structure: Taking the Song Apart
Instrumentation and Textures: Velvet and a Spanish Guitar
In Chord with the Audience: Harmonic Relationship
The Power of Words: Lyrical Content and Melody
Conclusion: Reading between the Lines
Reference List

Introduction: The Story of a Heartbreak

This is the kind of songs one is likely to see in the “100 Romantic Hits” CD, together with the songs of the 80ies, 70ies and 60ies. Clearly a product of its epoch, Un-Break My Heart is still one of those songs that have a timeless feeling, expressing the feelings that are just as applicable to a modern generation as to the people of any other epoch.

Back to the Basics: Key Characteristics

There should be no big reveal in the fact that the song was actually created by a woman and for a woman. Written by Diana Warren and performed by Tony Braxton, Un-Break My Heart possesses certain specifics that immediately set the romantic atmosphere.

Key signature

Speaking of the key, this is a case when a creative spark literally changed the music landscape of the 90ies, sending the latter into soul-like mood. As Warren explained, Un-Break My Heart was initially supposed to be performed in a high A Minor key. But then Warren suddenly hit the key change and decided that a B Minor “was cool” (Tingen, 2008).

Time signature

Commonly considered as “slow”, Un-Break My Heart is composed in a common time signature, which is defined as 2/4 and runs at 60 bmp (ISTD, 2012).

Genre

Though often mistakenly related to the genre of pop music, Un-Break My Heart is actually a mix of several genres, among which there is not only pop music, but also Soul, R&B, and even soft rock (Foster, n. d.).

Concerning the Structure: Taking the Song Apart

One of the most fascinating things about Un-Break My Heart is the combination of its structural simplicity and the huge effect which the song has on the audience, especially on the fair sex. The song does not have any out-of-the-ordinary elements or any innovative approaches; however, when the song is played, they all fall into their places, making the song a truly thrilling experience.

Introduction

The introduction to Un-Break My Heart is unique mainly because it does not need a context, unlike many other songs (Dunbar, 2011, 9-10). Once the song starts playing, the melodic guitar creates the required romantic atmosphere.

Verse

As Dunbar (2011) emphasizes, “There appears to be nothing overly remarkable about the song compositionally” (9). As far as the rhyme in the verse goes, the structure can be represented as a verse – chorus – verse – chorus – solo – bridge – chorus (Tingen, 2008). However, taking a closer look at the verse itself, one will see that the rhyme in the verse is quite peculiar. Of all the eight lines, there are only two that can be considered as loosely rhymed (pain – rain, forget – left, Warren, 1996), while the remaining lines (tears – way, unkind – you, Warren, 1996) serve to enhance the feeling of despair.

Pre-chorus

It can be considered that the pre-chorus consists of a single line: “bring back the nights when I held you beside me” (Warren, 1996). Defined as a “transitional section” (Horne, 2005, 78), the pre-chorus serves perfectly well to link the first verse and the following chorus, since both start with addressing the person.

Bridge

Bridge must be one of the trickiest things about songwriting. Suggested to be avoided “unless it really adds something wonderful” (Luboff & Luboff, 2007, 33), and in the case of Un-Break My Heart, it does. Having a new lyrics in it: “Un-cry these tears” (Warren, 1996) and serving to raise the tension in the song and bring it to its climax, the bridge in Un-Break My Heart is by far the most emotional part of the song.

Middle Eight

It is important that the song does not contain the standard “middle eight,” which is supposed to consist of eight lines (Pandey, 2005, 440); in Un-Break My Heart, middle eight is replaced with a bridge.

Solo

In Un-Break My Heart, solo is introduced before the bridge with a guitar chord (Warren, 1996). Tony Braxton’s vocal is also there, but it fades into background, while the guitar solo plays.

Coda

Like many other popular songs (Narmour, 1988), Un-Break My Heart saves the most powerful moment and the most intense chords towards the point when coda breaks out. Tony Braxton’s powerful voice makes the line “Without you, world just can’t go round” (Warren, 1996) the song climax.

Ad lib. Considered a part when the vocal departures from the lyrics (Randel, 1999), ad lib is obviously present in the song. The voice frames the coda at its beginning and near the end, which adds dramatics.

Instrumentation and Textures: Velvet and a Spanish Guitar

It is quite remarkable that there are quite few instruments in Un-Break My Heart. Namely, a guitar, piano and percussions can be identified in the song (Coates, 2006, 281). However, despite the few instruments, the song still manages to convey every single shade of meaning.

In Chord with the Audience: Harmonic Relationship

Finally, a couple of words about the chords of the song must be said.

Phrasing

Considered splitting the consecutive notes (Colson, 2012), phrasing is obviously used in the song. For example, the line “Don’t let me in all this pain” (Warren, 1996) is followed by a pause (Unbreak My Heart, n. d.), after which the line “Don’t let me out in the rain” (Warren, 1996) goes.

Resolution

Considered a change of a chord from dissonance to consonance (Briggs, 2008), resolution can be traced in the lines “Take back that sad word ‘good-bye’” (Warren, 1996), where the major lift is followed by a minor tone.

Tones

The timbre, which is defined as a tone color of the song (Von Helmholtz, 2007, 59), does not change until the coda comes. Starting with a soft melody, the song peaks to a very sharp pitch.

The Power of Words: Lyrical Content and Melody

Un-Break My Heart is a good example of the case when the words and the tune are fully compatible. While the melody creates a whimsical pattern, the words complete the journey, creating a plot to follow. In addition, creating the word “un-break” (Warren, 1996) instead of saying “do not break” and meaning “return to me” is a truly lucky find.

Conclusion: Reading between the Lines

Once a huge hit, Un-Break My Heart is still popular, which is amazing. Belonging to a different epoch and century, it still renders people’s heartstrings the right way. Un-Break My Heart is a perfect example of a brilliant song meeting a talented artist.

Reference List

Briggs, K. (2008). The language and materials of music, vol. I. New York, NY: Lulu.com.

Coates, D. (2006). The ultimate pop sheet music collection: Easy piano. Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Music Publishing.

Colson, J. F. (2012). Conducting and rehearsing the instrumental music ensemble: Scenarios, priorities, strategies, essentials, and repertoire. Plymouth, UK: Scarecrow Press.

Dunbar, J. (2011). Women, music, culture: An introduction. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.

Foster, J. (n. d.). mixx 96.1 top 96 soft rock songs of all time. Web.

Horne, G. (2005). Alfred’s teach yourself songwriting: Everything you need to know to start writing songs now! Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Music Publishing.

ISTD (2012). What’s slow? Web.

Luboff, P. & Luboff, P. (2007). 101 songwriting wrongs and how to right them: how to craft and sell your songs. Washington, DC: Library of Congress.

Narmour, E. (1988). Explorations in music, the arts, and ideas: essays in honor of Meyer, L. B. Explorations in music, the arts, and ideas: essays in honor of Leonard B. Meyer. Maesteg: Pendragon Press.

Pandey, A. (2005). Encyclopaedic dictionary of music, vol.2 New Delhi: Ashish Pandey.

Randel, D. M. (1999). The Harvard concise dictionary of music and musicians. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Tingen, P. (2008). Diane Warren. The world’s most successful songwriter. Web.

Unbreak My Heart (n. d.). Web.

Von Helmholtz, H. L. F. (2007). On the sensation of tone. New York, NY: Cosimo.

Warren, D. (1996). Un-break my heart. [Recorded by Tony Braxton]. A CD single [CD]. New York, NY: LaFace.

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