My piece of music is Almost (Sweet Music) by Hozier off his most recent album Wasteland, Baby! Hozier is an artist known to incorporate blues, jazz, R&B, and worship music into his songs. In the song, a little bit of all of them can be seen. The melody remains mostly consistent throughout the piece; Hozier is known to have conjunct motion throughout the chorus, while in verses and bridges he uses disjunct motion. In Almost (Sweet Music), he jumps from singing low to belting high notes as the beat changes or more instruments are introduced into the harmony. When it is just him singing, he remains consistent in his intervals until he needs to make a point or the verse changes.
The instruments have their own voice in this piece, almost as important as Hozier’s. In the beginning, his melody is accompanied by percussion from clapping and drums; the guitar has its own melody -shorter than his, but distinct. The guitar’s melody grows longer and more distinct as the chorus starts; Hozier is accompanied by backup voices, an organ, drums, clapping, and another melody sung by him underneath the original. With so many pieces, it is very easy to have clashing melodies, but Hozier makes it work so that Almost (Sweet Music) sounds as if all of its different melodies come together as one in the end.
The texture of the piece is, not surprisingly, mainly polyphonic. While there are some instances of homophonic texture occurring within the piece (e.g. in the first few seconds, Hozier singing with the backup voices, etc.) overall the song is polyphonic. Since there are so many different pieces to Almost (Sweet Music) this comes as no surprise. But Hozier manages to bring them all together to create a song both fun and cheerful while nostalgic and bittersweet.
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