Musical Investigation
Rammstein's "Adios"
Background
Rammstein is a German Neue Deutsche Härte band from Berlin, formed in 1994. The album Mutter, which includes "Adios," was released on April 2, 2001.
Analysis
| Melody | The melody is very conjunct, moving with no
leaps; the largest interval is a fifth. It is lyrical and simple, with a narrow
range. A recurring theme throughout the song is a pattern of eighth notes and
eighth note rests. The eighth notes begin on the mediant, then jump to the leading tone, followed by the dominant. The dominant is repeated twice with a mediant grace note each time, and then the theme repeats itself . This theme is heard in
the electric guitar, but a variation of the theme can also be found in the acoustic guitar . The melody is generally
divided into groups of four bars , though a few times presented in two bar phrases instead . |
| Harmony | This song is in the key of G minor. This can be
determined from the theme of the piece explained in the melody section. The mediant
is B♭, the dominant is D, and the leading tone is F. The solo areas may
change to the relative B♭ major key with some accidentals. The song is consonant for the majority
of the time, but the theme has within itself some consonance and some dissonance,
the dissonance being created by the seventh scale degree . |
| Rhythm | The time signature is 4/4,
simple quadruple meter. Sixteenth notes are present in the drum line throughout
almost the entirety of the song, which seems to speed up the mostly eighth or
quarter note melody. There is syncopation in the theme, with an accent on
the leading tone on the and of four, and on cymbal hits throughout the drum's sixteenth notes . |
| Timbre | This song has a dark
timbre, which dominantly comes from the deep, guttural voice. Alongside the
voice, instruments that can be heard are drums, electric guitar, and an
acoustic guitar at the beginning and middle of the song. During the second solo
section, an underlying drone and heavy breathing on the beat and the and of the
beat also lend to the darker timbre of the song . The German language has
very hard consonants, which give the language itself a dark sound, but the
voice in this song extends on those hard consonants and the dark sound by
rolling R's and growling ach's much more than they would be
when spoken. |
| Form | The form of this song is
strophic. |
| Texture | The texture of this song varies between thick and thin. When the voice is not present, the song gravitates toward a thicker texture , but a thinner texture is used when the voice is present, having very little accompaniment . |