Song: Matemateāone

Artist: Stan Walker

Album: Te Arohanui

Release date: 2021

Genre: Pop

Key: F Major

Chords in Key:  

I

ii

iii

IV

V

vi

vii

F

Gm

Am

Bb

C

Dm

E°

 

Matemateāone is written for piano, strings, and vocals in te reo Māori and English. It is a ballad which means it does not have a chorus. This is unusual compared to the pop song format. A ballad will often have a refrain, which is often a short section repeated at the at the end of the verse which isn’t long enough to feel like a chorus, but also isn’t a pre-chorus since no chorus comes after it. Instead, it goes back to the verse afterwards.

From after the first verse onwards, samples from Stan Walker and Lou Tyson’s wedding in 2021 are used. The wedding vows are used as an intro for verse two and the sounds of cheering and laughing are heard later on.

Intro

The intro begins with a vocable melody which is reminiscent of taonga pūoro. It makes this sound by using a quarter tone, which is a note between the usual notes of the chromatic scale, also known as a half-flat or half-sharp. It uses a lot of reverb for an ethereal and mysterious feel.

Verses

There is a very brief plagal cadence when the lyrics start, so the verse starts on the tonic chord. The song uses this plagal cadence again just before the tonic chord repeats, with some short leading melodies on the piano. The piano and vocal parts are elaborated on further, adding harmony notes and changing melody voicings to keep the forward momentum and stop the song from becoming repetitive. The string section is used extensively for this in verse 2, where violin melodies start coming to the front of the mix, as well as sustained notes/ chords having a gradual crescendo over this section.

Refrain

The refrain begins on the subdominant and descends through the chords diatonically until it reaches the tonic. It repeats but instead of ending up on the tonic, it ends up on the dominant, setting up a perfect cadence for the start of verse two.

The second refrain functions much more like a chorus, as it is long enough to feel like its own section. The language also switches from te reo Māori to English.

Coda/Outro

The outro/coda plays a modified version of the refrain with the elaboration gradually removed, creating a decrescendo-like effect as the strings fade away and only the voice and piano are left. Curiously, right before the final bar, a chromatic note is used which creates a discordant sound, immediately before the song ends on the tonic and sounds resolved.

 

For a glossary of terms visit dictionary.onmusic.org

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence. To view a copy of this licence, visit: creativecommons.org/licenses

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