Other Issues in Glides and Drops
Transition Drops
There can also be a transition in pitch between two notes. I don't know if that is a drop from the first note or a glide to the second note.
For example, the first line of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" ends with the syllable "bow" on the eighth. The next note is the first word of the second line, "Way", It is on the first (or dominant). When I sing the song I like to sometimes drop to the dominant (first) half-way through "bow".
An anticipatory drop, then, is dropping to the pitch of the next note when you are still on the previous note and previous syllable.
A most excellent example occurs in the song "Rainy Days and Mondays", sung by Karen Carpenter. The ending line of the chorus and song is "Rainy days and Mondays always get me down." This is a musical cliche -- a steady drop from the fifth to the dominant. Karen Carpenter adds an anticipatory drop on "me".
The function of the anticipatory drop is unknown. Is it a coincidence that her song and my version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow are both plaintive? Probably, but I don't know.
In the above two examples, there may be more to why an anticipatory drop is added. I am more likely to put in an anticipatory drop when I sing "where", "the", and "bow" before the beat. Karen Carpenter also changes the beat before her anticipatory drop.
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