My reasons for these analyses are two: to help listeners enjoy LJ's music more (if possible) and to help guitarists play them better. I also believe that we will all appreciate LJ's talent as a composer by looking more closely at his work.
Love at First Sight is a beautiful song. It was love at first hearing for me (OK, I'll bet that's an over-used cliche, but it's true for me). I knew it had to be the first analysis here.
Songwriting is more complex than it may seem, and like so many things in life you cannot really appreciate it until you try it for yourself. So a third 'hidden' reason for analysis can be to spark your own imagination. And it does take a good deal of imagination and work.
We've all been subjected to songs that repeat the same idea over and over. Not much imagination there, although maybe good to dance to or talk over. Then there are songs that have so many ideas crammed into them that you can't figure out what's going on - there's no apparent organization. A song needs to balance the need for repetition (so it sounds familiar and organized) with variation (so it stays fresh and not boring).
Now why am I going on about this here? We will see that in Love at First Sight LJ makes excellent use of only three ideas or themes to spin out this rich song. We spend almost 5 minutes listening to just a couple of ideas and rather than being bored, we are engrossed. If that's not magic, what is?
SECTION A
In bars 1-8 LJ presents us with the first theme, which I will refer to by the label theme a. This phrase ends on a half (or incomplete) cadence, so in bars 9-16 LJ repeats theme a with a few changes so that it ends on a full (complete) cadence. This theme is a strong melodic line with plenty of leaps with the chords. Bars 16 (second half)-24 (the repeat sign) then present the second idea, or theme b. Notice how this second theme contrasts with the first: it has very active 8th note motion, a more open ringing melody, and it uses B-natural, avoiding the Bb of theme a.
I will label this whole section, bars 1-24 as section A. If this is new to you I can't explain all the conventions of analysis here, but note that lowercase letters are used for smaller parts, while uppercase denote larger ones. So as far as parts go, we could say that section A (mm. 1-24) is made up of smaller themes aab.
These letter designations are more than just an intellectual game. Let's listen to the sound of them. There is a very cool effect here. To understand it, you need to know that thousands of songs use the form AABA, where they start with a theme A, repeat it so we can remember it (the second A0, do something else for variety (B), then repeat the theme (last A, maybe changed a little bit) to end off. This is a classic song form.
So, what does this have to do with us now? This song begins aab and then repeats it. So the form after the repeat is now aab aab. BUT... we hear music in time, and so at then end of bar 8 on the repeat we have heard this: aab a
It sounds like it is a complete statement of a song, and yet it does not finish with a full cadence. We need to continue to the cadence at bar 16, and then when we hear theme b start again we realize that this is a repeat of aab. Yes, this is a subtle point, but subtlety is where brilliance in songwriting really shines. It is easy to just write a theme and put in a repeat sign, but all too often the repeat sounds lifeless because we expect it. This little strategy keeps the ear guessing as to whether it is a repeat that we are hearing.
A note on performance: I like to play theme a rest stroke (i.e. the finger that strikes the string continues on to rest silently on the next string), and theme b free stroke (where the finger stays in the air, avoiding the other strings entirely). This sets the themes apart, emphasizing the linear quality of theme a, and the ringing chordal quality of theme b. But that's just me. You should consider how you want to present these themes in your own playing.
SECTION B
After the repeat, at bar 25 we hear a new idea. But how new is it? Listen to that melody - it's theme b again, but played up at the 7th position with more complex harmony of a couple of 6ths and that cool F#7(#5) chord. The higher position on the neck gives the melody a mellower sound, while the harmony warms it up a bit more (including the descending 3rds in the lower voice). [Try to work in some rest strokes here.] Note that in bar 31, the chord on the second half of the bar is A7, which is not labelled in the score.
Bars 34-42 present us with the third musical idea, theme c. This section could be called a bridge. It consists of two 4-bar phrases that begin identically, with the first ending on a half cadence, and the second on a full cadence. The tonality is a bit uncertain with the bass descending from B to A and then by semitone to E in bar 37, where it resolves to a half cadence in D. The motion begins again (on what we now know is vi of D), but when the descending bass reaches F# in bar 40 (under a D chord), it reverses direction back up to a big dominant A7 chord in bar 41 (mislabelled "Am" in the score) leading to the climax on the D chord on the downbeat of bar 42. LJ emphasizes this climax with the crescendo mark leading up to the D; in his recording on Guitarist he also slows down into the climax, which further emphasizes it.
SECTION A (REPEAT) Bars 42-52
From the high D in the melody, the D major chord slides down to a Dmaj7/F# with an A in the melody, and continues along with theme a. This sounds so right, even though the original F# of the melody is left out. The high D chord - which is in the place of the F# in the original theme a - is an elision, which substitutes the high D for F# in the melody (eliding what would otherwise be a full four beats on the high D, followed by the full theme a starting on F# at beat one of the next bar, thus making the song one bar longer).
As in a standard AABA form, the last A is varied a bit to add some spice to its return. The variations of the melody include the slide from high D to A, the triplet filling up the motion from F# to A (m. 44), and a harmonic surprise at bar 48.
While all three main themes are 8 bars long, LJ uses a number of clever ploys to alter their length to heighten expression in the song. One of the most beautiful comes in bar 48. Just as the final cadence is about to be reached, theme a branches off into an exquisite deceptive cadence on Bm9, which then descends a semitone to Bbmaj9 before 'taking another run at it' and ending with a full cadence in m. 52, as it the melody were lingering, unwilling to end so soon.
Indeed such an ending would have seemed too square, and yet even now the end seems too abrupt. Poetically, we are dealing with new love that wants to linger as long as possible. Formally, we have repeated theme a, but what about theme b?
CODA
Decades of analyzing and reading musical scores has taught me to look for clues as to the composer's intentions. I originally worried that this coda (a final summing up and closing section) was not a discrete section at all, but the double barline after bar 52 convinced me that it was. (I am assuming that it was put there by LJ, but we have to consider that it may have been placed there by a zealous editor!)
This section begins with a return to theme b (bars 53-60) with a couple of interesting changes in the bass: the descending run in bar 53 (G-E) and the omission of the bass A in bar 59. This omission serves to lighten the cadence onto D in bar 60. Theme b then repeats in bars 61-72, and how LJ turns this 8-bar theme into 12 is one of my favourite parts of this whole song. It begins with theme b at the 7th position (cf. m. 25), with an extension to the parallel 6ths (and a withholding of A# until the F#7(#5) chord) and then a very cool variation of the melody in bar 63, using sliding parallel 4ths. [Those take some practice, although I can't get myself to do the first one with my 4th finger!] After the cadence in bar 64 the theme continues along normally until the very end of bar 67, where instead of moving up to A, the bass continues down to F# and a beautifully unexpected F#m chord! The bass then moves back up to G, then G#, where the progression proceeds as we would have expected to G then A and a big cadence on D (bar 72). To emphasize that this was our goal, the two bar cadence G-A-D is repeated (mm. 73-74), this time, though, with the melody descending a 3rd to D rather than ascending a 6th. The cadence G-A-D repeats a third time (mm. 75-76) this time leading to a huge 6-string D chord [note that LJ does not play the 8th notes on beats 1 & 2 on his CD performance].The song then fades out with a motion that begins on the F# of the huge D chord, and continues to A then drops a major 7th to Bb. This is the outline of the first phrase of theme a (first two notes then the last one), elided with the beginning D chord (mm. 76-77). This motion repeats an octave lower (and is probably played softer) in bars 78-79, leading to the big final cadence D-A7-D in bars 80-81.
It is dangerous to try to guess at what the composer had in mind, so I will rather share some impressions that the song makes on me. I hope that they will get you thinking about how it affects you, and maybe also help you to learn the song.
The song stays in one key (D) for its entire length. Since we know from his other songs that LJ is quite comfortable changing keys, it strikes me that this "unchanging" key might have something to do with the character of this love that happens at first sight. It is constant, unchanging. OK, a bit romantic but it strikes me that way.
Also, except for the brief appearance of theme c, the whole piece is made up of two themes, varied and embellished, intertwined into the song's form. Again, romantic, but I didn't name the song!
And about that theme c, right at the center of the song: notice that it contains elements from BOTH theme a and theme b! For example, it begins with the rhythm of theme b, and even its general contour except upside-down. It even includes the bass motion B-A-G#-G, extending it further to G-F#-F-E. The link to theme a is a bit more tenuous, but the opening D of the melody does eventually lead up to F# (bar 35) which then falls to Bb. This is the outline that repeats at the end of the song. It seems like a stretch, but once I saw this I hear it every time I play the song.
Click here for a graphic representation of the song's sections.
So for guitarists, there is lots to think about here. How about varying the RH touch with each theme variation? And how can you set apart the two themes tonally? Is one 'male' and one 'female' (after all, LJ wrote it for his wife, Hope), and if so how to you present each one?
Songwriters can learn a lot from the way phrases are shortened by elision, and lengthened by meaningful insertions. This is also a wonderful lesson in writing for the guitar. Listen to the full, rich sound LJ (or you yourself) gets when he plays it, and then look at how few chords contain more then three notes! Even the climactic chord in bar 42 is only 4 notes. This makes that 6-string chords in bar 76 and bar 81 sound just enormous. Also, note the use of open strings, and the effect of playing the same music at different spots on the guitar.
I hope this has given you some insight into the brilliance of Laurence Juber as a composer.