Adapting Melodic Structure: Assignment 2

I chose the jazz standard Cry Me a River  to analyze its melodic structure and mimic aspects of that structure in my own composition.  Below is a photo of the chart I made of the song structure, along with some of the elements that stood out to me that I sought to incorporate into my song.  (Unfortunately, the image is appearing backwards...  I haven't found a way to fix that, sorry!)

            

Some elements of the structure that stood out to me, and that I sought to incorporate into my song, were the following:  The piece starts on the supertonic above the "ceiling" (tonic); it travels from "ceiling" to "middle" (dominant) and then to "ground" (tonic), then lingers in the "middle;" it incorporates a lowered second; it ends by tonicizing the mediant, implying that the key has shifted to the relative major.  

For my song Counting On Tomorrow, I tried to keep the general structure of movement of the melody.  I started on the second and had the song move from ceiling to middle to ground, then from ceiling to middle, and end by tonicizing the mediant.  I also played around with the tensions created by both the second and the lowered second that are used in Cry Me a River.  

Counting On Tomorrow

Chords:  am   C   G   D

am   C   G   D

am   C  G   D

F     G   C--

Who can change if just they will

Optimism in a pill

Close your eyes and just lay still

Counting on tomorrow

 

The monster in the mirror speaks

Says I know what makes you weak

Don’t think I have any say

But it’ll be okay some other day.

 

No peace

Don’t go, please

No, stay

Don’t go away

See it’ll be okay some other day.

 

Some other

Some other day

Some other day

Some other day