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Disecting the Happy Birthday Song

Scientific American once analyzed Mozart's happy birthday diddle. We all know the song: "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear XXX, happy birthday to you!

It seems so simple, child-like and catchy. Any yet it has endured in hundreds of languages for centuries. In fact, the structure is very complex from a psychological point of view, it harnesses many of the musical attributes essential to a song meant to be sung in unison by multiple voices of different pitch without anyone feeling out of tune.

The first and second lines are repeats of the same four words. Repetition helps create expectation, excitement. And in the third line he brings us down just enough so that coming back up again for the final burst feels that extra bit happier. People hang on to the last "you" for many beats because they feel so happy.
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  • 枫下拾英 / 乐韵书香 / Disecting the Happy Birthday Song
    • 与这个话题相关的一场音乐会---》
    • 想起Bernstein指挥纽约爱乐的一场普及音乐会,叫Happy Birthday Stravinsky! 一上来就演这个生日歌,不过和声,节奏和配器全是斯特拉文司机式的,听上去很嚣张,非常搞笑。想着如果是Happy Birthday Mahler会怎样?:)