Analysis of rhythmic displacement in "Puttin' on the Ritz" By donnalee in donnalee's Diary Tue Apr 13, 2010 at 06:31:51 AM EST Tags: music, syncopation, rhythmic displacement, jazz, swing (all tags)
	Performance Background Sheet music wikipedia: According to John Mueller, the central device in the A section is the "use of delayed rhythmic resolution: a staggering, off-balance passage, emphasized by the unorthodox stresses in the lyric, suddenly resolves satisfyingly on a held note, followed by the forceful assertion of the title phrase." The marchlike B section, which is only barely syncopated, acts as a contrast to the previous rhythmic complexities.[1] According to Alec Wilder, in his study of American popular song, the rhythmic pattern in "Puttin' on the Ritz" is "the most complex and provocative I have ever come upon."

The A chorus (page 2 of the sheet music PDF) contains, according to my ear, three similar phrases, each starting one beat further back than the preceding. The first phrase corresponds to the lyrics "If you're blue and you don't know where"; the first note, C, starts on the first beat of the measure (a downbeat). The second phrase, with the lyrics "to go to why don't you go where", has the starting C note on the 4rth beat of the second measure (an upbeat) - one beat earlier than the first phrase. The change from the downbeat to the upbeat is rhythmic displacement. The third phrase ("Harlem sits") is truncated, displaced harmonically a half-step downwards, and begins on the third beat of the 4rth measure, again one beat earlier than the previous phrase would lead you to expect. Or you can analyze the phrases as starting with G, the first containing an implicit G before the C on the one. The effect is the same - if you're walking and make each footfall a beat, the first phrase will start on one foot, the second on the other foot, and the third back on the first foot. Other examples of rhythmic displacement include Louis Armstrong's Got No Blues (recorded a year or so before Berlin composed "Puttin on the Ritz"). During the first stop chorus, starting at about 1:02, the band plays on two and four, and Louis's phrases start on ones. But during the break (starting at 1:24), Louis turns the two into one (at 1:28) and the band has a hard time keeping their sense of where the two is - you can hear Lil Hardin Armstrong on piano having to play real firm to keep the band in line - then Louis turns the one back into two at the beginning of bar 7 (1:38), and everything's back on track. Louis's example of rhythmic displacement is all the more impressive since it's improvised, and lasts for 6 full bars! Another example of rhythmic displacement is Duke Ellington's It don't mean a thing, where the phrases in bars 5-8 of the A chorus start on the 2, the 1, the 4, and the 3.

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Performanc e Background Sheet music wikipedia Got No Blues It don't mean a thing donnalee's Diary