Kate Bush: Hounds of Love – ‘Cloudbusting’,

‘And Dream of Sheep’ and ‘Under Ice’

(for component 3: Appraising)

Background information and performance circumstances

The composer
Kate Bush was born in Kent, in 1958. Her early music came to the attention of Dave Gilmour (guitarist
with Pink Floyd) who recommended her to the record company EMI, who signed Kate at 16.

The first single release from her first album Wuthering Heights became a national and international
success, bringing her first (and so far only) UK number 1. She was also the first British female artist to top
the UK album charts, with Never for Ever.

Her songs are often inspired by literary or historical sources, as in Wuthering Heights , which is based on
Emil B on e novel. Her musical roots and inspirations are similarly eclectic, ranging through progressive
rock, folk, ethnic styles, electronica and classical forms. She also received training in dance and mime, art-
forms which she has used extensively in her stage and video work.

Artists who have appeared on her albums include Elton John, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, David Gilmour, Nigel
Kennedy and Prince.

The piece
Hounds of Love (a concept album) a Ka e B h fif h dio alb m (released in 1985), and the second
that she had produced. It was recorded in her own studio, in the grounds of her home, as studio fees for
her previous albums had been very high.

The album features her as composer, performer and producer, working with more or less complete
control. Kate sings lead vocals and plays piano and Fairlight CMI (Computer Musical Instrument an early
sampler/sequencer/synthesiser). Her brother Paddy plays violin, balalaika and sings harmony vocals on
Under Ice .

Other regular collaborators also appear Del Palmer (bass), Alan Murphy (guitar) and Stuart Elliott and
Charlie Morgan (drums).
The album uses a typically wide range of additional instruments and performers Irish musicians Donal
Lunny (bouzouki), John Sheahan (whi le and Liam O Fl nn uillean pipes), the Medici String Sextet, the
Richard Hickox Singers and classical guitarist John Williams.

Vinyl albums (and cassettes) were produced with two sides, a physical division which is mirrored in the
contrast between the more up-tem o o ong of side one (concluding with Cloudbusting ) and the
mo e a -related songs which make up side two, which Bush has called The Ninth Wave.

Cloudbusting too, has an extra-musical inspiration, being based on the relationship between the
psychoanalyst/inventor Wilhelm Reich, and his son, Peter. His theories on the capturing of a mysterious
energy, called Orgone led him o belie e ha he co ld c e h mani ill and also create rain (using
machines called Cloudbusters). His attempt to market and publicise his inventions led to his
imprisonment for two years for fraud in 1956.

Kate Bush managed to persuade the actor Donald Sutherland to appear in the video for Cloudbusting .
The video, shot at the ancient White Horse at Uffington, is still available on YouTube, and features a
cloudb ing machine Reich a e and Ka e a he unconvincing (?)) a ea ance a Reich on

The Ninth Wave evokes the feelings and experiences of an individual drifting alone on the sea at night:

And Dream of Sheep – drifting in the sea, awaiting rescue

Under Ice – in a dream-like state the narrator is skating on ice, alone. In a doppelganger-like
moment she sees herself under the ice.

Performing forces and their handling

Two main elements are common to the three tracks here:

Ka e B h distinctive voice
The use of cutting-edge music technology, in the form of the Fairlight CMI. This instrument
could not only sample and reproduce sounds, but could also act as a sequencer and
synthesiser as well.

Two tracks show her liking for instruments and combinations not normally used in pop music:

A classical string sextet in Clo db ing

The Irish folk instruments bouzouki and whistles in And Dream of Shee .

Clo db sting
Most conventional use of instruments, but still lacking some of the traditional backing
instruments of rock and pop styles:
o No bass guitar
o No electric guitar
o Restrained use of drums/percussion.
 Main accompaniment here is the string sextet:
o Short staccato chords, creating a strong crotchet pulse (reminiscent of the strings in the
Bea le Eleanor Rigby )
o Violin riff signals the start of the chorus each time (bar 18)
o Violin countermelody (in octaves) in verse 2 (bar 34).
Keyboard-triggered Fairlight samples:
o Treated vocal sample used as a backing ostinato to the bridge section (bars 11 17)
o Two sampled tracks used as the melody and accompanying chords for the instrumental
section (bars 65 80)
o Sampled steam engine sounds ed o co e he final cho d and o c ea e an ending.
B sh s ocals feature throughout:
o Range of a tenth (G♯ below middle C B above) mostly in mid-range
o Syllabic setting of the words.
Wordless (nonsense syllables) backing singers sing in counterpoint with the lead vocals during
the outro/coda (bar 111).
Drums/Percussion used sparingly e ha mo no able i he mili a na e d m a
towards the end of the song.
Ka e b o he Padd la a e b ief balalaika line (bars 8 9).

And Dream of Sheep

Dominated by the voice and piano textures reminiscent of ballads from early in Bu h ca ee .
Bouzouki (played by Irish musician Donal Lunny) adds decorating lines to verse 2 (bar 20) and also
plays in the second instrumental link section, and in the outro/coda.
Irish whistle (John Sheahan) is multi-tracked during the outro/coda. (It is said to have taken three
hours for the player to ge he e i ed deg ee of bend on notes during the recording session.)
The piano style:
o Mo e d ama ic and in ol ed d ing he e e, using a wider range of the keyboard
o Vam ed chords during the refrain.
A spoken vocal sample is used, in the style of the radio shipping forecast, rather similar to some
of the so nd onic objec in Pink Flo d The Wall (bar 15).
The final phrase uses word-painting, as the vocal line de cend o he o d dee e and dee e .

Under Ice
All accompaniment here is synthesised/sampled sound produced through the Fairlight CMI.
(Perhaps the composer preferred the bleaker/colder sound of am led ing o he li e o nd
used on Clo db ing ?)
Lead vocal uses a low tessitura throughout.
Vocal range limited to a perfect fifth (A below middle C to E above) e ce fo he c in he la
phrase.
Lead vocals are harmonised by a lower, quieter male voice during the refrain sections until bar
49, where additional voices join in to make three parts.
 The lead vocal is mainly syllabic, but there are melismas (e.g. at bars 27 28, ee
A higher register phrase at bars 53 57 combines a melisma with a slide downwards to the final
note (word-painting).
The last sound heard is a sustained vocal sample, with a moving filter frequency used to create an
effect similar to the vocal harmonics of Mongolian throat singers.

Structure
All three songs here do contain some or all of the familiar ingredients of popular song structure:

Verses
Refrains or choruses
Contrasting instrumental or bridge sections
Introductions and/or outros or codas.

However, the aesthetic here is far from the highly formalised 3-minute pop song of the 1980s à la Stock,
Aitken and Waterman, being closer in some respects to the pretensions of progressive rock and in others
to the narrative forms of musical theatre.

Clo db ing , at 5 minutes, is considerably longer than most single releases, and the version that
accompaniers the video is nearly 7 minutes.

And Dream of Shee and Under Ice , being parts of a seven-song cycle, are relatively short, at 2 45 and
2 21 respectively. The two songs follow one another, and there is also some related material in common.

Clo db sting
Extended conventional song structure.
Lacks an introduction but has a long outro/coda.
Uses the common device of going straight to a final chorus after the instrumental, rather than
going into a third verse.
In a modal C♯ minor.

Verse 1 Bars 1 10 Lead vocal and homorhythmic strings

Regular change of metre to 6/4 (really 3/2)
Based on a two-bar repeated chord sequence
Bridge Bars 11 17 Three repetitions of a new melodic idea
Vocal sample figure added
Chorus Bars 18 33 Begins with violin riff
Vocal ing ho hook idea three times
More continuous, stepwise line (bars 27 29)
Verse 2 Bars 34 43 Drums enter (but not very dramatically) bar 18
Violin countermelody in octaves bar 34
Bridge 2 Bars 44 50
Chorus Bars 51 68
 Percussion returns
Ke boa d begin i solo line d ing la fo ba
Instrumental Bars 69 80 underneath vocals
Based on the four-bar chord sequence of the vhorus
Melodic line is fairly restrained, consisting of long, held
notes joined by quaver figures
Upward leap at bar 73 and descending sixth at bar74
are noticeable
Chorus Bars 81 98 Add a mili a snare drum line
Bar 95 string accompaniment becomes more active
Outro/Coda Bars 99 136 Longest section of the song which has an
improvisatory feel to it
Keyboard 2 repeats material from the instrumental
Lead vocal adds material from end of chorus at bar
1 hen he hook a bars 130, 132
Backing vocals add a wordless figure every four bars
from bar 111

And Dream of Sheep

Also lacks an introduction.

Verse Bars 1 7 Voice and piano only

Prominent rising fifths in vocal line
Minor tonality (C♯ minor again)
Seven-bar phrase (2+2+3)
Bridge Bars 8 19 Moves to E (relative major)
Simpler piano chordal style over a tonic pedal
Melody more restricted in range based around a
minor third
Uses chord sequence from refrain
Shi ing fo eca am le
Vocal line slightly varied here
Verse 2 Bars 20 26
Bouzouki decorations added bars 20 23
Third phrase added here to extend section
Bridge 2 Bars 27 40
Bo o ki e lace hi ing fo eca
Based on chord sequence of refrain (bars 8 12)
Repeated vocal idea
Addition of multi-tracked whistle and occasional
Outro/Coda Bars 41 46 bouzouki
Bars 47 53 Pause at bar 47
Vocal line continues as above
Accompaniment taken from bars 36 40
Bar 51 extended to five beats for dramatic effect
Ambiguous final chord
Vocals finish on dominant note
Rit. over last two bars
Under Ice
Through-composed, with little clarity of verse/chorus structure.
Quite short, at 2 21 .
Least conventional in structure, melodically, although it is based on repetition of ideas.
In he follo ing able he e m e e and ef ain a e used in their most basic sense.
Bars 5 14 form a repeated structure, which is the basis for the piece. Unusually, this structure is
not defined by the melody, but by the accompaniment figures and by the changes of time
signature and rhythm.

Introduction Bars 1 4 Modal A minor

Re-iterated A octave in the bass
Accompaniment ostinato in fifths
Ostinato idea continues in accompaniment
Verse 1 Bars 5 8 No vocals here
Change of metre to 3/4 at bar 7
Uses ♫♩ rhythm (from accompaniment)
Refrain 1 Bars 9 14 rhythmically displaced in bars 12 13
Melody uses pentatonic shapes
Verse 2 Bars 15 18 Lead vocal harmonised by lower voice
Bars 19 24
Di an o of ke c a bar 23
Verse 3 Bars 25 28

Refrain 3 Bars 29 34

Bars 35 40
Extension of refrain
Verse 4 Bars 41 44
Refrain 4 Bars 44 49
Harmonised parts become more audible
Third part added in bar 49
Outro/Coda Bars 50 58
Dialogue between lead vocal I me and -
part backing vocals
Final high c f om ocal a bar 53
Whi e ed ake

Texture
As with most songs, the function of the texture is to support and emphasise the melody and
lyrics, creating a melody-dominated homophony.

Clo db sting
Homorhythmic string chords articulate a crotchet pulse for most of the song, broken only (for
effect) at the end of the bridge sections (bars 17, 50).
 String countermelody doubled in octaves added in verse 2.
Vocal sample idea added to texture during bridge sections.
More polyphonic feel in chorus, where violin riff acts as a counterpoint to the vocal phrases.
Silence used for impact in bars 17 and 50.
Outro/Coda features polyphonic interplay of three lines (although rarely all three together):
o Lead vocals
o Instrumental line in keyboard 2
o Wordless backing vocals.

And Dream of Sheep

Focus very much on vocal line here.
Piano is more active/involved in verses wider ranging arpeggios and some doubling of the
vocals.
Chorus is accompanied by much plainer, mid-range block chords.
Tonic bass pedal (E) appears in several sections here (e.g. bars 8 12 and 15 16).

Under Ice
Articulated bass pedal textures used throughout.
Ostinato open fifth textures used frequently over the bass (e.g. bars 3 4).
Dialogue between lead and backing vocals in coda (bars 50 58).
Homorhythmic vocal parts in refrain, using ♫♩ rhythm.

Tonality
Kate B h m ical lang age i tonal, but not straightforwardly diatonic and functional.
The tonality is always clear, but is often modally inflected in the choice of chords and
progressions.
There is little evidence of tonality being used to define structure here.

Clo db sting
Modal C# minor with no changes of key.

And Dream of Sheep

Verses in modal C♯ minor.
Choruses in E major (relative major).
Ends (a little inconclusively) in E major.

Under Ice
Modal A minor.
No key changes.
Finishes on an ambiguous Asus2 chord.
Harmony
Ka e B h ha monic lang age i clea l ba ed on he main elements of the diatonic functional
system.
Being musically self-taught, she does not feel constrained by functional relationships and
progressions:
o Very few perfect cadences (the exception here is the perfect cadence in E major which
closes the chorus section of And Dream of Shee )
o Progressions based on primary chords are rare.
Much use of repeated chord sequences, usually two or four bars in length.
Chord palate is widened by the use of added note and extension chords, sus chords, and slash
chords.

Clo db sting
Verse and outro/coda based around a modal chord sequence, moving by step and using seventh
and ninth chords. Note how the Badd9 subtonic (♭VII) chord acts as a substitute dominant at the
end of the sequence:
o C♯m7 Badd9 A6/9 Badd9.
Chorus and Instrumental based on similar sequence (A6/9and F♯7(sus4)contain the same notes):
o C♯m7 Badd9 F♯7(sus4) Badd9.

And Dream of Sheep

Opens with another modal sequence
o C♯m7 F♯m/A B (note the roots a fifth apart).
o This can be interpreted a I IVb ♭VII progression in C# minor, using the subtonic once
more, or perhaps as an extended VI IIb V progression in E major, the key of the chorus
The chorus uses a conventional I II V I progression, in E major, over a tonic bass pedal.

Under Ice
This piece uses a repeated chord sequence. Note the movement by thirds up and down here
o Fmaj7♯4 Dm9 A(sus2) Am/C.
The chords here are all taken from the scale of A natural minor apart from the occasional D
major chord (bars 22 23, 49 53), which uses an F♯.

Melody
Ka e B h melodie a e kno n fo hei f ee-flowing, quirky, unpredictable nature. They tend to be
constructed in short phrases, not always equal in length, and can sound improvised. Repetition is a key
feature and larger intervals (greater than a fifth) are often given some prominence

Clo db sting
Begins with a triadic shape (G♯ B E), but as the harmony here is C♯m7, the notes picked out
include an unprepared seventh and thus the effect is not at all that of the (apparent) major triad.
 Chor s hook uses:
o Rising fifth
o Rapid repeated notes
o Syncopated anticipation.
Violin riff in chorus uses simple stepwise, repetitive, material.
Backing vocal figure in the outro/coda features:
o A rising minor seventh leap from tonic to flattened leading note
o A stepwise fall to (alternating) supertonic and subdominant notes.
Text
And Dream of Sheep
Verse opens with two rising fifths (which could be considered a melodic sequence).
Chorus features oscillating minor third between B and G♯.
Coda/Outro uses a repeated figure:
o Rising major sixth from the lower dominant (B)
o Falls by step back to the starting note or to the tonic
o Word-painting ed on he final h a e he ake me dee e
o Song finishes on an nresol ed dominan no e.

Under Ice
Melodic range is more restricted here:
o Many short phrases, often featuring repeated notes or small, stepwise movements
o Perhaps intended to suggest a feeling of entrapment?
Short, staccato refrain-like ideas.
Quasi-pentatonic shapes used in the more lyrical melodic sections (bars 15 18).
Mostly small range (perfect fifth) but higher in last phrase (and including a sinking portamento
effect).

Rhythm, tempo and metre

The pieces involve regular and planned changes of metre perhaps showing the influence of progressive
rock bands o la d ing Ka e B h fo ma i e ea s. Vocal lines contain frequent syncopations,
anticipations and retardation/suspensions (although not prepared in the traditional manner). A sense of
pulse is strong and rarely absent.

Clo db sting
Fast medium tempo throughout (♩=112), with strong sense of pulse.
Metre is mostly 4/4 in verse and chorus, but with bars of 6/4 used to extend phrases.
Bridge uses 3/2 metre for variety (notated in transcription as 6/4).
♫♩ rhythm used extensively.
Chorus hook uses anticipatory syncopation and rapid repeated notes.

Text
 Accompanying string rhythms become more active towards the end, replace the third beat with
alternate quavers and semiquavers.

And Dream of Sheep

Slow ballad tempo (♩=80).
Mostly 4/4 metre, with 2/4 bars used to extend phrases at bars 11 and 32 and a 5/4 bar used for
dramatic effect at bar 51.
Verse and chorus openings both use syncopation.
Vocal material often starts after the first beat of the bar.
Final vocal idea (outro/coda):
o Has an anacrusic pick-up
o Uses triplets, ties and Lombardic rhythms in the last five bars
o Ends with a ritardando.

Under Ice
Scotch snap b.29 stupid
Begins very slowly at ♩=65, but accelerates to ♩=100 and then to 108.
Last four bars slow down again.
Ob e i e crotchet pulse articulated constantly in the bass.
Uses a repeated ten-bar rhythmic unit as the basis for the piece (see bars 5 14)
o 4/4 x2 3/4 x 5 4/4 x3.
Accompaniment ostinato (first heard in bars 3 4) uses ♫♩ rhythm, repeated and rhythmically
displaced, to create a 3+3+2 cross-rhythm across two bars of 4/4.
Vocal refrain uses the ♫♩ of the ostinato accompaniment unifying the rhythmic language of the
piece. Scotch snaps b.27 (reversed doted)