Under Ice

Dynamics

• Vocals faded out at the end — gradual dissolution reinforces the narrative of the singer sinking beneath the ice

Rhythm / Tempo / Metre

• Large accelerando from opening (65 bpm → 100 → 108), followed by a ritardando in the final bars — brings the piece full circle; leaves little sense of finality or resolution; reflects the disorienting subject matter

• Pause on the final note

• "Obsessive" strong crotchet pulse articulated constantly in the bass throughout — the piece is dominated by these insistent bass crotchets

• Piece built on a repeated ten-bar rhythmic unit (first instance bars 5–14): 2 bars of 4/4, 5 bars of 3/4, 3 bars of 4/4 — frequent alternation between 4/4 and 3/4
  • Irregular positioning of time signature changes creates an unsettled feel (e.g. bar 21: an extra 4/4 bar delays the expected 3/4, prolonging the listener's anticipation)

• Accompaniment ostinato (first heard bars 3–4): three-quaver (♫♩) rhythm, repeated and rhythmically displaced to create a 3+3+2 cross-rhythm across two bars of 4/4

• Vocal refrain uses the same three-quaver (♫♩) rhythm as the ostinato — unifies the rhythmic language of the piece
  • Figuration sometimes extended into a two-bar phrase (e.g. bars 3–4); later adopted in the vocal line (e.g. "Everywhere", "Not a soul, on the ice")

• Verse has more rhythmic variety: mild syncopation (upbeat), scotch snaps (bar 27), triplets (bar 50)

• Tremolo in the voice part (bar 46) on "moving under ice" — sinister effect; cf. Jaws (John Williams), where rhythmic alteration of a simple repeating interval generates tension

Texture

• Sparse melody-dominated homophony — fragmentary lead vocal underpinned by a bass line and two short, two-part string figurations

• Articulated bass pedal texture throughout

• Ostinato open-fifth textures over the bass (bars 3–4)

• Homorhythmic vocal parts in the refrain using the three-quaver (♫♩) rhythm

• Antiphonal dialogue in the coda between lead vocal and three-part tracked backing vocals on the phrase "It's me"

Structure

⚠️ Structural contradiction: two different outlines appear in the notes — one uses Verse/Refrain labels, the other uses Motif 1/Motif 2 labels with different bar groupings. Both are listed below; check against your score/source to confirm which is correct.

Verse/Refrain reading:

Motif reading:

• Through-composed — rejects verse-chorus structure entirely; structure defined by accompaniment figures and time signature changes rather than by the melody

• Quite short (~2'21")

• Wider listening: cf. "It's a Kind of Magic" (Queen) — also through-composed; through-composed songs are less immediately memorable than verse-chorus forms

Melody

• Restricted range — mostly limited to a perfect fifth, predominantly low tessitura in verses (no higher than E4); rises to C5 only in the climactic final "cry" (bar 53)

• Lead vocal characterised by short, staccato, mainly stepwise two-pitch figures — repeated notes and small stepwise movement; may suggest entrapment

• Short lyrical section ("The river has frozen over") — spans a 5th, with prominent leaps of a 4th (A–D) then 5th (A–E)

• Quasi-pentatonic shapes in more lyrical sections (bars 15–18)

• Mainly syllabic with occasional melismas (e.g. "trees", bars 27–28)

• Final phrase (bar 53): higher register; melisma combined with long descending chromatic portamento — word-painting (singer sinking under the ice); finishes on the lower dominant — harmonically unresolved

Instrumentation / Sonority

• All accompaniment synthesised/sampled via Fairlight CMI — synth strings and synth pad form the entirety of the accompaniment; bleaker, colder sound than 'Cloudbusting' or 'And Dream of Sheep'; no acoustic instruments

• Synth drone throughout — creates a sense of space, texture, and sustained suspense

• Radio-sampled sound, hard-panned left

• Lead vocals: low tessitura in verses; higher continuation from bar 53 — two distinct registers exploited

• Lead vocals harmonised by a quieter lower male voice in refrain sections; additional voices join to create three-part texture in the coda

• Last sound: sustained vocal sample with a moving filter frequency — resembles Mongolian throat-singing vocal harmonics; an intricate detail for what is effectively an appendix to the album

• Pitch bend / glissando at end — gradual fade via moving filter (EQ and volume automation) creates the illusion of the singer sinking into the depths

• Sound effects: wind, cracking ice, submarine radar "pip" — reinforce the cold, searching narrative

Tonality

• Modal A minor throughout — no key changes

• Towards the conclusion, "less rational" electronic sounds undermine the tonality, increasing ambiguity

Harmony

• Built over a sustained Asus2 chord; all chords drawn from A natural minor except for the occasional D major

• Limited, repeating chord rotation: Fmaj7#4 – Dm9 – Asus2 – Am/C — gentle but persistent dissonance

• Bass outlines tonic (A), submediant (F), mediant (C), subdominant (D); dominant (E) deliberately avoided — prevents any sense of harmonic resolution (chords I, VI, III, IV — no chord V)

• Functional cadences avoided; passing dissonances in synth strings and vocals

• Many open and parallel fifths in the synth strings

• Tonic pedal at start and end

• Finishes on an ambiguous Asus2 with electronic effects — no resolution; underlines the narrative of sinking