“Ho Hey!” by The Lumineers Song

The title of the song I chose is, “Ho Hey!” written by The Lumineers. The Lumineers are an American folk group from California. The bandleader, Wesley Schultz, started off as an artist, drawing whatever he felt, and eventually replaced his talent and became a song artist. Wesley and Jeremiah started off childhood friends and began collaborating. They played gigs around New York. They moved to Denver, Colorado, bringing their talents with them. The very first thing they did was place a Craigslist ad for a cellist to add to their band. This is how they met Neyla Pekarek. They began playing as a trio and from there they went on. This song is about a relationship that the bandleader had with someone new and he is thinking about what it could have been and basically they are meant to be together, referring to her as sweetheart. That is how this song came about.

In the song, “Ho Hey!” there are several instruments being used. Throughout the song you hear a man’s voice, which is described as baritone, a definite pitched instrument. There is the guitar in which is definitely pitched. It is also medium pitched. You also hear a tambourine which is indefinitely high pitched. One more thing you hear would be the base drum, a definitely low pitched instrument. The overall tone color of the song would be described as happy and upbeat. The range is mostly wide because the singer hits a lot of high notes. The dynamics of the song is pretty much loud the whole time. At some points in the verses his singing is a bit softer but I would say that the “Ho”s and the “Hey”s keep it loud.

The melodies in the verses are mostly conjunct but in the chorus it is disjunct. I hear three major leaps in the song in the bridge at the words “And” and “love” , “Let’s” and “hope” and “Cause” and “oh”. All of the “Hos”s and “Hey”s in the song are complete cadences. The only other complete cadences would be The second line in chorus one, the seventh line in verse three, the second line in the bridge, and the second line in chorus three. Every other line is an incomplete cadence. The instruments and voices are playing in a staccato style. The climax of the song is in the bridge at the words “love,” “hope,” and “oh.” This song contain some lines that repeat right after each other, but have the same pitch both times, therefore it is not considered a sequence.

This song consists of a meter of four beats which is considered a quadruple meter. It has a medium tempo that I would categorize it as allegro. The accents words in this song would be all of the “Ho”s and the “Hey”s, the words “show” and “write” in verse two and the words “love,” “hope,” and “oh” in the bridge.. The form of the song is following: Intro, V1, V2, Ch1, V3, Ch2, Bridge, and Ch3. This song is written with major harmonies. There are no arpeggios because of the broken chord. The texture of the song is all polyphonic. It does not change.