Composition
"Forever" was written and produced by Carey and Walter Afanasieff in early 1995. The song is written in the key of A♭ major and features a basic chord progression of A♭-C/G-Fm/E♭-D♭-E♭. Throughout "Forever", Carey's voice spans from the low note of G3 to the high note of A5. According to author Chris Nickson, the song's instrumentation and throw-back melody bring reminders of 1950s and 60s balladry. The throw-back was featured through the chord changes, and in the way that the guitar arpeggios "stayed at the forefront of the music." "Forever" finds Carey displaying subtle and harmonizing vocals, with Nickson describing her voice as "undeniably rich." Stephen Holden from The New York Times described it as a "50's-style rock-and-roll ballad," while calling Carey's voice "magnificent."
Read more about this topic: Forever (Mariah Carey Song)
Famous quotes containing the word composition:
“If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad. As to that regular, uninterrupted love of writing ... I do not understand it. I feel it as a torture, which I must get rid of, but never as a pleasure. On the contrary, I think composition a great pain.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Boswell, when he speaks of his Life of Johnson, calls it my magnum opus, but it may more properly be called his opera, for it is truly a composition founded on a true story, in which there is a hero with a number of subordinate characters, and an alternate succession of recitative and airs of various tone and effect, all however in delightful animation.”
—James Boswell (1740–1795)
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—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)