One Night Only has a complex texture. There are multiple layers that have different musical elements in each. There is also polyphony and polyrhythm heard. The song begins with brass instruments and piano. The brass instrument have the melody while the piano keeps the slow, even tempo. The brass instrument plays the same phrase three times. There trills heard, which are when three notes are played really quickly. Then one female voice comes in singing the first verse. When the voice comes in, the piano is heard more and the brass instrument drops out until later on in the verse. The female vocalist has a wide range in her voice; the melody that she is singing has a conjunct character because sometimes there are big steps between the notes. For example, in “right on the line,” there is a big jump between “the” and “line.” While rhyming is not heard as clearly in this layer as in others, there are certain words and syllables that are emphasized, such as soul, devotion (-tion), line, you, forever, trouble, and time. These words stand out because they are either punctuated or held longer than the other words. The second layer is when the main melody starts. In this layer, there is still only one female voice singing but there is more instrumentation. This is the first time the percussion is heard; it keeps the slow, steady pulse and tempo. This is also the first time the string instruments are heard; they play their own melody. The piano accompanies the voice playing the same melody. There are repeated motives in the melody because the first phrase, “one night only,” is repeated every time the melody is sung. This melody has a mostly disjunct character; there are relatively small steps between the notes. However, the last note of the last phrase is the highest; there is a big jump between “ ‘till” and “dawn.”
The percussion leads into the next layer. The third layer is another verse sung by the same soloist. The strings are not heard in this section. The percussion still keeps the pulse. However, this time the piano helps keep the slow tempo; it does not play the melody. The beginning of this layer has a much slower rhythm than the end of the layer. The percussion keeps a much faster tempo at the end of the layer. The last note of the verse is the highest and longest held. At the same time, the percussion is speeding up the temp and the brass instruments have a little interlude. This is preparing the audience the faster rhythm; it is going to be more upbeat. In the fourth layer, there are short phrases; most of the notes are held for a short time. Between the phrases, the brass instruments have a little break solo. The string instruments are heard more than before in this section. The rhythm and tempo are much faster than ever before. The verse that is sung has the same melody as the other verses had. Next, the main melody is heard again. This is the first time it is sung with all three female vocalists. Since the melody is sung the same way as the first time, the melodic contour, phrasing, character and range stay the same. There are brass instrumental short break solos at the end of each phrase. The melodic contour has more of a horizontal structure when the main melody is sung. In this layer, there is call and response. The section begins with the three vocalists singing. Then only one sings and the others repeat the same phrase. This happens with the phrase, “We only have ‘till dawn.” In other phrases, one vocalist sings a phrase and the others harmonize on “ah.” This happens during the phrase, “There’s nothing more to say.” Towards the end of the song, the two vocalists sing the melody and the main soloist sings a verse in a lower range. The song ends when the music fades out. It still has the fast rhythm; it does not slow down at the end. The brass instruments, percussion and voice are still heard; they just fade out.
There is mostly a duple meter in this song. I think there are eight layers. There are different rhythms; the speed does not stay consistent throughout the song. The first half of the song has a slower tempo and rhythm than the second half. There are repeated melodic and time motives because there is a lot of repetition. Melodies and phrases repeat. Therefore, rhythmic patterns repeat as well. Furthermore, dynamics are heard. They are most clearly heard in the first verse at the beginning. There are crescendos and decrescendos on certain phrases and words. For example, there is a crescendo in the middle of the word, “forever.” Sometimes the last word of the last phrase of the melody has a crescendo on it. There is also harmonic character heard in the voices. This happens toward the end when all three voices are heard. One voice sings a phrase and the other two sing in a different range to harmonize. Swing is not heard in this song; each note is sung and has its own sound.
There are rhyming words in this song, especially in the main melody. There are simple rhymes in the melody, such as “spare” and “care,” “live” and “give,” and “way” and “say.” There is also an assonance rhyme in the melody, “on” and “dawn.” In addition, there is an internal rhyme in one of the verses, “line” and “time.” The music supports these rhymes because the rhyming words are held longer than the others; there is a rhythmic change. Furthermore, the first word is normally sung in a lower range than the second word. This is how the music supports the rhyming words and gives meaning to them.
