A Day In The Life by The Beatles

Critics and fans alike consider "A Day In The Life" one of the greatest songs in the popular music canon. To end their legendary album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Beatles created "A Day In The Life," a musical expression of what it means to be alive.

What is instantly apparent in "A Day In The Life" is that it is longer than most rock songs, doesn't follow the traditional verse/chorus form and utilizes a wide arrange of musical instruments not normally used popular music. What is revealed with further listening is that power in this song is not in its musical innovation but its meaning.

“A Day In The Life” has three main sections. The opening sung by John Lennon, the second faster tempo section sung by Paul McCartney and the last section, which is a return to the first part of the song. Lennon’s protagonist is a man who is depressed from reading the news every morning. This feeling is the monotony of doing the same thing every day with a lack of energy that reflects a deeper loss of faith.

While Lennon’s sections faces outwards observing the world, McCartney’s sections is about himself, doing things for his own benefit: getting dressed, getting coffee and making his way to work. Lennon’s tragedy is not thinking about oneself while, McCartney reminds us to slow down and experience the world.

The sections that Lennon and McCartney sing are who we are and the way that we move through the world while the grand ending is the majesty and wonder, the drama and meaning that we are missing in our lives.

The ending orchestras statement utilizes aleatoric composition techniques, which were being experimented in classical music of the 1960s. People often describe aleatoric music as chance music, but that is not quite accurate. What aleatoric music does is give musicians choices within certain parameters, which all composers have done throughout history. The difference in aleatoric music the choices that musicians can make have a more drastic effect on the outcome of the music.

When Bach wrote music he put in very few dynamics (how loud or soft to play), he left those decisions up to the musicians. What Brian Martin, the Beatles producer was give the orchestra a piece of music that had a starting note and an ending note and he left it up the musician to fill in the notes at their own discretion.

The ending of the song is the argument for how life should be lived. The rising orchestra is the frustration, the pain, and the fear that builds inside of us every day. These are the consequences of taking chances, reaching out to others and trying to change. The height of the cacophony before the last chord is the times when it seems to be almost too much to take and the struggle of life doesn’t seem worth it.

This song reminds us that if we push through the hard times at the end of it all there is a light. In that last chord, the brilliance of the light shatters away any doubts that the struggle is worth it. In that moment, the Beatles answer the question, “what is the meaning of life” not through a statement of logic, but in an expression of feeling, indescribable in it’s power, and transcendent in its beauty.