The Speed Of Victory as Ebullience: Stevie Wonder, “Isn’t She Lovely?” – Songs In The Key Of Life, speed=118.7 beats per minute, emotion expressed=victory

The graphs here represent the mapping of the song “Isn’t She Lovely” as a visual speed graph that any reasonable person can learn the information about the entirety of the line of advance in speed of a song.  In the linear graph, seven minutes  is condensed to a few inches across the screen.

Meanspeed® Tempo Graph - "Isn't She Lovely" - linear chart

Meanspeed® Tempo Graph - "Isn't She Lovely" - linear chart


In the radar chart, with all measures consecutively and contiguously measured without any part of the song omitted.

Meanspeed® Tempo Graph - "Isn't She Lovely" - linear chart 1

Meanspeed® Tempo Graph - "Isn't She Lovely" - linear chart 1

I have seen graph far more precise – an understatement.  The reason they don’t talk to you is because the Windows shareware that took apart your huge WAV file is *not* a person.  Not being a person, and quarter notes in many epic songs being in the range of 0.4 and 1.2 seconds, there is a time during the beat, for example, 3/4′s of one second in Dido’s “Thank You” where she wants the still undefined beat.   This is one thing that separates us from computer intelligence: is our innate ability, just as birds and most every animal study I know, to FEEL where the beat is emphasized in that long 750 milliseconds.

Meanspeed® Tempo Graph - "Isn't She Lovely" - linear chart


Meanspeed® Tempo Graph - "Isn't She Lovely" - Radar Graph

Ask a dancer!  When the band is off, and the emphasis of the beat is on second 337/555 milliseconds, and the band is emphasizing 111/555 seconds, the dancers will STOP, look at the band and the look says it all: the dancers know first, as the beat can go off especially where musicians are seated and cannot hear each other the dancers are moving to that emphasis.

Meanspeed® Tempo Graph - "Isn't She Lovely"

Meanspeed® Tempo Graph - "Isn't She Lovely"

You might use the BPM in the column so provided by Apple® as screnshot in the image contained in this article from an iTunes® m4p, mp3 , AAC and AA files, among others.  In the screen shot—the bottom graph above, come from my iTunes program and show me exactly were the song sits in relation to the speed of the other songs I have on iTunes which by hitting the “command + I” keys I have been able to key in—and play with.

iTunes® screenshot with BPM in use

iTunes® screenshot with BPM in use

“Isn’t She Lovely” is a song by Stevie Wonder, from his 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life. In it he celebrates the birth of his daughter Aisha (“less than one minute old”) and thanks his girlfriend Yolonda “Londie” Simmons. There are three verses, each ending with the phrase “isn’t she lovely, made from love” (or “so very lovely…”). The song opens with Aisha’s cry and the lengthy outro features samples of her playing with Wonder and bathing.

The song, musically constructed over a standardized circle-of-fifths, is considered a striking example of the fusion of fundamental jazz and pop elements.

Meanspeed-Carlton Summary

song title=Isn’t She Lovely

lyrics and music by=Stevie Wonder

performer=Stevie Wonder

mean quarter note/average beat= 0.5055 seconds

average tempo/mean speed/median velocity=118.7 beats per minute

emotional conception predicted by meanspeed® music theory=victory

emotion of the song itself=the sweetness of the love of a baby and two joyous parents

Meanspeed emotive categories are summed up in the Neumann Scale -

Neumann Scale

Neumann Scale

Albums featuring this track


Ian Andrew Schneider

Meanspeed® Music School

New Jersey, United States

February 22, 2009

Meanspeed® Music Cottage, New Jersey

Meanspeed® Music Cottage, New Jersey

Meanspeed® Tempo Graph - "Isn't She Lovely" - Radar Graph
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