Editing Yesterday (song) (section)

==Composition and structure==
{{Listen
| type = music
| filename = Yesterday.ogg
| title = "Yesterday" sample
}}
Ostensibly simple, featuring only McCartney playing an [[Epiphone Texan]] [[steel-string acoustic guitar]]{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=12}} backed by a [[string quartet]] in one of the Beatles' first uses of session musicians,{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=13}} "Yesterday" has two contrasting sections, differing in melody and rhythm, producing a sense of variety and fitting contrast.{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=15}} The main melody is seven bars in length, extremely rare in popular songs, while the bridge, or "middle eight", is the more standard form of eight bars, often two four-bar phrases combined.

The first section ("Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away&nbsp;...") opens with an F [[chord (music)|chord]]<ref>{{cite book |title=The New Beatles Complete |publisher=Wise Publications |date=1992 |isbn=0711932824 |page=284}}</ref> (the 3rd of the chord is omitted<ref name="pedler">{{cite book |title=The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles |first=Dominic |last=Pedler |page=29 |publisher=Omnibus Press |date=2003 |quote=Listen to the start of 'Yesterday' to sample McCartney's 'no thirds' G5 shape (though, as he explains on the ''Anthology 2'' version, he is tuned down a whole tone to F). |isbn=0711981671}}</ref>), then moving to Em<sup>7</sup><ref name = Pollack>Pollack calls it an E diminished, the published sheet music shows Em7.</ref> before proceeding to A<sup>7</sup> and then to D minor.{{sfn|Pollack|1993}} In this sense, the opening chord is a decoy; as musicologist [[Alan W. Pollack|Alan Pollack]] points out, the home key (F major) has little time to establish itself before "heading towards the relative D minor".{{sfn|Pollack|1993}} He points out that this diversion is a compositional device commonly used by Lennon and McCartney, which he describes as "deferred gratification".{{sfn|Pollack|1993}}

{{quote box|quote=As is often the case with the over-exposed war horses of any artsy genre, whether or not you "like" this song, there's some good reason {{em|why}} it became so over-exposed in the first place. (hint) It's a fine piece of work with something going for it in virtually every department: the unique arrangement, an attractive tune, even some asymmetrical phrasing and a couple of off-beat chord progressions.{{sfn|Pollack|1993}} |source=– Musicologist [[Alan W. Pollack]], 1993 |width=25%|align=left|style=padding:8px;}}

According to Pollack, the second section ("Why she had to go I don't know&nbsp;...") is less musically surprising on paper than it sounds. Starting with Em<sup>7</sup>,<ref name = Pollack/> the harmonic progression quickly moves through the A major, D minor, and (closer to F major) B{{music|flat}}, before resolving back to F major, and at the end of this, McCartney holds F while the strings descend to resolve to the home key to introduce the restatement of the first section, before a brief hummed closing phrase.{{sfn|Pollack|1993}}

Pollack described the scoring as "truly inspired", citing it as an example of "[Lennon & McCartney's] flair for creating stylistic hybrids";{{sfn|Pollack|1993}} in particular, he praises the "ironic tension drawn between the schmaltzy content of what is played by the quartet and the restrained, spare nature of the medium in which it is played".{{sfn|Pollack|1993}}

The [[tonic (music)|tonic key]] of the song is F major (although, since McCartney tuned his guitar down a whole step, he was playing the chords as if it were in G<ref name="pedler" />), where the song begins before veering off into the key of D minor. It is this frequent use of the minor, and the ii–V7 [[chord progression]] (Em and A<sup>7</sup> chords in this case) leading into it, that gives the song its melancholic aura. The A<sup>7</sup> chord is an example of a [[secondary dominant]], specifically a V/vi chord. The G<sup>7</sup> chord in the bridge is another secondary dominant, in this case a V/V chord, but rather than [[resolution (music)|resolve]] it to the expected chord, as with the A<sup>7</sup> to Dm in the verse, McCartney instead follows it with the IV chord, a B{{music|flat}}. This motion creates a descending [[chromatic]] line of C–B–B{{music|flat}}–A to accompany the title lyric.

The string arrangement reinforces the song's air of sadness in the groaning cello line that connects the two halves of the [[bridge (music)|bridge]], notably the "[[Blue note|blue]]" seventh in the second bridge pass (the E{{music|flat}} played after the vocal line "I don't know / she wouldn't say") and in the descending run by the [[viola]] that segues the bridge back into the verses, mimicked by McCartney's vocal on the second pass of the bridge.{{sfn|Cahill|2005|p=162}}{{sfn|Pollack|1993}} This viola line, the "blue" cello phrase, the high A sustained by the violin over the final verse and the minimal use of vibrato are elements of the string arrangement attributable to McCartney rather than George Martin.<ref>{{cite book |author=Ray Colman |chapter-url=https://www.wingspan.ru/bookseng/coleman/coleman03.html |title=McCartney: Yesterday & Today |chapter=A String Quartet}}</ref>

When the song was performed on ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]'', it was done in the key mentioned above of F, with McCartney as the only Beatle to perform and the studio orchestra providing the string accompaniment. However, all of the Beatles played in a G-major version when the song was included in tours in 1965 and 1966.

When McCartney appeared on ''[[The Howard Stern Show]]'', he stated that he owned the original lyrics to "Yesterday" written on the back of an [[envelope]]. McCartney later performed the original "Scrambled Eggs" version of the song, plus additional new lyrics, with [[Jimmy Fallon]] and [[the Roots]] on ''[[Late Night with Jimmy Fallon]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/video/Paul-McCartney-sings-Scrambled-Eggs-the-original-Yesterday-12910/1264343 |title=Paul McCartney sings "Scrambled Eggs" (the original "Yesterday")|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101226161620/http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/video/Paul-McCartney-sings-Scrambled-Eggs-the-original-Yesterday-12910/1264343 |archive-date=26 December 2010}}</ref>

When asked whether some of the lyrics from "Yesterday" are a reference to his early loss of his mother, [[Personal relationships of Paul McCartney#Jim and Mary McCartney|Mary McCartney]], he stated that "I didn't mean it to be, but ... it could be".<ref>{{cite web|date=24 September 2019|title=Paul McCartney Often Dreams of John Lennon|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPBTn746v4I| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211117/sPBTn746v4I| archive-date=17 November 2021 | url-status=live|publisher=[[The Late Show with Stephen Colbert]]}}{{cbignore}}</ref>