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The musicologist Alan F. Moore credits Martin's clarinet arrangement and Starr's use of brushes with establishing the music hall atmosphere, which is reinforced by McCartney's vocal delivery and the recording's use of chromaticism, a harmonic pattern that can be traced to Scott Joplin's "The Ragtime Dance" and The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss.(Womack, Kenneth (2007). Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles. Continuum. ISBN978-0-8264-1746-6. Pages 171–172)
The author Ian MacDonald cites "When I'm Sixty-Four" as an example of the Beatles' versatility. In his opinion the track is "aimed chiefly at parents", borrowing heavily from the English music hall style of George Formby and Donald McGill, with a sparse arrangement that includes clarinet, drums, guitar and bass. According to him the song's inclusion amidst Sgt. Pepper's "multi-layered psychedelic textures ... provid[es] a down-to-earth interlude".(MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (3rd ed.). Chicago Review Press. ISBN978-1-55652-733-3. Pages 220–221)
The musicologist Michael Hannan writes: "The rich timbres of the clarinets give the mix a fuller, fatter sound than many of the other tracks on the album."(Hannan, Michael (2008). "The sound design of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". In Julien, Olivier. Sgt. Pepper and the Beatles: It Was Forty Years Ago Today. Ashgate. ISBN978-0-7546-6708-7. Page 56)
Varispeeding was used on "When I'm Sixty-Four", raising the music's pitch by a semitone in an attempt to make McCartney sound younger.(Emerick, Geoff; Massey, Howard (2006). Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles. Gotham. ISBN978-1-59240-269-4. Page 137)
Moore characterises the song as a synthesis of ragtime and pop, noting that its position following "Within You Without You" – a blend of Indian classical music and pop – demonstrates the diversity of the album's material, which he identifies as an important factor in the Beatles' success.(Moore, Allan F. (1997). The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-57484-6. Page 47)
McCartney requested the clarinets and asked that they be arranged "in a classical way", which according to Martin "got ... round the lurking schmaltz factor ... [and] gave added bite to the song, a formality that pushed it firmly towards satire."(Martin, George; Pearson, William (1994). Summer of Love: The making of Sgt. Pepper. Macmillian. ISBN978-0-333-60398-7. Page 34)
"When I'm Sixty-Four" was the first track the Beatles recorded that would be included on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In keeping with its genre, the song represents the most prevalent application of secondary dominants on the album.(Everett, Walter (1999). The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver Through the Anthology. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-512941-0. Page 113)
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