The house of the rising sun is played in what seems to be triple meter, the song is quick but their is a steady tempo, which the bass guitars and the drums keep. Its really easy to identify the down beats because all the instruments play on it along with the singer, this happens throughout most of the song.

The chorus is steady as well, the singer brings up the main melody and he sings 3 beats per measure but the background melody played by the instruments seems to be at 6 beats per measure, so this song is homophonic. Most of the song is on a major scale but at certain points it seems to go into the minor scale around the 2 min 10 sec mark but then it comes back up later in the song to the major scale.

The song doesn’t have a lot of diversity in it, the piece is very steady with a build up and a fall throughout. That is what makes it very appealing to the ears, the chords alternate and they support this structure.

Within the song you can hear chords throughtout, they are part of the accompainment being played but it seems like their are only a few being played maybe 4or 5 different cords. The dynamics of the song change a lot throughout the song they build up then fall and build up again, this setup gives the song a very nice flow. Overall the song is steady, its structured around the chorus, and  it tells you a story.