[Smt-talk] Inception chord progression

[Laurel Parsons]

Aha: Even if Zimmer *thinks* his entire score comes from Piaf, perhaps the
Schubert was cunningly planted in his mind by a team of ace
musicologist-inceptors and then morphed into a progression Zimmer only *thought
*was his own idea. . .

Laurel

On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 10:43 AM, Laurel Parsons
<laureljparsons at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hello, Inceptionites.
>
> Zimmer's claim aside that all of the score originated in the Piaf song, I
> can't help but hear in this progression echoes of the bleak and sinister
> 4-chord progression that opens Schubert's *Der Doppelganger*.  Here it
> is as diegetic film music:
>
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKDFGmf9XJk
>
>
> Like the *Inception* progression, it can be divided into two halves, each
> of which involves melodic (and bass) motion by descending semitone; in g
> minor, the outer voices of *Doppelganger'*s first two chords move from
> G-F#, as they do in *Inception*; in both progressions, a single tone is
> held in common throughout -- g minor's dominant in Schubert, and its 3rd in
> Zimmer; and despite the straightforward tonic-dominant alternation in
> Schubert, the diminished fourth leap in the outer voices from F# to Bb
> between chords 2 and 3 creates a moment of strangeness analogous to the
> Gb-Eb progression at the same point in the Zimmer.  Moreover, the tempo,
> meter, and rhythm are virtually identical.
>
> Finally there is Heine's text, about the moon confronting a man with his
> own *doppelganger*, an obvious parallel with the multiple dream-reality
> versions we see of Cobb (and the other characters); the setting in the
> neighbourhood and outside the house where the narrator's lover once lived
> but is now long gone; and the theme of being tortured by memory.
>
>
> "The night is quiet, the streets are calm,
> In this house my beloved once lived:
> She has long since left the town,
> But the house still stands, here in the same place.
>
> A man stands there also and looks to the sky,
> And wrings his hands overwhelmed by pain:
> Upon seeing his face, I am terrified--
> The moon shows me my own form!
>
> O you Doppelgänger <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doppelg%C3%A4nger>! you
> pale comrade!
> Why do you ape the pain of my love
> Which tormented me upon this spot
> So many a night, so long ago?"
>
> Laurel Parsons
>
>
> ***
>
> Laurel Parsons, Ph.D.
> Tutor in Humanities (Music)
> Quest University Canada
> 3200 University Blvd.
> Squamish, BC
> VB8 0N8
> laurel.parsons at questu.ca
> www.questu.ca
>
>


-- 
Laurel Parsons, Ph.D.
Tutor in Humanities (Music)
Quest University Canada
3200 University Blvd.
Squamish, BC
VB8 0N8
laurel.parsons at questu.ca
www.questu.ca
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