[Smt-talk] Queen's Harmonic Technique
Schmalfeldt, Janet
Janet.Schmalfeldt at tufts.edu
Wed Apr 10 14:58:11 PDT 2013
Dear Nick-
For an example from 1840 (non-pop, but "popular" to this day), see mm. 17-19 of Song 7, "Ich grolle nicht," from Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe. Here the progression serves to prolong ("lengthen") dominant harmony (on the word "längst"), from the end of a contrasting middle section (B) into the reprise (A') within a small-ternary form.
All best,
Janet Schmalfeldt
___________________
Janet Schmalfeldt
Professor of Music, Tufts University
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From: smt-talk-bounces at lists.societymusictheory.org [mailto:smt-talk-bounces at lists.societymusictheory.org] On Behalf Of Nick Braae
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 4:42 PM
To: Smt-talk at lists.societymusictheory.org
Subject: [Smt-talk] Queen's Harmonic Technique
Hi all,
I am carrying out some extensive analysis of British rock band Queen's music for my PhD. In a number of Freddie Mercury-penned songs, he employs a particular harmonic device/cliche, in which one note of the chord (usually the root or flat-seventh) acts as a pedal and two other voices ascend stepwise through a major third with a chromatic passing note. In C major, it would be something like this:
Upper Voice: C C C C
Middle Voice: E F Gb G
Lower Voice: C D Eb E, resolving (probably) to F major.
>From a theoretical perspective, it's simple voice-leading with a chromatic passing note, and it can evidently be voiced differently (as Freddie did throughout Bohemian Rhapsody or as ABBA do in So Long, for example). But I wonder whether anybody knows the stylistic origins of this particular voicing (i.e. pedal note as the top voice)? I have a sense of it being a barbershop, or ragtime, or vaudeville piano technique, but if anyone had come across this before in older popular contexts, I would be delighted to hear about it (you can reply to the list, or to me directly at braae.nick at gmail.com<mailto:braae.nick at gmail.com>).
Thanks very much,
Regards,
Nick Braae
PhD Candidate
University of Waikato
Hamilton
New Zealand
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