<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">I've seen Inception twice and there's a chord progression I just can't get out of my head - the entire score is by far the best I've heard from Hans Zimmer & co. (and the slowed-down Edith Piaf is excellent). The progression's clearest instance is the scene in Paris where the streets and buildings start folding over themselves.<br><br>G min Gb Maj/Bb Eb Maj<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span> B Maj<div><br></div><div>The soundtrack on YouTube - folding streets</div><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1PvjIiM5qk&feature=related">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1PvjIiM5qk&feature=related</a> (3:44 - in this example the last chord is B Maj7) </div><div><br></div><div>- or -</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_QEBeTa37M&feature=related">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_QEBeTa37M&feature=related</a> (2:25, uptempo)<br><br>Here it is with the voice-leading - I really like the alternating half-steps in the top voice, which divide the progression in two; the progression also wraps around itself, so it can repeat ad infinitum.</div><div><br><img height="136" width="659" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:653E84CA-B3C0-4515-B9E3-500A9B3BA3D1"><br><br>The four chords very nearly fit into the "Western" hexatonic system from Rick Cohn's 1996 article in Music Analysis, except for the Gb major chord (which belongs to the Southern system). The Gb major is the kicker, it seems, partly because it's farther away from the Eb major in terms of voice-leading. And the Db in this chord is the only non-hexatonic note. <br><br>Does anyone know of any other instances of this particular progression, or ones like it? Are there other ways to look at it besides hexatonic (cubic lattices, etc.)? It feels "modern" to me, like I wouldn't hear this in Wolf or Strauss - but I wouldn't hear it in Shostakovich, Phil Glass or John Adams either. Very intriguing!<br><br></div><div>Steve<br>_________________________________<br>Stephen Taylor<br>Associate Professor of Composition-Theory<br>University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign<br><a href="http://www.stephenandrewtaylor.net/">http://www.stephenandrewtaylor.net</a><br></div></body></html>