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Thanks for the example and the transcription. I'm not sure how salient this is, and I didn't happen to notice it in anyone else's comments, but the root progression of G-Gb-Eb-Cb is familiar as a melodic element in zero-gravity film scenes. Precedents with a related "strange" aesthetic include the B section of Rachmaninov's F-minor Etude, the ostinato for Ravel's "Ondine", and the cadenza just before the imitative passage in Chopin's 4th Ballade (m. 134).<div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">I like Charles Smith's tantalizing remark, "Quite a nice bit of musical accompaniment for a film about tangible familiar objects melting before your eyes...", and I wonder if we could theorize how this passage contributes to this cinematic experience. In addition to any cultural associations, we might say that the top voice grabs part of our subjectivity, as something to identify with, while the context "around" us (or literally around us in the theater) changes in an abnormal and disorienting way. But the same pitches on a harpsichord wouldn't have quite the same effect, which I find is something like being overwhelmed and </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">terrified</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">, so we'd have to consider the timbre and strength of the sound (the sound of something powerful enough to make this sound), including, especially for the slow cue, the tempo (something so large that it moves slowly), the crescendo/decrescendo (the looming and fading of this entity), and the luftpausen at the peak of looming (heightening expectation of something desired and dreaded?). </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; ">And then from a different angle there would be the part of one's subjectivity that identifies with the overwhelming entity (or whatever we might want to call it). Plus other fundamental considerations?</span></div><div><br><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div><div>Arnie Cox</div><div>Assoc. Prof. of Music Theory</div><div>Oberlin Conservatory of Music</div><div><br></div></div></span> </div><br><div><div>On Aug 10, 2010, at 5:30 PM, Stephen Taylor wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">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></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>