<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Hi all,<div><br></div><div>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:</div><div><br></div><div>Upper Voice: <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span> C<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>C <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>C<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>C<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span></div><div>Middle Voice:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>E<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>F<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Gb<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>G</div><div>Lower Voice:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>C<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>D<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>Eb<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>E, resolving (probably) to F major.</div><div><br></div><div>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 <a href="mailto:braae.nick@gmail.com">braae.nick@gmail.com</a>).</div><div> </div><div>Thanks very much,</div><div><br></div><div>Regards,</div><div><br></div><div>Nick Braae</div><div><br></div><div>PhD Candidate</div><div>University of Waikato</div><div>Hamilton</div><div>New Zealand</div></body></html>