deeply affecting note sequences
A very select few chords and sequences of notes have an immediate and profound emotional effect upon me, seemingly regardless of context. Whenever I hear them I'm suddenly very far off, almost-but-not-quite remembering something -- beautiful yet lonely -- that vanishes as soon as I try to focus on it.
One such chord: take the tonic note, the fourth, and the fifth step of any major scale -- nothing else -- no third, no seventh (e.g., in C Major, the notes C, F, and G only). Bam! As soon as I notice it I'm lost. Gently slide from the fourth down to the third (F to E) and I'm yours. How disappointed I was in music theory to discover that it's not even considered a real chord.
A sequence which does something similar to me -- though the feeling is more melancholic and somehow less "mystical": Start with any note, go down a half step. From there, go down a minor third. Now go up a major second and do it again (e.g., B-flat, A, F#, G#, G, E). Anyone -- I mean, anyone -- could seduce me just by humming it. Yes (the band) used it one song that I heard a long time ago but that I can't seem to find again. And I recently discovered this sequence (less the final note) in the (instrumental) chorus of a song by the French electronic duo M83. This sort of music isn't my cup of tea -- too poppy and I'm too snobby -- but I listened to this song at least 30 times in a row the first day I discovered it and I'm still in love. You can play it on their brilliant faux low-fi website. When prompted, type NEW ALBUM. You should see a list of songs. It's number 10 (type 10 to play it): 0078H.
Does anyone else have similar musical keyholes buried in her or his psyche? I've never gotten anything but a blank look on this one . . .
1 Comments:
Even before listening to the excellent 0078H track you suggest (the title of which I believe must be interpreted as 78 hex, or 120 decimal -- maybe the BPM?) I guessed exactly what melodic fragment you were probably thinking of from Yes.
It's the principal theme on one of the tracks on the first disk of "Tales From Topographic Oceans" -- and has likewise stuck in my memory as well. I think it's track one.
Incidentally that theme was also used in a tone poem realization of Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle..." called "Rage Against the Dying of the Light" by Thomas Duffy -- I remember clearly at the concert I heard it at that a solitary trumpet player suddenly played that theme from across the hall, apart from the rest of the players...
I also remember wondering if Duffy'd heard "Tales..."!
aaron ximm, quietamerican.org
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