How music conveys emotion, and your favourite chord

[clop]

This is probably going to be a stupid thread and I don't really expect anyone to reply but, as a keen pianist, it intrigues me that the dynamics of music can convey different emotions, whether it be by volume, melody, harmony, rhythm, modulation or by other musical mechanics. Some music can even make people cry. And all this happens as a result of a combination of changing frequencies of sound.

Anyway, as part of my interest in music, I'm always on the search for the "perfect chord". Some chords are smooth and harmonious and full of feeling and warmth. Other times they can be climactic, angry, conveying a sense of doom or tension. It's interesting though, that chords do not usually work out of musical context.

This is one of my favourite chords at the moment, the ffz below. It's right near the end of Chopin's Prelude No.22 in G minor and after the mad build-up of the piece (if you know it) it casts a clanging, unresolved blow, that just hangs in the air begging for the final cadence. I love it.



What's your favourite chord or chord progression?

clop

[Argos]

There are millions, but I feel particularly touched by the initial chords of Eric Satie´s Gymnopédie #1. They´re extremely simple, but they do something to me.

[suntrack2]

music is a heavenly gift to the man on earth.

[Nicolas]

What's your favourite chord or chord progression?

It goes like this:
The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift.


Seriously though, there are so many chords, all sounding so differen, and appearing to sound different when used in different progressions, able to provoke different emotions when changing the timbre etcetc... I can't answer that question.

I'm still trying to learn new chords on the piano to enrichen my music. On guitar I don't play a lot of chords, more the melodic single string work. I hardly ever play more than 2 strings at a time.

[Fazor]

Hmm... can't say I have a favorite chord...depends on the piece and how it's used. Unless you count chords i like because thier easy to play

Right now I do like my stuff tuned down a half step so everything's playing flat (guitar), but that's because I mostly play Nirvana stuff and Kurt always tuned down, and I'm too lazy to keep changing tuning for other stuff. If I can ever save some money I'm buying a Fender Mustang reissue (olympic white with tortise red pickgaurd, of course ). It just sux that my house is too small for my piano so it's currently at my parents. Oh well.

[tlbs101]

If you walk into most casinos, you hear the music of the slot machines (at least the modern electronic kind). They are all "tuned" to the key of C and play only notes within a C-major chord. I have heard (but I don't have a reference, and I don't have time to do the research) that studies were done by the gaming industry to determine what kind of tones would increase a gamblers need to play the machines. C-major chords and the key of C did the trick.

I don't like C-major any more, for this reason.

For whatever reason that is still unknown to me, my all-time favorite chord (and it still is) is to play a D-major arpeggio on the piano.

I am also partial to the keys of Bb and Eb because I play the trombone.

[soylentgreen]

Find a good recording of Wagner's Ring, start right at the very beginning of the first opera "Das Rheingold" and listen.....
The most beautiful (and longest) E flat major chord in classical music is slowly born from the stillness and swells as more and more musicians are gathered up in it's siren's call, perfectly emulating the depths of the river Rhine.

For almost 140 bars, one is not simply immersed in the music, but swept into the raw, organic act of creation itself.

...or maybe that's just me.

[Nicolas]

If you walk into most casinos, you hear the music of the slot machines (at least the modern electronic kind). They are all "tuned" to the key of C and play only notes within a C-major chord. I have heard (but I don't have a reference, and I don't have time to do the research) that studies were done by the gaming industry to determine what kind of tones would increase a gamblers need to play the machines. C-major chords and the key of C did the trick.

This is the sound of C. The sound wich creates a new dimension. This is a new style of music.

(The Confetti's)

[Sam5]

Does anyone know of any experiments with animals that revealed that any of them can understand music or musical notes.

I had a cockatiel that had perfect pitch. He quickly learned to immitate the beep, beep, beep, boop tone sound of my old pager. I would be walking around my house with him in the den and he learned that he could call me back into the den by immitating the beeps of my pager. When he did it, I would always go into the den to see it it was him or my pager going off.

I've heard some McCaws and cockatiels that can either whistle or sing a few musical words in tune.

[Peter Wilson]

Does anyone know of any experiments with animals that revealed that any of them can understand music or musical notes.

I don't know of experiments, but Mourning Doves and Starlings definitely "sing" using a harmonic scale. The Mourning Dove is a simple five-note song, I-i-IV-V-IV with occasional embelishment; the Starling song is more complex but follows the simple I-IV-V chord progression that Britney Spears made popular.

[Sam5]

I don't know of experiments, but Mourning Doves and Starlings definitely "sing" using a harmonic scale. The Mourning Dove is a simple five-note song, I-i-IV-V-IV with occasional embelishment; the Starling song is more complex but follows the simple I-IV-V chord progression that Britney Spears made popular.

Interesting, thanks.

[tlbs101]

A song called, "The Lost Chord", (Sullivan 1877) is interesting in that it is written in a particular key (I have to listen, again, to my CD to find out which one), yet never in the 4 minutes-or-so of the song is the tonic chord played by the band. Every possible variant (sus, aug, aug/+5, 7th, 9th, etc.) of the chord is played along with the IV, V, and VI-minor chords, but never the tonic. Some lone instrument will always play a note that takes the tonic to one of the variants, whenever the tonic makes sense in the music, then another chord quickly takes over (again, that sounds musical and makes sense).

Even at the very end -- it ends on an I-sus2 (IIRC).

If you understand music, this is a great piece to listen to and smile when you realize what's going on.

[Peter Wilson]

That does sound interesting...

Changing topic slightly: a lot of popular music--country probably the most--employ a key-change in the song, usually the last verse or such.

The key-change: Cheap marketing trick for radio air-play; or bonifide artisitic tool of the musician?

[Serenitude]

That does sound interesting...

Changing topic slightly: a lot of popular music--country probably the most--employ a key-change in the song, usually the last verse or such.

The key-change: Cheap marketing trick for radio air-play; or bonifide artisitic tool of the musician?

That reminds me - did you ever hear that one country song written around the C, D, and G chords?

[Argos]

The key-change: Cheap marketing trick for radio air-play; or bonifide artisitic tool of the musician?

An artifice as valid as any other, imo, if it fits in the context of the work. You can find key-change in Bach and Mozart, for example. Yeah, it´s very appealing.

[clop]

An artifice as valid as any other, imo, if it fits in the context of the work. You can find key-change in Bach and Mozart, for example. Yeah, it´s very appealing.

I don't think Peter Wilson was referring to the usual key modulation you find in classical music (and virtually every melody ever written) where generally the composer modulates to a new key but then drops back to the tonic for the ending. I think he's talking about transposing the entire last verse of a song, or the last refrain, up a semitone or a tone, to create a kind of pitch crescendo effect. The Dixie Chicks do it a lot. I find it rather annoying to be honest, but I can see how it works as a musical device.

Argos I agree with you about your Satie. They're stupidly simple chords but they seem to create something special don't they. Actually I think Satie wrote the Gymnopédies as musical jokes. There are some laugh out loud moments in the first one. How can music be funny?!

Another of my favourite chord progressions is the last 4 chords of the Toccata in C minor from Boellman's Suite Gothique for the organ. I can't find the sheet music anywhere online, but it's worth buying/downloading and cranking up the volume. It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!

clop

clop

[Cougar]

I just play what I like. [5 MB mp3]

[Celestial Mechanic]

I'm partial to French Sixths, actually.

That used to be the dissonant chord that I would leave the keyboard with when I practiced, until I found another: an ordinary C-major triad with doubled third ( ), E-G-C-E, played above A-flat E-flat.

The weirdest chord progression I can think of is the opening four chords of "Moro Lasso" by Carlo Gesualdo, written in the early 1600s: C#-major, a-minor, B-major, G-major. Curiously it is reminiscent of the Sleep Leitmotif from Wagner's Ring Cycle written more than two and a half centuries later!

[Maksutov]

For me the best chord and modulation (in this case, partially successful re changing the key, but all the more effective for that) are contained in the last 27 measures of Mahler's Ninth. The whole passage is one of the most extraordinary and beautiful ever written. After a symphony of strife, parody, battle, and elegy, it produces an almost Zen-like calm and acceptance.

It starts with a rising passage in the second violins which leads to a complete statement of the melodic seed of the entire symphony.

The (attempted) modulation may be found in measures 6 through 13 of the final page, as Mahler quotes from the "Der Tag is schön an jenen Höh'n" passage of the "Oft denk' ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen" from Kindertotenlieder, leaving little doubt that this (and perhaps the entire Adagio) was meant to be an elegiac memorial to his daughter Maria who had died at 4 from scarlet fever two years earlier. This sequence attempts to move the music from D Flat Major to E Flat Major (what irony at this point in that key!). Of course this is just a dream and the music immediately drops back into D Flat Major, where it will conclude in the strings (minus the first violins and basses).

The chord is in the sixth measure from the end, where the second violins play an F flat whole note, the violas do a turn of B flat (resulting in a variation on a major sixth, but without the major third note, in this case F), A flat, G natural, A flat quarter notes, and the 'celli play a half note modal ("power") chord of D flat, B flat, D flat.

This chord shows up in a number of other composer's works, particularly Ives and Bartók. It evokes an incredible range of emotions, here mainly the thought of "What might have been."

The music concludes with a half note triplet version of the four note turn, which resolves the conflict between the three notes/five notes of the melodic seed. This ending also refers back to the end of the Andante Amoroso of the Seventh, and looks forward to the end of Bartók's Sixth String Quartet.

My second favorite chord has to be the "catastrophe chord" from the first and last movements of Mahler's Tenth, encompassing nine notes out of the twelve tone scale. What a sound, especially with that trumpet hitting a high A over everything else. The first time it's orchestrated to sound like the pipe organ of the universe gone mad, the second time, well, who knows, since Mahler died before he could orchestrate it.

Re the Ninth, a couple of interesting articles here and here

[Argos]

I agree with you about your Satie. They're stupidly simple chords but they seem to create something special don't they.

I prefer the complex fabric of the music of Bach and Vivaldi, but yes, those chords provoke a strong emotional response in me.

There are some laugh out loud moments in the first one. How can music be funny?!

I don´t quite get it. It sounds ethereal to me. Where do you think the funny passages are?

[peteshimmon]

A lot of pop singles in my youth had some
dreamy strings added and they seemed to evoke
a strange set of feelings, yearning..destiny..
memory..delightful anticipation of days to
come. Just violins! Was it the contrast
between joyful noise and real music Anyway
must get around to the rest of Mahler one day.
I like the first (Titan), forth and fifth
symphonies. One perfect day..out in the
warm countryside..get in and have cold bath..
prepare supper then in the quiet hours hear
Mahlers forth followed by faures Requiem. The
notes are still in your mind waking up.

[paulie jay]

Favourite chord? Any Maj7

[Maksutov]

A lot of pop singles in my youth had some
dreamy strings added and they seemed to evoke
a strange set of feelings, yearning..destiny..
memory..delightful anticipation of days to
come. Just violins! Was it the contrast
between joyful noise and real music Anyway
must get around to the rest of Mahler one day.
I like the first (Titan), forth and fifth
symphonies. One perfect day..out in the
warm countryside..get in and have cold bath..
prepare supper then in the quiet hours hear
Mahlers forth followed by faures Requiem. The
notes are still in your mind waking up.

You know it's a good Mahler Fourth when, at the conclusion of the introduction, the bells continue in their particular meter while the strings take up the main theme in a different rhythm. Just another example of polyrhythms in Mahler, probably one of the things that caused Ives to admire his music and offer him the score of his Third (perhaps the greatest American symphony ever written), which Mahler promised to play either in Europe or on his return to NYC.

Unfortunately, death intervened.

[Argos]

Mak, have you seen Ken Russell´s [film maker] "Mahler"?

[Jakenorrish]

The beauty of music is that its like food. No-one can tell you what to like, you just like it. I for one can't see why anyone would want to listen to a Phil Collins album, but many millions like him, so who am I to argue?

The best music is often the simplest. I like rock 'n' roll music and stuff like the Rolling Stones Satisfaction or Jumping Jack Flash are awesome in that they convey such euphoria with a very uncomplicated style. There is a place in my heart for Miles Davis, Debusy or Kasabian. I really don't care what the music is, as long as it gets my heart racing or my feet moving or gives me a lump in my throat.

Favourite chord? A nice clangy E played on a Fender Telecaster! Like I said, simple is beautiful.....

[Maksutov]

Mak, have you seen Ken Russell´s [film maker] "Mahler"?

I saw that when it was released back in 1974. I have the VHS version of it. Along with everything else that has been video'd re Mahler.

Russell as usual went overboard but some of his approaches and images display a really good understanding of what Mahler was doing.

For instance the opening to the revolutionary explosions of the Third, where the mother-figure is attempting to break free of her cocoon, is fantastic. The Nazi passage, which so many find abhorrent, is right on, pig feasting and all.

Robert Powell was eerily appropriate as Mahler: some of his profiles were amazing exact.

Russell's funniest passage is the train station departure where Mahler sees some pansy dressed in white lusting after an effeminate boy (i.e. viz Visconti's Death in Venice). This commentary on Thomas Mann's obsessions is very incisive.

In all, the film mirrors the incredibly contradictory way Mahler's music expresses itself. Until we have a real Mahler biography film, it's the best for now.

[LayMan]

This is the sound of C. The sound wich creates a new dimension. This is a new style of music.

(The Confetti's)

New beat is old skool, really... Never been much of a fan of it, anywayz.

I don't play any instrument myself - unless air-guitar counts, we all know that's pretty much the coolest of all instruments by far.

Not very high on classical music either, though my all-time favourite would be Ravels Bolero - even though I find the ending a bit disappointing. Don't know why, maybe it's got something to do with me not really being able to appreciate that kind of thingy.

Did enjoy the writings of Hofstadters "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid" on the subject, though...

[Nicolas]

New beat is old skool, really... Never been much of a fan of it, anywayz.

I don't play any instrument myself - unless air-guitar counts, we all know that's pretty much the coolest of all instruments by far.

Not very high on classical music either, though my all-time favourite would be Ravels Bolero - even though I find the ending a bit disappointing. Don't know why, maybe it's got something to do with me not really being able to appreciate that kind of thingy.

Did enjoy the writings of Hofstadters "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid" on the subject, though...

I'm not the biggest fan of new beat myself. OF course a good ole pump up the jam always goes . I thought referring to the sound of C was appropriate after a post on the C chord. I'm more into new wave than new beat myself. But I listen to all kinds of music.

I'm about to have a serious shift of instruments in my "studio" in the coming time. I'll keep you informed.

[Peter Wilson]

...The Mourning Dove is a simple five-note song, I-i-IV-V-IV with occasional embelishment...

Upon further review: the The Mourning Dove mating-call is actually in the 5-tone Natural Harmonic Scale (don't ask), which is approximated by I i V VI V in the 7-tone diatonic scale (lower-case==octave above). However, the VI of the modern diatonic scale is substantially sharped with respect to the V of the natural harmonic scale, so the fourth note of the song sounds "not quite right" when played on a typical musical instrument, such as guitar.

BTW, Mourning Bird's song is in a key between C and C#, closer to C#.

[danscope]

Hi, The great Robert J. Lurtzimer of WGBH Radio in Boston , apart from all of the wonderful music he championed on radio , was fond of opening his program each morning with the sound of song birds. He shall be remembered.
For myself, I am fond of Brazilian Samba and Bossa Nova for guitar. It is a continuous delight. Luis Bonfa, Charlie Byrd, Joao Gilberto,Risinha DeValanca and so many others to enjoy. Like all great art, they are a joy forever.
And for the joy of it, listen to the great E.Power Biggs' recording of
J.S. Bach's Tocatta In Fuge on the biggest tracker you can imagine.
For a classical celibration on guitar, listen to Los Indios Tabaharas and their
rendition of Tchykovsky's Waltz of the Flowers . Just......two guitars .....
played with feeling.
Best regards, Dan