Classical music's favourite chord progression

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Try Vienna Power House with a FREE demo version: vsl.co.at/davidbennett 🎶

[@TransportGeekery]

This means nothing to me

[@DavidBennettPiano]

@@TransportGeekery 😂 nice

[@R.Akerman-oz1tf]

The very beginning is almost Hotel CA. Veers off from there.@@DavidBennettPiano

[@minkahl1644]

That's great that one can offload the computers CPU and use the GPU for processing audio. Hopefully that will become an option/plugin for many audio production softwares.

[@GPUAUDIO]

BIG thank you for your support!

[@jacksonmouldycliff9613]

The Corelli/ Brittany Spears mashup is so well done!

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Thank you! It was quite awkward to do because the Corelli piece is in 3/4 but the Britney song is in 4/4 😅😅

[@whycantiremainanonymous8091]

It's as brilliant as it is hillarious.

[@ShadowhispersBand]

Sîmply brilliant. Never expected this

[@ITOLDUDA]

@@DavidBennettPiano You should upload the Britney mashup as a short so we could loop just that part. I'm obsessed with it!

[@adamev]

I too thought it was fantastic.

[@PurpleRevolutionMusic]

I wrote my bachelor thesis on the folia. It's actually much older than people know. First mention is an improvisational model by late medieval monk Guilielmus Monachus. It's a combination of bass and melody that builds the following interval in the same pattern: 8-10-8-10-8-10-8-10 (e.g. D-D, A-C#, D-D, C-E, F-F, C-E, D-D, A-C#). The first folia like we know today, however, was written by andrea falconieri around 1650, Jean-Baptiste Lully being a close second. What many people dismiss when talking about this model is that the melody, like Guilielmus Monachus observes, is actually most of the time just as important as the harmonic structure. It's extremely simple which is why it was used so often as a model for writing tons of variations, most famous by before mentioned Lully and of course Antonio Salieri. One of the best set of variations, in my opinion, was however written by C.P.E. Bach for Cembalo. A genius work EDIT: It's btw also used in Vamo'alla flamenco from Final Fantasy 9's soundtrack. Slightly different cadence but still the same focus on harmony and melody

[@ZonieMusic]

I'm interested in reading your thesis! Would you happen to know where I can find it?

[@PurpleRevolutionMusic]

@@ZonieMusic That was like 10 years ago and I didn't publish it anywhere. It's also in german

[@ZonieMusic]

@@PurpleRevolutionMusic Ah, its alright! Was just curious to know more

[@francescorighini9303]

There's at least an older one by a spanish keyboardist (Cabezon? Can't remember right now), but it starts o V instead of I.

[@RadicalCaveman]

Melody is always MORE important than harmonic structure.

[@josephcomfort1166]

Your chord progression videos have changed my life- I write them all on a notepad-thank you Bennett.

[@DavidBennettPiano]

😄😍😄

[@laHagans]

I do that too!

[@povilasl5383]

I want more classical chord progressions!!!!!!!!!!!

[@DavidBennettPiano]

I have another video planned actually on more classical chord progressions 😃😃

[@magdakos4690]

Check out the video about Canon chord progression!

[@1685Violin]

You need to be careful when understanding "chord" progressions in classical music since progressions back then were understood as sequences based on counterpoint, not harmonic functions, that is chords.

[@lxathu]

I didn't dare to be the first but frankly: the less pop the more interesting the material is.

[@ITOLDUDA]

@@1685Violin This is true, but it's also fun to hear what those composers did with same chords used today in pop music. Same chords, but much different result than today's "music." I lifted one of Mozart's chord progressions verbatim, preserving a great deal of the melody in one of my pop songs. It was quite nice even if it wasn't my work per se. Chords are chords no matter what arrangement is put over top of them whether it be reductive pop songs or classical masterpieces.

[@martinbagnall9708]

Richard Thompson has Oops I Did It Again as one of his songs in 1000 years of popular music. He mentions it's a baroque chord progression

[@xoxb2]

I was about to say he uses a Britney song, but I couldn't remember which one (since I don't know any of them). That's a great show, too.

[@martifingers]

Yes indeed. It seemed an odd choice but Mr Thompson is to be trusted.

[@Pwecko]

I was going to mention this too.

[@Pwecko]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGW6eKaDpdF6rrcsi=yOv46Fgh6FoRsxG7

[@pipertripp]

@@martifingers your comment sounds very much like a line from a spy movie.

[@SeanDagher]

The baroque pieces are played at A415 (instead of A440) so the Corelli is actually in Dm and the Bach is in Bm.

[@evankajikawa1277]

no, the note names stay the same, only the frequency changes

[@thegenius204]

That Corelli/Spears mashup got too deep too quickly. Love it!

[@benjamingeorg2027]

The Corelli/Spears mashup was extraordinarily impressive. Proving a thesis through antithesis - on point.

[@TheElectra5000]

Now we'll see how many pop artists/producers follow this channel by the surge of songs with this progression that will arise after this video's publication.

[@TransportGeekery]

Your moog riff is progtastic. Made a good day even better!

[@somedaygibson6894]

I first heard this theme used in the score for Kubrick's film Barry Lyndon and it' has stuck in my head ever since.Thank you for this wonderful survey of its origins and continued use.

[@enriquesaldivar5636]

Exactly, it rang a bell! It is the Sarabanda by Haendel played in a very moving scene of Barry Lindon movie

[@francescorighini9303]

It isn't the same, despite the two first chords being I V in d minor.

[@maperspective6685]

Rachmaninoff composed wonderful variations on this "Theme of Corelli." I never noticed it in Beethoven's fifth, or nowhere else. Thanks for pointing it out.

[@unknownkingdom]

Totally incorrect

[@LouiePlaysDrums]

Tangerine Dream used the La Folia progression in the last section of their piece "Force Majeure". Years later, they did a piece called "Archangelo Corelli's La Folia" which (you guessed it) is entirely based on La Folia.

[@KarstenJohansson]

8:23 is the most appropriate ad placement I've ever seen. It makes you pay more attention to the sound of the composition, and likewise the product giving it reverb!

[@SuranyiOval]

Maybe it's my math-oriented brain, but I always loved that this progression is a palindrome! Has a kind of overarching forward-backward dynamics and I think this is one of the main reason why this progression works so well.

[@Luxedrina]

Oh, I love your observation! I'm going to try this out!

[@dwdei8815]

No mention of Rachmaninov's Variations on a Theme by Corelli? Based on La Folia, in Dm. Gorgeous. You should give it a peek, it's busting with harmonic ideas.

[@growbear]

I've been listening to various renditions of La Folia. Never realized in how many more corners it has been lurking. Thanks!

[@freepagan]

Absolutely brilliant presentation. I love your videos, please keep it up! Cheers from the US

[@JDLuty-oc5hk]

Do more content on classical music chord progressions, please!!

[@richardmclean7223]

Brilliant as always. Would love to know more about history of chord progression. What makes genres so instantly identifiable with their era? Not just classical but jazz and popular music too.

[@Hun_Uinaq]

Loved your piece.. Absolutely beautiful. The whole video was wonderful. Baroque music happens to be my absolute favorite when it comes to western European art music. It was nice for this layman to get a glimpse of what’s going on behind the scenes. I actually grabbed my guitar and started fiddling around with this progression. Very inspiring.

[@stephenraybrown]

Great stuff, David. I always learn something new from your videos, despite having studied guitar and pop/rock songwriting for 40 years. Cheers! (And BTW lovely composition.)

[@stevieroach]

One of the most famous theme songs in the world, Doctor Who, is a sort of stretched out La Folia progression, although with a few extra chords in places.

[@richardwebb2348]

The theme is written in the E minor phrygian mode.

[@robertbourke7935]

Fantastic demonstration David

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Thank you 😊

[@EduNauta95]

Everyone should listen to the catalan legendary musician Jordi Savall’s Folias de España concert piece with his viola da gamba, one of the most famous pieces of early music on youtube.

[@mr88cet]

Really excellent survey of the literature! Thanks, David! Thanks for pointing out its association with Sarabands, for example.

[@cdprince768]

"I could only find this classical chord progression in one pop song... ELP? Genesis? Yes? Rush? No, Britney Spears."

[@ImperatorGrausam]

To be fair none of these are pop songs. Though I wish he used examples of prog rock.

[@patepulkkinenvtec2403]

​​@@ImperatorGrausamGenesis released mostly pop rock stuff in the 80's and 90's though. Rush doesn't take that much influence from classical music anyway, the other three you mentioned do though quite some bit. Don't excpect to see that chord progression that much in ELP stuff because a lot of their music is... weird. Yes and Genesis are closer, but even they often want to variate from those typical choralesque chord progressions that are often the basics of their use of harmony.

[@Desirsar]

Thanks for the idea to work on this week, La Folia in harmonic minor with some slide parts but still mostly surfy with all the spring reverb.

[@Swampod]

I was waiting for such a review of La Folia to come. Great job! Thank you!

[@ActaeaMusic]

I found your own composition absolutely fantastic with that Moog sound!

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Thank you 😊

[@itiseragon]

Found the chord progression for my next piano piece. Thank you as always from one composer to another!

[@thierryauves]

cheers from brasil, awesome content!

[@freyatilly]

Nicely done. Good work. Love your selection of examples.

[@antmonk8537]

I think Terra's Theme from Final Fantasy 6 is a good match for this progression (or bassline, as you pointed out).

[@_girltype]

vamo' alla flamenco from final fantasy ix explicitly making the iberian connection, too

[@jarodivey9033]

My favorite VGM song of all time. So many hours grinding on the triangle island were spent to that tune.

[@agunlogisteam]

​@@_girltypeah... I've been wondering why this progression stuck in my head first time i saw this video. Looking for answers in comments, yes... All those hours spent digging with my chocobo 😂

[@nathanielholzgrafe5274]

@@_girltype Yes, this. Vamo alla Flamenco is a deliberate use of this progression that doesn't hide its influences.

[@Roberto-nn6kb]

Yooo love that game and tune

[@blaspayri]

this cord progression of la folia gives a renaissance touch even with your composition with electronic instruments. BTW, in Spanish it is *la folía* with a stress on the i. Some claim that due to its musical form, style and the etymology of the word, it is assumed that the melody emerged as a dance in the middle or end of the 15th century, in Portugal or in the former Kingdom of León (an area of Galician influence) or in the Kingdom of Valencia. Both in Portuguese and in Catalan/Valencian "la folia" is pronounced with a stress on the I, even if the accent is not written. Sorry for the pedantry 🥸

[@thegothaunt]

Loved your piece at the end!

[@Topcatyo.]

I absolutely love the background you give on this chord progression (ground bass), like its use in the Iberian peninsula, etc. I find all of this stuff extremely fascinating, and would never have thought to look these up on my own.

[@ZeZapatiste]

If you're not that much into baroque music but more of a prog-rock/metal fan, I very highly recommand you the Vivaldi's Folia, especially its end and just realise how much of a precursor he was as he wrote them 320 years ago.

[@illegal_space_alien]

Kind of a tangent I was thinking of as well. There has to be plenty of examples of this chord progression in prog music.

[@Photologistic]

@@illegal_space_alien Are you saying Brittany isn’t progressive? 🤔

[@Luxedrina]

@@PhotologisticHer "Blackout" album has a lot of prog and weird moments!

[@formigamusicfactory6614]

my life is better for knowing your work, thanks!

[@carbonmonoxide5052]

I literally started writing a Sarabande with the La Folía progression yesterday. Crazy how that works.

[@vivaldischool]

Excellent! Fabulous! Bravo! The solid ground for the universal celestial melody sought by the immortals? Shall we ALL dance?

[@stubbsmusic543]

I really love how you superimposed those two pieces! Really well done!

[@kenvives]

Like others, I would love more content with “classical” theory concepts as well as modern cinematic music!!!! Thanks so much for this!

[@108adams]

Haaaaa, THANK YOU!!!! I asked for la folia some time ago, I cannot get free from this cord progression!

[@RavenclawNimbus]

I’m new to this channel and really loving this stuff! These are so interesting

[@michaelmeyer2725]

Your outro composition is awesome! I can so hear an orchestra performing it.

[@victorwilburn8588]

Now I know what "Oops, I Did It Again" sounded so at home in Richard Thompson's "1000 Years of Popular Music".

[@JDazell]

I adore this musical theme. So glas you did a video on this

[@hamm0155]

Love what you did with the composition

[@ismagine]

Love the research behind it. I was impressed you mentioned 1492 Vangelis example ❤❤❤

[@thegridlessheathen4627]

Thank you so much, can we get more videos like this? I would love to learn more about the more commonly used progressions we can pull from classical.

[@budgetgitarr5351]

0:35 This is fire

[@DavidBennettPiano]

😃😃

[@lavillenouvelle]

After this video, I've tried to cover some pop song using La Folia chord progression instead of the more usual Pachelbel's Canon chord progression. The results are AWESOME!

[@utubechannel7688]

Is there any way I can hear that? 😅

[@lavillenouvelle]

@@utubechannel7688 Let me just find a way to record it, andI'll put it online.

[@TenThumbsProductions]

Does David have any videos on patch programming on the grand mother? I have a Matriarch and love it but I also love hearing peoples sound design approach.

[@TenThumbsProductions]

Maybe this is a silly question but any help would be nice. Why is the III chord a b3rd away from the root? In Bbm it is Db (B C Db) and in C# it is E (D Eb E, also a minor 3rd) shouldn’t it be written as bIII?

[@DavidBennettPiano]

So there are two ways to do Roman numerals in the minor key. What you are describing is the system where you always relate them back to the major scale, even if the song is in the minor key. And admittedly that is the system I tend to use. But in this video I have used the system where, if you are in the minor key, you relate the Roman numerals back to the minor scale instead. Hope that explains it 😊

[@TenThumbsProductions]

@@DavidBennettPiano yes, it explains everything perfectly and admittedly my Roman numerals with respect to the minor key are awful, so I am not surprised I got twisted around. Thanks for the response, love your videos! I apply a lot of what you do to ukulele for my more advanced students.

[@TenThumbsProductions]

@@DavidBennettPiano Sorry, now I have another question. The seems to come from E harmonic minor, but the D seems to come from E Aeolian... why is that?

[@briancase6180]

Wow, I never realized that a pop song uses this progression! I know there are other classical music progressions that have made for big pop hits, but this one escaped me perhaps because of the tempo difference.... Thanks!

[@DjVortex-w]

Damn, now every composition that uses this chord progression sounds like "Conquest of Paradise" to my ears. Can't unhear.

[@Mezilesialan]

Such a pleasure . Thank you.

[@DalhartWX]

My new favorite chord progression. Love your vids:D

[@MichaelForbes-d4p]

Thank you! I have seen this progression before but I had no idea how important it was.

[@victorwilburn8588]

It would be very interesting to see an exploration of alternative ways to harmonize the same ground bass to get different chord progressions.

[@whatever2045]

Thank you! I've played La Folia variations in the past and always wondered about its popularity.

[@deanprice3715]

Cpe Bach and Alessandro Scarlatti Variations on la folia are a perfect examples of how you can compose/improvise on a bass line outline a chord progression

[@EduardoTrillo2]

thanks David! if you want to do them, we'd love more classical music videos❤

[@Aquatarkus96]

The ending music sounds like something straight out of a yes album, I love it

[@ancienbelge]

Needs some Mellotron :)

[@MattB90]

So cool to nerd out over things like this after playing pieces such as these for so long

[@robertkadar6856]

Brilliant! I was today years old when I learned about this persistent and intriguing progression. I’m definitely going to play with it and write a new melody for it!

[@gregonline6506]

Yep, that makes a lot of sense! Thx for putting together all that information!

[@gellertkisdi]

(Corelli's La Folia (actually most La Folias) is in d minor, not c# minor. I know, they tuned to a low A because they are baroque players, but that doesn't change the key they are in. If someone plays the violin, they can also see the violinist's hand playing a D on the A string with the third finger.)

[@Mercenarus]

I'm glad you mentioned the Sarabande cause I had in the ear some of the Haendel's Sarabande (the one used in Barry Lyndon) half of the time :p Excellent video as usual ;)

[@fortunefavorsthebold3459]

Awesome composition at the end!!

[@videogamevisuals]

After hearing it in Assassin's Creed Unity for the first time, Corellis La Folia became one of my favourite classical pieces. I didn't know this chord progression was so popular, this video was a really cool insight!

[@Poetslove]

Great stuff as always David. I loved your piece at the end!

[@composer7325]

excellent video, David, thank you.

[@LoffysDomain]

Thank you for creating and sharing this didactical masterpiece.

[@ericmyrs]

I can see why this got so popular. It's a fantastic progression.

[@diarmuidsutton6231]

Superb David. Thank you.

[@StringsFrets-pe3mb]

Great video! Thanks David

[@martifingers]

Very informative and so well researched.

[@stevenqirkle]

One of my all-time favorite pieces for classical guitar is an arrangement of Handel’s Sarabande in D minor by Andres Segovia. It was interesting to learn that this is considered a Spanish progression, and maybe explains why Segovia’s arrangement for guitar works so well!

[@c.jhamblin5759]

Im surprised you didnt talk about how the VII III are less individual chords and more a temporary tonicization of the V I in the relative major, but other than that this was a great video

[@walfredswanson]

I was going to point that out, too. Seen that way, it is really a very simple but elegant idea: tonic, dominant, relative major with its dominant and back again. The VII - III analysis obscures things a bit.

[@mrewan6221]

Yep. I'm lucky enough to have done functional harmony, and the breaks down to quaite a simple progression: T D T D/Tr Tr D/Tr T D where T is tonic (i), D is the dominant (V), Tr is the tonic-relative (III), D/Tr is the dominant of the Tonic-relative (VII). Purists would probably write it as: t D t D/tR tR D/tR t D with loer-case showing minor.

[@LeTromboniste0]

This progression predates tonality by about 200 years. It's also not bass-based. It's not tonal harmony, so it's not super relevant to analyse it from the perspective of functional harmony.

[@mrewan6221]

@@LeTromboniste0 What an odd comment. Are you saying we shouldn't use a tool to examine something because that tool hadn't been invented when the something was created? Does that mean we shouldn't use a magnifying glass to look at the Dead Sea scrolls?

[@LeTromboniste0]

​@@mrewan6221 No, that's not what I said. You can use the tool, of course, to reconceptualise what you're studying, and in particular when the progression is used in an otherwise tonal context (and it might help qualify the tonal pull we feel towards the "III" chord) but it won't tell you either where it came from, or how it actually works, and so the relevancy of it is limited. All I'm saying is, since the language you're analysing is not the one this tool is meant for, there's no reason why "it's a temporary tonicization" would be any more accurate than saying "it's VII III VII". They're both valid, and also in some ways both incomplete. It's not as much that the tool had not been invented as the language was an entirely different one than what the tool is meant to be used for. Would you analyse Anglo-Saxon writings through the framework of modern english grammar? You can try, and maybe there's something interesting to be learned by doing it, but it definitely won't nearly give you all the information.

[@timothyreynolds6255]

Thanks for another stimulating video. I'll be making my own LaFolia today.

[@jwillied1326]

That ending piece was great, do you release stuff on spotify? Also these chord progression videos are super useful because I'm a freshman in college for Music Media Production and understanding all these things is wonderfully useful. Thank you

[@petersage5157]

No wonder Richard Thompson chose "Oops! I Did It Again" to close out his _1000 Years of Popular Music._ IIRC he went into a baroque adaptation close to the end. A lot of these so-called "disposable artists" are better musicians than most people give them credit for.

[@SamChaneyProductions]

To be fair, Britney didn't write that song, her producer Max Martin did

[@avengedsevenfold249]

For me it sounds like a I - V - I in a minor key (like, for example Am - E7 - Am), and then V-I-V in the relative major key (G-C-G) before returning back to the minor tonic

[@xavierberthon8818]

It's exactly that.

[@Alexander-iq5yq]

Another way to look at is a bunch of tonic and dominant movements in a relative major/minor pair. Its I-V-I in the minor key, then V-I-V in the relative major. Then I-V in minor again, approached via a deceptive resolution.

[@markshveima]

So fascinating! And beautiful original composition! 👏👏👏

[@capezyo]

Top, thank you

[@MrAboba69]

Thank you a lot for this very interesting video! Looking forward for more videos about classical/historical music, it is a nice contrast to content about pop music!

[@dansaber4427]

I am blown away

[@Banglish123]

I loved this video a refreshing change from the pop stuff. I might have a crack at writing a trance tune with this progression its quite quirky but it'll have to be in 4/4. (By the way you said Moog pretty sure its pronounced Moag ie rhymes with rogue)

[@sapphoenixthefirebird5063]

One of my favourite uses of La Folia is in Gustav Holst's _Saturn, Bringer of Old Age_ where the chord progression is used over and over, building up tension until the bells tolling.

[@axlhyvonen461]

These are so good, great, how I simply love and love a lot watching these🙂🙃

[@clawspirit]

One of my favorite progression for improvisation.

[@OtixMilia]

Thanks for your great work. I love your content. ❤️

[@django-unchained]

Back when I played Clasicla music in public Music School I never thought about chord progressions. Now when I do I really like these vids showing Classical :)

[@mackermaldrill2656]

Beautiful piece at the end.

[@andreask3218]

I immediately felt reminded of the 'Restoration' soundtrack and smiled when realizing it is actually mentioned as an example in this video😊

[@LauraTenora]

One of the best, if not THE best of your videos so far, in my opinion. And they are all magnificent. I'm a great fan of your channel. Just one minor complaint: it's foh-LEE-ah, with the stress on the second syllable, which is written with an accent (folía) precisely to separate the i from the a, thus preventing a diphthong. Just like in "María". Congrats and keep it up!

[@richardwebb2348]

Given that there are Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, and English versions of La Follia, I would not expect there to be a single 'correct' pronunciation.

[@LauraTenora]

@@richardwebb2348 You may have a point there. I'm no expert. The language of the video is English, and Brits in general put very little effort in stepping outside of their comfort zone when it comes to phonetics. Maybe there's some rule I'm unaware of. All I say is that the piece is of Spanish origin, as far as I know. In fact in French it's called "Folies d'Espagne". Not only in Spanish, but also in Italian and in Portuguese the accent goes on the "i". (Yes: I do speak all those languages). Of course I don't mean to say that you're supposed to sound like a native when you pronounce foreign names (after all, we refer to London as "Londres"), but still...