I was WRONG about this chord - John Williams modulation trick

How John Williams uses a second inversion chord brilliantly.
Thanks Ben Smith for the inspiration! • "Kensington Gardens" -...
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[@finlayrivers9839]

And a tritone subsitution is doubly as effective if you include the seventh of the chord too (as the seventh of the tritone substitution is the third of the regular dominant chord, which are both tension notes within the chord)!

[@djbrady]

This is the first time I’ve heard a clear explanation of a 6/4 chord and why it’s called that. Thank you! Also, the “give people what they expect but not necessarily how they expect it” Is a great concept.

[@isaacbeen2087]

It comes from figured bass!

[@BenSmithFilm]

Very interesting thought! Williams sets fire to the rule book in this regard so often that when I'm analysing I rarely look much beyond the functional harmony in his music. He does use more second inversions throughout this cue and others, but they could (for the most part) be considered to bend one of the four rules rather than break them. I'm glad you found something that peaked your interest, that's why I make these videos!

[@RedCaio]

Hook is one of John Williams' best scores

[@edbuller4435]

Nicely done. JW is a master at these . Thank you

[@edcew8236]

As a choral singer, I tend to think of melodic lines and how they are phrased -- gives a different perspective on the chords, leading tones, etc. Enjoyed your presentation!

[@richardmaia8732]

Great! New Ryan Leach video !

[@WizardWalk]

Harmony and Voice Leading by Aldwell & Schachter identifies the "accented 6/4", which is much like a cadential 6/4, but not cadential. So the IV 6/4 chord here would be functioning as the I chord to which it resolves. Definitely seems like what Williams is doing here, though he "denies" the resolution with the modulation. Does seem to be an oddly overlooked use of the 6/4 chord in many textbooks though.

[@lerippletoe6893]

I think you got the bass going V I but the harmony going V IV. The 6/4 is created by sheer expectation fulfilled by the bass but delayed elsewhere. IV is reinterpreted as bVI which can go to V or a tritone sub kind of thing where he also has the melody outline a mi cadence and that's the fifth o the new key as in a renaissance plagal cadence, just different harmony and bass. Very interesting, seems logical.

[@EricMartinPercussion]

Great job, really well explained! I’ve been recommending your videos to my students as well.

[@tdtrecordsmusic]

nice !!! luv all the theory stuff coming out lately !!

[@giannotti7777]

I think you kind of forgot one important relation: B major as a key is parallel to G# minor, which in turn enharmonically speaking (Ab minor) is the "minorized" subdominant of Eb major - a classic in romantic era composing. The melody resembles this quite clearly actually. The harmony is just there to obfuscate this imho. Or to try a different version of this well known path.

[@djonakachopper]

Great explanation and examples!

[@jjrussell]

Excellent explanation

[@ShaharHarshuv]

Great explanation! Love your video

[@GregoryCrimson]

Nice vids bro! Keep going 💪

[@samymarathon6484]

My favorite movie score and music analysis? Heck yeah bro.

[@ObsessiveCostumingDude]

Gorgeous passage from an excellent score by the Maestro. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the harmonic progression there!

[@trevorjensen2706]

The grandfather of mediant 3rds used in film scores is Mr. Bernard Herrmann. He used the mediant 3rds beautifully for the, "Sleep," cue from Psycho. John Williams drew a lot of influence from Mr. Herrmann, so it makes sense that he would give that duff of the cap to the grandfather of film scores using that beautiful 3rds relationship.

[@musicavox]

Great datum! Thank you.

[@spencerrobinson780]

I always find these videos helpful, especially the melodic structure and orchestration ones 👌 I wondered if you'd have any helpful tips and tricks for adding ornamentations to melodies. It's easy to Google examples, but I find incorporating them in a way that feels appropriate can be tricky. Hopefully you've some insight on adding ornamentations in a way that adds to a melody and doesn't distract or feel unnecessary.

[@leonardodelyrarodrigues3752]

3:45 there are actually harmonic functions involved, the bass changes the tension level in the chord. Because of this, generally the ending of songs that use this use the tonic as a bass to eliminate all tension, while in every song this resolution chord was in inversion.to maintain a tension level for example.

[@alexjevincent]

While the specific usage here is awesome, as someone who struggles a little with the application of inversions, I also really appreciated the traditional use of second inversions as devices. Would love some more of those, for first inversions and chord with extensions too!

[@june5877]

This is a great video, and you explain the theory well - I don't feel that enough attention was given as to what the aural effect of this was, past the theory. I really like your brevity generally, too.

[@anatomicallymodernhuman5175]

Good insight. One small smart-alecky correction @6:35 ff: B major to Eb major is up a diminished 4th, not a major third. If it modulated to MIDIculous’s D# major, that would be up a major third. 😁I suppose one could argue that he did actually modulate to D# major, since that would be the chromatic mediant modulation it feels like, but that he notated it enharmonically to make it easier to read. 🤷‍♂️

[@brainbrain542]

Nice. Also motive wise it repeats - the Major 3rd G# to E is mirrored with G to Eb. That acts as motivic pivot.

[@user-on1ue7fu1x]

nice!

[@ric8248]

This video is really interesting. I wonder how should one analyse a song such as God Only Knows by the Beach Boys, where the 2nd inversion is used in very different contexts that don't seem to line up with traditional music.

[@clarenceoveur9497]

Of course he breaks the "rules". That's what makes him and his contemporaries special. If you go down the Williams rabbit hole, you'd be surprised with how often he gives the middle finger to textbooks 😂

[@leomeneghelli1795]

This modulation II to I would be a Neapolitan chord (as a subdominant function)?

[@user-vc7zq4ef4b]

cool

[@dliessmgg]

That opinion on the plagal cadence needs explaining. (Which the video you linked didn't do, btw.) My take is that styles like euro-classical or jazz have a preference for stronger cadences, while styles like blues or pop have a preference for weaker cadences; and that your opinion on plagal cadences is informed by your musical preferences.

[@RyanLeach]

fair point

[@lerippletoe6893]

They aren't being used as cadences in the examples he referred to at least, they are asides after the final cadence. If some Avengers movie ends with the character at a party delivering the tension and release of a light joke, that wasn't the final cadence of the story. The defeat of the bad guy before the party was. But for a standup comedy routine, that last joke would be the final cadence. So yeah all about context, but I think he was referring to common practice contexts. If you expand your genres outside the scope, you will find basically all of the textbook rules of harmony being violated.

[@MaggaraMarine]

@@lerippletoe6893 Yeah, it should be called a coda, not a cadence in that context.

[@98voteforpedro]

this might be weird but can you do a video on how to mikey mouse in music.

[@lerippletoe6893]

Plagal cadences were cadences because there was a minor 3rd or major 6th contracting or expanding to a unison or octave, but rather than in the phygian half cadence (the other mi cadence), that note they cadence on in a plagal cadence was the 5th of the chord. Without that voice leading or antiquated conception of a cadence, plagal motions usually fail to accomplish the same purposes. Harmonic heuristics and the divorce of the rhetorical function from the word for a rhetorical function - cadence - causes a working debt for students learning things that are inconsistent with even the music it was most intended for. Enharmonics make this nasty so say the melody line B G# Bb was made into one key and transposed down a half step so you get Bb G A. The melody is outlining a mi cadence on A, and A (Bb there without transposition) ends up being the 5th of a major chord. For an old style plagal cadence on A, you just need Bb and G going to A, a bass that goes from G to D, and a line with two notes per note that goes D E F#. What he did instead of being that G minor to D major, was Eb major to D major. There is the tritone sub, you have a bass dropping in contrary motion to the melody, and you have even the renaissance cadential idea of melodic enclosure with a minor 3rd of a perfect consonance. Imo while the harmonic relationship of mediant between keys is very fresh, enough that it /could/ sound like a nonsensical jump, this little renaissance connection grounds what could have been a dubious note very firmly with what preceded it. Now doing away with transposition I also think the bass note being on B is in part because it was F#7 and one would expect it to go to some B chord. Harmonically instead you get retrogression to that E, and a IV chord is always VI of some V of the relative minor, but that V of some minor can just be a major tonic.

[@frankcastel3239]

Rules are only guidelines. 😘

[@jasonjansen9831]

I think it's important to remember Johnny is a jazzer. Often his orchestrations are simply what played at the piano while writing.

[@leonardodelyrarodrigues3752]

6:50 These are the miscellaneous chords.

[@Metr01d3]

Funny, I was taught inversions by what note is at the top 😅

[@aldeayeah]

Sorry, we purposely trained you wrong. As a joke.

[@Metr01d3]

🤣

[@chrisjames3272]

I've not seen inversions discussed this way. The way we were taught is not bass + triad where the bass note is the inverted note, rather as single block chords, triads or whatever with no bass. So a triad in root is c e g, 2nd inv is e g c, 3rd is g c e. This feels like it comes from a jazz background, where the chords are more complex. This seems more natural to me. The point of inversions is smooth voice leading, so inverting being about the 'main' part of the chord seems more logical.

[@RyanLeach]

the bottom note is considered the "bass" even if it's not literally a bass instrument, in the same way the top note can be considered the "soprano"

[@chrisjames3272]

@@RyanLeach I understand that. But the way you are presenting it is (from a piano perspective) left hand playing a bass note, right hand playing a triad. You say something about it not matter what the orders of the right hand/triad are for the inversion, that the type of inversion comes purely from the left hand note.

[@MaggaraMarine]

@@chrisjames3272 The order of the other notes doesn't affect the inversion - it affects the voicing/position of the chord. Inversion is determined by the bass note. Any theory book will tell you this. It doesn't come from jazz - it comes from classical music. Also, what you call 2nd and 3rd inversions are actually 1st and 2nd inversions. Yes, the simplest form of 1st inversion C major would be E G C (and this is probably how they are first introduced to beginners). But that's not the only possibility. E C G, E C E G, E G C E, E C E G C E G, E C C C E C E E G G E C... Those are all 1st inversion C major chords because of the bass note. They are simply different voicings.

[@chrisjames3272]

@@MaggaraMarine But when you say bass note, you mean the note at the bottom of the chord. Like if you play g 1st (b d g), and then in the left hand played a g, would you describe that as a 1st inversion?

[@MaggaraMarine]

@@chrisjames3272 Without the G in the left hand, yes. With the G as the bass note, no - it isn't an inversion. It is a different voicing/position, but not an inversion, because the root of the chord is in the bass. "Slash chords" are inversions (at least most of the time). G/B is 1st inversion. G/D is 2nd inversion. But G major with G in the bass is still root position, regardless of the order of the other notes. Again, you can talk about the voicing/position of the chord, but that's not the same thing as inversion, even if some piano teachers incorrectly call them inversions. (I understand why - it's easy to say "play 1st inversion G major in the right hand and G in the left hand", but that's not how inversions actually work. They should talk about position, for example "G major with 3rd on top". You could also say "1st inversion G major with 5th on top". This is better than "root position G major in the right hand, B in the left hand".) Here's what Tchaikovsky says about chord positions in 4-voice "keyboard style" harmony (in Guide to the Practical Study of Harmony, page 12 - BTW, the book is freely available on IMSLP): _Turning now to the practical application of the above treated chords, we will begin with placing the fundamental tone in the Bass. In the highest voice any of the three tones of the chord, the fundamental tone, the Third or the Fifth may be used. For the two inner voices we will use respectively the intervals of the triad nearest to the Soprano._ _These three cases are called the positions of the chord. According to the interval of the triad which appears in the Soprano, these positions are called the fundamental position or position of the octave, the position of the Third, and the position of the Fifth._

[@notarbolz926]

There are no right or wrong ways to use a chord. Music theory is not about rules, just guidelines, and John Williams (as well as other great composers) prove that. Any chord can come after any chord, to quote Vincent Persichetti.

[@franciscoaragao9672]

Why you call it John Williams trick if this existed before he was born?

[@infertype]

Music theory is not a set of rules. It’s a set of observations about what people have done and what’s generally worked. Western tonal music theory in particular is describing the music of the baroque and classical periods, and most of what you’ll learn in that theory has effectively been thrown out the window in “modern” music, meaning pretty much anything since 1900. 😅 Jazz is loaded with inversions and voicing that are completely different than what you’ll find in a typical Western tonal music theory book. Regarding the comment about perfect 4ths being dissonant, I’d suggest you go back and review Schachter’s Harmony and Voice Leading or another book that explains when 4ths are consonant vs. dissonant - it’s contextual.

[@RyanLeach]

Yes and I’m referring to their use in this tonal context

[@DohcHama]

This is just wrong!

[@RyanLeach]

Which part?

[@mattialeonardi]

Yes, probably the chord after E major is not E-flat major, but G minor. So now I understand the title of this video. I don't know if there's another video that explains this mistake.

[@GizzyDillespee]

I... I'm not gonna watch a video about how Pluto isn't a planet. Maybe if you didn't grow up in a Christian household, then you can hear Pluto as "not a planet". But for me, every single "amen" at the end of the prayer, played with an air of finality, reinforced for me that it's a cadence. Er... planet.

[@GizzyDillespee]

I'm talking about the recommended video at the end, of course. This video is the bees'. The other one probably is too, but I'm not watching that one on principle. I probably already watched it, tbh.

[@RyanLeach]

Not about wether IV-I is a cadence, but the “Amen cadence” coming as an extra bit after a V-I feels much more like a decoration than a destination or close for a phrase

[@joeldcanfield_spinhead]

@@RyanLeach And there is a enormous difference between what's happening musically, in a nearly universal human sense, versus what's happening psychologically in a personal sense. I have always heard plagal cadences as decoration when they're after a V-I, as you say, but I didn't grow up in a traditional church and never sang hymns that went there.