Who knew happy birthday could be so beautiful?

Takashi Yoshimatsu's reharmonisation of Happy Birthday in his "Romance on the birthday" is a lovely and intimate gem of his unusually beautiful harmonic language. Appoggiaturas in the original arrangement are treated as harmony notes (m.73 note B) and original harmony notes become extended harmonies with unexpected chords (m.77 A F# D over G major). These harmonic choices often create repeated harmonies and, as a result, quite static landscapes over which countermelodies and simple imitative counterpoint seem to be comparatively salient. Just comparing the original harmonisation reveals indeed how much fewer harmonic changes there are, and the prevalence of the IV chord which also creates an illusion of G lydian at the beginning. Bar 77 is particularly expressive with its IV9 chord and the expansion in chord voicing prepared by a descending arpeggio in the previous bar.
Recording (Kyoko Tabe): • Takashi Yoshimatsu - 2...

[@thecertifieddoctor]

this is one of those pieces where the silence afterwards is 100% part of the music

[@skylarlimex]

You're absolutely right

[@dodolift7360]

This is happy birthday for a loved one who has passed.

[@geiannicaballero510]

I agree, it's so moving it feels more like a dedication than a greeting

[@el7284]

No this is mine! Mine, I say! 😭

[@francisokechukwu2561]

Eggzackly

[@fabiulaviana56]

Leaves from the vine, Falling so slow...

[@Just_Json]

​@@francisokechukwu2561 pleasee can I use that word in my conversation?

[@Christopher-ww6ob]

Weirdly specific, but this feels like the version you’d hear in a movie: a really old person that’s grateful to be alive at their age, and quietly enjoys a cupcake and a nice tea while they contemplate on the joy they’ve experienced.

[@rossirossi-iu9wx]

Yes indeed!

[@yzaazou97]

I also have very specific images pop up in my head about certain pieces of music. Sometimes, different images for the same piece but at different times in my life. I would love to chat with you!

[@normalizedaudio2481]

My theory teacher would always call it the "fancy version."

[@MARTIN201199]

More like the “seriously? HBS

[@pesto.3598]

Amazingly timed upload on my birthday!

[@skylarlimex]

All planned! 😉

[@evanever]

Happy birthday!

[@pesto.3598]

@@evanever Thanks :D

[@jgMaximo_]

Happy birthday 🥳🎂

[@Ivan_1791]

Same for me. xD

[@Stereozentrum]

Very intriguing. Thanks for analying it!

[@Pingoping]

Bro really said fuck anacrusis and wrote a single bar of 1/8

[@lololyoo5091]

It has a reason for this - the time signatures are in the exact sequence on 1967-3-26, which is unsurprisingly the birthday of the pianist this is dedicated to, Kyoko Tabe.

[@brianbrennaman5655]

​​@@lololyoo5091but the last one is 6? Edit: or is the 8 a typo?

[@AnatoArchives]

​@@brianbrennaman56556 It is 6. Her birthday is on 26th of March

[@lololyoo5091]

@@brianbrennaman5655 my bad - typo

[@hsrsar]

Im glad yoshimatsu is finally getting more recognition these past months

[@ashiapmanman]

YOSHIMATSU ALWAYS ON TOP BABY

[@zink_inc]

happy birthday just for yourself while you are sitting alone in the quiet and peace of the night at the very beginning of the day

[@BaconGull]

constantly changing time signatures... exactly what i like!

[@gabrielcaal7229]

i LOVE the two romances so much its so good to see yoshimatsu get the recognition he has long deserved

[@Ivan_1791]

There is no way, today is my birthday and for a moment I thought someone had dedicated me a video lol. xD

[@skylarlimex]

Well I did!

[@tuuutut]

Thanks for making me discover his music it is incredible !!!

[@skylarlimex]

With great pleasure!

[@anled.composition]

Takashi Yoshimatsu

[@selectyourname]

Could you make an analysis video for another of Yoshimatsu's work? His compositions are pristine gems.

[@skylarlimex]

I just might!

[@spl1t.00]

this is really good. short and sweet, but heartfelt

[@avecesar4244]

Beautiful version to dedicate to our family and friends 😊

[@skylarlimex]

I always do it! Love it when the theme creeps in at first then usually by the second or third line everyone starts to realise.

[@alejandropolanco5997]

aww, loved this

[@KingstonCzajkowski]

OH MY GOD I LOVE YOSHIMATSU please do something from Memo Flora or Cyber Bird

[@Alan-Byrne1987]

Wrote this out for guitar yesterday and it mostly works. Thanks for sharing! 😊

[@skylarlimex]

@@Alan-Byrne1987 I'm sure yoshimatsu would've loved to hear it on guitar! Post it on KZbin sometime

[@Alan-Byrne1987]

@@skylarlimex Will do Skylar. Thsnks again!

[@BenedettaSaglietti]

Thank you very much: moving!

[@roryreviewer6598]

Yo!! That’s so cool you featured Takashi Yoshimatsu on the channel. He’s underrated. Love his symphonies and concertos. Symphony 4 is so magical.

[@thejollyrajamtg9847]

If I ever get the opportunity to teach music theory, I am 100000% using this.

[@celloguy]

Gorgeous!

[@billyriedel6449]

This has a very old-school feeling to it. Reminds me of like Autumn Leaves or something on piano

[@AxisHarmonyMusic]

I wrote a piano piece that imagines the waves on a beach pictured through a black key glissando. So much you can do to imagine something!

[@H1meno_]

0:34 this arp chord

[@ArgoBeats]

Beauty.

[@romandubois6473]

Love these "breakdown" videos, great work !

[@skylarlimex]

Thanks a lot!

[@eugeniusblub]

Would totally love to hear this live!

[@skylarlimex]

You already have mate

[@RaptorT1V]

О, это же Такаши Йошиматсу! Я год назад на его 70-летие сделал фортепианную аранжировку его произведения для гитары "Romance for tree"

[@lololyoo5091]

Interestingly enough, this 1967-3-26 sequence of time signatures (actually the birthday of the dedicatee aka the pianist who played this, Kyoko Tabe) is also used in the second movement of the Memo Flora Concerto!

[@skylarlimex]

@@lololyoo5091 3-26 you mean? Thanks for dropping that bit of information! Everyone was curious about the strange groupings

[@lololyoo5091]

@@skylarlimex yes! the name of this piece is literally "birthday romance", and both this and Memo Flora are dedicated to Kyoko Tabe. A very lovely homage by Yoshimatsu-sensei indeed!

[@skylarlimex]

@@lololyoo5091 any idea to whom the first piece is dedicated to? Romance on a name.

[@lololyoo5091]

@@skylarlimex I see (rest)-A-Bb-E so maybe it’s a Tabe reference?

[@ajesco]

Yoshimatsu is the BOMB!

[@annej9186]

It feels like the moment a newborn enters the world❤ We’re so happy you’re here, Little One🥹

[@RebelBourke]

i feel at peace

[@Metacrepas]

that suspension at the end

[@tmybglr]

I recently had my birthday and this made me tear up, at 1am

[@skye.koz6]

god that suspension just summoned tears

[@MooreMusic12]

Oh wow brilliant 👏👏👏❤️

[@eliter7991]

I find Homebody’s set of variations more beautiful and ingenious personally

[@walrusmaximus]

I swear im not crying rn

[@skylarlimex]

Don't fight it

[@Shunarjuna]

Fun fact (sort of): When Happy Birthday went into the public domain, I was asked to play it in the background of a news report. This is the version I played.

[@Daily_Short01]

Wow

[@yhwhapolo]

0:33 best part

[@vhego]

I never thought it could be written as a triplet, I was pretty sure it was a dotted quaver and semiquaver

[@dukeofcurls3183]

as Vi Hart pointed out in their video on the happy birthday song, it’s almost always sung as a triplet despite always being noted as a dotted eighth and a sixteenth

[@Dichweed]

Nice composition.

[@iagovgarcia]

awesome

[@Oddsirshey]

Played this on my birthday, which is also a funeral. 🙃

[@Oddsirshey]

Rest in peace grandparents. ❤

[@Dylonely42]

How can you be so experimented in music theory at your age ?

[@skylarlimex]

Well for one thing, starting this channel has helped a lot in consolidating my knowledge. Other than that I have and had amazing teachers.

[@Salvejohnny93]

My only critique is I wanted another harmony in m. 76. Maybe a vi (B minor) harmony to keep it moving.

[@johnmetzger5862]

I swear Sarah Mclachlan wrote this, and that passing chord in the sec😅be to last measure 👌🏻👌🏻💯

[@samyarforoughnia1825]

Duuuddeeee you have to analyze cyber bird concerto His memo flora piano concerto And the birds are still You know i study music and this man changed the way i look at birds and music man Just pure beauty

[@johnchessant3012]

I'm partial to having minor 4 chord at 0:44, but this is an excellent harmonization!

[@skylarlimex]

It's funny because the minor iv is so used by yoshimatsu yet he avoids it here. It does run the risk of sounding clichéd.

[@maxolydiann]

me too- but everything else is in D. i think expressing it in this harmonic vocabulary lends a sort of neo-baroque chorale feeling to the whole thing. if there was a B flat instead of a B, it would sound a little incomplete as it spells a diminished chord instead of a minor iv. there would have to be a fourth voice in order to fill out the chord- but a minor iv sure is beautiful.... dang....

[@DerekwKimedit]

“Baby shoes for sale. Never worn.” 😔

[@SoonEnough]

Yo dude, is there a longer version? Please? I wanna learn it. Thanks 😍

[@leandersimbajon6884]

Sounds like a Christmas song

[@AnnathePiana]

That suspension needs to be prepared. But very nice. B++

[@mariacatolica9056]

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG

[@ecrinyazman]

happy birthday but alternative spain intro

[@donotapply6202]

Cool

[@Diana-bc5me]

The more I stare at your profile photo the more I think it looked like a gorilla with a toothpick or a cream coloured owl while listening to the piece in the background like I had some revelation 😭😭😭

[@Agui581]

5 - 5

[@rexy7399]

Hi, I was learning the piece recently and wonder why he write the complex (or detailed) time signatures at the beginning section of the video. Did the composer try to specify the accents of the rhythm and the phrasing? Or is there any other musical theoretical reason for such notations?

[@jefflokanata]

Its like cadenza, and every half note have their grouping . You should check the original version to understand this piece

[@rexy7399]

@@jefflokanata Well, I am looking at the original score and wondering why they’re grouping like that.

[@LawrenceDunn101]

should do the stravinsky greeting prelude

[@skylarlimex]

I haven't heard that in so long that I'd actually forgotten about it!

[@BlueMeeple]

Happy Birthday but it's in Minecraft

[@Just_Json]

Who watched this in 2x speed? 👇🏻

[@skylarlimex]

Sacrilegious

[@na-kun2136]

Behining sounds like quotation of memo flora

[@skylarlimex]

I thought it was the other way around! I'm not sure though.

[@musicboiscores]

​@@skylarlimex It is indeed a quotation from Memo Flora. This set of two Romances is published a few years after Memo Flora, in one book with a few other pieces like Regulus Circuit, 3 Waltzes, 4 Little Dream Songs, and Piano Folio to a Disappeared Pleiad. Also not shown here, but the first Romance also quotes the first movement from Memo Flora. This 2nd Romance quotes the 2nd movement.

[@musicboiscores]

Actually my bad, Skylar Lim was right. I read the copyright dates wrong xd. The Romances were marked copyright 1996, and it was reprinted in 2001 along with the rest of the pieces. Memo Flora concerto was from 1997, so just a year after this set of Romances.

[@FR-og2jr]

i guess it is not V64 at the end. Not A major 2nd inversion

[@biencj]

Reupload with a jumpscare at the end

[@skylarlimex]

Excellent idea

[@biencj]

@@skylarlimexThe real hard stuff too, like the old jumpscares where you’re watching a rocking chair rock by itself, and then the with comes outta nowhere

[@DanielKRui]

A simple arrangement, but in that simplicity, the moment @0:35 becomes transcendent.

[@tarikeld11]

0:23 and 0:39 remind me of UP

[@KingDavid39012]

I’m sorry yall… I don’t see it

[@MiScusi69]

Contemporary classical music is just as worthy as Romantic or Classical or etc...

[@nosiebangchan]

Why the sheets make it look complicate d 😭

[@adamguitar1498]

Fermata was a little too long for my liking, but it was a pretty version

[@JF098]

If you think this is beautiful, go listen to Cateen's 12 variations of happy birthday.

[@derycktrahair8108]

Sus4 to 1 as an ending? ..at a party no-one will hear it, they will cheer & toast the Birthday one.. It's all very clever but remember that we play to PEOPLE who love ability but hate a smart alec.

[@skylarlimex]

No one's being a smart alec, it's just a piece. I've played it for lots of people on their birthdays and seeing everyone's face light up as the birthday theme creeps in at the end is just absolute gold. Definitely try it some time.

[@shigahoomy]

i know im literally just a hater but i find this kind of analysis so bizarre. like how is it at all helpful to identify that the second note of the theme is an escape tone or the neighbor tone in the third measure or almost anything in this analyses and most others except the chords themselves? it just seems like putting as many year one music theory terms into the frame as possible for the sake of it

[@skylarlimex]

It's particularly interesting in this case because Yoshimatsu treats the birthday theme differently in terms of which notes are harmony notes and which aren't. In the traditional harmonisation, the first note is a neighbour note and non harmony whereas here, it is harmonised, completely changing the feeling of tension and dissonance. Instead the second note becomes non harmony, an escape tone, which sounds rather odd actually and helps to create an almost vague, dream-like atmosphere.

[@aadilavally4702]

Beautiful you gotta be kidding me depressing and the worst thing I ever heard. please don't quit your day job.

[@NowhereMan5691]

so poorly written... check what Victor Borge did with it. Thats what called composing skill... i know, i know.. you don't need negative energy, everything is fine as it is, no need to learn/develop

[@Aefax]

that "lovely open voicing" into the alto countermelody is mismatched and weird

[@Quim1441]

🥱 a pair of missed oportunities.. such a shame