Why this 13th-century song shows up everywhere

Linked to our full video to learn more!

[@Tyradius]

The Wilhelm scream of music, throw it in everything.

[@jigson520]

Never thought of it that way

[@Scherzokinn]

That's what Rachmaninoff did

[@LazyIRanch]

The Wilhelm scream is one of my favorite quirky movie trivia nuggets. It's fun to listen for it once you know. 😊

[@Tornado2409]

aaaaaAAAAAAaaa

[@LazyIRanch]

@@Tornado2409 😆 You just made me hear the Wilhelm scream in my head! Yes, I believe that is exactly how it is spelled. 😵

[@YoungGandalf2325]

Those monks should've copyrighted their music.

[@PlasticSquare]

😂 But it would have expired a long long time back already

[@subBGT]

Already in public domain

[@nickeisenkraut]

except, then we would not be able to witness this amazing music. This is what free art is all about. Making it possible for others to make art out of something you made.

[@RampageG4mer]

Can you copyright 4 notes?

[@tylerboothman4496]

​@@RampageG4merProbably.

[@thedorsinator]

The Dies Iræ is a chant set to the words from an even older prayer, “Dies Iræ” being the incipit. It means “Days of Wrath” which is to call to mind the end of time when we will all be judged for all people who have ever lived to see. It is the Sequence from the Requiem Mass. It is by far one of my favorite chants.

[@Angie_bae]

Still creepy😂

[@AS-yz2iz]

Mine too! Absolutely love it, especially the words.

[@igorlopes7589]

​@@Angie_baeIt being creepy is part of the fun lol. It literally was made to make you literally afraid for your soul

[@AveChristusRex8]

Thank you for injecting some real education into this comment board. Signed, A Traditional Latin Mass attendee

[@vickyabramowitz2885]

Creepy? I think it's powerful. My favorite notes are those on the minor scale.

[@TheGreatThicc]

A chant called "The Day of Wrath" used specifically for when someone dies... Man, monks went hard back in the day.

[@michaelplunkett8059]

Souls were at risk.

[@veronicascott313]

They still are. This is the battle between good and evil.

[@veronicascott313]

I think that day is coming. All the evil happening is being exposed. I don't know what comes next but I'm pretty sure we will know when it's here. Especially since it's described as a day of wrath.

[@johnsmoak8237]

​@veronicascott313 you already don't know, it is here It doesn't begin, it ends.

[@veronicascott313]

@@johnsmoak8237 it's not instant therefore it has a beginning.

[@monio.9444]

Ooh, this is also in The Nightmare Before Christmas in the song Jack's Lament

[@---MochiPunk---]

I noticed that too!! :D Especially at the finish of the end title score.

[@polymath437]

"Making Christmas" the entire song is built on this melody

[@exwhygd]

that’s where I remembered it from lol

[@the_man_with_the_silver_eyes]

And Frozen 2.

[@DRSDavidSoft]

"Into the Unknown", Frozen 2

[@johnnytheyoungmaestro]

You're right! What a great catch!

[@writingenuity]

I was just gonna' mention! XD

[@valsonder]

i was gonna say that too-

[@TG3ndisPK]

That's literally the first thing that came to my mind-

[@purplecobra2090]

Jurassic Park theme?

[@Luka2000_]

The shining opening still gives me the creeps to this day

[@HeatherHolt]

Came here to say this.

[@kimonk]

@@HeatherHoltSame!

[@iamrj9287]

Here's Johnny 🧟

[@rickwilliams967]

I doubt it's because of the music though.

[@My_trashtalking_account]

I thought that's what that was, so I scrolled to confirm. Thank you.

[@joejoethehalfbuffalo2698]

"Making Christmas"

[@RatRhapsody]

THATS WHAT I SAID. LIKE WORD FOR WORD, WITH THE QUOTES!

[@King-ty7mz]

Omg I never realized that Making Christmas is literally the Dies Irae

[@cordthomas97]

Well, they are in a town of literal horror monsters, so, yeah.

[@nottechytutorials]

Also that Frozen 2 song

[@wextr01]

Thats dies irae

[@_lejoker_4602]

I did my year 12 study on this for music. No joke, you literally said everything I learnt about. Such a fascinating topic with lots of interesting and cool details :)

[@eliasaquino2152]

They probably found your thesis somewhere and copied it

[@colinluckens9591]

😅😅😅​@@eliasaquino2152

[@bandit5600]

12 years and everything you learned was that?

[@143_Lix]

​@bandit5600 they studied it in the 12th grade, not for twelve years straight

[@OilRig-1]

@@bandit5600year 12 is the british equivalent to the 13th grade. Im assuming this person is british but might be from another country using years instead of grades.

[@Blake22022]

It was also used in revenge of the sith when anakin was dying, so it makes the scene in new hope that much more powerful as Lukes adopted parents are killed, much like his real father, anakin, who was killed by Vader

[@opalcoastal-ld5kd]

“Making Christmas, making Christmas, la la la” - The Nightmare Before Christmas

[@ottawasunset]

That's what I first thought, too

[@celinapadilla1208]

I thought of it too 😁🎃🎄

[@ThePersonMan]

I was gonna say, I think I hear it in white lotus as well, and squid games.

[@Blissfulbizz]

YES I HEARD IT TOO

[@diamondmist19]

MY EXACT THOUGHT

[@simmo-dieredaktion1107]

The original melody is not in a minor chord, it is in the first Gregorian Mode, called Dorian. it is close to minor, but isn't minor in the end - this is why it combines light and dark that well. I advise you to listen to the whole peace.

[@patriciarossman8653]

Thank you!! I was beginning to despair that there was even one other person that knows it's written in Dorian. ❤

[@grouchostarx531]

Best comment! (Sincerely, a lifelong musician who majored in music education! 😊)

[@averyintelligence]

Minor

[@identiticrisis]

​@@averyintelligence mynah

[@jakeisall1284]

piece brother

[@axospyeyes281]

minor doesn't ALWAYS have a connotation of sadness

[@marlena.]

Yeah I love playing minor key

[@Der.Soldat]

Yes. A lot of classical Russian dance music was written in the minor key (example: Shostakovich's Waltz No.2). Traditionally, it is not seen as sad there.

[@t_t9964]

More like melancholy

[@viktorbirkeland6520]

​@@t_t9964melancholy, sad, whatever. In some cultures yes, but that is not a global phenomenon. It's more an American one.

[@wrestlinghe2638]

​@@t_t9964goofy ahh

[@Zardman7]

First few lines of the chant: Wrath and mourning on that day Where heaven and earth in ashes lay As David and the Sybil say What horrors must invade the mind Wondering what the judge shall find When he surveys all mankind The trumpet’s wondrous tone Summons all before the throne Where man for his sins atone

[@nikkitytom]

Four notes is a "fragment of a melody" ... and can be found buried in countless compositions.

[@Blake22022]

No it's still a melody bud

[@JacoDeltaco]

​@@Blake22022that is literally the point of op comment 😂

[@NaomiSims-id2vn]

These 4 notes express the perfect combination of light & dark. It takes a combination of both to tell a beautiful story.

[@arhamakhyar3088]

1.2K likes with no comments?Let me fix that

[@lyrimetacurl0]

​​@@arhamakhyar3088 1 comment? Let me fix that

[@GolAcheron-fc4ug]

The knowledge of good and evil lead to death after all. Maybe that’s why this was played at funerals.

[@RafalRacegPolonusSum]

The story of the Second Coming

[@FriendlyHomie]

​@@arhamakhyar3088 That's one way to say you're a little kid

[@crazycat482]

"Music that ascends is happy" The hellfire ascending scales in Don Giovanni's overture: 🌚

[@thypie]

totentanz var 2 moment

[@Levacque]

I'm a pleb and can only understand orchestral music in the context of films, but I can definitely pick out a lot of moments where a movie's main theme (made in ascending scales) is changed during a tense moment. The melody still climbs, but the shifted key is what makes it feel sad. Sometimes, it's CHANGE that makes music "sad" in comparison to what came before. I think films are a great tool for understanding how context can change what a piece of music communicates.

[@castleanthrax1833]

Music that ascends IS happy. It's so annoying when a video creator states an obvious truth, and then pedants select a rare example of the opposite, and they think they've proved the creator wrong. I'll say it again... MUSIC THAT ASCENDS IS HAPPY.

[@crazycat482]

@@castleanthrax1833 wrong. Music is happy when the composer wants to make it happy. Not when it ascends. Its like saying red is a happy color

[@castleanthrax1833]

@crazycat482 Wrong. Music that ascends IS happy. Saying that music that ascends is not happy is like saying "red is not a happy colour." (Not that I'm saying red is a happy colour).

[@illogical_sc]

music producer here, minor music scales are not always sad, same with descending tones, how you use them determines a lot about them. EDIT: I see a lot of people thinking im not a real music producer, a music producer is someone who is actively making music, i actively make music, it does not matter if you like it or not its still music and the fact i have to even explain this is honestly ridiculous, and even if i wasnt a producer, that docent take away any truth from my point.

[@windygrass9807]

Oh, I still can't imagine it. Can you give some example?

[@OctagonalSquare]

While you’re right, 9/10 songs using minor scales are sad, melancholic, or even angry. For most people, a minor progression void of context, or placed in a different context as this phrase is repeatedly, will always sound like a negative emotion. When put in a major context and suddenly throwing something like this in, you can get an unsettling feeling. Like this happy moment is about to be torn away

[@isolu9386]

​@@windygrass9807an example for a piece that is in a minor key but doesn't remotely sound sad would be Dvorak's cello concerto in b-minor

[@badqualitykai7837]

​@@windygrass9807I'll give you some examples, for minor key it would be "He's a pirate" from the pirates of the caribbean. And for mejor keys that could sound sad coud be "What a wonderfull world"

[@badqualitykai7837]

​@@OctagonalSquareI mean, that's why *always* is a key word here, minor key si commonly associated with negative emotions but not in all cases. There's also a good amount of popular music that uses minor music and aren't really sad or angry and more joyful or energetic

[@thegourmetchefegg4947]

Carol of the Bells is another example.

[@AntonDiachuk]

Did you mean "Shchedryk"?

[@ChopinIsMyBestFriend]

Extremely simple sequence of notes that is almost impossible not to naturally do anyway.

[@melindamercier6811]

Thank you. This is ridiculous.

[@dewilew2137]

For such a creepy series of notes, it’s still surprisingly versatile even just in the examples you played. It can go from unsettling to foreboding to almost awe inspiring. Very cool!

[@TYoshisaurMunchakoopas]

i thought of the ending theme from smb1

[@Jayson_Jennings]

"Making Christmas" from Nightmare Before Christmas uses it too.

[@KellyBice]

Right! 😂

[@Sophia_at_MIA]

Yes!! Most of the songs from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” use it, there’s a video about that somewhere!

[@Cynthia-ru9mj]

I just saw your comment after I posted mine. It's true, though 😂

[@redspiderlilys6]

I immediately thought Nightmare Before Christmas when I heard it

[@ADMusic1999]

And if you speed it up it sounds like Carol of the Bells. Very fitting for that movie.

[@jackshapiro4668]

Fun fact: if you’ve ver played the game called Dead by Daylight, its main theme is this same 4 note progression!

[@Da_Sire]

As soon as i heard those 4 notes i thought of DBD lol

[@RockinEnabled]

was looking for this comment to make sure I remember the DBD tune well :)

[@bigmonkey1254]

Yup. Played these notes myself.

[@JogVodka]

It's on every version of the lobby songs too and I always love how these notes keep this consistent style between all of them

[@-vizer-5737]

Lol first thing I thought

[@postrock12]

Chanting music and Latin choir can be beautiful,moving& sometimes psychedelic

[@messianic.mt.pianist]

One of my favorite works, in which the Dies Irae was expanded upon, is Franz Liszt's Totentanz, of course meaning "Death Dance." Riveting piece for piano and orchestra in his typical extravagant style, with almost sickeningly dark and mysterious passages ...as only Liszt could turn a phrase 🙌🖤

[@washingtonforensicsservice5495]

I would imagine that you also are familiar with the Dies Irae in Rachmaninov’s Paganini variations.

[@mazeppa1231]

The Liszt Totentanz is amazing, and there is an earlier version of that work where the beginning starts with bells, which gives it a spooky haunting atmosphere.

[@calamaria9624]

This is a huge motif in The Hunch back of notre dame which is big on the theme of death, and builds extremely on the dies iere making it the whole chase scene in the beginning as an innocent person is being chased down and killed. Its simply a symphonic masterpiece.

[@EEEEEEEE]

‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎‎E

[@geraldlobster7695]

Dead by daylight has the same melody for it's theme

[@lithonious636]

I came here looking for this comment

[@notinthebestmood1850]

LOL SAME

[@megadrivecar_]

In the context of this game it makes so much more sense.

[@ligondesenuts769]

@@megadrivecar_ I mean “dies irae” means day of wrath so

[@EthanIsIt]

@@ligondesenuts769and it’s a literal day of wrath of playing the game so even more sense

[@zoeybarter3246]

Descending notes are also not always sad, in fact they’re arguably used much more in happy musical scenarios because you often need to descend to resolve to the tonic (the first note in the scale).

[@BigBellyBrookes]

It's used in HxH quite a lot for determined, yet melancholic moments.

[@shara1979]

Great topic! I never knew this. Pretty cool!

[@shara1979]

It's so cool that there's psychology to music, & I think it's so incredible that music, which is basically Vibration, affects humans in such specific ways, & causes us to make connections. I think there's something to that, like when they say frequencies were used for creation of the universe, & to theories of like, the pyramids being built by using certain frequencies to levitate the massive blocks, & other theories. Amazing!

[@alekxos1900]

The notes are not unsettling, they’re beautiful!

[@LuciferAlmighty]

Right

[@U-A-FAUTTPAYFGAAZNTTPUTTD]

Same For Me

[@mcgritty8842]

That’s because you find beauty in things most people don’t. You probably find unsettling things to be enjoyable…

[@Eothok]

Why not both?

[@KKH808]

Music theory as we know it is a Western invention. When people not exposed to Western-style music listened to major/minor chords, they didn’t see either as happier or sadder than the other.

[@souptime821]

Im a tuba player and I had one of these last year as a solo in a piece. One of the coolest musical moments of my life.

[@maureenbanks3702]

Hey kiddo! That's fantastic! I can so relate to your experience as i played clarinet and flute from 6th grade on thru high school. I'm 57 now and i haven't thought about these memories and many years but your comment took me back, oddly enough it wasn't the video, it was your comment! Thank you!

[@briannac3909]

I love playing Berlioz’s Dream of a witches’ sabbath, so good

[@stephenhosking7384]

Delightful comments, from practicing musicians! Thanks - they really added to this video for me :)

[@princessthyemis]

Ooo sounds cool!

[@_maxgray]

Minor keys are seen as sad/dark/etc. specifically in majority Western culture. There are plenty of cultures where minor keys do not have that connotation!

[@rollo2007]

Well technically it's dorian mode and not a minor key. But still you are not wrong. It is often used by Jews in klezmer witch is music for festive events. In this case it is more about close intervals than tonality but still in some parts of the world those are preaty normal (for example Bulgarian folk music)

[@burgernthemomrailer]

Oh my god bro SHUT UP!!!

[@AyDotHam]

Yes! I’ve heard about that. It’s very interesting!

[@chasesolari4482]

This is very true, in fact the scientifical reason as to why we find certain music happy and some sad and not the other way around is quite interesting to me 😊, However I still think the note pattern being written with an intention to be seen as sad makes sence as the movies were mostly seen and produced at the time by western cultures and in modern times the note pattern has kind of stuck since it had alredy been used for so long, but let me know what you think 😊

[@zoeybarter3246]

True but even in western music minor keys do not always indicate sadness, it depends on the song.

[@greenaum]

I think a lot of the emotion in music comes from it mirroring the tone patterns in speech, the frequencies we use in happy or sad speech, etc. Our brains, and our languages, surely evolved around each other in that way.

[@supermj767]

Sounds like "Making Christmas" from a Nightmare Before Christmas.

[@Alyss93]

Our music teacher taught us this in high school, and now it pulls me out of the movie every time I hear it

[@noi000]

Hahahaha.

[@Floofi_13]

My band has a stand tune for football games that has the same name

[@Gandalf_the_Gay]

Fun fact: Symphonie Fantastique is the opening theme to Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining"

[@grzexd]

Ohhhh thats where i recognised it from, couldnt put my finger on it

[@LAK_770]

It's "based on" Symphonie Fantastique, it's not the actual symphony. They didn't really need to credit Berlioz here because he was already re-using the melody

[@Zuwze]

Fun fact, they showed shining at the end of this short.

[@gabrielbrodrigues1111]

As a musician, i feel physical, mental, and spiritual pain watching this video. Songs in minor keys do not all sound sad/ominous. You can literally do a lot of other emotions with minor keys, if you know what you are doing and how you do it. These same notes are used a lot as ostinatos( note repetition patterns ) with or without syncopation. There's happy and epic Christmas songs and a lot of other songs with that same note structure, and not all major keys sound happy. There are a lot of factors that make a song sound sad/happy Minor and major may be use more to certain emotions because the way they sound, but they are not a determinating factor. One factor that might attribute an emotion to a certain music structure is culture, and the image that this culture attributes to that emotion. So, for a lot of Eastern culture, they have a different concept of what a song structure feels like. Some cultures don't even differentiate emotion in minor and major and a lot of cultures don't use the same musical theory as we do here in Western culture This is something we Westerners do. Some cultures don't even use the same tuning system, with different notes and pitches, not different note names, no, different notes, and pitches themselves. Our ears have become used to the sound of our tuning and note system. For us, some culture's tuning system would sound jarring or out of tune And so would ours to them.

[@SamiKankaristo]

Even the "It's a Wonderful Life" example they used with this melody doesn't really sound sad/ominous, it's actually more hopeful (it's the "I want to live again" scene). So even a specific (short) melody can sound completely different depending on the context.

[@Plethorality]

Noted. : )

[@hogg156]

I agree, and I have an example of this occurrence in further detail - Charol of the bells has the melody as well, and the song sounds ominous because of a bunch of musical factors: This melody contributes to that, but also the staccato, the descending tetrachord bass line (used in western baroque & classical music for creating melancholy theming), accented notes, ~Presto (~160) tempo, and borrowed meter/syncopation, not following the beat pattern. All of these small decisions the composer made contribute to the uneasiness and in general terms, "sadness". It being minor is only one of several factors that create the sadness, and the mode added, the "sadder" or "happier" a score becomes. Even describing music as having emotion is an abstract idea, haha.

[@SamiKankaristo]

​@@castleanthrax1833The video says "Minor music **always** has a connotation of sadness" (emphasis added). Maybe you missed that part?

[@castleanthrax1833]

​@@SamiKankaristoMaybe I did.

[@BigJamalYT]

Fun fact: this is the melody sung by the choir in stairway to heaven during the guitar solo

[@alesundgresiek8389]

I think it's a slide guitar but yeah that's what I was thinking too.

[@BigJamalYT]

@@alesundgresiek8389 oh yeah thats true, i tought it was on the studio version, but its only on the version performed by "Heart"

[@mickeyrube6623]

"Making Christmas, making Christmas...... MAKING CHRIIIIST-MAS!"

[@s3v3n3]

It's also that other song of Jack in the moonlight.

[@carolinpurayidom4570]

I love Gregorian chants as they have given me physical mental and spiritual healing

[@LynnDisclose]

Really

[@Ienteredmynamecorrectly-lt3nu]

I sincerely doubt that

[@variasanddragon]

The tune of “making Christmas” song from nightmare before Christmas suddenly makes more sense with the funeral context of those notes

[@ManuTears98]

"Music that ascends is happy" *cries in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure La Strada Giusta*

[@josephinefogg6542]

The nightmare before Christmas actually has it as sort of a recurring theme throughout the musical numbers, instead of just the scoring, which is pretty cool. 🎶somewhere deep inside of these bones🎶 an emptiness began to grow🎶 🎶Making Christmas making Christmas lalala🎶

[@ahmadalhafez]

Death note ..in a literal sense

[@DavM310]

The way Vox explains music theory is excruciatingly over generalized

[@edpoolwilson9522]

Because it's for the layman

[@DavM310]

@@edpoolwilson9522 It is more than possible to explain music theory to the layman in a way that doesn't say things that aren't true

[@OneroseArts]

Dies Irae translates to, Day of Judgment or Day of Wrath. If I remember correctly, the song is about Christ's return and judgment of the earth before his ten thousand year reign. The themes of the song are destruction and finality so it's a good choice for a death leitmotif.

[@PorcoPorchetto]

Hunter x Hunter my man, now it's time for the 8th rewatch, thank you

[@extremecat9863]

first thing i heard lol

[@Sirenhalo]

​@@extremecat9863same!

[@alienn_o.o]

"to give a marionette life" hxh

[@bighenry2070]

Heard it immediately, went to the comments to check out if someone else thought the same hahahh

[@babylonhasfallen1329]

I find those 4 notes to be rather cheerful and uplifting.

[@tluci]

yeah, you're sick

[@etienne8110]

Given the amount of musical création, having 4 notes following one another is just simple statistical occurrences. There are only so many combinations...

[@MrStoyan5]

"minor music ALWAYS has a connotation of sadness" ummm?

[@lisab7320]

‘Sleeping With the Enemy’ used Symphonie Fantastique, 4th movement, in the movie.

[@KellyBice]

They used it well to build suspense!

[@firebonepg7521]

This makes so much sense for Clockwork Orange and glad I learned it cause that theme is so good

[@justynmatlock8873]

'Country Lane' as it was called on the sound track album, is my favorite track, long before I saw the film.

[@oli3645]

Minor music has a connotation of sadness… yes absolutely hearing kids slaughter a song that you love during school recitals is always upsetting

[@DammyFA]

"Into The Unknown" from Frozen 2 comes to mind.

[@superpenguin1861]

Minor cords aren't always sad. Some cultures consider them to be happy.

[@user-hx3yt9yu5b]

Dead by daylight theme:

[@wrongfaygo]

🗿real

[@michaelryan3960]

Gregorian chant is so amazing. It’s like hearing heaven. 🇻🇦✝️🇻🇦

[@Sedyon]

This is the big brother of "the lick"

[@TheRealLoudannIsHere]

Just in case anyone was wondering, the sheet music for piano on this short is Franz Liszt's Paraphrase on Dies Irae/Totentanz/Dance Macabre in D minor, S.126.

[@robertflores9564]

People often forget that it was originally part of the requiem mass. Thank you for including it

[@01SaltyWitch]

Who/what trained our ears to not like notes that are so close together?

[@LSqre]

Probably dies irae. Some composers decided to use half steps in the song for funerals, which started that connection, which strengthened over time as the song was performed more in thst context, and more composers used close intervals and a minor key in "sad" contexts. Additionally, the minor second interval (half step) is very dissonant. It's like the two notes are rubbing against each other, because the sound waves are so close to being in sync but they're not. Typically, European composers of yesteryear favoured consonance over dissonance. The music that we listen to today is generally derived from that, and it's what we're used to. If you listen to music from other cultures, such as Gamelan, it uses intervals not present on a piano (microtones) and theres more dissonance. But their ears are used to that, because that's what happened to be the music favoured in their culture.

[@sekounk]

its complicated but in the canon of western classical music, simpler interval ratios (e.g. perfect fifth- 3:2) tend to sound consonant, while intervals which can only be expressed with higher integers (such as these- 16:15 and 9:8) sound more dissonant. someone who grew up with a different musical culture may have the opposite intuition.

[@interrexclamacion]

The closer the notes, the more complex the interval between their pitch, measured in hertz or vibrations per second. The human ear is able to differentiate the intervals between notes, and while there is definitely cultural conditioning, humans throughout many times, cultures, and surroundings have generally found simple intervals (1:2, 1:3, 2:3, 3:4) more consonant and nice sounding, while more complex intervals sound more dissonant (the half step talked about in this video can have a variety of just intonated intervals, but most commonly it is 15:16, 16:17, or even 135:128). Along with this, very close notes cause a beating sound (called a beat), as the sound waves go in and out of phase and boost and cancel eachother out at a constant rate (if you play to two notes and listen closely you can hear it getting quieter and louder). Also, because your ears and brain don't perceive sound perfectly, but have many complex processes behind the structure of our ear and brain and how they interpret sound (our ability to hear didn't evolve to make everything sound clear, it evolved to help us hear danger and communicate with eachother), we perceive the auditory illusion of combination tones. In simplest terms, when it have two notes playing together, let's say at 300 hertz and 350 hertz, you also very quietly hear the pitches that are the two frequencies added and subtracted, so in this you will hear 50 hertz and 750 hertz tones quietly. Notes closer together create even more dissonant combination tones with even more complex intervals. This isn't the main reason, but it's a nice cherry on top.

[@towardstheflame]

To say we are trained not to like notes that are close together is an over simplification though

[@blueangels111]

@LSqre is definitely right that it's just dies irae and western classical music. If your brain doesn't make the connection to irae, it won't sound bad. A perfect example is a lot of Arabic music that uses a different scale consisting of many half steps. One example being a beautiful song called Arabesque. In this music, it uses dissonance and half steps, but because the entire scale around it is different, it doesn't give that same dark give because your brain just doesn't notice it.

[@colevilleproductions]

ok but it’s just 4 notes, it’s bound to show up literally everywhere how do I turn off notifications for a throwaway comment

[@AyDotHam]

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. At the same time it is kind of something that it’s used in stories during scenes with similar feelings. Then again the same can be said with a lot of things in minor in Western and/or Westernized cultures.

[@gabrielfkrk]

Indeed! Who calls 4 notes a melody. It's like calling 3 words a poem

[@Schody_lol]

@@gabrielfkrk but there are three-word poems?

[@seheyt]

@@gabrielfkrk Vox, thinking their audience cannot handle >4 notes. They're just omitting the rest

[@ojmay...]

Music isn't random like that

[@latioselatias]

“Making. Christmas, making Christmas”

[@kif8522]

"Making Christmas, making Christmas, la la la!

[@tttITA10]

MINOR. KEYS. ARE. NOT. ALWAYS. SAD. Not even under western european culture. A lot of current (party) pop music is in minor keys. Pleeeease.

[@daveo2431]

True, it is an oversimplification.

[@zoeybarter3246]

Yeeessss I found that so annoying

[@Medtszkowski]

Yes pretty much all of Alkan’s music disproves that. His pieces are often in minor keys, but end up just sounding epic and sentimental

[@dylanburkardt1113]

But sad songs are almost never NOT in a minor key 👀 soooo I mean

[@originalpunk007]

When I hear Party pop music....I get sad....

[@MCRedstoneFR]

Perhaps some of these examples are not necessarily quoting this melody. While the Dies Irae theme is much longer, I'd say this 4 notes melody isn't super hard to "randomly" come up with.

[@wiruwaruwolz]

Ever since Berlioz, it’s been used in Classical and Film music as a shorthand for death or impending doom. So, I’d say the quoted examples are spot on. There’s a few compilations of the Dies Iræ “theme” in music to be found on KZbin, definitely worth checking out

[@cshaps1212]

The Dies Irea melody has been used for hundreds of years to convey the same meaning. It’s intentional.

[@p.s.224]

Every composer knows this musical phrase as dies irae.

[@seheyt]

It's always more than the 4 notes. Vox is not taking us seriously here

[@Jepleg]

guys, i hate to say this, but the notes shown on the sheet music don't line up to the pitch

[@castleanthrax1833]

So, what were the actual notes? Or was it just a minor difference that would be explained by it being played on an imprecise instrument like a violin?

[@Jepleg]

@@castleanthrax1833 no so on the sheet it was C B C A but the pitches were F E F D hahahaha

[@castleanthrax1833]

@Jepleg Yes, I just double-checked, and you are correct.

[@Jepleg]

@@castleanthrax1833 how did you check?

[@wyattstevens8574]

@@castleanthrax1833 Jepleg was right (it was in the key of D instead of A) but... it *would* be almost 400 more years until the tuning system we use would emerge and get popular, so the keys didn't all sound the same!

[@safiremorningstar]

Those notes are also used in the song beautiful dreamer those four notes probably why this song is also quite memorable. I still use today.

[@MountainMaid238]

What's interesting is that my people, prior to colonisation, sung and played instruments in microtones - meaning that traditionally their ears did in fact prefer notes closer together. Once colonised by people whose instruments could only be tuned in 'wider' notes in order to work, it changed their way of sounding too. Fascinating.

[@bernice6867]

I like notes that close together.😊

[@horvathbenedek3596]

Ok, but maybe play the second part of that melody... it's glorious.

[@TheCruxy]

Shoutout Metropolis 1927, yet another reason it rocks

[@f.herumusu8341]

This is not a melody, it's just a phrase which can be part of a melody and you will find hundrets of commonly used phrases, esp. when they are as simple as this one.

[@ryanlynch290]

The inverted it for close encounters of the third kind and it makes it yet mysterious

[@lee_does_cool_stuff]

BRO WE SINGING THIS IN CHOIR 😭😭😭

[@UniversalPhoenix]

i found it really good and calming

[@mil3ston3s]

Urg. Lot’s of suspect explanations. Minor music: not always sad. Highly depends on the culture and motif. Same applies for the “direction” of pitches (some people don’t tie pitch perception vertical location, for one). An argument about intervallic relationships within a key and chord structure could be stronger, but again, culturally dependent.

[@SteveDonaldson-r5k]

There was a folk rock version of 'gaudete' which is pretty enjoyable, the lead singer uses the original Latin throughout.

[@SonOfNiall]

It's as if there are only so many melodic possibilities in music!

[@Will-dn9dq]

The omen used a funeral song. So appropriate. Reminds me song end of original childs play. Made feel like it was dark.

[@Qsie]

Brain: Frozen 2 🫣

[@UmutzzFRGTN]

Brain : dead by daylight

[@austinskeffington3248]

“Our ears are trained not to like notes that close together” … a bit reductionist don’t you think? 😂

[@95rossc]

Reductionist is the entire identity of this video 100%

[@c.galindo9639]

Sounds very melodic in a transfixed sort of way. Very malevolent yet enticing

[@onyxalyx6065]

A lot of Melodic Black Metal artists use this too! In fact, Dies Irae is often followed with a Tri-tone of B-Flat to F-Sharp, which is a chord so dissonant and eerie that it was rarely played by the church, much like Dies Irae, in fear that it would summon the Devil, earning it the fitting title of "Diabolus in Musica," or the Devil's Interval. It makes these metalhead bones shiver everytime I hear them both paired in songs together.

[@luminousfaedust]

I heard it and the first thing that popped into mind was the Original Super Mario Bros. game when you beat it and rescue peach, and it's happy there.

[@megadrivecar_]

I really cannot unhear Dead by daylight theme now

[@BadlyDrawnJack]

Dbd players are having the biggest deja vu from this

[@abhitarorandom875]

Same

[@ix67ml]

YES

[@adelinewurzer4533]

"I might succeed u never know!" She acts like it's not LITERALLY UP TO HER. She acts like it's up to some mystic universal force if she looses the weight or not. Girly, IT'S IN UR HANDS!!!! NO ONE ELSES! The lack of accountability is astonishing.

[@Lin-1785]

That is frankly fascinating. And I will now listen for it all the time...

[@BeetoBeeto]

🎶making Christmas, making Christmas🎶

[@FinlayconMSM]

That's what I was rhinking

[@HarrytheDinosaur]

Doo doo duh daa. Huh. I never noticed how popular that is.

[@MiniTalkMomentsOfficial]

Even in frozen 2 , the spirit which calls elsa

[@kueller917]

It works cause of the connotation that's become embedded in our culture. Minor keys, half steps, descending patterns don't necessarily mean any of the above. They can but there's no formula to this. And definitely none of these inherently imply death as Dies Irae does. Anyways, one of my favorite uses is in the opening of the Beetlejuice musical where the chorus actual sings the words too. A little jab at how often the melody is used, like "yeah here it is let's get that out of the way".

[@arenschultz]

Nightmare before Christmas. “Making Christmas”

[@meganmaclean3577]

Man this melody was EVERYWHERE in Hunchback of Notre Dames

[@corlancostello7647]

Into the Unknown and Carol of the Bells have that melody.

[@mishynaofficial]

Carol of the Bells is actually 1 step apart, no?

[@corlancostello7647]

@@mishynaofficial They might be in different keys, but in each melody there's b3 2 b3 1

[@wyattstevens8574]

Exactly- and in "Carol," it's staring you in the face: you hear it over and over!

[@GlowSquibs]

the original has been one of my favourite video for years!!

[@natayud5530]

Requiem for a dream should be included.

[@crosion5]

Very cool. Hector Berlioz can be heard in LOTS of John Williams music, as well as Gustav Holst.