Category: Theory: Gestures

Analyzing "Hunchback of Notre Dame" - 7. What Makes "God Help The Outcasts" Sound So Religious?

9/13/2020

We're up to GOD HELP THE OUTCASTS! What a fabulous song. I'd like to share some thoughts on what makes this song sound so penitential and prayer-like.

Here are three things that contribute to its prayerful atmosphere:
1. plagal cadences (IV-I)
2. recitative-style in the verses
3. descending lament in the chorus

Plagal Cadences (IV-I)

Generally, tonal music uses V-I cadences. These are called "authentic cadences." But church hymns often conclude with a IV-I cadence over the final word "amen." This is known casually as an "amen cadence," and formally as a "plagal cadence."

Sure enough, "God Save the Outcasts" ends with a powerful series of "amen cadences":

But we don't have to wait until the end of the song to hear these "amens."

The very first measure of the song is a IV chord, resolving to I in measure 2:

It's weird to begin a song in the middle of a cadence, but it really sets the penitential mood.

Recitative-Style in the Verses

Catchy melodies are often very repetitive. But part of what fascinates me about this melody is how non-repetitive it is. While there are some melodic phrases that seem to sort of, kind of, repeat, they're rarely repeated exactly the same. They're always morphing, always leading in new directions. And not only that, but when phrases do seem to repeat melodically, their harmonies are TOTALLY different:

I've used some colors to highlight rhythmic phrases that do repeat. Notice how all the blue measures have the same rhythm, and all the green measures have the same rhythm. But also notice how none of the blue measures are exactly the same note-wise, nor are any of the green measures. The repetitive rhythms keep us grounded, while the pitches are leading all over the place.

But wait, it gets better.

Compare measures 1-2 with mm. 9-10, which, melodically, are almost identical. The harmonies are totally different!

Same with mm. 5-6 and 13-14. The notes are almost all the same, but the harmonies are completely different.

Again, there are some elements that repeat to keep us grounded, but around those few stable pieces, everything else is constantly changing. This gives the music a very introspective and improvisatory feel: just as Esmerelda is spinning out her prayerful thoughts in real-time, so, too, is she spinning out her music.

Descending Lament in the Chorus

Finally, there's the shape of the famous chorus. It's basically just a descending scale. The measures I've colored pink drop almost a complete octave - 1 7 6 5 4 3 2 - but stopping just before the 1, delaying that sense of completion. Then, in green, the melody jumps back up to 5 and tries its descent to 1 again... and as before, that resolution to 1 is delayed, as the melody begins again at 5 and descends, with an arpeggio, down to the 5 an octave lower:

So there are two elements at play here.

First, there's the descending melody which is a common signifier of sadness (think of that poignant line from Aladdin, "would they see a poor boy? No siree...")

Second, there's the evasion of resolution, getting almost all the way to 1, but not actually getting there, which I hear as a musical expression of Esmerelda feeling like her desires are never quite fulfilled, always just out of reach. In other words, perfect for a musical prayer.

And there you have it! Three elements that make this song sound prayerful: the plagal cadences; the non-repetitive melody/harmony; and the descending melody in the chorus.

Of course, there's SO much more we can say about this song. But let's pause here, and my next post will dive into the equally introspective "Heavens Light / Hellfire."

I hope you enjoyed this blog post - the seventh in a 12-part series about the Hunchback of Notre Dame soundtrack! The remaining parts will be posted weekly.

If you'd like to support this blog, I invite you to to do so with a one-time or monthly donation at Ko-Fi.com/DisneyMusicTheory. Monthly subscribers get access to my teaching guides and sample assignments, as well as the deep spiritual satisfaction of supporting a blog about the music theory of Disney music! ❤️

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Analyzing "Hunchback of Notre Dame" - 6. A Genre Analysis of "Topsy Turvy"

9/6/2020

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Hello, fellow nerds!

I'm so excited to dive into the next song from Hunchback of Notre Dame: "Topsy Turvy."

Let's do it!

This song introduces a new style that didn't show up in any of the previous songs. For lack of a better term, I call it the "Broadway Chorus" style. Imagine a huge chorus on a Broadway stage, with the guys holding canes and the girls wearing feathers, with colored smoke and huge brass fanfares, etc, etc... and imagine the bawdy, boisterous, super-enthusiastic music that goes along with it. That's what I'm talking about.

"Topsy Turvy" is full of this style, from the melody's 5-#5-6 undulations to the accompaniment's boom-chucks and walking bass lines to the sudden key and tempo changes and all those juicy IV - iv chord progressions. Kevin Lynch made a fabulous YouTube video analyzing 10 different musical theater clichés and nearly EVERY SINGLE ONE shows up prominently in this song:

1. Chord progressions that move from IV to iv
2. Augmented 5th chords, particularly as part of a 5-#5-6 melodic line
3. Walking bass lines
4. Boom chuck accompaniments
5. Chug chords (this is the only cliché I don't hear in "Topsy Turvy")
6. Sudden key changes
7. Double time
8. Sus chords
9. Big pull back
10. Hits on 2 and 4 + a button

But wait, there's more!

It'd be easy to just say that "Topsy Turvy" is in this Broadway chorus style and be done with it. And it'd make sense: the bawdy, boisterous, hustle-bustle that always pops up in my mind when I hear this style perfectly fits the "topsy turvy" street fair depicted in this song.

Except, there are other styles mixed into the song as well.

For example, the song begins with a solemn fanfare, whose contour and gestures resemble those of the "Cathedral" motif that we've already examined in the earlier songs.

And then there's the "gypsy" music in the middle of the song, when Esmerelda dances. It uses the so-called "gypsy scale" (aka "Hungarian minor scale" - like a regular minor scale but with raised 4 and 7, creating augmented 2nds). It features virtuoso violin solos that roll the bow across all four strings. It constantly accelerates, from a slow dance to a whirling frenzy.

And of course, how can we miss – though it's easy to miss because it only shows up very briefly – the theme from "Out There," which we hear very briefly in an orchestral interlude while Quasimodo is being publicly humiliated. It's such a poignant moment that highlights the powerful storytelling role of leit motifs. Quasimodo sang "Out There" when he was locked up in the tower and dreaming of how incredible it would be to walk along the streets with everyone else. But now that he's actually out there in the streets, he's being tortured and humiliated.

Last but not least is the grotesque shouting of the crowd: "TOPSY TURVY!" These tone clusters – super dissonant bunches of notes sung at the same time – sound like a toddler randomly banging its fist on a piano. On one hand, the major dissonance shows how unruly the crowd is; on the other hand, the mechanical nature of their shouting (all together on quarter notes) shows their mob mentality.

Gene Structure of "Topsy Turvy"

Why did Alan Menken mix all these styles in this song?

It'd be so easy to just say, "he liked these styles, so why shouldn't he use them?"

And that'd be very lovely, but also very wrong. :-)

Take a look at the image below, which shows a visual structure of the song. You can see when each style is being used:

Notice how each style is being used in a very different way.

The fanfare is used to demarcate major breaks in the music. It appears first at the very beginning, and then again before the "gypsy" music is introduced. Make sense; this is how fanfares typically are used. (Imagine blaring trumpets introducing a guest to a queen and king....).

The "gypsy" music comes as a surprise exactly in the middle of the song, a dramatic/climactic turning point when the crowd starts to get more violent. In the Western music tradition, this kind of music is often used as a way of building emotional/sexual tension. It's meant to be exotic; so instead of writing the whole song in this style (which would normalize it and lessen its exoticness), it's just used briefly in the middle for a sudden burst of emotional/sexual tension.

The "Broadway chorus" style is always paired with the grotesque shouting; together, they serve as the main "meat" of the song, setting up a stylistic norm against which the other styles sharply contrast.

See, this is why studying music theory is so important.

If you're just casually listening to the music, simply as music, simply as something pleasant to listen to, you miss so much of the storytelling. Sure, it's still fun and enjoyable. But it's like listening to a speech in a language you don't understand - you might enjoy the rhythm and the melodic ups and downs, but if you don't understand a single word that's being said, then all you're getting is the most superficial of superficial understandings.

By the same token, if all you're listening to are chord progressions (you know, the only thing anybody ever really talks about...), you're also missing out on the storytelling.

But if you can discern different musical styles, and understand their connotations, and listen to how they're interacting with each other, and ask why, why, why -- then everything just springs to life with so much meaning that you may never have even dreamed could be expressed through musical sounds.

tl;dr - MUSIC IS MORE THAN JUST ENTERTAINMENT, AND MUSIC THEORY IS MORE THAN JUST CHORD PROGRESSIONS!

I hope you enjoyed this blog post - the sixth in a 12-part series about the Hunchback of Notre Dame soundtrack! The remaining parts will be posted weekly over the next few months.

If you'd like to support this blog, I invite you to to do so with a one-time or monthly donation at Ko-Fi.com/DisneyMusicTheory. Monthly subscribers get access to my teaching guides and sample assignments, as well as the deep spiritual satisfaction of supporting a blog about the music theory of Disney music! ❤️

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Analyzing "Hunchback of Notre Dame" - 4. Three Leitmotifs in "The Bells of Notre Dame"

8/23/2020

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Hello, fellow nerds!

Hooray! It's here: the fourth post in my quest to analyze all the songs in "Hunchback of Notre Dame!"

Today's subject is the song "Bells of Notre Dame," and gosh, there's just SO much to say about it.

So. much.

But I'm going to focus on just one particular aspect of it, which is how it introduces three musical leit-motifs that reappear throughout the score. These three melodies are fascinating because they're dialectical. That is, they are emotionally self-contradictory and provide a complex musical commentary on the movie's many themes: disability, justice, monstrosity, good, evil, the church, and so forth.

Wait, hold on a minute: what's a "leit-motif?"

Glad you asked! A leit-motif is a musical pattern that recurs throughout a movie and is associated with a particular character, location, emotion, or idea. For example, think of the "Imperial Death March" that we always hear when Darth Vader enters a scene. Or that Jaws "baaaaaaaaaaa-DUM baaaaaaaaaaa-DUM" theme that signals the shark's approach. Even before these characters appear on screen, we know that they're about to do so, because we hear their leit-motifs.

But the interesting thing about leit-motifs is that, as film music scholar Frank Lehman has put it, they're "semantically imprecise, inconsistent, or changeable." They can change their form and meaning over the course of a film to show how a particular character is transforming. They can also represent multiple ideas at once, or shift from representing one emotion to representing another.

OK, cool, so what are these leit-motifs in "Bells of Notre Dame?"

The following image shows an excerpt from the end of the song (mm. 255-267). This is the part where Frollo has been told that he must raise baby Quasimodo as his own child, as repentance for murdering the boy's mother (and nearly murdering the kid himself).

As you can see, it's basically a string of short, contrasting melodic ideas, which I've numbered 1-3.

These are some of the major leit-motifs that recur throughout the rest of the film, and here they are already, all clumped together, at the end of the introductory song.

I call them:

The "Out There" theme
The "Quasi-Frollo" theme
The "Cathedral" theme

The Cathedral Theme: Both Good and Evil

The Cathedral Theme appears countless times throughout the movie in connection with Notre Dame and, more broadly, Christianity. For example, we hear it in the background music when Frollo tries to throw baby Quasimodo into a well outside the Cathedral, "sending this demon to Hell where it came from." We also hear it in the chorus of "Hellfire," when Frollo sings about his own soul descending into Hell. And we hear it, triumphant and joyful, when Clopin sings about "the bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells, bells of Notre Dame!"

What's interesting about this leit-motif is that it sometimes appears triumphant and glorious, while at other times it's demonic and tragic. In short: it's both good and evil.

Here's a fabulous example: as shown in the image below, "Bells of Notre Dame" begins with a clear statement of the Cathedral Theme in minor, while the song ends with its re-statement in major. In this context, I hear it representing the cathedral itself, and specifically the bell towers. What's less clear to me, however, is the commentary that this is making: is the cathedral both good and evil? Uplifting and destructive? A sanctuary and a prison? Well, yes - all of this - as we discover over the course of the movie.

The Out There Theme: Not In Here

The "Out There" motif is cool, because its most basic 3-note component is a mirror image of the Cathedral Theme. And of course it is: one of the major themes of the movie is the dialectical relationship between the cathedral and the world outside it. While Frollo claims that he's protecting Frollo by keeping him locked in the bell tower, in fact the exact opposite is true. The sanctuary is a prison, and his true home is far away from where he grew up. So it makes sense that these two leit-motifs should be interconnected.

The "Quasi-Frollo" Recitative:
Who is the Monster, and Who is the Man?

Every good hero has their nemesis. Luke Skywalker has Darth Vader. Harry Potter has Voldemort. Quasimodo has Frollo.

But sometimes, over the course of a story, we discover that the hero and the villain are far more alike than might at first appear. And not only that: their narratives are so intertwined that it is impossible to think of one without the other.

As Darth Vader reveals before his death: "Luke, I am your father."

As the prophecy in Harry Potter declares: "Neither can live while the other survives."

And as Clopin sings: "Who is the monster, and who is the man?

Quasimodo and Frollo are so fundamentally different from each other. Yet, strangely, they are also very similar, like two sides of a coin. They are both, in their own ways, monsters; and they are both, in their own ways, people. Their narratives are intertwined to such an extent that one cannot imagine Quasimodo's life without Frollo, and one cannot imagine Frollo's life without Quasimodo.

This dialectic is a major theme in the movie, developed not only in the dialogue, plot, and animation, but also in the music itself.

Consider the leit-motif that I labeled "the Quasi-Frollo Theme" --

It's very speech-like, with each note repeated before moving to another. As it happens, every single song performed by Quasimodo and Frollo includes significant passages in this style... and ONLY Quasimodo and Frollo sing in this style. None of the other characters ever sing like this.

Here are some examples from "Out There," "Heaven's Light," and "Hellfire"... notice how every note is repeated before moving to the next, the melody goes mostly by 2nds and 3rds, and the overall range is narrow:

So there you have it: three leit-motifs that appear throughout the film, but they first appear – all clumped together, one after the next – in the opening song, "Bells of Notre Dame."

I hope you enjoyed this blog post - the fourth in a 12-part series about the Hunchback of Notre Dame soundtrack! The remaining parts will be posted weekly over the next few months.

If you'd like to support this blog, I invite you to to do so with a one-time or monthly donation at Ko-Fi.com/DisneyMusicTheory. Monthly subscribers get access to my teaching guides and sample assignments, as well as the deep spiritual satisfaction of supporting a blog about the music theory of Disney music! ❤️

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Analyzing "Hunchback of Notre Dame" - 3. Imitating Bells: A Long Classical Tradition

8/16/2020

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Imagine the sound of a clock tower striking midnight: "dong... dong... dong... dong..." It's monotonous. It's rigid. It's forceful. In between each stroke, there's this ominous silence that feels like holding one's breath.

That's the sound Alan Menken evoked at the very beginning of the movie, shown in the sheet music excerpt below. Check out those repeated whole note Ds in the bass clef! Every measure begins with a massive "dong": fortissimo, accented, extremely low-pitched, and marked "roughly, with force" (as if being struck by the bellringer).

"The Bells of Notre Dame" follows a long classical tradition of imitating bell sounds, stretching all the way back to the 17th century. Bell imitations became especially popular during the 19th and 20th centuries among composers of virtuoso piano works, and to this day have inspired numerous pedagogical character pieces for young piano students. For example, here's a very short list of 20 classical works from the 17th-21st centuries, whose collective influence shines forth in Menken's bell-like music for Hunchback:

1610 (ca.) - William Byrd, "The Bells" for harpsichord
1683 - Johann Paul von Westhoff, "Imitation of Bells" for unaccompanied violin
1685 - Nicolas Lebègue, "The Bells" for organ
1722 (ca.) - François Couperin, "The Bells at Cynthère" for harpischord
1851 - Franz Liszt, "The Bells of Geneva" for piano
1861 (ca.) - Charles-Valentin Alkan, "The Bells" for piano
1891 - Edvard Grieg, "Bell-Ringing" for piano
1895 (ca.) - Rita Strohl, "Christmas Bells" for piano
1904 - Maurice Ravel, "The Valley of Bells" for piano
1905 - Blanche Selva, "Bells in the Mist" for piano
1905 - Blanche Selva, "Bells in the Sun" for piano
1913 - Sergei Rachmaninov, "The Bells" for choral symphony
1934 - Francis Poulenc, "Nocturne No. 3: The Bells" for piano
1950s (ca.) - Margaret Bonds, "The Bells" for piano
1980 - Krassimir Toskov, "Bell Chime" for piano
1998 (ca.) - Dennis Alexander, "Bells of San Miguel" for piano
2001 (ca.) - Bernice Frost, "Evening Bell" for piano
2002 (ca.) - Mary Hauber, "Victory Bells" for piano
2003 (ca.) - Elvina Pearce, "Joyful Bells" for piano
2010s (ca.) - Jesper Hansen, "The Bells of Night" for piano

There are many things to say about Menken's imitation of bell sounds in this song. But in this introductory post, I'd like to share with you three of the techniques that he borrowed from the classical tradition.

1. repeating the same note multiple times

As already mentioned, "The Bells of Notre Dame" begins with massive clock strokes in the orchestra: fortissimo, accented, extremely low-pitched, and marked "roughly, with force" (as if being struck by the bellringer).

Here are some classical works by Franz Liszt, Blanche Selva, and Maurice Ravel that use this same technique of repeating a single note multiple times, albeit with very different moods in mind:

2. alternating between two notes a step apart

Just as a bell swings back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, one of the most common ways that classical composers imitated bell sounds was by alternating back and forth between two notes a step apart.

Menken used this technique in the middle of "Bells of Notre Dame," for the instrumental transitions between vocal solos. Here are two examples in which 8th notes a half-step apart are repeated, one after the other, for four measures:

[...]

Especially interesting is how Menken wove this technique into his lilting vocal melodies, which don't alternate strictly between two notes, but are definitely "somewhere in that zone" (to quote a later Disney princess). For example, in the main theme of this song, look at just how many notes are either an A (in blue) or a step above/below A (in green)!

Again, Menken did not invent this technique of evoking bell sounds by alternating between two notes a step apart.

For example, the bass line in William Byrd's harpsichord solo, "The Bells" (ca. 1610-25) just rocks back and forth, back and forth, back and forth between the notes C and D:

Another 17th-century example is Nicolas Lebègue's "Les Cloches" ("The Bells," ca. 1685) for organ. Not only does the soprano line rock between G and A, but the alto line rocks between E and F. So the effect is of two different bells swinging in unison:

And jumping ahead several centuries, Rachmaninov used this same technique to imitate the ringing of church bells for Easter in 1893, at the start of the 3rd movement from his Suite No. 1 for two pianos:

3. alternating between two notes a leap apart

When classical composers wrote ostinatos that alternate between two notes a step apart, as in the above examples, one might imagine small bells. But other times, composers alternated between two notes a leap apart, giving an impression of larger bells.

A fascinating example from the 17th century is the blisteringly virtuosic third movement of Johann Paul von Westhoff's Violin Sonata No. 3 for unaccompanied violin (1683), subtitled "Imitazione delle campane" ("imitation of bells.") The first several measures contain rapid alternations between notes that are a fourth, fifth, sixth, and even seventh apart.

200 years later, Rachmaninov often wrote bell-like piano pieces with booming leaps in the left hand, such as this excerpt from his famous Prelude in G Minor, Op. 23 No. 5 (1903):

A less-known example, from Jacob Schaeffer's masterful Yiddish choral work, "Kirkhn Glokn" ("Church Bells," ca. 1930), combines all three of the above-mentioned techniques: the alto and bass alternate between two notes a fourth apart; the soprano alternates between two notes a step apart; and the tenors repeat a single tone.

So, too, does this passage from Alan Menken's "Bells of Notre Dame" utilize all three techniques:

Making it Menken

Perhaps it's no surprise that the most obviously "bell-like" moments in "Bells of Notre Dame" don't copy the classical tradition exactly, but rather adjust it to Menken's own musical personality.

To see what I mean, let's do a thought experiment.

1. Begin with a two-bar ostinato. Put a repeating note in the bass (technique #1). Alan Menken likes thirds, so have the melody alternate between two notes a third apart (technique #3). For kicks, we'll add the lyrics: "bells, bells!" Here's what it looks and sounds like:

2. Alan Menken likes sequences. So, let's take that two-bar ostinato and turn it into a sequence. For dramatic effect, have the last step of the sequence go up a 3rd, rather than a 2nd:

3. Now let's add a dramatic ending. Open fifths are another classical technique for imitating bell sounds, so let's tack on two open fifths a fourth apart, ascending this time rather than descending. Then repeat those two measures a fourth higher. And there! We've got the end of "Bells of Notre Dame!"

And there you have it: a musical passage that is thoroughly Alan Menken, but draws on three different centuries-old classical techniques for imitating bell sounds (repeated notes, alternating thirds, and open fifths).

I hope you enjoyed this blog post - the third in a 12-part series about the Hunchback of Notre Dame soundtrack! The remaining parts will be posted weekly over the next few months.

If you'd like to support this blog, I invite you to to do so with a one-time or monthly donation at Ko-Fi.com/DisneyMusicTheory. Monthly subscribers get access to my teaching guides and sample assignments, as well as the deep spiritual satisfaction of supporting a blog about the music theory of Disney music! ❤️

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Good or Evil? The "Cathedral Motif" in Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame

4/15/2019

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Here's a leit motif, called the "Cathedral Motif," that weaves its way through the entire score of Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame.

We hear it, for example, in D major when Clopin sings with reverence about the bells of Notre Dame.

We also hear it, for instance, in D minor when Frollo sings about his soul descending into Hell.

What do you think?

It's well-known among film music fans that leit motifs represent certain characters, emotions, or ideas.

But so, so, so often, leit motifs are more complicated than that. As the cool kids say, leit motifs can be semantically flexible: carrying a wide array of meanings that ebb and flow over the course of a film.

This is certainly the case with the "Cathedral Motif," which perhaps shows how a Cathedral can be a place of both sanctuary and imprisonment, or how a soul (in Christian theology, at least) can ascend to Heaven or descend to Hell, or how religion can be (ab)used for both good and evil.

And it's also the case with other leit motifs in Hunchback, such as the theme from "Out There" that we also hear during Quasimodo's public humiliation, or the recitative-like melody with which both Quasimodo and Frollo sing so much of their music.

But enough of what I have to say. What do you think? I'm really curious to know!

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The Chord of Death: How the Neapolitan Chord Makes "Remember Me" from Disney's Coco Sound So Sad

4/10/2019

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How can a Disney song in D major sound so, so sad?

The emotional power behind the music of "Remember Me," a bittersweet song of farewell from a father to his daughter, is deep and complex. In this post, I'll just give a hint of what's happening in the first couple phrases. Perhaps in the future, when I have more time, I'll dive into the rest of the song, as well!

The song begins with a "minor plagal cadence," a form of modal mixture that replaces the major IV chord with a minor iv chord. It's like pulling the rug out from under the listeners' feet: we think we're in major, but suddenly it sounds like minor, and then it cadences in major again. As music theory YouTuber Jake Lizzio puts it, this is a progression "to make you cry."

But what I really want to write about is what comes next: a Neopolitan cadence in the relative minor, B minor.

In their study on music and emotions, theorists Daniela and Bernd Willimek describe the Neapolitan chord (bII) as "a symbol of death," noting its use in a song by Schubert to highlight the phrase "weinen ganz totenbleich" (weeping, and deathly pale).

In fact, the Neapolitan chord – which appears in measure 4 of "Remember Me" – has long been associated with death and destruction.

Vivaldi, for instance, used the Neapolitan chord in the second movement of his Four Seasons to evoke human suffering during the blaze of summer: "Under a hard season, fired up by the sun / Languishes man, languishes the flock and burns the pine."

Bach used the Neapolitan chord in his St. Matthew Passion No. 19 on the word "Plagen" (suffering): "What is the source of all of this suffering?"

Mendelssohn-Hensel used it in her song "Ferne," Op. 9 No. 2, on the word "ertötest" (mortify): "Why do you mortify me?"

There are so many more examples one could give – from Mozart's Requiem Mass, Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata, Wagner's opera Das Rheingold – which also utilize the Neapolitan chord in conjunction with deathly thoughts.

But the point is, the Neapolitan chord also plays a crucial role in establishing the mood of "Remember Me" from Coco, and understanding the long history of its usage in classical music can help us better appreciate its use in Disney.

OK, so what is the Neapolitan chord, anyway, and what's it doing in Coco?

Glad you asked!

The Neapolitan chord is a ii chord in minor, but lowered by a half step. For example, in C minor, a regular ii chord is a D chord, and the Neapolitan (bII) is a Db chord. That's jarring, because Db is not part of the C minor scale. In other words, it's chromatic.

But why is it associated with death?

Part of the reason, perhaps, is that lowering scale degree 2 turns the minor mode into the Phrygian mode, which, as I wrote in a previous blog post, is also associated with death.

Another possible reason is that the Neapolitan chord is generally used as part of a cadence (bII - V7 - I), and when you do that, you set up a tritone between the root of the Neapolitan chord and the root of the dominant chord. Tritones, of course, are also associated with death.

What's especially interesting about "Remember Me" is that it doesn't, in fact, use the Neapolitan of D major. Rather, it uses the Neapolitan of the relative minor key, B minor, followed by a full V7-I cadence, making us feel like the music has suddenly slipped into minor. But it hasn't gone into minor! The song really is, ultimately, in D major. This is just one of the many tricks that composers Kristen and Robert Anderson Lopez used to make the song feel like it's ever floating between major and minor, not quite happy but also not quite sad:

And it's ironic, isn't it? Coco's father wrote this song for her so that she'd remember him while he's away on his concert tour and look forward to seeing him when he gets back. But while he's away, [spoiler alert!] he gets murdered. And decades upon decades later, after waiting so long for his return, Coco has almost entirely forgotten him.

So it's appropriate that the song should hinge on a chord that Vivaldi, Bach, Hensel, and so many others have for centuries associated with death.

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Let's Talk About Modal Harmony - Disney Style! (Day 3)

4/3/2019

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The Lydian Mode in "Belle" (Beauty and the Beast), Part 2

Wow, is this fun!

In yesterday's blog post, I explored the use of the Lydian mode for little bursts of pizzazz in the otherwise major-mode opening of "Belle." As I explained in that post, all of the singing in the first two verses is in major. Lydian is used ONLY by the orchestra, either to add some space between lyrics or to underscore spoken dialogue.

ALL OF THIS CHANGES AT THE END OF VERSE 2.

Yes, Belle, this is going to be nerdy! And I can't wait to share it with you. ;-)

First things first: here's a video of the song and the structural charts of the first two verses from yesterday's post. Then we'll see how things are different after verse 2.

If you compare these charts for Verse 1 and Verse 2, you might notice that the first verse ends with a spoken dialogue, and the second verse doesn't.

Well, actually, the second verse DOES end with a spoken dialogue, but it comes after a lengthy verse extension that is ENTIRELY in Lydian.

Here's how that verse extension begins:

If you examine this passage closely, you'll notice two tell-tale signs that this isn't just in Lydian, but, like, really in Lydian:

The singers keep hammering at #4 in the melody, while the orchestra holds the tonic in the bass. This highlights, over and over and over, that characteristic tritone which makes Lydian so unique. (The first 8 measures are in G Lydian, so the singers emphasize C#. This is then repeated a minor third higher, in the chromatic mediant key of Bb Lydian, before Belle breaks down into a wail of frustration with a heart-wrenching Dm7 chord).
The orchestra keeps alternating between I chords and II chords, with the tonic held in the bass, which is a classic technique for chordally emphasizing the 1-#4 tritone that makes Lydian so unique. (Although you can't always see the tonic bass in this piano reduction, the chord symbol "A/G" means that it's an A chord [II] with a G in the bass.)

After this, the verse extension continues with a spoken dialogue. As in the previous dialogue from Verse 1, we hear that playful Lydian melody in the cellos, as Belle talks shop with the bookstore owner.

HOWEVER, this time it's more complex (and the dialogue's much longer). As you can see in the sheet music below, this cello tune is played several times in D Lydian. Then, it's transposed up a minor third, to its chromatic mediant, F Lydian. After we hear it in F Lydian a few times, it then returns back down to D Lydian. These chromatic-mediant modulations mirror those in the Lydian singing just before this, where the music had modulated from G Lydian up to Bb Lydian.

Chromatic mediants, in case you don't know, often indicate some powerful emotional shift. So in the first passage, the energy of the group bursts suddenly higher with the shift from G Lydian to Bb Lydian, leading Belle to wail in misery: "There must be more than this provincial life!" Then, at the bookstore, as Belle begins talking about her favorite book, she gets emotionally carried away: with the shift from D Lydian to F Lydian, she begins to talk about why this is her favorite book, full of "far-off places, daring sword fights, magic spells, a prince in disguise..."

All of this is followed by Verse 3, which mostly follows the structure of Verse 2, and then we get to Belle's big solo -- "Ooooooohhh, isn't this AMAZING?" -- which is, you guessed it, also in Lydian. And then we get Gaston's solo, which is in Mixolydian.

But we'll save that for another day. :-)

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Let's Talk About Modal Harmony - Disney Style! (Day 2)

4/2/2019

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The Lydian Mode in "Belle" (Beauty and the Beast), Part 1

My dear fellow nerds!

I have a confession to make.

In yesterday's blog post, I promised that today's post would discuss the use of the Lydian mode in music from Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin.

Welllll... the thing is... this music is SO fascinating, and SO complex, that I was only able to get to ONE song from Beauty and the Beast today!

And not only that...

I only got through a 3rd of that song!

So, without further ado, I present to you the first couple verses of "Belle," that amazing opening number from Beauty and the Beast. Tomorrow, I'll continue with the middle section, and hopefully the ending, as well.

"Belle" is in the key of D Major. Pretty simple, right? But the thing about modal harmony is that, although you could certainly have an entire song in the key of D Lydian, it's often used for brief splashes of color in an otherwise major or minor piece.

For example, consider the first few verses of "Belle." Whenever someone is singing, the music is in D major (except for the brief sequences that pass through C major and Bb major).

But in between the major-key singing are all these little bursts of Lydian, which I've highlighted in purple in the map above.

There's this spunky two-measure bit, which leaps about and emphasizes the tritone between scale degrees 1 (D) and 4 (G#):

... which reappears later, inverted and foreshortened, as a two-chord sighing figure in C Lydian (C-F#) and Bb Lydian (Bb-E):

These little bits of Lydian are like mini-transitions, or mini breaths of fresh air, or little bursts of color, within the much larger framework of D major.

And then there's this playful cello solo in the background music when Belle is having spoken conversations with various villagers, which highlights the #4 (G#) in D Lydian:

Give a listen to this song, while following along with my structural map, and see if you can hear these little bursts of Lydian. Doesn't it just make the listening experience so much richer and more delightful? That's the thing about music theory. It helps us notice details of the music that we never would have noticed before. And once we notice those details, it totally changes the whole listening experience.

Whew, ok, that's the intro and first two verses! Tomorrow, I'll continue with the third verse, Belle's solo, and perhaps even (gasp) Gaston's solo in (gasp) D MIXOLYDIAN! (How earthy!)

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The Magic of Lydian in "Little Mermaid"

3/26/2019

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What makes the underwater background music in Little Mermaid sound so magical? It's a combination of many factors, including the harmony, melody, rhythm, articulation, instrumentation, and formal structure.

One of these factors is its use of the Lydian mode, which is often associated with wonder, magic, and dreams. Part of Lydian's charm comes from the fact that, unlike major and minor, it has major chords on both I and II. It also has a tritone between 1 and 4 which has often been used to great effect (think of the Simpsons theme or "Maria" from West Side Story).

But in the case of the Little Mermaid, things are a little more complicated. The ostinato shown above can be thought of as I-II7 in Bb Lydian, but it can also be thought of as IV-V7 in F major. If you think of it as F major, then it's as if the music is wavering around the dominant without resolving. In the song "Part of Your World," this makes sense as she's spending the first part of the song talking about how unsatisfied she is. But then, when she finally puts a name to her dream – "I wanna be where the people are" – that wavering IV-V7 finally resolves to I in F major. Ah, resolution...

So the use of Lydian here is a doubly whammy. On one hand, it already comes loaded with connotations of wonder and dreams. And on the other, it serves as a dominant prolongation of the relative major, refusing to resolve until Ariel finally puts a name to her dreams.

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"Do You Want to Build a... TANGO?"

3/25/2019

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Music theory is not about rules! It's about conventions!

And sometimes, those conventions aren't the best way to do things.

Take the opening of "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" from Frozen. The "correct" notation in 4/4, shown above, completely blurs the meter, the counterpoint, the rhythm, and even the genre. What's more, it's hard to play! (Catch that left hand Eb on the last 16th note of beat 1!)

But when we re-beam it to fit the three unequal beats of 8/8 rather than the more conventional 4 equal beats of 4/4, a whole galaxy of details springs to life.

Why does any of this matter? Well, this passage is not just dramatic but also a huge part of both setting up the film's narrative and establishing Anna's personality.

This song comes after that heart-wrenching scene where the troll king erases Anna's memory, to spare her the trauma of her near-death experience. As the scene comes to an end, a confused Anna watches as her sister completely shuns her by locking herself up in her room. The musical background fades into a soft, slow, descending melody, orchestrated very sparsely, a perfect depiction of the loss, abandonment, confusion, loneliness, etc. felt in this scene by both sisters.

And this lonely music moves immediately into a fast, upbeat tango as a now-older Anna races to her sister's door to invite her to play together. What a dramatic contrast! It highlights how playful, giddy, and carefree Anna has become, and makes the tragedy of her memory loss and abandonment all the more poignant.

Sure, you don't need to know any theory to feel this emotional contrast between one scene and the next. But music theory -- including a sensible, if unconventional, notation -- helps us understand that contrast on a much more nuanced level, which means we can also feel it in a more nuanced way. And it also makes it easier to perform!

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History of Disney Music in 14 Minutes

2/14/2019

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To pass the time during my cancer treatment, I did a live stream on Twitter about the history of Disney music. Why not, right? :-)

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Alan Menken Loves 3rds!

1/9/2019

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Pop quiz! What's Alan Menken's favorite interval?

Answer: I don't know, but 3rds show up ALL over his Disney soundtracks!

He uses them in ostinatos, sequences, free-flowing melodies, emphatic gestures... have a listen to the examples in this video, and then read on to learn more!

Ostinatos establish a mood and anticipate motion.

Menken uses 3rds-based ostinatos to establish moods and anticipate motion. Ostinatos, in case you don't know, are musical patterns that repeat themselves over and over and over. For this reason, they both ground us in a particular sound-world and build up suspense over when, and how, the music will change.

In Newsies, the syncopations and brass orchestration of a 3rds-based ostinato set the movie in jazzy NYC, in a bustling orphanage where the newsies long for adventure.

In The Little Mermaid, a 3rds-based ostinato is played smoothly and evenly by sweet violins, creating an aura of peace and satisfaction as Ariel lies down to sleep. What will tomorrow bring? We'll find out tomorrow; in the meantime, she basks in her happiness.

In Aladdin, the end-of-bar accents, abrupt rests, and flurries of sixteenth notes in this 3rds-based ostinato create anxiety. Trapped by the guards, unable to escape, he prepares himself to jump for his life, colorfully depicted by a falling glissando.

Here are those same examples in sheet music format:

Sequences create movement and anticipate arrival.

Menken uses 3rds-based sequences to create motion and anticipate arrival. Sequences are like ostinatos, but each time the pattern repeats it's a little bit higher or lower than the time before... like climbing on rungs in a ladder.

In Hunchback of Notre Dame, for example, the villainous Frollo sings a descending sequence of 3rds as his soul descends into Hell.

In The Little Mermaid, by contrast, Ariel sings an ascending sequence of 3rds as the sea witch, Ursula, rips her voice up and out of her throat.

Isn't Disney just lovely for children? Here are those same examples in sheet music format:

Free-flowing melodies are more flexible than ostinatos and sequences.

The challenge with ostinatos and sequences is that they're structurally very rigid. But that's precisely where they get their power: they're incredible at establishing moods and carrying the music in clear directions.

But Alan Menken also often uses thirds to create his own, free-flowing melodies, such as the following gruesome duet from Hunchback and snazzy, finger-snapping bridge from Newsies.

In the Hunchback duo, Frollo and Quasimodo sing short phrases based almost exclusively on thirds. Thirds are useful in duets, because they are very consonant, and they form the most basic building blocks of tonal chords. For these reasons, they're relatively easy to harmonize, which is a load off the shoulders when trying to blend two simultaneous melodies.

This snazzy bit from Newsies uses open thirds, omitting the middle note of each interval. Leaping around from syncopated note to syncopated note, this use of open thirds creates a feeling of lightness, joy, and happy-go-luckiness:

Of course, the happy-go-luckiness of these open thirds can be snuffed in a puff, when used for a rigid, choppy, ostinato such as that in Randy Newman's song "Friends on the Other Side" from Disney's The Princess and the Frog.

Good stuff. Here's the sheet music:

Emphatic gestures add "punch and pizzazz" (quoth the Genie...)

A lot of folks think that music is just about long, flowing melodies and longer, nerdier chord progressions. But that's missing the trees for the forest. Just as hand gestures and facial gestures add extra meaning to vocal speech, so, too, do itty-bitty musical gestures contribute to the flavor and meaning of a song.

Alan Menken is a MASTER of musical gestures, and one of these days I'll write about the multitude of juicy, delectable instrumental gestures in his background music for Aladdin. It's part of what makes the Aladdin soundtrack so expressive and engaging.

But for now, let's have a listen and look at a few 3rds-based gestures in his vocal melodies.

The choruses to "I See The Light" (Tangled) and "Go the Distance" (Hercules) are loud and exciting and triumphant and heroic... but if you want to know why that is, you have to look at the first three notes. Like a musical fist pump, each of these choruses begins with a sweeping gesture from scale degree 6 up to scale degree 1. They don't just break out into song; they leap into song.

In "Friend Like Me" (Aladdin), the Genie doesn't just sing; he laughs, he make funny sounds, he throws around little exclamations... and all these "extra" details are performed via charming musical gestures. Here are just a couple of them, which are based on the interval of a 3rd:

And here's the sheet music:

Putting it all together: "The Mob Song" from Beauty and the Beast

Ready to see something awesome? "The Mob Song" from Beauty and the Beast combines 3rds-based ostinatos, sequences, free-flowing melodies, and rhetorical gestures, all in a single verse!

- It begins with an emphatic gesture (a rising minor 3rd from scale degree 1 to 3), which immediately sets a dark and hurried tone.

- This gesture is then turned into an ostinato that wavers between two minor 3rds, one between scale degrees 1-3 and the other between scale degrees 2-4.

- The entire first phrase (emphatic gestures + ostinato) is then repeated a step higher, initiating a sequence.

- Then the same 3rds-based emphatic gesture is used as the basis for a free-flowing melody.

- The verse concludes with an ascending sequence based, again, on that same 3rds-based emphatic gesture.

Sooooooo cool!!

Putting it all together again: "Arabian Nights" from Aladdin

The opening song from "Aladdin" also combines 3rds-based ostinatos, sequences, free-flowing melodies, and rhetorical gestures. My analysis below only covers the first half of the song, but I should warn you that the second half is also heavily based on 3rds as well. My gosh, does Alan Menken LOVE to use 3rds, or what?!

Did you like this blog post? Help spread the word!

Disney Music Theory is a brand-new project, and I need YOUR help to spread the word about it! If you liked this blog post, please share it with your friends on Facebook and Twitter using the "like" and "tweet" buttons below. If you're a teacher, please share it with your students (and vice-versa!)

In fact, here's a direct link to this entire essay on Twitter - why not just retweet it? :-)

I expanded this thread about @AIMenken's love of 3rds into a full-blown blog post. It's pretty epic! And I can't wait to hear what y'all think of it. □ ❤️ □

Here's the link:https://t.co/F1uVUF5mhX #DisneyMusicTheory #musictheory #AlanMenken @Lyrikris10 @Lin_Manuel https://t.co/A3YvSfYQ4h
— Disney Music Theory (@DisneyMusTheory) January 9, 2019

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Rising and falling gestures in Tangled and Frozen

11/30/2018

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[THREAD] A few days ago, I tweeted some infographics about rising & falling gestures in @Disney music. As I said, gestures don't always work in isolation; they often combine to tell stories. Here are some examples from @Disney’s #Tangled and #Frozen!#DisneyMusicTheory
— Disney Music Theory (@DisneyMusTheory) November 30, 2018

[1] I See The Light from #Tangled is about her emotional journey from dream to reality. But she admits she’s afraid of a let down. Her singing expresses that conflict, like in that RISING sequence of FALLING gestures in line 2!

blue = sadness • green = joy • cyan = in between pic.twitter.com/rvh88SaDF8
— Disney Music Theory (@DisneyMusTheory) November 30, 2018

[2] "I See the Light" ends with a melody that repeats the words “now that I’m with you” two times. They are identical, except… the 1st time, “with you” is down an octave (sadness), and the 2nd time "with you" is up an octave (joy).

Did you notice these things before? So cool! pic.twitter.com/OiEiA3ssoq
— Disney Music Theory (@DisneyMusTheory) November 30, 2018

[3] Now I'll get to work on some analysis infographics about "Let it Go" from #Frozen... stay tuned! I'll add them to this thread when they're ready. ?
— Disney Music Theory (@DisneyMusTheory) November 30, 2018

[4] "Let it Go" from @Disney's #Frozen obviously shows Elsa's transformation from fear to confidence. But not just in the lyrics / visuals – the music expresses this, too!

For starters, compare the long downward melodies in the intro with the long rising melodies in the bridge: pic.twitter.com/KmI6zDmGu1
— Disney Music Theory (@DisneyMusTheory) December 2, 2018

[5] After the intro's descending melodies, Let it Go's pre-chorus is full of upward leaps, a sign of Elsa's hope and excitement, building tension toward the chorus. Then the chorus features not only upward leaps, but also small, stepwise gestures indicating confidence and relief. pic.twitter.com/AHLfAurh7R
— Disney Music Theory (@DisneyMusTheory) December 2, 2018

[6] Though Elsa's confidence is building, it's not until the end that she fully lets go of her trauma (or so she thinks). At the end of each chorus, when she sings "let the storm rage on," she ends with a drop in the melody. But the final chorus ends with a super high leap! Yay. pic.twitter.com/YtQ3scJ1FK
— Disney Music Theory (@DisneyMusTheory) December 2, 2018

[7] Of course, the tragedy of "Let it Go" is that Elsa *hasn't*, in fact, let go of her trauma. She thinks she has, because she's no longer worried about hurting people... but she IS still worried about hurting people, because why else would she hide herself in isolation?
— Disney Music Theory (@DisneyMusTheory) December 2, 2018

[8] Nevertheless, the lyrics, visuals, AND musical gestures guide us as her confidence and excitement grow from the intro to the final chorus. To really get that full experience, we can't just focus on the lyrics and visuals – the music itself is part of the storytelling, too.
— Disney Music Theory (@DisneyMusTheory) December 2, 2018

[9] @Lyrikris10, do you think about musical gestures like these when composing? I suppose I could be way off on my analysis of "Let it Go" (earlier in this thread), but it's certainly brought a lot more meaning to my own hearing of this song!
— Disney Music Theory (@DisneyMusTheory) December 2, 2018

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Rising and falling gestures

11/28/2018

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[THREAD] Everyone talks about chords, but music is also made of gestures. Just as hand gestures express ideas, so, too, do musical gestures. Here's a thread of examples from @Disney music!

#1: small, rising gestures often indicate confidence and excitement.#DisneyMusicTheory pic.twitter.com/1d7rKZaDIS
— Disney Music Theory (@DisneyMusTheory) November 28, 2018

#2: big, leaping gestures often express hopes and dreams. pic.twitter.com/avKyrAPYGA
— Disney Music Theory (@DisneyMusTheory) November 28, 2018

#3: falling gestures often communicate loss, fear, and hopelessness. These examples are downward scales, decorated a bit for emotional punch. But you can have shorter gestures, too, like the drops on "Savages, savages!" in #Pocahontas and "What is wrong with me?" in #Moana. pic.twitter.com/FDON8iER9S
— Disney Music Theory (@DisneyMusTheory) November 28, 2018

[4] Musical gestures don't just work in isolation, though. Later this week, I'll post another thread with examples of how musical gestures combine to tell stories and express emotional journeys in music from @Disney's #Frozen and #Tangled. Can't wait! This stuff is so cool! □
— Disney Music Theory (@DisneyMusTheory) November 28, 2018

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Plagal Cadences (IV-I)

Recitative-Style in the Verses

Descending Lament in the Chorus

But wait, there's more!

Gene Structure of "Topsy Turvy"

​Wait, hold on a minute: what's a "leit-motif?"

​OK, cool, so what are these leit-motifs in "Bells of Notre Dame?"

The Cathedral Theme: Both Good and Evil

The Out There Theme: Not In Here

The "Quasi-Frollo" Recitative:​Who is the Monster, and Who is the Man?

1. ​repeating the same note multiple times

2. ​alternating between two notes a step apart

3. ​alternating between two notes a leap apart

Making it Menken

OK, so what is the Neapolitan chord, anyway, and what's it doing in Coco​?

The Lydian Mode in "Belle" (Beauty and the Beast), Part 2

The Lydian Mode in "Belle" (Beauty and the Beast), Part 1

Ostinatos establish a mood and anticipate motion.

​Sequences create movement and anticipate arrival.

​Free-flowing melodies are more flexible than ostinatos and sequences.

Emphatic gestures add "punch and pizzazz" (quoth the Genie...)

Putting it all together: "The Mob Song" from ​Beauty and the Beast

Putting it all together again: "Arabian Nights" from ​Aladdin

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Wait, hold on a minute: what's a "leit-motif?"

OK, cool, so what are these leit-motifs in "Bells of Notre Dame?"

The "Quasi-Frollo" Recitative:
Who is the Monster, and Who is the Man?

1. repeating the same note multiple times

2. alternating between two notes a step apart

3. alternating between two notes a leap apart

OK, so what is the Neapolitan chord, anyway, and what's it doing in Coco?

Sequences create movement and anticipate arrival.

Free-flowing melodies are more flexible than ostinatos and sequences.

Putting it all together: "The Mob Song" from Beauty and the Beast

Putting it all together again: "Arabian Nights" from Aladdin