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

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:

1. 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).
2. 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. :-)