For this blog assignment, I will be looking at modulations and how they take place. What does it mean when music has modulated? In simple terms, it means that the music has remained in a new tonal area so long that the ear no longer hears the original tonic as “tonic” anymore. In theoretical terms, the music has changed key. I will be examining the ways composers treat their music in modulations; whether they are abrupt or gradual, and how they are carried out.
My chosen genre of music will be popular music in general. They are not going to be by any composer or anything, but I guess one thing that could bind all my chosen pieces of music would be that they are taken from movie / TV soundtracks, which then became popular together with the show they are associated with.
The theme from Mission: Impossible starts in the key of A minor. However, judging from the guitar chords in the opening bars, they do not seem like they belong to A minor (chords Gm and G#m for example). Despite this, it certainly gives the impression that the music is in A minor. In my opinion, the contributing factors would be the way the melody line moves. Take a look at the RH part of bars 3-4.The note ‘A’ is accented as well as repeated. Moreover, the note ‘C’ is there too in the melody. The 3rd degree of the scale is important in defining the mode of the music. Finally, the G# to A movement in the bass further emphasizes the key of A minor. These factors prove to be important when modulations take place.
From b.15-18, the music dwells briefly in the key of D minor. The transition takes place rather smoothly. In b. 14-15, the C# to D movement in the bass, together with the outlining of a Dm chord in the RH of b. 15 contribute to this modulation.
From this example, I feel that modulation does not necessarily involve the harmony only. Some of the common means of modulation that we know of are using a pivot chord, using a pivot note, using sequences or abrupt modulations. I don’t think my example here fits into any of these categories. This music could be an example of how “critical” notes of the scale i.e. the tonic, mediant and leading note are used to lead listeners to hear that the music has indeed changed key.
My chosen genre of music will be popular music in general. They are not going to be by any composer or anything, but I guess one thing that could bind all my chosen pieces of music would be that they are taken from movie / TV soundtracks, which then became popular together with the show they are associated with.
The theme from Mission: Impossible starts in the key of A minor. However, judging from the guitar chords in the opening bars, they do not seem like they belong to A minor (chords Gm and G#m for example). Despite this, it certainly gives the impression that the music is in A minor. In my opinion, the contributing factors would be the way the melody line moves. Take a look at the RH part of bars 3-4.The note ‘A’ is accented as well as repeated. Moreover, the note ‘C’ is there too in the melody. The 3rd degree of the scale is important in defining the mode of the music. Finally, the G# to A movement in the bass further emphasizes the key of A minor. These factors prove to be important when modulations take place.
From b.15-18, the music dwells briefly in the key of D minor. The transition takes place rather smoothly. In b. 14-15, the C# to D movement in the bass, together with the outlining of a Dm chord in the RH of b. 15 contribute to this modulation.From this example, I feel that modulation does not necessarily involve the harmony only. Some of the common means of modulation that we know of are using a pivot chord, using a pivot note, using sequences or abrupt modulations. I don’t think my example here fits into any of these categories. This music could be an example of how “critical” notes of the scale i.e. the tonic, mediant and leading note are used to lead listeners to hear that the music has indeed changed key.
4 comments:
Question: Are we all convinced that the "keys" involved are A minor and D minor? How are they established.
An aside remark: note the compound melody present. (Jean can focus on the modulatory aspects as she set out to do, we however can certainly note interesting musical features along way to apply what we have learnt.)
I'm quite convinced that the music starts in A min, at least melodically. The harmony doesn't really support that it's in A min. I think the key is established through the repeated base 'A' note, that makes it sound like A min. It gets so ingrained in our mind that we hear it as A min.
On second look, I'm not so sure now if the music has modulated to D min, or it has simply moved to the subdominant area. What do you guys think?
Hi Jean!
Haha I almost hit the 'publish' button but decided to change my mind.
I didn't think of modulation to Dmin when I first looked at this piece. It seemed Amin throughout. I rationalised it by using a chord viio6/4 in place your Dmin chord.
However, It actually does seem like modulation to key of Dmin like you described.
Help!
Joyce, your suggestion of a viio6/4 of A min in place of the Dm chord is curious: how can you change the chord when trying to determine the key. Having said that, I do note that your suggested chord (which incidentally should be vii04/3) is actually enharmonically equivalent to the chord at b. 16. This however still does not change the local D minor context. Can anyone figure out the function of the Ab here?
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