Always great to hear Philip Glass getting respect. Even today I hear people talk about him being "so repetitive." Analyses like this put the lie to that story.
Love this video! I've been obsessed with Kate Bush for a few years now and I think her compositions are amazing. Just heard Philip Glass yesterday and I think I've found my new obsession. It's so cool you were able to find parallels in their music.
Quality of your broadcasts is top rate, well produced, fascinating and educational content that is provided with eloquence and simplicity. Love it. Thank you.
I love your videos and the live midi note taking. Incredibly instructive. I have been a Kate Bush fan for her entire career and In my humble opinion she is possibly the most tatented song writer alive. Every song is a story, every song touches the universal, her refusal to obay convension is inspiring, and her senses of melody and harmony are simply sublime. She never ceases to bring me to tears with the pathos, beauty and joy of her compositions. To see a conparison with Mr. Glass is the icing on the cake 🤣. Many thanks!
Love Kate Bush, and very happy that you have deconstructed what makes this great song (from her classic 'Hounds of Love' album) stand out. I'm often wondering what 'gets me' about a song. And in this case, it's so simple but effective - that held two note chord running through the song, accompanied by hypnotic repetitive drums - I remember watching this on Top of The Pops (UK pop chart show in the 80s) with Kate and the players taking synchronised steps forward as the chorus progressed - deliciously Kate. Lessons to be learned I'm sure: keep one thing simple, having a 'pivot'... I'm sure other readers would have their own thoughts, it's great that people come to their own conclusions about music.
Great memory. The simple but effective rule gets me all the time. My brain tells me something must be complex because my heart loves it, but when I really dig in it’s simple. This is a lesson I’ve had to learn again and again
I would never have noticed the connection, so thank you. The Hounds of love is something of a pinnacle for me. Those harmonies appear again and again in that collection of connected songs, my personal favourite is "And dream of sheep" and one might easily sing that over the chords you described. I have seen Satyagraha in the London Coluseum production which has been revived again and again. I was at the London premiere of "The making of t,he representative for planet 8" a great tragedy but a terrible production between London and Houston, killed the poor thing stone dead. Will it ever see the light of day again? I'm glad you went too far. The Billy Preston example was very enlightening.
Talk about good timing. I'm in the middle of writing a piece with mostly jazz chords in which the key descends by whole steps in the verse, and that b6 7 8 prolongation is just perfect for the chorus. Thanks! (check's in the mail...)
This is fascinating as it is not uncommon for a melody to stay the same over different chords. My understanding of this is that melody chord relationship changes with some of the notes becoming non chord tones and if stressed appoggiaturas. Normally the chord function is not considered to have changed unless the melody isn't as distinct due to the range and tembre being similar between the melody and harmony. This is different to when a pedal tones is used which does change the chord function. The things I am mentioning is all functional harmony but I love the non functional harmony perspective you bring to this Chris.
Thanks. I definitely hear sonorities and key centers rather than chords. Always have. It makes analysis weird because of the general preference for functional harmony in the syntax we’ve been saddled with. A lot of pop music might be better analyzed with aggregate vertical perspective rather than a horizontal narrative
So I studied plainchant accompaniment and improvisation (I’m an organist) and I’m wondering if what you’re calling prolongation is just the inherent ‘floatiness’ of modal music. After all, in modal music the two points of ‘rest’ are the final and the cofinal, but the simplest accompaniment is just a drone on the final and consonance and dissonance patterns create the identifying affect of the particular mode. I don’t personally hear this as a prolongation but the implicit presence of the final that anchors the mode. I think it’s less to do with some inherent sameness of the chords (bVI absolutely sounds like a chord change to me, not a variation on i) but rather the softness of dissonance in modal music as compared to tonal music. Really in a mode you can put any note with any chord and it won’t sound awful unlike in tonal music when note-chord pairings can just sound really off. The lack of voice leading in modal music does create this floaty quality that feels like a prolongation, but I don’t agree that’s what it is. Just my thoughts. Love your style of presenting and your infectious passion for minimalism.
@@ImpliedMusic Well, that said, I think it’s a really useful way of thinking about modal music for people used to tonal music and it’s a nice way to give people an ‘in’ to feeling more harmonic freedom when using modes.
Absolutely fascinating, thank you. It begs the question, though (to me at any rate): so how do you distinguish chords that a prolongation, and those that are... well, I'm not sure of the right word here, but a word that means 'moving the harmony on', or 'the opposite of prolongation' (Progress?)
excellent questions. it's somewhat subjective, though i'll look for melodic cues about prolongation (or condensation). by the same token, as a melody is condensed, either by truncating phrases, or shortening rhythmic values, the harmony will follow. i think it could be said the harmonic ebb and flow is mostly in service to the melodic arc, and that's where to look to determine variations to the harmonic rhythm. does that make sense?
![He's great. ["Mad Rush" analysis (with legos)]](/img/n.gif)
This is interesting because Stranger Things use Phillip Glass music occasionally too
Always great to hear Philip Glass getting respect. Even today I hear people talk about him being "so repetitive." Analyses like this put the lie to that story.
Love this video! I've been obsessed with Kate Bush for a few years now and I think her compositions are amazing. Just heard Philip Glass yesterday and I think I've found my new obsession. It's so cool you were able to find parallels in their music.
I wish I had 10% of your talent. Great video.
Quality of your broadcasts is top rate, well produced, fascinating and educational content that is provided with eloquence and simplicity. Love it. Thank you.
Thanks Lee, that means a lot
I love your videos and the live midi note taking. Incredibly instructive. I have been a Kate Bush fan for her entire career and In my humble opinion she is possibly the most tatented song writer alive. Every song is a story, every song touches the universal, her refusal to obay convension is inspiring, and her senses of melody and harmony are simply sublime. She never ceases to bring me to tears with the pathos, beauty and joy of her compositions. To see a conparison with Mr. Glass is the icing on the cake 🤣. Many thanks!
This is highly intriguing and I did not get it at all. I definitely need to investigate this further because I love what I hear.
Love Kate Bush, and very happy that you have deconstructed what makes this great song (from her classic 'Hounds of Love' album) stand out. I'm often wondering what 'gets me' about a song. And in this case, it's so simple but effective - that held two note chord running through the song, accompanied by hypnotic repetitive drums - I remember watching this on Top of The Pops (UK pop chart show in the 80s) with Kate and the players taking synchronised steps forward as the chorus progressed - deliciously Kate. Lessons to be learned I'm sure: keep one thing simple, having a 'pivot'... I'm sure other readers would have their own thoughts, it's great that people come to their own conclusions about music.
Great memory. The simple but effective rule gets me all the time. My brain tells me something must be complex because my heart loves it, but when I really dig in it’s simple. This is a lesson I’ve had to learn again and again
So glad I stumbled across your channel, it's my new favourite! :)
thanks!
Love these concepts you are sharing. So inspirational!
Thanks so much!
@@ImpliedMusic I especially love the Kate Bush reference. I'm a huge fan from way back.
I would never have noticed the connection, so thank you. The Hounds of love is something of a pinnacle for me. Those harmonies appear again and again in that collection of connected songs, my personal favourite is "And dream of sheep" and one might easily sing that over the chords you described.
I have seen Satyagraha in the London Coluseum production which has been revived again and again. I was at the London premiere of "The making of t,he representative for planet 8" a great tragedy but a terrible production between London and Houston, killed the poor thing stone dead. Will it ever see the light of day again?
I'm glad you went too far. The Billy Preston example was very enlightening.
Talk about good timing. I'm in the middle of writing a piece with mostly jazz chords in which the key descends by whole steps in the verse, and that b6 7 8 prolongation is just perfect for the chorus. Thanks! (check's in the mail...)
Superb. Thank you. ❤️
This is fascinating as it is not uncommon for a melody to stay the same over different chords. My understanding of this is that melody chord relationship changes with some of the notes becoming non chord tones and if stressed appoggiaturas.
Normally the chord function is not considered to have changed unless the melody isn't as distinct due to the range and tembre being similar between the melody and harmony. This is different to when a pedal tones is used which does change the chord function.
The things I am mentioning is all functional harmony but I love the non functional harmony perspective you bring to this Chris.
Thanks. I definitely hear sonorities and key centers rather than chords. Always have. It makes analysis weird because of the general preference for functional harmony in the syntax we’ve been saddled with. A lot of pop music might be better analyzed with aggregate vertical perspective rather than a horizontal narrative
So I studied plainchant accompaniment and improvisation (I’m an organist) and I’m wondering if what you’re calling prolongation is just the inherent ‘floatiness’ of modal music. After all, in modal music the two points of ‘rest’ are the final and the cofinal, but the simplest accompaniment is just a drone on the final and consonance and dissonance patterns create the identifying affect of the particular mode. I don’t personally hear this as a prolongation but the implicit presence of the final that anchors the mode. I think it’s less to do with some inherent sameness of the chords (bVI absolutely sounds like a chord change to me, not a variation on i) but rather the softness of dissonance in modal music as compared to tonal music. Really in a mode you can put any note with any chord and it won’t sound awful unlike in tonal music when note-chord pairings can just sound really off. The lack of voice leading in modal music does create this floaty quality that feels like a prolongation, but I don’t agree that’s what it is. Just my thoughts. Love your style of presenting and your infectious passion for minimalism.
I may have egged the custard a bit with this analysis. I watched this last month and thought pretty much the same thing.
@@ImpliedMusic Well, that said, I think it’s a really useful way of thinking about modal music for people used to tonal music and it’s a nice way to give people an ‘in’ to feeling more harmonic freedom when using modes.
Absolutely fascinating, thank you. It begs the question, though (to me at any rate): so how do you distinguish chords that a prolongation, and those that are... well, I'm not sure of the right word here, but a word that means 'moving the harmony on', or 'the opposite of prolongation' (Progress?)
excellent questions. it's somewhat subjective, though i'll look for melodic cues about prolongation (or condensation). by the same token, as a melody is condensed, either by truncating phrases, or shortening rhythmic values, the harmony will follow. i think it could be said the harmonic ebb and flow is mostly in service to the melodic arc, and that's where to look to determine variations to the harmonic rhythm. does that make sense?
It does, thank you :-) @@ImpliedMusic