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SOLVED: Leonard Cohen's Secret Chord from 'Hallelujah'
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- čas přidán 10. 07. 2024
- Leonard Cohen released 'Hallelujah' in 1984, a song which he took 5 years to write, and for which he wrote over 150 verses. In the first verse he mentions a 'secret chord that David played and it pleased the Lord'. Many people have asked... what WAS that chord? I think I might have the answer.
Hey all - just in response to one or two comments - this is not a religious video, I am an unapologetic atheist.
It's simply being presented from the perspective of Leonard Cohen, a Jewish man with a spirituality that drew from many different sources.
Just so no-one gets the wrong end of the stick.
JH
Reminds me of the hypothetical sephiroth in some Kabalistic traditions (Da'ath).
@@Tophergr8 What a coincidence, I was thinking the exact same thing, as I'm sure were many others....👍
Religious or not, this video, and this explanation, gave me the chills. In a good way! Thank you
Start believing
Powerful
I have listened to Leonard Cohen for. 50 years, he is a modern David full of poetry and angst
Absolutely. Non religious educated people don't get that. They don't get the awesome historicity of the story itself imo.
Yes I agree with the narrator in this video.
*Mr. Hargreaves, THANK YOU! Your interpretation of this phenomenal song has brought **_THIS_** "old woman" to tears, but they're purelly tears of joy.*
*I met my Beloved Husband about one month before he turned 26 years of age, and we were married within 3 months. He will turn 81 on Saturday, and I **_STILL_** ABSOLUTELY ADORE HIM, even after nearly FIFTY-FIVE YEARS OF JOYOUS MARRIAGE! The song of "HALLELUJAH" hit my brain exactly like your interpretation, LONG BEFORE I ran into your interpretation, which is SPOT ON, MR. HARGREAVES! Been there, & fully understand your meanings. A "cord of three," such a wonderful thought-image!*
💖👍👵💋🧓👍💖
Happy birthday to your beloved. I met my husband (my 3rd, his 2nd) and we were married within six months of meeting. This year is 31 wonderful honeymoon years. We're in our very late 60s now, having met in our mid 30s. We hope we can make it to our 50th, when we'll both be in our 80s. Your story is such a wonderful one and it makes me smile because we have that same love. ((hugs))
Hallelujah
I've tried cracking the meaning of the secret chord passively for years. I never sat down and REALLY thought about it like this. Best answer I've ever heard by miles. My hat's off to you. Thank you!
Same! The sense that there was a meaning I was getting was driving me crazy. It doesn't help that I know nothing about music.
I feel this symbolism reaches far beyond one person’s affair, David’s or Leonard Cohen’s which is why it’s able to move so many to tears even without knowing these specifics. Great video.
Very good comment on a good video!💙✨
This song always makes me cry. Always...
The first time I heard it was a Catholic version, with different lyrics, in an Irish Church.
Then I went searching for the original Cohen's lyrics. It's such a beautiful message!😢 It's about love. It's about forgiveness. It's about us. And it's about me and that magic night with her, in 1989, July the 17.
I'm alone now. Just me, my guitar, and my memories. I'm 70 now.
Nice post, mr. Positivist/atheist.🤣🤣🤣
(Comte)
A year younger than thee Brother, in 505- please read my comment above and let me know how you feel about it, if you will please. 💐
You're never alone.
You may be by yourself, but you're never alone.
And their love is always with you. ♥️
Thank you for sharing this touching bit of your story.
I am also 70 and alone.l have loved this song forever and it always touches my heart.
If the world loves this song, it's because it is against God's Law.
Beautiful explanation to a beautiful trail of breadcrumbs. Leonard Cohen was a craftsman. His work was blessed with Hallelujah.
❤Yessssss Indeed & I love the way he explained it. Love the song so soooooo much!😊
God's holy and just nature prohibits Him from blessing something that He otherwise condemns.
The one thing David ever wanted with all of his heart. So, he was a man after God’s own heart because it was for this reason God created the man and the woman, for true love. Considering the nature of the world we live in and this way of life that ends in death, God is our only hope for having what we dream of. May God bless you.
Death is not an 'end' It is a beginning, a transition.
Wow, that was wonderful. The cord of three. Though the E maj chord works too, since it is also known as the heaven chord.
I've learned so much from this analysis, factually, musically and spiritually. Many thanks!
Very welcome :)
@tadc wrote: "I've learned so much from this analysis, factually, musically and spiritually. Many thanks!"
Ditto!
Im not claiming to be an epic song writer, but i do believe I've been in the same mental slpace as leonard cohen. In that moment i wrote the best song I've ever written, i doubt i will ever top it, and it doesn't matter whether it's good or not to other people... after i wrote that one, i realised there were lots of truly beautiful songs that came from the minds of truly talented people and the common theme was mind ravaging heartbreak. Leonard was broken in a way i sincerely hope no one else has been, but alas many have...
And their songs rise and remain as beautiful, haunting testaments to that moment of bitter pain.
Now whenever i hear a beautiful song i rhetorically say to the author: "you poor bastard! Whatever did you go through to produce a song such as this?"
After experiencing the deepest love possible encompassing a perfect physical, spiritual, emotional and mental connection, he would be so full of gratitude for such a heavenly gift, and heartbroken to have lost it, knowing he would never experience that love again.
Many versions of this song pronounce "Do ya", as "Do you". That always bugs me. It misses the whole point of the rhyming of '...do ya' with '...lujah'.
The splendid cynicism of Cohen's mentioning a Lord-pleasing chord, only to tell the listener 'But you don't really care for music, do ya?" is, for me, a great example of his brilliance as a wordsmith. I didn't 'get' Cohen at first, but listening to his album, "New Skin For The Old Ceremony" was a revelation. I suddenly resonated to the secret chord of his sense of humor. He became, and remains, my all-time favorite lyricist. And he was blessed with the gift of a golden voice.
_"New Skin For The Old Ceremony"_ looks to me like a "backward"/ a rebours word play... in a sense (can't find the right expression for it now) on "old wineskins" from Jesus' response to Pharisees (who were reprimanding Him on not adhering to fasting):
_No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined_
(Matthew 5:36-37; also in Matthew 8 and Mark 2)
Or maybe just an ironic remark on something being done totally backwards, can't say, but that "wineskins" jumped immediately into my mind when I saw this phrase.
The fall was minor and the lift was major. Music and life.
In both cases the women were non Jews! One a Hittite ..one possibly amorite.....
Ruth was a Moabite. She is in the lineage of the Lord
This is something I've always pondered on as a songwriter and I thank you for your bit by bit explaination and your revealation of King David's secret chord. Leonard Cohen is sadly missed.
Outstanding analysis! Even as an ardent Cohen fan with a fair amount of scriptural familiarity, I never would have connected all these themes. Thank you for increasing my appreciation for this beloved song tenfold!
The secret chord is Gsus.
I'll see myself out.
You might’ve been answering a different question. I’ve heard that answer before.😂😂😂
7 sus4, the money chord in Hey Jude, and Without You.
Hail luc jah( God )..the 4th the 5th is the 4th Epoch ( were in that now) is the rescue Epoch .the minor fall is now ..then comes the 5th Epoch the major lift .. the song is dedicated to the God of song whom the angels sing to 24/7 .each Epoch is 4.1 Billion years long...
Geezuss🤦
@@jono1457-qd9ft also somehow descended from the tryst between David and Bathsheba? … Asking for a friend
The song embodies co Cohens complex embittered and awe-filled wrestling with holiness- the holiness within loss, of love, of faith, of personal powers.
Cohen is saying that only despair leads one to surrender, and only surrender leads to the holy.
He also accepts in many of his lyrics the driving impulse for an artist to not just encounter holiness but capture it within the limitations of their chosen “craft”
“There’s a burning flame in Every word, it doesn’t matter Which you heard, a holy or a broken hallelujah …”
“….And even though it all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah.”
That’s the line that crowns all the others.
Cohen rarely writes about human love and outrage without entwining it with God.
His “You” is always a double entendre.
I despair when his spiritual verses in Hallelujah are excised for popular consumption reducing its genius down to yet another pop love complaint, and respect the artists who perform it intact.
For an artist to continue they sometimes have to believe the subtler powers beneath the surface of a piece is received via a kind of osmosis that sidesteps the easy and obvious.
But I suppose in that tender, defiant song there’s something for everyone. That’s why it is a universal.
_"Cohen's complex embittered and awe-filled wrestling with holiness - the holiness within loss, of love, of faith"_ - reminds me of
_Yes you who must leave everything that you cannot control_
...
_When you're not feeling holy, your loneliness says that you've sinned_
(Sisters of Mercy)
I enjoyed this video very much. There is depth in much of Leonard Cohen’s work. A true poet.
Excellent video! I had never thought that there might be something more literal to the first verses before. But I believe you missed something that might be important: Cohen, while not mixing metaphors, mixed his biblical characters. I've always found it interesting that, with no warning, he switches mid verse (2) from the story of David and Bathsheba to Samson and Delilah. It was Samson whose secret of his strength was in his long hair, which had never been cut (due to the Nazarite vow his mother took in gratitude to God for opening her womb after many years without children). And it was Delilah who seduced him in order to get him to reveal this secret. Two men, blessed by God, betraying their LORD with tragic consequences.
Anyway, perhaps you could dig further into this and discover why Cohen mixed two of the most notable and important characters into a seemingly single person.
That's a fascinating question. I wonder if Cohen was addressing the song as if to both men, or perhaps to be the subset of men who fall passionately in love that leaves them deeply vulnerable.
Theory on why the two men could be combined as a single character (as authors often do writing novels): "She tied you to her kitchen chair." Kitchens are where we get fed, and food is something we must have to live. So she fed some need in him, a need so strong he couldn't walk away. "She broke your throne" meaning that need in him took away his self-dominion, self-control. "And she cut your hair." Since hair represents thoughts in psychological analysis, his thoughts were cut short by his need for her. What Samson and King David had in common, therefore, wasn't just being lustful and making bad choices. Both had a need at soul level which they didn't examine within themselves (and address preventatively). So that when each found a woman who filled that deep unhealed hole in themselves, who fed them the thing their soul had to have (possibly genuine love?), they couldn't resist the connection. That need to fill that emptiness inside overrode all sensibility. Interestingly, analyst Carl G. Jung said we are attracted to someone because they have some quality we wish we had. (He also said once we have acquired that quality in ourselves, the attraction for the person evaporates.) The empty aching place in us may be a quality we need to feel complete. Since a healthy balance of masculine and feminine energies in a person is required to make each of us whole as a soul, this may require the opposite gender (or at least incarnating an equal number of times as a man and as a woman) until both energies are firmly enough implanted.
I was wondering too. You're not alone 😊
What a provocative reinterpretation of the David-Bathsheba story! From David's broken and contrite heart over engaging in a forbidden love affair, he found redemption in sacred music!
The deeper sin though, was David later sending her husband to a battle and in a position where he knew he would be killed; which he was.
Nothing about this affair was sacred nor did it pleased the Lord Yes, David killed him because Uriah was called home from battle to lay with his wife so that her pregnancy through David would be kept a secret. But Uriah would not.
He was so honorable that he could not allow himself the pleasure of sleeping with his wife when his commander and the rest of the men were sleeping in tents. Then David had to resort to plan B.
Get Uriah killed.
David wanted that child desperately but the Lord allowed it to get sick and die.
David fasted and prayed his child would live. He was sorrowful and repented and God forgave him. Sin NEVER Pleases God. It has disastrous consequences. It breaks our fellowship with Him..but true repentance can restore it..because the Lord desires a true relationship with those he has created. Sin has disastrous consequences but restoration of our relationship to our Creator God is very possible.
Thank you for this enjoyable discussion It amuses me that this song with such depth of meaning has become a happy singalong song with people just focusing on the repeated Hallelujah
I've performed this song thousands of times but never understood it properly until now. Thank you so much for this enlightening explanation
There is so much to search for in Cohen's work.
Your take on this is witty... and probably right.
Good work ! Thank you for sharing this.
I had the pleasure of attending a Leonard Cohen concert in a very small, intimate theater in my hometown, and when he sang, "Hallelujah," it darn near brought me to the floor. Your analyses of the song's lyrics and the secret "cord" are very fascinating. It has left me pondering about love and love lost. Your video was fantastic!
The first two minutes of this video makes me think about Leonard performing Hallelujah late in life. Being so happy that the song captured the world.
Yours is, by far, the best analysis of this song I have ever seen in CZcams. Completely shadows bigger channels that try to reduce it to a rebellious song about god and religion, as if Cohen was some kind of dumb teenager. Thank you.
To be honest, I was the one who bought his album back then in Germany. As a teenager of 15, I heard "Hallelujah" in some music program on German TV back in 1984 and new, I had to buy the whole album whick I then gave to my mother as a Christmas present, because years before I had fallen in love with Cohen after finding his "Greatest Hits" among her records. But guess what, she didn't like it. And gave it back to me, because anyway it was a trick. I had a Christmas present for her, but had borrowed the record from her since then.
So this song has been with me for over four decades now. And though I sensed the personal biographical connection of Cohen with the David story, I never got into it as deeply as you did. Thank you so much for sharing your amazing insight on the song, which feels completely accurate to me.
And well, you may see yourself as an "unapologetic atheist". What I sense from your interpretation though, is that your heart is that of an agnostic mystic. 🙏💖
Truly beautiful, Mr. Hargreaves. I had often wondered what the secret chord was myself after having listened to Cohen's song so many times, and I have to say that your analysis of the matter was very enlightening for me and really brought tears to my eyes. Now I know.
To share the gift of true love with a woman is the most pure and unique experience a man can have for he has been blessed beyond imagining.
Leonard Cohen was an incredibly talented composer and you are a great music scholar.
May the union of all people who really love each other never die.
Thank you for your video.
"Hallelujah" is not a religious song, it's a song about a love affair that crashed and burned so spectacularly that it takes biblical metaphors to describe it.
Based on biblical facts!
I make into a hymn. Works for me :)
Have you seen or heard the Yiddish version?😮
No. Have you ?@@Crowfeather-v5o
@@PaulEastham Yea we do too at my church and I know many others do too. There are alternate verses (Besides the Million supposed ones the Leo wrote LOL). That lift our heart to the Lord when sung. I think Leonard would have liked them.
This is an excellent study of this beautiful song. I absolutely loved it when Cohen first released it. Choen showed his love for his childhood faith and biblical knowledge when he wrote this song, as well as his love for his mystery woman.
Your analysis of "Hallelujah" has made one of my favorite songs even more beautiful. I am one of the few who fell in love with this song when it was released. "Various Positions" is a brilliant album. Not the least of it the beautiful selfie that Leonard chose for the cover. Thank you for your insight.
Had to go and play Cohen’s version to confirm that the “major lift” chord is, indeed, just a return to the IV chord in his version. I’ve always instinctively played a major II chord (specifically a D7, relative to Cohen’s key of C) at that point, and am frankly disappointed to learn it isn’t in the original.
Not only does it work much better musically, in my opinion, but it makes the word-painting cleverer. The idea of a “major lift” is much better evoked by turning one of the minor chords of the key (the ii chord) into its major cousin - literally “lifting” it into Major - than it is by simply returning to a diatonic major chord that we’ve already heard in the sequence (and has already had its turn in the word-painting scheme as “the fourth”). “The fourth”, “the fifth”, “the minor fall” and “the major lift”, also just work better as descriptions of four different chords, in my opinion.
"God as the third participant blessing that union..." (when experiencing true love.) Thank you James, for that beautiful observation -- personally, I've experienced that in a few rare but beautiful situations and I would tell friends "God was fully present!" At 78, alone for the past 10 years, it's fun to remember those privileged times and I live in hope of experiencing them again before I leave the planet.
You may need to talk to Jesus about accepting His forgiveness
@@marymiller1771 How dare YOU be so judgmental! Jesus said: "He who is without sin throw the first stone!" I have experienced the Presence of God and hopefully, at some point you will too when you put down those stones in your hands.
David had to be called out on his sins, admit he did sin, then received God's forgiveness and blessing.
Yes- we can read this in Psalm 51.
This song is truly intriguing. The first time I heard it I had a connection, unexplained, yet deeply felt. Leonard Coen put more time and thought into this song than most albums composed. Because of its length it was not popular when it was first released. However if you consider the artists that have released it only one comes into play that earned his praise and that was and is KD Lang. Her interpretation and delivery of the song brought tears to his eyes. And to this day of all her songs this one still receives a standing ovation after the silence of the crowd during her delivery.
Pentatonix did a beautful Hallelujah.
The first time I heard it was in a Disney movie… Which I thought was ridiculous, in a child’s movie, it made no sense.
Please don't take this in any bad way.
All I could think at the end of this was, "Who ARE you, James??"
I did not expect to breakdown in tears!
You've made something that's beautiful and very significant here. Hallelujah, Man! And only to an insignificant degree is that my lame attempt at being clever (by using the word). 99% is truly and genuinely straight from my ❤.
When I die, my musician soul will stand before Leonard Cohen, with nothing on my lips but Hallelujah.
That will not be D.C you see but the Judge of all.
Oh, brother!
Fantastic video. An absolutely beautiful journey through this mysterious song. 💚
I've always seen the ideas of religious ecstasy in this song but this video really gave me a lot of new ideas around it to chew on. Very interesting and very much appreciated! Great work
Canadas most precious poet...
Cohen 😎👍👍
Never tried playing Hallelujah backwards...
But am now thinking about it😉👍
@richardlynch5632 Let us know if it says "Paul is dead."
@@napadave58
😂👍
Turn me on dedmnn
@@napadave58 ...or "cranberry sauce." 😏
Or if it says “I love Maple syrup & Loons” 💙🍁oh for more emoji… 😢
This leaves open the question, "What actually is true love."
The kind of love expressed here is, I hold, not actually love. Love is not a feeling or an emotion. The object of love is not to make me feel good.
Love - actual, true love - is a decision to make a commitment, come what may.
This take on "love" is why we see so much disunity in society today, so many marriages ending in divorce, so many single people who cannot find "love."
True love transcends emotions and feelings. To be "in love" means to have made a conscious decision to commit to a relationship and to endure the bad as well as the good. David's hee-bee-jee-bies when we saw Bathsheba bathing on the roof and then gave into his lust was not love. One only need look at the disastrous consequences of that relationship to understand this. True love creates stability, consistency and a solid foundation. David's weakness in the face of lust nearly cost him his kingdom. It was only by God's grace that he didn't lose it.
No, the song is not about love and how any love is good. It is about the destructive power of lust and one man's justification of it.
love in Hebrew is ahava. It comes from the root hav which means give/bring. True love is giving to the other.
It would be wonderful if people understood this. It’s not the narcissistic pursuit of self satisfaction.
If it wasn't love, it wouldn't have wrecked Cohen the way it did. The point of the song is "this broke me, yet I regret nothing". This, incidentally, may have contributed to the fact that it took him 5 years of banging his head against the floor before it was finished
@charlesmartin1972 Many people forget that there are different kinds of love..... all true....
In Greek, there are 4 words for love.....
The love Cohen describes in the song is Eros and the destructive forces of only answering to the call of Eros.... with no regard to the other kinds of love.
Most important to Agape..... the love that makes us stay, endure the rough times, and stay true to the one we love....
Eros is deceiving when not balanced with Philia, Agape, and Storge.
@charlesmartin1972 Many people forget that there are different kinds of love..... all true....
In Greek, there are 4 words for love.....
The love Cohen describes in the song is Eros and the destructive forces of only answering to the call of Eros.... with no regard to the other kinds of love.
Most important to Agape..... the love that makes us stay, endure the rough times, and stay true to the one we love....
Eros is deceiving when not balanced with Philia, Agape, and Storge.
Utterly wonderful description, so full of meaning, love and life as a struggle against the animal impulse, to the the higher Spiritual access to God. Wonderfully explained, and full of beauty. Thank God for Leonard Cohen.
David and Bathsheba's 1st Son died... after that, came Solomon, who built The 1st Temple in Jerusalem. Leonard Cohen was a Master Songwriter!
🤣🤣
Religion poisons everything. Look at the history of it on the world.
Pish
Leonard Cohen was Jewish so he would be very familiar with the OT
@@lechatbotte. very familiar! Just like Bob Dylan.
Thank you for your thoughtful and beautiful analysis of this song. Your answer to the riddle of the meaning of the song rings true. Cohen is the poet declaring that the physical act of love is a gift from God, for which he is to be praised. As you stated, Hallelujah literally means "Praise God".
I was going to talk about the cord of three being a theologian but you GOT it in one! very very well done!! I had the opportunity to meet and talk to Mr Cohen in Montreal a real long time ago with a group of theologians. I am also a musician and storyteller. He wasn't direct with everyones questions but he alluded to small things and when I recited the cord of three he beamed and smiled and said women are mostly overlooked, dont you think, to the group. This misdirection made everyone talk about women in the Old Testament but I felt an intense feeling of joy, it was Bathsheba! the other theologians would never have accepted it. Leonard Cohen was a magician driven by his amazing intelligence and recall. his spirituality was awe inspiring and right there in all his songs. like Suzanne another epic walk into religious and secular rabbit hole of Mr Cohen's life.
That is an amazing and beautiful analysis! I’m grateful. LC was a master songwriter. Song, in the hands of a master, is the highest form of poetry. Cohen has written a great number of masterpieces. He could go deep, and there lies considerable pain, but there lie also truth and beauty, and that is what he brought to us with his songs.
James, you is blowing my mind with alarming regularity. Fantastic work Sir!
Glad to hear it :) much appreciated
A secret chord describes much of the instrumental portions of Cohen's songs. While often the lyrics paint a picture, the accompaniment is the canvas he paints on.
I first heard The Stranger Song in college, and it has stuck with me for decades, the rhythm of the guitar almost hypnotic in its appeal.
Chord .. 3 notes .. or .. a love triangle ... a secret one. And God would have loved it as he shouted Hallelujah , repeatedly.
But there are 2 note chords, dyads. And also 4 and 5 and more note chords.
This was fascinating. Well done parsing out the song's meaning. ❤
Fascinating. So well done! What a puzzlebox of a song! Thank you for adding that insight. I won't hear it the same way again.
I love your heart felt interpretation and effort you put in to researching this beautiful, tormenting, and sad song, and bringing so much light to it. Almost everything you’ve intuited resonates true to me…except the final interpretation. God was/is there with love with them but not in an approving way. We have to obey His commandments to live an abundant life. When we sin, there is often a crisis or a negative turn of events that shows us we are heading down the wrong path and corrections need to be made. Difficult to learn and not to partake in when living in such a delicious sin. Have you ever felt that your banging your head against a brick, and can’t figure out how to succeed in life. Sorry, but I am 85 and living proof of being corrected. That’s all there is to it…very simple really. ❤️
Loved Leonard Cohen (and the Buckley version). Grateful to have seen him upfront in next to last tour.
You make a very compelling argument, particularly in light of Cohen's fundamental identity as a poet above all else.
I love this song Hallelujah it gives me goosebumps when I hear it playing it always feel like its speaking to my soul but I always thought Delila tied Samson to the chair and cut his hair that's why I always wondered what was the song really about u have done a good job sir explaining it like this ❤
I think that is another reference hidden within, because Samson also had an “affair” with someone who he shouldn’t have and it lead to his downfall, but in the end reconciliation with God occurred and he also found redemption just like David. There’s also another Biblical reference that could be made-when King Saul was in the depths of insanity, David played a secret cord that southed and brought peace to King Saul. 🤔🤔
James, that's deep. And your research is wonderful. I just had a 2 hour debate/argument with your Dad about his beliefs. This video is so much more rewarding😀
Hahaha it’s very much not worth getting into it with my Dad when it comes to religion. It’s like trying to debate with an automated phone system. You’ll just get the same answers over and over no matter what you say!
@@JamesHargreavesGuitar 😀Thanks James. I'm glad you're not offended. He said he hates science dogma. I said, so do I, but religious dogma isn't the way forward.
@@jono1457-qd9ftscience dogma is an oxymoron.
If it's a dogma, in other words if you are forbidden to criticise it, forbidden to examine it, forbidden to test it, forbidden to openly and widely share your findings - it is absolutely not science.
Sounds like his dad is more clued up than you 2, here's some dogma, science says the moons light is reflected sunlight, and if you measure the temperature change in moonlight vs moonshade there is no difference. So try measure it yourself with a thermometer and then tell me who's the fool 😂
I love your breakdown of this. Hallelujah!
Interesting take. I never looked at it quite so literally.
My interpretation was that the “secret chord” was a personal spiritual relationship, whether with a literal god or just a metaphor for being in tune with one’s self on a spiritual level, but the woman in the song didn’t care about that and however it ended it broke him and he can’t figure out how to get it back (so he’s baffled).
That verse contains an allusion to Samson as well as David. Same deal with both men, their relationships with god were damaged by a woman in some way.
I never considered the minor fall and the major lift as metaphors for what happened between them. I really like that and think that’s spot on.
I was always struck though by the “two versions” we’ll call it. The original is more uplifting to me, more hopeful. “I’ll stand before the lord of song with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah”. He’s going to keep going and keep trying. But the ending verse that Cohen put in the live version which Jeff Buckley sings is not hopeful. “It’s not a cry you hear at night, it’s not somebody who’s seen the light, it’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah”. He’s a broken man and he’s not found his way back.
This is one of the best presentations on songwriting and music (and biblical scripture!) I have seen. Thank you for not only helping me understand Leonard Cohen's song so much better, but for opening up a door on intimacy that truly moved me. I'm Jewish, but I had not known something that a friend taught me many years ago: in Jewish thought, when any two people speak earnestly together, it is said that God joins them. The person who told this to me was one of my dearest friends, and we used to speak for hours in our 20s, even though it was "long distance" and we couldn't really afford that. We felt like we were saving each other's lives. And when she told this to me, I found it reassuring and quite moving.
Thank you for reminding us all that sexual intimacy is powerful and beautiful - at least that it can be - and that it can be a gift from God. Why do atheists and agnostics so often do this better than the so-called religious folk?
With gratitude 🙏
Because we hear what we want to hear and we believe the things that we agree with and the lifestyle we want
. That does not mean it is true. Only God is TRUE
I started thinking that I wasn't going to be convinced by where you were going, but ended up completely sold.
Cohen was an open and avowed atheist who repeatedly reminded fans and reporters he was so nihilistic he couldn't even tolerate being a Buddhist (he joined a convent if Buddhist monks) despite that they too were atheist.
Hallelujah is a master piece. Leonard Cohen simply got the right tone, the right words and the spirit. The God of the Old Testament is brought in connection with physical love. But the God of the New Testament however is the God of love. When God became a father he changed into the loving and forgiving father, although Cohen is not that very religious, with this song he proves that he understands the Old and the New Testament.
Brilliant! I love that song and now it means even more. There have been moments of my own in the cord three and I say of them even now - Hallelujah.
Wow. Impressive analysis of a song that now impresses me even more. Thanks for this.
Genius interpretation. Spot on! I quote Cohen's songs throughout my novel "Atan the Revolutionary." He's the only poet who has ever turned my ear.
I like how you put so much effort into this. It is fascinating.
I just finished reading Geraldine Brooks’ historical novel The Secret Chord about King David. It is a good companion to your interpretation. Fascinating.
That part of the song always stood out to me as did Ecclesiastes 4:12
In the practice of Tantra, many experience that Three in One energy. ❤
Thank you so much for this beautiful revelation!
I have always read the song as being about the sacred and the profane love and all the different types of love in-between. The Pure and the perfect to the broken and the hopeless. "Maybe there's a god above but , all I ever learned from love is how to shoot somebody who out drew ya", "I've seen your flags on the Marble Arch but love is not a victory march its a cold and its a broken hallelujah!"
Its about how we as musicians express emotions through music. in the melancholy of a minor chord and the exhalation of the lift from a minor to a major. I think there is most definitely word play with Chord and Cord on more than two levels, we play strings after all and when that's done well its pretty unthamomably transcendent. Lets hope it remains a secret, we will probably find out with Ai !
In 1973 Cohen was living at the Greek island of Hydra with Suzanne and their baby boy. The relationship with Suzanne had become a burder to him. He was depressed and had stopped writing. In his mind he had retired from music. ---- On October 6, 1973 when the Egypt/Syrian armies started the Yom Kippur war he decided to go to Israel. Somehow he met some musicians and along went to the Sinai front. They gave some impromptu concerts to the soldiers. There he wrote "lover lover lover". On the way back he stopped at Eritrea. I believe he had a short affair there but I am not sure if this is true. When he returned to Hydra he somehow reconnected with Suzanne. In some of his manuscripts he says that he found a new and wonderful Suzanne (or something in these line) --- It is after this experience at war that he returned to writing song sand he wrote the best and most meaningful songs like "Who By Water" (From the Yom Kipur prayers Un'Tanch Tofer) and"Hallelujah" . ----- The explanation of the secret Chord (or cord) is a very wise one and fits Cohen's life. (I am guessing the affair was the one in Eritrea or if this never happened maybe one that happened in Israel before returning to Suzanne)
Sounds like a selfish creep
He was a cereal womanizer. He ate them for breakfast
@@josephesposito3499sigh I can’t relate lol
Suzanne? ‘So long, Marianne’ suggests otherwise. Suzanne lived in Canada. An interview with her on a CZcams channel suggests that he made little or no effort to help her financially even though his song about her gained him considerable fame. There’s no hint of a love affair similar to the one between him and Marianne.
James, this is brilliant. Thank you. On so many levels. It's associative, interdisciplinary, intuitive, analytical. Also, it speaks to me. I love it.
Beautiful I love Hallelujah. Its always been my favorite song. I truly enjoyed your narrative of this beautiful masterpiece.
Thank you!
I never imagined you'd do an analysis dealing with Leonard Cohen. More surprises like this please. And if you can figure out the meaning of the lyrics of Townes Van Zandt's 'Pancho And Lefty' ( which was a mystery to Townes himself) you'll blow a lot of minds.
Way over analyzed and no real answer to either song! Period
@@garvdarb Thinkin' is hard. So is learnin' something new eh?
@@michaelwilson2340 yip , love new stuff
@michaelwilson2340 yep it's down to the Socratic Paradox If you think you know then you don't know that you don't know that you don't know.by being totally unaware of your ignorance and it's depth
@@richardosborne2067I enjoy intellectual subjects. I've actually just finished sending someone a comment that the illustration on the cover of Guided By Voices album 'Vampire On Titus' was taken from an old drawing of 'The Vegetable Lamb Of Tartary'. Or the 'Planta Tartarica Barometz'. It's philosophy and history night tonight.
Brilliant! One of the greatest songs ever written.
Men will go a long way to tell that the affair wasn’t just „what it looked like“. This might be one of the best versions of those attempts.
I’m a jazz BossaNova .. any tune, by ear piano player & love dancing. I’m fond of listening to classical instruments fantastic players! 🙏👏
Very interesting indeed. I remembered being awed by the song when it first came out to the chagrin of my friends. And now with this very plausible analysis I’m even more intrigued. One of the best songs ever written…5yrs omg
Excellent video 👌
Yes, maybe the best song ever written, along with, do not laugh, "He stopped loving her today, similar theme I believe. Equally IMHO the best song ever written.
The legend of a "lost chord" goes way back. The Moody Blues referred to it in their LP "In Search Of The Lost Chord". I always thought that they were referring to a bible story, maybe about David, but I'm not sure where I got that idea. I think a full answer would need to include other literary and musical references such as the Moody Blues and further back.
Cohen was a wordsmith and a Zen student? Master of Song and words. Such a one, multi dimensional song in word form? ..Clearly deeply felt and drew on other areas of his direct inner experiences of life . The "Silver" cord is another reference used in ref to astral travel and to do with frequency and energy. His gentle kindness and voice in the scales. Yin and Yang "what happens to the heart" a beautiful song, also a clue of his skill. The combination of two fields of energy fields entwined as one, at that highest point. As one in the moment and the words Hallelujah. The answer is indefinable, fathomless as two become one in union of love. This is not a religious comment and draws maybe on Leonards own cultivation of Zen life and personal inner experiences .... My gratitude to Leonard Cohen for the songs and his legacy...
My absolute favorite presentation of Hallelujah is performed by the Pentatonix. The combination of the sound, the lyrics, and the out-of-this-world visual format results in a powerful piece of timeless music.
The secret chord is the tritone G#m(b5) (in the key of C) used in the the transition between G and Am: "the ba(G)ffled king compo(G#m(b5))sing hallelu(Am)jah". Most google chord charts for this song don't have this, but there was one chord chart, in the key of G, that had the secret chord (in G, it was D#m(b5)). I played it and it finnaly sounded right. Then i thought: "so this is what he was talking about. Well played..."
Note: E major kinda sounds right because the major 3rd of E is G#, and it sounds close with E7 because the minor 7th of E (D) forms a tritone with the major 3rd (G#). But the actual chord here is the G# tritone, it forms a little chromatic progression with G, G#, A.
He is correct in the video it is definitely an E/G# in Leonard Cohens version.
augmented III7 (E,G#,C,D) ----> vi11 (E,A,C,D)
The chord is an E. The melody is playing an e at that point. G#b5 doesn't contain an E at all. I just played it and it doesn't sound correct to play a G#b5 on any of the instruments that I've played it on. It sounds more correct to play an E, E# or E7/G# depending on the instrument.
E7 is simply a secondary dominant. We can also use tritone sub and it will be Bb7 (which also has G# note)
The chord is actually G#m6(b5) (the 6th is the E from the melody), which is very similar to E7 but with the base note on G#, so i guess you could also say that the secret chord is E7/G#. But the sauce here is the tritone, also know as "diabulus in musica", so you have to place the base note in G# (for the chromatic progression) and add the D for the tritone effect.
Excellent presentation. This song is seriously, one of the greatest!
Very nice commentary that dovetails nicely into other pieces and interviews I’ve read but with some new points all your own. Congratulations! Beautifully done!
Brilliant take sir. I proposed to my wife at a Leonard Cohen concert.
I really appreciate your taking the time to expand on this song, especially the 150 verses. That helps me to keep on polishing my songs, even though it seems to take so long. As far as your explanation of David and Bathsheba, your interpretation promotes what the Bible calls “Adultery”. God was so mad at David that He killed the child that David and Bathsheba had as a result of their lustful affair. God was very displeased with their affair.
That's my only problem with this video
@@polycube868 also not only did he kill Bathsheba's husband, he also had shunned his own wife Michel who didn't like him dancing naked in the streets for everyone to see him without clothes. I think it all shows David's personality is one of manic depression. When he was on a high he was very high and experienced highs most people would never know, but often his psalms show a man in the depths when he definitely wasn't singing Halleluliah.
David's cord of three with Uriah also should be considered...
Beautifully interpreted! Thank you for sharing your insights! ❤❤
Also the Scale E, F, G#, A, B, C, D, E is the Phrygian major third, prominent in Semitic music, both Jewish and Muslim evolving into Moorish/Flamenco and I think influencing European composers from Bach onwards.
It's my favourite scale and the chords you can build on it.
Listen to Cohen's speech when he received the Principe de Asturias Award in Spain in 2011. EPIC story. He divulges in that speech for the first time that all his songs are inspired by flamenco, and it's a tragic story.
As far as that scale influencing composers, yeah, including Rimsky-Korsakov.
That story is such a tease. I, too, sometimes find myself wondering about Cohen’s guitar teacher; who he was, why he was in Montréal, and why he took his own life. I also wonder how Cohen’s music might have been different if their lessons had continued.
@@helenleeyogini2679 I don't think that he took his own life.
@@Catlily5 I’m referring to Cohen’s guitar teacher. In Cohen’s speech, he said that at the teacher’s boarding house, someone told him the young man giving him the guitar lessons had killed himself.
Although musically dumb, I feel attuned to something divine. Thank you.
But it was meant to be ‘sacred chord’ - he said so in a BBC interview from years ago. I tried and tried to find it again after seeing this video, but it doesn’t appear to be online.
This is interesting. From what I'm reading in the comments, David was punished for his affair. If we add your comment, it all makes sense: Having found a "Sacred" _chord/cord_ that _"pleased the Lord"_ would be, in this rendition by Cohen, the reason why he was eventually forgiven. Also, _"the baffled king composing..."_ - Can't be omitted. Why? Well, he was "baffled" because he _thought_ God was there in that moment of true love, so he remained confused as to why he was considered to have sinned, and thus was his condition while, welp... while he ran into/discovered/played that _chord_ that pleased the Lord, earning him forgiveness, and because he was forgiven, "May God be praised" (IE, _Hallelujah)._
G-d said to David “You are a man after MY own Heart.” Elohim ECHAD is ONE. Three IN ONE. David’s Love for G-d is ONE WITH and IN G-d . The Woman is 2…she drew the HalleluYAH from David’s lips… left him broken his hair and strength cut as did Delilah cut Samson’s hair… and G-d Eternal drew the HalleluYAH back to HIM again. That my friend is TRUE NEVERENDING LOVE. Cohen knew this Beauty. Shabbat Shalom Leonard💐
Yah..yahweh
I don't even care if Cohen wrote it like this. No way to ask him anymore. But this video essay is a work of art on its own and from now on this is my standard explanation of the song! Bravo!
I started hating Cohen's Hallelujah when Kate McKinnon gave that sanctimonious performance of it on SNL, after Hilary blew it in 2016. Now that I know this song was about David's sin, I feel justified in detesting it thoroughly. Thank you for your illumination.
The song sounded so pretty and spiritually moving. I never really paid any attention to the words. I had no idea it was glorifying sin. God loves us but He sure doesn't smile and join in our sins
But KD Lang’s version at the 2010 Olympics?
i just realized the intro to jeff buckley's version of this is very similar to noel's "you know we can't go back." oasis nerds ftw!
FANTASTIC....this video is VERY special. Thank you so much for this clarity!
Great work. I was ready to move on, but you just kept digging. I love Leonard and I think you are right about a deeper meaning. Thanks.
I'd have enjoyed a conclusion that included a semi-tone bend of the G to G# in the harmony :)
Cohen also gave a clue in an interview when he said the song was a "secular orgasm"
Brilliant and makes perfect sense ~ This is a WonderFull unravelling you have performed here James ~ Thank You~ Leonard Cohen 's song are indeed deep and MeaningFull in so many ways no surprise that they touch so many peoples Hearts ✨🌹✨💖
Spot on. Tremendous insight and fine example of a gentle messenger walking amongst us. Leonard Cohen is amongst the greatest men to have spoken on this earth.
Thanks so much for putting so much effort into this video to investigate and drill down to what is likely the actual meaning and feeling that Cohen put into it way back then. I will now listen to the whole thing with a different viewpoint, and enjoy how brilliant it is even more.