An experiment in musical harmonization

UPDATE: well, that didn't work, sadly. In the Preview tab you get when writing a blog post, these WMA files appear with nice little transport controls, which work perfectly. If anyone wants to hear the audio, come see me, I'll log in and edit this post and show you the Preview tab. That's the best I can do for now.

It's time I did a musical post. This blog's subtitle is, after all, "Mostly software and music, some work, but all play". :)

I was folding laundry and humming a made-up tune and I wanted to experiment with it, find out what key it's in, how to harmonize it with chords, where it wants to go to resolve, that kind of thing. Here's what I had in my head, listen to it a couple of times.

[View:https://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-59-08/1563.01-the-melody.wma]

As I was finding the notes on the piano, it reminded me of Queen's "Fun It". It's not the same, but it's similar, so let's take a look at "Fun It" later and compare that to where we end up. It also sounds a bit like a James Bond movie cue, too (which, it turns out, is in a different key so we'll look at that later, too). But first let's see what this one is made of.

 Because of the notes used in the melody, a naïve interpretation indicates that it should be in the key of either E or A. But it doesn't resolve to either. Here's an attempt to resolve to E.

[View:https://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-59-08/8015.02-resolve-to-E.wma]

And here's an attempt to resolve to A.

[View:https://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-59-08/1856.03-resolve-to-A.wma]

It does resolve to D, though.

[View:https://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-59-08/8004.04-resolve-to-D.wma]

Ok, so if the key is D then that G# in the melody is chromatic. How does it sound if we substitute a diatonic G?

[View:https://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-59-08/7658.05-G-natural.wma]

It doesn't make much difference. Ok, let's stick with the G# for now then. In the key of D, with 1 representing the tonic D, that gives us a melody (in terms of scale degrees) of 3-#4-5-3-#4-5-6-3-1. Why is there a #4 in there, though? A 4 is the fourth degree, or subdominant. But this one is sharpened, or augmented. The interval from 1 to #4 is a tritone (an augmented fourth), and you find tritones in dominant seventh chords. Ok, so maybe the tritone is D up to G#, which would give us a Bb7, resolving to Eb. So we should try harmonizing that G# (the #4) with a Bb7 chord and then harmonizing a note that follows (let's choose the A) with an Eb. As it happens, that makes no musical sense here, listen (but be careful, this sounds terrible).

[View:https://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-59-08/7652.06-sounds-bad.wma]

Ok, the other option of course is that the tritone is G# up to D. That would give us E7 (which is II7 in the key of D) resolving to A (which is the V, or dominant, in D). Listen to that, I think it makes a lot more sense.

[View:https://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-59-08/8562.07-II7_2D00_V_2D00_II7_2D00_V_2D00_I.wma]

Harmonizing the G# note (the #4 note) with an E7 chord (the II7 chord) makes the G# the major third of that chord. In a major key, the triad formed on the second degree of the scale is minor, so it's written ii. In the key of D, ii is Em so of course its third is minor and it falls on G natural. And the (minor) third of that ii is the same note as the key's 4th scale degree (which is a perfect fourth, and G is a per4 above D). But here we're taking the ii and sharpening its third, making it into a II (which is major). In the process, we're sharpening our per4 to an aug4, or #4. At least now the function of that #4 is making sense: it's the maj3 of II7 (or, more generally, of II). I'm not sure I like this harmonization yet, though. How does it sound with a V7 toward the end (that high F# note turning the A7 into an A7add6)? And then resolving to I?

[View:https://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-59-08/7026.08-II7_2D00_V_2D00_II7_2D00_V_2D00_V7_2D00_I.wma]

Ok, that II7-V7-I is all very cycle-of-fifths (II is the V-of-V, and of course V is the V-of-I, so we get three nice descending root movements in fifths for a pleasing little chain of resolutions). But I feel we can do better. Let's leave that G# note unharmonized and, for some different color, use iii (F#m) instead of V to harmonize the A note. Since we're leaving the G# naked, let's harmonize the B note with a IV (which is a G chord). So, that gives us iii-iii-IV-V7-I.

[View:https://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-59-08/4024.09-iii_2D00_iii_2D00_IV_2D00_V7_2D00_I-with-G_2300_.wma]

I like the gentle, neutral, minor mood at the start which lifts off with that IV (which introduces our key note D for the first time) and then cranks things up with that tense and (slightly) exotic V7add6 which pops us nicely home into the D. For contrast, how does the same thing work with that G as a natural?

[View:https://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-59-08/3716.10-iii_2D00_iii_2D00_IV_2D00_V7_2D00_I-with-G.wma]

They're both good, but there's something about that G# that I prefer; I don't know, it sounds somehow more mischievous. The first three diatonic notes of F#m are F#-G#-A. So, when you use the G#, and you harmonize the third note (the A) with an F#m (as we did in the last two recordings), the melody actually goes with the F#m chord and not with the key of D. We're temporarily in a very unambiguous tonal center (a minor tonal center) of F#m for a moment at the beginning. It's only later when the global context of D major is established that the ear realizes it was being deceived. However, if you use a G natural with the F#m then you're really diluting the minor sense that the chord is trying to establish. And I think that's why it doesn't quite work as well. But it's subtle.

I'll take a look at "Fun It" and the James Bond music in a future post.

-Steve