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EDIT Do we have any music majors here? I'm tired of never being able to adequately describe some of my favorite songs and compositions, like this one. How would one describe it using music terminology? Modalities, tonalities, cords, etc.
Okay, so we’ve got a slow string section playing 3 note chords that builds up with keys hitting the bass root note of the triads at the 1 of a bar of 4 at regular intervals. At about 1.33 you’ve got another string section adding chord extensions to the harmony- e.g 9ths or 7ths- and it’s these that add the extra tension to the piece- the chords haven’t necessarily changed from before; it’s the same chord progression.
We have that droning electric instrument in the background at around 2:20 that comes in with the hit on the first beat of the bar signalling the next section. With this section we have two notes being played by a piano with delay that rotates from the foreground to the background. At around 3:45 it seems to move to the minor second of D minor adding a lot of tension but quickly moving off it to what I think is the fourth to lessen the tension, but we never seem to resolve to the D minor at the end- instead it hangs on a different chord that doesn’t quite end the song- we are left with a desire for it to go back to D minor. However the composer has chosen it not too- it’s a dramatic piece that’s purpose is to leave us unfulfilled at the end.
I only listened to it once, it’s a nice piece, so I hopped I helped, if only a little. Or did I go too much into the theory side of things- or maybe not enough. :/
If you want an overall description-
it’s an ambient piece that uses a slow string ensemble to create different measures of tension with the use of their droning timbre and by adding chord extensions as the song progresses. There is a pulse that hits on the 1 of a bar of 4 occasionally so the listener does not get their sense of rhythm displaced in the drone of the strings. At the end we are left unsatisfied as the chord progression does not end on the D minor, which is the tonic note of the scale that the whole song derives from. :)
Remember, I’ve only listened to it once- so nobody kill me if I got something wrong. :p
Zabi.
