Havent blogged for so long since last year’s 2nd analysis that I almost forgot my password. Had to try 3 times before I got it.. Heh.
Anw, for blogging assignment this time, I’ll be analyzing The Point of No Return from the musical The Phantom of the Opera, which is familiar to most. I watched the musical a few months back when the troop came to Singapore. However, given my goldfish memory, I can’t really remember when this song was sung in the musical. But it’s probably towards the end where the Phantom was feeling much more anguish and desolation.
There are 4 sections to this song, the 1st and 3rd sections, and the 2nd and 4th sections are actually quite similar, with just some variations. I won’t be analyzing the whole song, but just the last section of it because firstly, this section itself already has lots to talk about, secondly, doing the whole song will be too long, and lastly, the 1st and 3rd sections are too complicated. There are lots of tonicisation and I think there’s bitonality involved too..
Okae, what attracted me to this song is the more lyrical part of it (2nd and 4th sections). This section (I’ll refer to it as ‘song’ from now on) starts off in a minor key (F minor), but doesn’t stay in that mode for long. Instead, throughout the whole song, it keeps alternating between minor and major chords, staying for just a short few bars. This local change in mode is what makes it interesting.
To make reference easy, I will start numbering the bars from the 3rd system on page 69, which is the section we’re looking at here. There are 3 main parts, which are as follows:
Part 1 – bars 1 to 8
Part 2 – bars 9 to 23
Part 3 – bars 24 to 33
However, I will not call this a ternary form because the 2nd part is not totally a contrasting section from parts 1 & 3, and is still in the same key as the 1st part. The 3rd and last part is quite similar to part 1, but has been modulated to a different key (this will be further elaborated later on). Now for some analysis.
Harmonic Analysis
The harmonic analysis is written on the uploaded music sheets. Different coloured pens show the different tonality. Anw, there are a few things about this song that I would like to point out here.
(1) The first 4 bars of all parts 1, 2 & 3 are played over a tonic pedal, thus I’d just label it as chord I. Voice-leading is indicated in orange.
(2) At bar 4 (and similarly at b. 12 & 27), there is a sudden change of local mode as the song borrows a chord I from its parallel major key. The song then modulates to the relative major in Ab at bar 5. Here, Db chord (chord VI of F minor and IV of Ab major) serves as a common (pivot) chord between the two tonalities. Even though this i-III form of modulation between relative keys is quite common, it still gives listener a fresh and different feeling due to the change in colour.
(3) At bar 8, the C7 chord is a V going to a I in F minor. Hmm, was just wondering if this is also a common-tone (C) modulation back to to F minor? And, how should I explain the progression from Ab (bar 7) to C? Heh. Okae, moving on..
(4) The 2nd part comes in at bar 9, and follows the same melodic and harmonic progression as the 1st part for 7 bars. After that, it progresses on for another 8 interesting bars, tonicising Db major (b. 17), and Cb major (bar 19) along the way.
(5) At bar 23, the V7 of F minor (C7) comes in again, and listeners might expect the song to return to F minor. Instead, at bar 24 (part 3), it is modulated to G minor. This is a sequential modulation; G minor chord is not diatonic in F minor, it is modulated through the use of the melodic sequence.
(6) Part 3 also has a similar melodic and harmonic progression as the previous parts for 7 bars. It then adds in 3 more bars to bring the whole song to a closure.
Alrights, I'll post this up for now. Will talk about functional analysis and phrase structure and other things in another post.. Hmm, I think I missed out alot of things and some might not be accurate. So correct me if i'm wrong k? :)
4 comments:
hey dorcas, i wanted to point out 3 things i noticed.. =)
1) in bar 5, i think a 2-3 suspension is usually in the bass. hence, i see it as a E resolving to a D with F as an escape note. therefore it is a 9-8 suspension
2) i think chord III isn't a borrowed chord in bar 8, its a major chord in the minor key.
3) i noticed the use of the the tonic major chord at the last bar of every pedal point like in bar 27.
just my thots.. heh..
Dorcas, your harmonic anlaysis is largely correct but the interpretation of the harmonic function/relation can be refined. Remember the descending 3rd principle for root motion in functional tonality? Well, with I-bIII and bIII-V, you can now appreciate why the harmonic turns sound surprising. And yes, common-tone progression is in evidence here.
In the second part, note the circle of fifths (Ab-Db-Gb-Cb) before another cyclic segment Db-G-C except that these are bass-melodic notes (b6-2-5 in F min) rather than root-movement (VI-ii-V). Given that, I wonder if the G min that follows is like a backward step but borrowing from the parallel major. Whatever it is, there is no denying that the harmonic journey is one whole roller-coaster ride in the dark--constantly taking us by surprise.
BTW, can you explain what you mean by sequential modulation?
Tabby, the 2-3 suspension in b. 5 is correct: it is a tonal upward-resolving suspension.
Tabby: Yes, I missed the 9-8 suspension! Thanks. :)
Dr. Chong: Hmm, by sequential modulation, I meant that at part 3, the song modulates to G minor through the use of a sequence. The beginning of this last section is a sequence of the beginning of both parts 1 and 2. So the composer made use of this to modulate to a diff pitch, ie. from F to G.
dorcas
I see what you are thinking of. Yes, part 3 is like parts 1 & 2 shifted up a tone (a common modulatory scheme in many pop songs) but technically we don't call this modulation by sequence nor do we call it a sequence. In terms of the modulatory means here, I hear it as a backward move (having just come through a circle-of-fifth segment), namely Gm7-C7-Gm, where the Gm becomes the new tonic. This is of course not a common modulatory strategy but then again the whole piece has been full of harmonic surprises.
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