Contents
1. Supplementary Analysis
This session is a little supplement—Do you remember the piano piece I showed in the introductory chapter, aiming for a quiet and cold atmosphere, inspired by “Day One” from the movie Intersteller?
- Title: “The Silent Planet – Uranus”
In the article, this was labeled as “CRAP”, and it was stated, “From a theoretical perspective, you can find many factors that have a sultry and masculine feel.” Having gained the concept of “shells” in the previous sessions, it became possible to theoretically analyze the cause of this masculine feel. So I’d like to conduct a musical analysis once again here to reveal what could not be discussed then.
Shell at the Beginning of Chords
As you may have already understood from the analysis so far, when analyzing shells, it is advisable to focus on the melodic outline. That is, rather than paying attention to the finer notes, it’s crucial to capture the notes with significant semantic importance—ones on chord changes, sustained notes, the highest notes etc.
First, this is the opening 4 bars. As you can see, 5th shell is quite predominant. This makes it powerful and straight. And the melody gradually rises, landing on the 3rd in the third bar. The method of gradually rising step by step clearly constructs the wave of climax, so if you want to create a calm atmosphere, it feels too hot and sultry as an expression.
Additionally, at the end of the 4th bar, a strong tendency tone, fa, appears for the first time. Up until that point, it goes with the “omit-4 Scale”. The omitting ends here, without any effective features. This fa doesn’t progress to the adjacent note but halfway jumps to la, which is not a particularly meaningful use of a tendency tone.
Let’s take a look at bars 5 to 8. Paying attention to the shell, in bars 7 and 8, Rt is taken twice consecutively. Once again, it’s a bit too plain, almost sounds like a powerful unison play in rock music.
Furthermore, the melody at the beginning of the 5th bar is not good. After reaching a fairly high note at the end of the 3rd bar, hitting the highest note re with a long build up, then descending, here it again abruptly lands on do…It lacks a pitch contrast between lines and fail to provide a compelling storyline development, seems like a waste of the cadence.
Examining from the 9th bar onwards…
It remained 5thRt all the way to the very end. As a result, it becomes apparent that the melodic outline were either the Rt, 3rd, or 5th throughout. If aiming for a cold, quiet and beautiful atmosphere, such style is too monotonous. Skillfully integrating the 7th, or even-number degrees can create a more mature musical mood. This song is too straightforward from the start to the end.
Furthermore, the adoption of triplets1 as a motif is not good at all. Triplets are a special rhythmic technique used to emphasize the melody by inserting a unique rhythm and are generally used to reinforce the pushing power of the melody. In the current situation where you want tranquility, their merit doesn’t come to life and can be counterproductive. Moreover, there are issues with the way the harmonies are placed, compromising the overall quality.
For these reasons, this piano piece is primitive, clumsy, and too much strong. It’s like a muscly gentleman striking poses on a scorching beach, so insisting that it has a “quiet and cold atmosphere” doesn’t make sense at all! However, it somewhat manages to have a decent appearance merely because it’s a slow piano piece. At a very coarse level of information resolution, one might say, “It sounds similar to ‘Day One’ somehow.”
There’s undoubtedly a marked difference in the quality. Nonetheless, to an untrained ear, it might sound somewhat alike. This difficulty is inherent in engaging with music, the invisible art. And that’s the reason why it’s important to have the “language of music”; music theory. In music, there’s no absolute right or wrong, but there is a matter of goodness or badness from the perspective of whether the sounds suit the intended expression.
Using the tonal gravitation theory in this way has allowed you to expose the true nature of musical ideas in somewhat greater detail. In LMT, the analysis of the melody from the perspective of kernel and shell is referred to as K/S Analysis, taking their initial letters.
Even those unfamiliar with the theory may notice that “triplets don’t quite fit,” as rhythm directly impacts the body. However, few can identify the cause of discomfort like “the vertical positions of the notes relative to their chord roots seems to create a muscular feel and diminishes coldness.”
I believe this is the limit of human perception in its raw state when it comes to the invisible art of music. Therefore, theory support is crucial in melody creation. Please make good use of it in your composition.
For a start, becoming aware of the differences in the texture of the Rt3rd5th7th shells during songwriting/analyzing should suffice. If you wish to further upgrade your skills, stepping into Chapter.IV would be a good idea!
Summary
- Analyzing the melody from both the kernel and shell perspectives allows for a more detailed analysis.
- When it comes to shell analysis, focusing on melodic “outlines” such as the beginning of the bar, chord change, or pivotal points in the development like the highest note or a long tone is a good starting point.
- A melody can be more expressive by eliminating ineffective factors. Especially be careful of melodic cadences, tendency tones and root shells.
