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Thursday, January 31, 2008

Benjamin's rockin' analysis of C!!!

When I performed in West Side Story in high school, I enjoyed every minute of it. This assignment has brought back a few memories of that. The key is in Gb Major. My harmonic analysis is as follows: I-IV6-V6-I-vi-iii-bVII-IV6-I64-IV-V6-IV6-bVII6-bIII6-ii6-V7-I. Bernstein uses modal mixture in measure 7 with the bVII. The root is lowered to gain a Major chord. Perhaps this was to convey a bit more happiness through the music (it's a song about love). Almost the same chord appears later in measure 13, but with a sixth inversion. The chord after that, in measure 14 is a bIII6, which, again, moves the root down a half step to make the chord Major. This modal mixture is most likely to convey the words, which are "Only death (will part us now)." There was a slight difference in my harmonic analysis compared to the chords already printed. These chord markings do not convey any modal mixture, but, instead, simplify it for the performer.

1 comment:

Scott said...

Go into more detail as to why the pop chord symbols are simplified, and the significance of the words (Tony ends up dying). Next time write about performance ideas.