Thursday, May 4, 2017

Hit Song Ingredients Part 3 Code


Code is used at any genre of music on sophisticated examples.


It is when the distance of the upper parts from the bass note departs from the obvious 1 or 3 or 5, basic major or minor triad.


An obvious example is the 80's hit song:


Maria Magdalena - Sandra (in B Dorian scale (C,F,G are sharp))
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=epHOF91ZUFk


Even the first note sung by Sandra departs from 1, 3, 5.


When she sings "You...", the note is A. At that moment the bass is B.


So the interval by counting the notes of the B Dorian scale: B C D E F G A is 7.


Having (first thing in a song) a 7th interval may be even more rare than classical music.


The next change in bass is F sharp. At that time Samdra says the first part of "Love" using G sharp resolved to F sharp. This is an interval of 9 found in the best examples of music on our planet as on J.S. Bach's music.


The song travels us to various code non obvious intervals like 6ths etc.


And it is nice and simple with simple instrumentation and few important voices like Vivaldi.


No wander it became a great hit in Europe in the 80s.


The song may also use the hit song ingredient Varispeed to further freshen up the timbre of the voice.


Bravo, thank you Sandra and Michael Cretu.


References:


The Art of Music, or Instructions for Playing Figured Bass or Percepts and Principles - J. S. Bach


Musical Acoustics - Donald Hall


Young People's Concerts on YouTube - Leonard Bernstein









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