The emotions behind chord choices

[Chuck E. Jesus]

chromaticism

Is that an actual word? Yay! I like it.

i thought it was 'chromantic' at first....

[tee boy]

chromaticism

Is that an actual word? Yay! I like it.

You bet your arse it is brudda

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatic_ ... romaticism

TB

[liqih]

Many attempts have been made to associate harmonic progressions and melodic figures with certain moods. Some are even considered classics, like this one by Deryck Cook.

I have read many, and they all fall short by a mile.

For instance, the OP's opinion that "We all know the basic stuff like major conveys optimism and minor conveys moodiness"
is, I believe, quite far from being universal.

I just got done with a piece which is clearly and entirely in C major, and almost everyone who heard it called it 'sad' or 'melancholy', with a few 'uplifting' or 'relaxing and hypnotic' comments thrown in just to confuse the matter a bit more.

Personally, I think such things are quite personal and based on musical education and background, and all sorts of other formative experiences such as movies and even advertisements.

that's the truth to me too,
also the mood is in the movement, the transaction,
any static thinking about music is naturally wrong

[Barf]

Some time ago there was an interesting item on BBC's 'Culture Show' (i think) about the guy who composed music for the Hitchcock movies and how he used specific chords to invoke moods

[The Chase]

This was always something I wish we went futher into in Music theory 1 and 2, and really my main interests IN music theory. The closest we came was when some guitarists asked the teach, "Wait, like, how come when you drop D it can become so dark and stuff? *emo hair flip*

When people ask me what key I made a song though i have to open up the piano roll, look and calculate

[Stupid American Pig]

Ihavent yet read this thread, but I seem to feel music in my gut when chords switch from "happy" to "sad", the brief way to describe it would be switch from major to minor key mid stream, but that doesnt quite explain it. By teaching myself music theory/guitar/piano, I have found that if you can find a *good* use to throw in 6th, 9th and diminished chords things get emotional(at least to me). I guess the best way to describe what I mean is to mention songs that move me.

Atomik Lust- Super furry animals
Flaming Lips - Its summer time
pink floyd - If
Beach boys - God Only knows
beatles - blackbird
marcy playground - one more suicide
(at the risk of losing cred) Sheryl Crow - Home

Listining to Flaming lips now, they are just fantastic all around....

[Stupid American Pig]

When people ask me what key I made a song though i have to open up the piano roll and look and calculate

indeed, I sorta try to play in a key, but I dont know key/scale that well so I in the end I find 3-5 chords that move me and go from there...

[Hink]

When people ask me what key I made a song though i have to open up the piano roll and look and calculate

indeed, I sorta try to play in a key, but I dont know key/scale that well so I in the end I find 3-5 chords that move me and go from there...

wow I just googled on "the blind leading the blind"...it brought me right to this post


this has been a weekly test of the mandatory slam texans system, had this been a real slam it would of contained the word goatroper. we now return you to kvr

[ouroboros]

Many attempts have been made to associate harmonic progressions and melodic figures with certain moods. Some are even considered classics, like this one by Deryck Cook.

I have read many, and they all fall short by a mile.

For instance, the OP's opinion that "We all know the basic stuff like major conveys optimism and minor conveys moodiness"
is, I believe, quite far from being universal.

I just got done with a piece which is clearly and entirely in C major, and almost everyone who heard it called it 'sad' or 'melancholy', with a few 'uplifting' or 'relaxing and hypnotic' comments thrown in just to confuse the matter a bit more.

Personally, I think such things are quite personal and based on musical education and background, and all sorts of other formative experiences such as movies and even advertisements.

that's the truth to me too,
also the mood is in the movement, the transaction,
any static thinking about music is naturally wrong

Will that last point ever change?
_________

to play devils' advocate, if context defines the mood of a chord, and there are a limited # of contexts possible (we're all assuming 12tone scales, I imagine), doesn't that imply that their are indeed finite, known chordal emotional building blocks?

I honestly don't know, and Herodotus' statement seems fit - but some of the argument doesn't seem to explain the issue, in other words, context makes the possibilities greater, but there are still chordal tropes to be employed?

I ask because I'm fascinated by the philosophy of language.

[eduardo_b]

When people ask me what key I made a song though i have to open up the piano roll and look and calculate

indeed, I sorta try to play in a key, but I dont know key/scale that well so I in the end I find 3-5 chords that move me and go from there...

wow I just googled on "the blind leading the blind"...it brought me right to this post

It would have brought you to my post except I hadn't posted it yet. I need to be quicker about this in the future.

A minor key is a wonderful thing.

Okay, done now.

[nyquil_man]

I've never posted on these forums before, but this post intrigued me so much that I thought I'd give it a shot.

It's a lot like language; if I say a word like "love," it's going to conjure up certain emotions. But if I alter the context, I've changed the connotation. "Love is dead" produces a far different emotional response than "love is beautiful," even though I've only altered one word.

The same thing with color. Blue next to black is likely to appear somber; blue next to orange or yellow is likely to appear bright and cheerful.

An F Major chord doesn't say much on its own. But if I put a D Major chord in front of it or an Fdim7 behind it, it's saying a whole hell of a lot. If I put a melody over the F that leans heavily on the flat seventh or a blue third, I've changed it again. That's without getting into inversions and all that fancy-schmancy stuff.

Having said all that, I love diminished chords because they sound "lost." You're never quite sure where they will modulate to.

[tee boy]

I think it does definately help if we understand SOME of the science behind the emotive power of chords and progressions. And I think that some of it certainly is routed in the science. Its not ALL magically.

For instance, people have mentioned the tension created by the dominant and substitute chords (like the diminished for instance). These chords contain dissonances with naturally 'learn' towards resolution in a certain direction. By prolonging the tension we or even extending to progression we can create even more anticipation!

But this all goes back to the principles of equal temperament and the overtone series. Its about dissonances being resolved in the age old ways. The greater the dissonance, higher the tension and therefore greater resolution required. Its science really. How you impliment it is the art!

I mean, take impressionistic style of Debussy and Ravel. They made their tonalities more vague by avoiding scales with leading tones, leaving progressions open by not properly resolving dissonances, incorporating high levels of chromaticism and parallelism etc. The individual chords mean very little. The effect is all in the dissonances and how they move and resolve (or dont).

This is why sometimes a 9th chord in a dominant function can kick you in the chest so hard you loose your voice for a brief moment, lol. While other times it has no impact at all.

TB

[tee boy]

Some time ago there was an interesting item on BBC's 'Culture Show' (i think) about the guy who composed music for the Hitchcock movies and how he used specific chords to invoke moods

It was Bernhard Hermann. He used serial techniques in this score to make it highly dissonant, which ultimately added hugely to the tension through out the film.

What you mean is the stabbing tone clusters that he used during the murder scene which contrasted with the deep bass and cello.

The series was by Howard Goodhall. He's actually really good at explaining it I think. That series was great!

TB

[Gregjazz]

When you think of... what are augmented 6th chords? That's the key to where chromaticism started.

The actual emotion behind chords are very reliant on context, not to mention other things such as timbre, etc.

[tee boy]

True, but I think secondary dominant chords were used pretty early on too. Mozart used them I believe. I dont know if or how much before that time that augmented 6th chords started being used during cadences?

TB