I'd been thinking about this topic a lot as I listened to the remastered Beatles classic, Revolver. Fourteen songs, 35 minutes. It's still hard to get my mind around the fact that Eleanor Rigby and For No One are barely more than two minutes long.
That's wild - I listened to Eleanor Rigby again with this in mind - they pack a lot into those two minutes! The intro and the outro are in major but the verses and chorus in E minor (with two different versions of the E minor scale). I think the strings do a lot to create variety, which is funny because when I think of the song, I hear the vocals and chords but not the strings necessarily.
Related to the thread below, For No One is another song that really puts that semitone surprise to good use, where you get that strong descending B-A#-G#-F# bassline in the verse (assuming it's in B; the tunings tend to drift a bit), but then the vocals hit that poignant G natural toward the end ("when" in the first verse, the second syllable of "hurry" in the second verse).
Yeah! I'm not at a piano to check, but I'm 98% sure the minor scale for most of the melody is E dorian (minor with a raised 6th), but then the very end of each verse has a flatted sixth (E natural minor). It's very effective because the last line of each verse is also the ironic/emotional punch, in my opinion: who is it for, what does he care, no one was saved...it's a very haunting part of the melody and it pairs well with the most haunting/saddest part of each verse...
It's just amazing how that one half-step can make such a huge emotional difference. And you're absolutely right – it's a special kind of talent that so effortlessly blends the melody with the emotional content of the lyrics.
I remember as a college kid listening to the Crusaders do their hit (comparatively speaking) jazz version and thinking that Eleanor Rigby really seemed like a sea change in music, with a British Invasion songwriter being elevated to the level usually reserved for Broadway writers and Brill Building folks.
a podcast episode on the death of key changes
https://open.spotify.com/episode/71URnXyEbTfpWdB0E9F6Oe?si=43844c895705405e
Here's a quick playlist of songs less than a minute long.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/52LOrZv7f3qm9DRJLlS1Kz?si=33962736131e43d3
Nice - I listened to it on the drive to work! (Twice!)
I'd been thinking about this topic a lot as I listened to the remastered Beatles classic, Revolver. Fourteen songs, 35 minutes. It's still hard to get my mind around the fact that Eleanor Rigby and For No One are barely more than two minutes long.
That's wild - I listened to Eleanor Rigby again with this in mind - they pack a lot into those two minutes! The intro and the outro are in major but the verses and chorus in E minor (with two different versions of the E minor scale). I think the strings do a lot to create variety, which is funny because when I think of the song, I hear the vocals and chords but not the strings necessarily.
Here's a neat video of *just* the string parts!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcIkVMWPJuU
Thanks for the tip - now I'm off to overthink For No One :D
Related to the thread below, For No One is another song that really puts that semitone surprise to good use, where you get that strong descending B-A#-G#-F# bassline in the verse (assuming it's in B; the tunings tend to drift a bit), but then the vocals hit that poignant G natural toward the end ("when" in the first verse, the second syllable of "hurry" in the second verse).
So I assume the two different E minor versions depend on whether he's singing the C or the C sharp?
Yeah! I'm not at a piano to check, but I'm 98% sure the minor scale for most of the melody is E dorian (minor with a raised 6th), but then the very end of each verse has a flatted sixth (E natural minor). It's very effective because the last line of each verse is also the ironic/emotional punch, in my opinion: who is it for, what does he care, no one was saved...it's a very haunting part of the melody and it pairs well with the most haunting/saddest part of each verse...
It's just amazing how that one half-step can make such a huge emotional difference. And you're absolutely right – it's a special kind of talent that so effortlessly blends the melody with the emotional content of the lyrics.
I remember as a college kid listening to the Crusaders do their hit (comparatively speaking) jazz version and thinking that Eleanor Rigby really seemed like a sea change in music, with a British Invasion songwriter being elevated to the level usually reserved for Broadway writers and Brill Building folks.
Yes! I could totally see that.