henryparr
Group: Members
Posts: 3
Joined: April 2018 |
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Posted: April 14 2018, 05:40 |
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For me Tubular bells is not a very emotional piece. It’s like a huge and complex pattern -a vast and wonderful musical doodle. Hergest ridge feels more like one thing, and it is deeply emotional.
Sometimes H R has been criticised for repetition and a lack of musical ideas. I don’t think this matters when the ideas are so good, and I disagree anyway. It seems to me that there is more on offer in H R than in, say Ommadawn, and the musical ideas are more inspired and more special. And that is partly subjective and partly the result of my analysis of the music itself.
The oboe tune for example, is very interesting. Mike doesn’t particularly use or play chords, its more about countermelodies and bass lines but I have worked out some chords that certainly work for me.
If we divide the tune into 16 bars, the tune is in D but I put a cappo on fret 2 so it appears to be in C. The chords are then Dm, Bbmaj7, Am, Bbmaj7 repeated, fairly remote from C. It’s the changes from the minors to the major sevenths that are the key to the atmosphere. There are 2 resolutions to the tonic C chord but not where you would expect – at bars 11 and 14 – and these are delicious. They are like a brief contact with home before continuing on the mystical journey. (Bars 9 – 16, Dm Bbmaj7, C, Am, Bbmaj7, C, Am Bbmaj7).
The earlier trumpet tune, so evocative of the high, open, grassy ridge, is an object lesson in the idea of playing the same tune with different chords. The sequence consists of the tune played twice, the first time with: (cappo 2 again)
D D Csus2 Em D C G , and the second time with
F Bm Am G F Em G, completely different!
(again these chords work for me, you may disagree!
The last chord sequence on side one with the swooping guitar solo is very special to me, and quite hard to analyse. The closest I can get is (cappo2 again)
Dmaj7, -4220-, -2223-, -0422-, Dmaj7, Gsus2, 2-222-, 0-202-
Dmaj7, B, E, Amaj7, Dsus2, Cmaj7, E.
The second theme on side two is beautiful and I think works with:
C(sus2), Em, Bbsus2, F(6), -0003-, --0553, Abmaj7, G. (cappo2 again)
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