CW52

Chords. 💕

A ii V I VI ii V I progression in Eb. More specifically iim7b5 V7(#9) Imaj7 VImaj7 iim7b5 V7(#9) Imaj7. More specifically Abm/G Bb7(no 5)/Db Eb/D C/B Fm7b5/B Bb7(no 5)/Db Eb/D.

You’ll notice that, with one exception, the outer voices are always a minor 9th apart.

One of the chords is an AIT—Bb7(no 5)/Db is Bb Jimi Hendrix—and there are two horizontal AITs expressed as well.

If you play the bass voice out of context you’ll notice a cool effect. Though it functions in context as Eb material, in isolation it reads as a perfectly-clear melodic cadence in D major.

This is hardly surprising given the fact that it’s almost entirely a minor 9th below the Eb melodic cadence in the top voice. The real thrill is going back to hearing the part in context and wondering how the music is getting away with shifting your perspective on this line. (In my opinion this is only bitonality—two keys at once—on paper. The music plainly gets you to experience an exposed D major bassline as unambiguously in Eb.)

I also like putting these two chords on the end:

They make things less tidy. Now there are three chords, not just one, whose outer voices are not a minor 9th apart. Now the bass voice has a non-AIT note. And now that voice isn’t cookie-cutter D major when plucked from its surroundings. But I love the sound.

The F/G seems to suggest a potential modulation to C. Having the VI be a maj7 instead of a dominant, which is unusual, already gave C a weird attention, and if the final chord was some kind of C that unusual choice would have been a neat foreshadowing. However, in an upset that I love the feeling of, we stay in Eb: Cm/Bb—an Eb6 in second inversion. The F/G is just a lydian flourish. 💕