English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

1:16 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Chinese character in title, mostly non-latin body, mostly non-latin title (247): 真实经历《快三怎么回本》思路汇总必看 by yinyin on english.SE

RegDwigнt

1:55 AM

> Would anyone here like to compose something with me (this would be my first time making an original score here).

tchrist

No score.

RegDwigнt

Hm. So you're saying, it wouldn't be original, and you'd still be waiting for your first time.

Today is my first time cooking! Tchrist, make me a borshch.

Phew. That was easy.

tchrist

You are now a borshch.

RegDwigнt

I have always been.

tchrist

See didn't need me after all.

RegDwigнt

1:57 AM

Yes, I promise to give you zero credit.

tchrist

I remember my theory teacher back in the 70s calling a certain chord progression the "Captain Nemo chord", from the famous 1950s movie. It's just some minor-to-major progression, like all white keys to all black keys. I can't remember it and it's bugging me for days now.

Like Am to F# major, but that's not it. I can't remember damn it.

RegDwigнt

Pass. Didn't watch that one.

I might now.

The description matches a few possible things, and I'm kinda intrigued.

tchrist

"20.000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1954) Trailer

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I think it might be in the first few bars there.

It's eerie/mysterious, then suddenly uplifting through an unexpected progression.

By now it's probably cheesy.

RegDwigнt

It does start in Am, but it goes to two different places, and neither is F♯ major.

tchrist

Might be Dm to F♯ major, through an inversion with A on the bottom at first?

RegDwigнt

2:09 AM

The first one is from Am to like D major over A.

The second one is Am to some weird shit like F♯ minor, possibly likewise over A.

I don't have perfect pitch and it's 3 at night so I can't check at the piano.

tchrist

The first would just be a normal i-IV like in Dorian mode, right?

RegDwigнt

But yeah, it's a cliché. Not so much by now but more like at the time.

Dunaevsky did very similar things in his music to The Children of Captain Grant.

tchrist

Thanks.

RegDwigнt

@tchrist I just opened the wiki to look up the fuck it'd be called cuz I can never remember them names, as I lamented to you some time ago.

tchrist

He thought it was cliché, a move a composer makes to get a rise out of the audience through a preprogrammed set of harmonics.

RegDwigнt

2:13 AM

But it's not really of help cuz we start in minor to begin with.

So it's minor with a raised VI.

tchrist

Right.

RegDwigнt

Whatever the fuck that's called.

Basically you're in A minor but your subdominant says nah, we're in A major.

tchrist

Scalewise, it's Dorian.

Hm.

RegDwigнt

I would believe you anything at all except maybe Locrian.

tchrist

But yes, that's it, it's fucking with the subdominant.

RegDwigнt

2:15 AM

Yes, but that's standard for the last 400 years. The second time is more interesting. It's also standard, but a different standard of much later. 1920s like.

tchrist

It's a weird tension. That's the eerie thing.

Reminds me a little of Shore's Beacon Lighting progression, but maybe that's just the melodramatic effect.

RegDwigнt

I went to check on MuseScore if somebody had transcribed it by now, but I can't find anything.

tchrist

The Lord of the Rings - How Howard Shore Builds Tension

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RegDwigнt

Of course it will have to be me again that transcribes it. Just like I had to do with The Children of Captain Grant.

tchrist

heh

RegDwigнt

2:21 AM

@tchrist that is an awesome score and it took be fifteen years to even begin to appreciate it.

tchrist

@RegDwigнt I know right.

RegDwigнt

It was so intricate it flew completely over my head. All of it.

tchrist

Me too.

Adam Neely does an acceptable job at conveying what's behind it.

RegDwigнt

There's tons of videos about it on YT by now. I watched like fifty. Including one where Shore himself sat at the piano. And the thumbnail above seems familiar as well.

Is that Sideways?

Ah, no, Listening In.

Yeah same difference.

I don't think I recall a dedicated video of Neely's.

But he mentions it occasionally in his Q&As.

tchrist

Listening In = Adam Neely

Shore really did do the Ring-Cycle thing, a grand opera of leitmotifs.

RegDwigнt

2:27 AM

My youngest piano student is surprisingly into it.

We often play a custom mix of the Shire Theme and the Fellowship Theme.