bigsciota wrote:
The "fourth" and "fifth" describe the relation of the root note of the chords to the tonic of the key. So, if you're singing in C, the IV chord is F (C-D-E-F) and the V chord is G (C-D-E-F-G). The "minor fall" is because minor keys sound sadder or more down, and the "major lift" happens when a happier-sounding major chord comes in.
DrPhill wrote:
I was hoping that the lyrics were describing the melody.
For me, while it's reasonably explicable and I like the song, Cohen
has used language that's looking for melodic illustration...
So he's singing in C and has 'the fourth' to F (chord IV) and 'the fifth' to G (chord V), but when did you ever hear a musician describe the subdominant and dominant chords as the fourth and fifth? Chords IV and V (cardinal numbers), of course, but the fourth and fifth (ordinal)? Hmmm...
Think he'd be on more unarguable ground for the fourth and fifth if the melody took the F and G instead of A and B (which are the sixth and seventh of the scale or in both cases the
thirds of their accompanying chords), but of course that would spoil it! And, while the minor fall and major lift fit harmonically if you buy into conventional concepts of sad minor and happy major (where actual effect is rarely that simple), DrPhill is not alone in not being wholly convinced by a melodically rising 'minor fall'. But then again I wouldn't be surprised if Cohen came up with the melody and chords first before concocting a crafty lyric to fit!
Nanohedron wrote:
For my money it's that penultimate, heartbreaking Major third (if I have my chord terminologies right) at the end of the verse.
Nothing very 'secret' about that, though! It's just E leading to Am, which is the bog-standard way of modulating to the relative minor. It's nice, and adds some colour (hence why extra-scale notes like the G# in that E chord are called 'chromatic'), but not secret... unless he's maybe crediting David with its discovery thousands of years before it became commonplace (but still nice)?
Whatever, we're all (not least me!) in danger of taking things too seriously and over-analysing here. It is what it is and I like it!
