What Is That Chord Doing There?

[Taialin 217]

This is going to be an interesting inquiry, as it has to relate to chord theory and not so much music construction as it does analysis of existing music and why composers did what they did. Specifically, this is a case study on "Generosity" of Rarity Takes Manehattan. (I'm sorry to those who don't understand basic chord theory because this discussion will seem a bit unnecessarily esoteric.)

 

I've started taking up guitar, and playing guitar sort of necessitates at least a passing knowledge of chord theory. (I mean, I'm pretty sure just about every guitar player has heard of I, IV, and V chords before.) Though in trying to learn and transcribe songs by ear from MLP specifically, I've run into some . . . interesting idiosyncrasies. For one, a lot of MLP songs really like using the flattened seventh chord (♭VII), apparently. (To name a few, "The Magic Inside," "Generosity," and "Let the Rainbow Remind You.") Though this isn't so much mysterious as just interesting: to my knowledge, the flattened seventh is a borrowed chord that serves as a dominant.

 

What I can't get my head around, though, is one specific cadence in "Generosity." It's in the key of F major (with a modulation halfway through). Most of it is pretty normal stuff (save that flattened seventh again), but at the phrase where Rarity starts, "But this is how I play my cards / I'm not about to fold," that's where I'm confused. Because the very first chord to start that phrase is G major. That is, the II chord. I don't . . . I just don't understand it.

 

Like, the chord sounds wonderful there, but I have no idea why it's there or why it works. It's clearly not diatonic, otherwise it would be a ii chord or something. It's not a borrowed chord because the parallel F minor doesn't have a G major chord in it. And it's not an applied chord (V/V), since, well, it doesn't sound unresolved at all (that is, it doesn't play the role of a dominant). Best I can tell, it behaves like a modulation to G major . . . but every other chord in the phrase is in F major. (The chord progression, best I can tell, is II (G)→vi (Dm)→IV (B♭)→V ©.) And if I treat it as one, that means the song modulates back to F major before modulating back again long-term to G major.

 

I dunno, can someone explain this to me?

[Leavinh 313]

I'm a little rusty on my music theory, so I could be totally wrong about this. To me it looks like it's playing around with F Lydian, which would raise the Bb to a B natural. Since B natural is one of the defining notes of G Major, I think it's just being used to foreshadow where the song is eventually going to end up.

[Bass Concerto 27]

Nah, that's not what's happening at all. See, what's going on is a modulation to the dominant—that is, the key's changing to C. So, if you look at that chord progression in C, it makes more sense. Instead of II—>vi—>IV—>V, you have V—>ii—>bVII—>I, which, as you said before, the flat VII chord is particularly common here, so, as a modulation to C, the progression makes sense.

[Taialin 217]

@@AyoMistadurrk: Huh. I can't discount the idea, given that I haven't studied modes. (My education is self-taught, which means my music theory is very pick-and-mix.) And Rarity does play around with the augmented fourth in the phrase. The very first notes she sings to start ("but this") are on the augmented fourth (B♮) . . . but then she switches back down to B♭ for the rest of the phrase ("I'm not about to fold"). And putting the whole thing into Lydian means the final chord would be C diminished, which sounds . . . not right. (Of course, it could be a borrowed chord, just not borrowed from the parallel minor. And how the heck do you notate that?) I'll need to look into this further, methinks. Thanks!

 

@@Bass Concerto: That solutions seems perfect, if not for one problem: the chords fit in the progression, but they don't feel like they should. The very first chord of the progression conveys remarkable stability, and that's not a characteristic of the dominant chord, which really wants to resolve to the tonic. Nor is the final chord (which you say is the tonic) particularly stable. (It sort of feels like a subdominant, if you ask me.)

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,809]

@@Taialin, 

 

Ok.

 

Generosity is in the key of F major, with a touch of Lydian activity.

 

There is a way to connect the F to G key shift. This is by playing the vi of G, which is e minor followed by the V, which is D. Resolve to G.

 

In the line you're talking about, that's a Major II, which the minor ii can be played as well. The Major II was put there to foresee a key change. The full progression in that line is II-I-IV-V. This is a pretty popular "bridge cadence". You really don't see these types of chords unless you're planning to do a key change after the bridge. However, some composers like to pull fake-outs in which you think you're gonna modulate up, but you stay in the current key. Here's the full progression with scale degrees and chord names. 

 

II-I-IV-V-II-I-IV-VI-bVII-I -> (to G) I

 

GM-FM-BbM-CM-GM-FM-Bb-DM-EbM-FM

 

Moving on later in the song, when you hit the final chorus, the transition from the verse to the chorus relies on traveling around the Circle of 5ths. You can't travel around the circle unless you use the V of V. In this case, the V of G is D and the V of D is A. Therefore, A is the V of V of G.  

 

Hope this helps. 

Edited November 30, 2016 by C. Thunder Dash

[Taialin 217]

@@C. Thunder Dash: Ah, yes, that does make sense. Didn't know that II-I-IV-V was a bridge cadence, but I do quite like that chord there. Thank you!

[Courageous Thunder Dash 7,809]

@@C. Thunder Dash: Ah, yes, that does make sense. Didn't know that II-I-IV-V was a bridge cadence, but I do quite like that chord there. Thank you!

No prob. 

 

And yep, you know a cadence is a bridge cadence if it starts on the IV, the V of V (aka the II), the vi (sometimes) or the ii.