MLP Music Analysis 1: Life in Equestria

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MLP Music Analysis I: Life in Equestria

 

Welcome to MLP Music Analysis, where I over-analyze the songs in MLP and show you all the cool and weird stuff that goes on in them. For my first song, I'm doing Life in Equestria, the rather strange fanfare/finale song from Magical Mystery Cure.

 

Here is the vocal part in sheet music form:

(The harmonies are not necessarily exactly what the vocalists sang, but they get the point across.)

 

The song starts out normal enough, although the F and the C in measure 4 are kind of weird. I'll get into those more if I do Morning in Ponyville. However, the weirdness really starts in measure 8, which is the extended, fanfare-like ending.

 

Now I want you all to listen to the song, and see if any part sticks out to you as particularly weird or unusual sounding, especially in the second half.

 

 

 

I remember when I heard this song and the second half with all of the crazy chord changes kicked in, I was like, “What. What is going on. Where are we going with this. What is going – oh...OK...what just happened?”

 

What kicks off the unusual-ness of the second half of the song is the jump from A major to F major at measure 7. This is a pretty uncommon chord change that you won't hear in music very often. For the next few measures, all of the chords are, in fact, related to each other, but the chord progression is definitely not something I'm used to.

 

 

 

By starting from an F major chord in measure 7 and getting back to it in measure 11, Daniel Ingram makes the song feel like it has finally transitioned into a home key of F. This helps create the impression that the song has diverged a lot from where it started and will never get back to the original key.

 

Fortunately for us, he then goes up to a G major, which is a fifth away from the original key, and then finally gets back to D major for the ending note.

 

This isn't where the weirdness stops, however. When you listened to the song like I told you to, you may have noticed that the chord at 0:29 resolves the previous chord progression, but not quite. It kind of half-resolves, but the chord sounds a little odd and not completely nice and normal. Let me show you what I mean.

 

Here's what a normal person might have done to end the song (this is just my guess):

http://audiour.com/13f3pdxb

 

To get from the odd G major chord back to the home key of D, I made the note before “fine” a C sharp and put an A major chord on it. That way it flows really nicely and sounds normal.

 

Here's what Daniel Ingram did:

http://audiour.com/oq3o5n1u

 

He just stayed on the G and then jumped to a dissonant chord on “fine.”

 

So what is that weird and dissonant chord at the end? It's this.

 

LOOK AT IT. That C is sharp. It's a D Major chord with a major seventh and a ninth, which is really dissonant and weird. And that is what the singers are singing on that finale chord. A couple measures later, they finally sing a nice normal D major chord, but the weird chord has already made its impact.

 

This basically finishes my analysis, but before I end, let me clarify something. Throughout this whole thing I have been talking about all the weird and dissonant things about this song. I might be giving off the impression that these things are bad. The opposite is true. I'm all for unusual things in music, and this song is cool because of the weirdness.

 

Anyway, that's all I have to say. It's a short song, but I feel like I've extracted a lot of cool things out of it. If you have any deeper technical information to add about the song, or if you can correct any mistakes in this post, by all means do so. I want this analysis to be as complete and awesome as possible.

 

Stay tuned for next time, when I'll analyze the weirdness in either Winter Wrap Up or At the Gala (I haven't decided which)!

Edited April 13, 2013 by tesselode

[Righteous Fury 344]

Neat. Looking forward to more of these. Love the songs, they're a lot more complex than they seem.

 

Do At the Gala, please! There are a lot of great shifts between the verses.

[Inactive01 5,298]

I honestly don't think there's that much weirdness on many of the progressions Ingram uses. In fact, many of these progressions are characteristic of the American musical. For instance, take the series of progressions you claim represent F major. They would make much more sense if you relate them to d minor. They're borrowed chords; they provide a more creative way of progressing the melody that sounds much more gradual than what you'd do if you progressed it in D major. It's more pleasing to the ear that way.

 

The dissonance at the end is actually known as a suspension. It's a way to elongate the ending slightly, so that once again, it doesn't sound abrupt. Ingram still wants Twilight to say "Yes! Everything will be just fine!" at the end, so he has to elongate the music slightly.  

 

Oh by the way, check out my music analysis of "What my Cutie Mark is Telling Me". I highly suggest you try to listen to not just the chords themselves in music analysis. Rather, try listening for the chord progressions and see where they travel. Music is all about phrases, not just notes.

 

http://mlpforums.com/topic/50117-what-my-cutie-mark-is-telling-me-a-homage-to-the-american-musical/

Edited April 13, 2013 by Derpity Derp

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I honestly don't think there's that much weirdness on many of the progressions Ingram uses. In fact, many of these progressions are characteristic of the American musical. For instance, take the series of progressions you claim represent F major. They would make much more sense if you relate them to d minor. They're borrowed chords; they provide a more creative way of progressing the melody that sounds much more gradual than what you'd do if you progressed it in D major. It's more pleasing to the ear that way.

You actually have a point there about those chords making more sense relative to D minor, but I still think that at that point, the song sounds like it has a home key of F major. Nothing about measures 7-11 really sound minor.

 

Also, I actually find the chords themselves in songs quite interesting, but I will see if I can think of anything to say about the progression of the song as a whole. Thanks for your feedback!

[Inactive01 5,298]

You actually have a point there about those chords making more sense relative to D minor, but I still think that at that point, the song sounds like it has a home key of F major. Nothing about measures 7-11 really sound minor.

 

Also, I actually find the chords themselves in songs quite interesting, but I will see if I can think of anything to say about the progression of the song as a whole. Thanks for your feedback!

Actually, if you start at bar 7, you've got a modulation to C major from the F chord (IV-I), the C major chord being considered a (VII) chord in d minor. Then you have an a minor chord that represents a (v) in d minor. What you've got there is an unorthodox chord progression from VII-v, but it's still common. Then you can progress the a minor chord to lead it to a Bb major chord, a (VI) chord still in d minor. v-VI is the pinnacle of deceptive progressions. With the whole progression in d minor and the bass note an F, Ingram can then progress the inversion and progress it to G major and then to D major to come back to D major.