Fragile, Emergent, and Absent Tonics in Pop and Rock Songs *
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Fragile, Emergent, and Absent Tonics in Pop and Rock Songs * Mark Spicer NOTE: The examples for the (text-only) PDF version of this item are available online at: h'p://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.17.23..(mto.17.23.2.spicer.php 0E1WORDS: tonality, popular song, rock harmony, ragile tonics, emergent tonics, absent tonics, soul dominant, Sisyphus e3ect A4STRACT: This article explores the sometimes tricky 6uestion o tonality in pop and rock songs by positing three tonal scenarios: 1) songs with a fragile tonic, in which the tonic chord is present but its hierarchical status is weakened, either by relegating the tonic to a more unstable chord in 7rst or second inversion or by positioning the tonic mid-phrase rather than at structural points o departure or arrival8 .) songs with an emergent tonic, in which the tonic chord is initially absent yet deliberately saved or a triumphant arrival later in the song, usually at the onset o the chorus8 and 3) songs with an absent tonic, an extreme case in which the promised tonic chord never actually materiali9es. In each o these scenarios, the composer’s toying with tonality and listeners’ expectations may be considered hermeneutically as a means o enriching the song’s overall message. Close analyses o songs with ragile, emergent, and absent tonics are o3ered, drawing representative examples rom a wide range o styles and genres across the past 7 ty years o popular music, including 1960s Motown, 1970s soul, 1980s synthpop, 1990s alternative rock, and recent A.S. and A.0. B1 hits. Received November 2016 Colume 23, Number 2, Dune 2017 Copyright © 2017 Society for Music Theory F,G Skilled nineteenth-century song composers such as Robert Schumann and Dohannes 4rahms o ten exploited tonality and its expectations or symbolic or expressive purposes. About 4rahms’s 1873 song “Regenlied” (op. 59 no. 3), or example, Heather Pla' observes that HFtGhroughout most o this song the tonic is absent . FandG the resulting wandering harmonies . create a dream world in which time seems to be suspended” ( 1999 , .L8). 4roaching the issue o harmony and tonal design in their analysis o Merman lieder, Deborah Stein and Robert Spillman use the term implicit tonality to re er to “a section o music where a key is suggested (i.e., implied) but not ully (i.e., explicitly) presented” ( 1996 , 135). (1) This essay argues that popular-song composers since the 1960s have o ten toyed with tonality in much the same way, and that many striking examples o such 1 of 19 ephemeral tonal designs can be ound in the vast repertoire o pop and rock songs recorded over the past several decades. 4e ore proceeding, however, I will 7rst anticipate my conclusions, positing three tonal scenarios to be explained more ully over the course o the music analyses that ollow: 1) songs with a fragile tonic, in which the tonic chord is present but its hierarchical status is weakened, either by relegating the tonic to a more unstable chord in 7rst or second inversion or by positioning the tonic mid-phrase rather than at structural points o departure or arrival8 .$ songs with an emergent tonic, in which the tonic chord is initially absent yet deliberately saved or a triumphant arrival later in the song, usually at the onset o the chorus8 and 3) songs with an absent tonic, an extreme case in which the promised tonic chord never actually materializes. F.G Example 1 provides a ormal synopsis o Daryl Hall and Dohn Oates’ 1973 song “She’s MoneI alongside a summary o the harmonic content in each o the song’s respective sections. (.$ Nike many pop and rock songs, “She’s Mone” opens with an extended introduction built upon an oscillating two-chord vamp—in this case, close position A maPor and 4 maPor triads alternating over a 4 pedal. 2ell over a minute into the track, the vocals enter with the 7rst verse, the initial three lines o which are built upon this same oscillating vamp, yielding Qeetingly to M minor- seventh and C minor-seventh chords in the ourth line be ore returning to the vamp or the song’s second verse. Audio Example 1 contains the end o the introduction through the 7rst and on into the second verse. F/G How are we to make sense o the tonal in ormation that has been presented to us so arR All o the chords con orm to a key signature o our sharps, suggesting E maPor, and yet the tonic chord is notably absent rom the verse’s chord progression. In act, the entire introduction and 7rst two verses seem to be all about prolonging the dominant, with particular emphasis placed on the A maPor over a 4 bass “slash” chord that begins and ends each verse. This distinctive keyboard sonority which I have christened the “soul dominantIObest thought o here as a close position IC chord over in the bass, conQating subdominant and dominant unctions—is common to many pop and rock styles, but especially prevalent within the lush, extended harmonic language o 1970s soul music, hence its nickname. (3) The resulting e3ect elt throughout the introduction and 7rst two verses o “She’s Mone” is one o constant tension, se'ing the stage or the E maPor tonic chord to emerge triumphantly in the song’s chorus. When the tonic chord ultimately does emerge, however, it is 6uite ragile, relegated to a passing harmony in 7rst inversion ( Audio Example 2 ). FLG The ending o “She’s Mone” is also special and merits urther commentary. Rather than ading out in E maPor, the third chorus instead gives way to a short but remarkable instrumental breakO ully loaded with horns, strings, and a wailing lead guitar—that once again shines a spotlight on the soul dominant and consists o no ewer than three consecutive “truck driver’s modulations” up by semitone. (4) Out o all this the 7nal chorus re-emerges a minor third higher in the chromatic mediant key o M maPor, above which Daryl Hall’s voice soars with passion and anguish as he hammers home the song’s title lyric and bemoans the loss o his lover or one last round. 2ith nowhere else le t to go, the chorus simply repeats and ades away ( Audio Example 3 ). FJG As 2alter Evere' con7rms in his book The Foundations of Rock, non-tonic openings like the one in “She’s Mone” have appeared re6uently in pop and rock music since at least the 1960s. Surveying a variety o such songs by the 4eatles and others, Evere' aptly notes that “these songs all 7nd their tonics eventually, with a rush o amiliarity that o ten seems like the dissipation o clouds” ( 2009 , 215)—a phenomenon that I call an emergent tonic. 1et sometimes this aural game o “hunt the tonicI is not 6uite so simple, a case in point being the Four Tops’ 1966 B1 Motown single “Reach Out I’ll 4e There” ( Example 2 ). The eight-bar introduction to “Reach Out,” which eatures the song’s signature Qute ri3, establishes E minor with chords alternating between i and C every other bar. (5) This sense o E minor as tonic is immediately thwarted at the onset o the verse, however, as the chord progression is taken over suddenly by an oscillating vamp o A minor 2 of 19 seventh to D maPor that repeats 7ve times8 these chords get locked into a seemingly ever-repeating loop. As I have shown in my harmonic analysis below the staff, this two-chord vamp may be interpreted as a repeating ii 7SC progression searching or its tonic in the relative maPor key o M , a goal made clear only at the onset o the prechorus (when the title lyric appears or the 7rst time). (6) Almost as soon as M maPor has been established, the sense o tonic is thwarted yet again as 7rst- inversion and root-position M chords yield to a 7rst-inversion 4 maPor chord (these three chords being anchored by Dames Damerson’s bass line in alling maPor thirds), ollowed by a ully- diminished leading tone seventh chord that leads us back into E minor or the song’s chorus. 4ut even here the tonic is rendered ragile on its re-emergence, as Damerson stubbornly remains on a 4 bass note or the 7rst two bars o the chorus, placing the re-emergent E tonic chord initially in second inversion be ore “correcting” itsel to root position in the third measure. To top this o3, while Nevi Stubbs’s lead vocal emphasi9es the pitches F to E , to , on successive downbeats in the 7rst two bars o the chorus, one o the guitarists (presumably Doe Messina) clearly plays an E major triad above Damerson’s 4 bass note in the second measure. (7) I invite the reader now to listen to this remarkable series o tonal events in Audio Example 4 . F6] O3ering his own interpretation o the ragile tonal design o “Reach Out” and how it might contribute to the song’s overall impact, Evere' claims that “the con usion, illusion, ear, cold, and dri ting that trouble the singer’s love obPect in the verse turn to raw paranoia in the chorus, and the withholding o harmonic support and clarity are the chie expressive actors” ( 2008 , 116). While Evere' limits his survey in The Foundations of Rock to songs composed and recorded during rock’s ormative period (through 1969), many other songs with similarly ragile tonal designs can be ound among pop and rock songs composed in later decades.