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who asked the first question? - International Research Center For ...

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286cadencial chord progression (K6/4, V7, I) is replaced with K6/4, V7, V”suzi”, I (listen to<strong>the</strong> words “you said goodbye, I said “hello”. V”suzi” sounds on words “I said…”):• Dissonances. The wide and innovative use of <strong>the</strong> Dissonances is ano<strong>the</strong>rimportant element that brings <strong>the</strong> Beatles musical language closer to ancient Europeantraditional polyphonic cultures. My colleagues would remember that dissonant chordsand harmonies were considered in professional classical music “auxiliary” to <strong>the</strong>consonant harmonies. There were rules to be observed when using <strong>the</strong> dissonances – onehad to know how to prepare and resolve dissonances. Of course, in <strong>the</strong> 20 th century musicdissonances were fully “emancipated”, but classical harmony rules of using <strong>the</strong>dissonances were very restrictive. Chopin’s brilliant harmonic language was oftenconsidered “too dissonant” by his peers. In <strong>the</strong> R’n’Roll of <strong>the</strong> 1950s and <strong>the</strong> 1960sdissonances were created mostly by <strong>the</strong> use of <strong>the</strong> blues notes against <strong>the</strong> major triadicand seventh chords (T, S, D chords). Chords based on o<strong>the</strong>r than third intervals were veryseldom.The musical language of <strong>the</strong> ancient European traditional polyphonic cultures,still surviving in mountainous isolated areas, is based on <strong>the</strong> wide use of harshdissonances. In <strong>the</strong>se traditions (like in <strong>the</strong> mountain ranges of Caucasia and Balkans)dissonances do not need any “preparation” or <strong>the</strong> “resolution”. That’s why secondalSutartines and west Georgian dissonant harmonies were much ahead of <strong>the</strong> developmentof European harmonic language in <strong>the</strong> 18 th and 19 th centuries. European professionalmusic only reached <strong>the</strong> same level of acceptance of dissonances roughly during <strong>the</strong>musical impressionism (Claude Debussy) and later.The Beatles love to <strong>the</strong> dissonant chords and intervals is acknowledged, but stillunderrated. I will not describe here <strong>the</strong>ir use of parallel fourths and fifths, oftenmentioned in <strong>the</strong> published works, but want to briefly discuss one particularly interestingcase of <strong>the</strong> use of <strong>the</strong> sharp dissonance. Stunning vocal harmony is heard in a song“Drive My Car”. At <strong>the</strong> end of <strong>the</strong> verse, on <strong>the</strong> words “you can do something inbetween”, John and Paul are reciting toge<strong>the</strong>r during two bars on “F” (John) and “G”(Paul), a second apart from each o<strong>the</strong>r. Most importantly, this is happening on <strong>the</strong>harmonic background of A7 chord. The resulting chord (A-F-G) is one of <strong>the</strong> harshestharmonies you can hear in popular music. Accidentally, this chord is very close to <strong>the</strong>chord that starts medieval west Georgian church-song “Centuries and Epochs” (here toothis chord is used for reciting) :Fig. 15. Harmonies from The Beatles song “Drive my Car” (recitation before<strong>the</strong> chorus)

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