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I’m surprised no one’s brought this up yet but Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Mvt. 2. From the melody to the middle voices, they use that half step down to a subtle effect. It’s not one you notice right away but it still hit you all the same. No wonder it was interpolated into one of the biggest songs about heartbreak, a.k.a All By Myself.
Rachmaninoff is one of my go to examples of emotionally eloquent music! I love to listen to his stuff. You can literally tell how he was feeling when he wrote it. It's awesome.
To me, I think it's like disappointment. I expect a full step or an up, and just like climbing a flight of stairs and the last step is lower than it should be, my heart drops. Without context and just sound it hits the feeling of being let down.
I think I'm missing something. I don't feel sad from this sound. I like music, and the music is beautiful, but I don't feel so overwhelmingly emotional that I'm going to burst with tears any second.
C418, the man behind the Minecraft music, uses these half-steps a *lot*, especially in Volume Alpha, and to me it's no surprise that album is considered one of the most heart-wrenchingly nostalgic soundtracks of all time.
Something that was not particularly singled out is the “longing” that duration of the notes achieves. The fact we stay on that half step for some time is also something that keeps us trapped in that feeling.
Right? Because in “Joy to the World”, the pitches on the words “joy” and “to” create a descending half-step, but really not nearly so filled with pathos!
I am convinced that music is a near universal language based in emotion. I've looked at a lot of music, a lot of cultures, languages, use of tone in communication, stories, dreams, even animals and the sounds they make, and the language of music seems constant across the board once you strip it down to that core emotion. It's absolutely fascinating.
We kind of do the same pitch movement when are sad, when we cry is a deceding pitch. When we are happy we do the opposite. Harmony is different depending the culture and not that universal. (he talked about that in the video later, I notice it now)
@@augusto7681 The differences I've noticed between culture seem tied into the psychology of the culture itself - they reflect each other, the emotion of the music and the culture that made it. But it's all still human psychology. When the culture changes, the preferred music changes too.
I think it’s even more of a language than the people who agree that it’s a language think; I think it is just as effective of a language as spoken language, but it accomplishes similar things as spoken language in different ways, just as spoken languages accomplish similar things in different ways. This is also why I think people who play or listen to a lot of diverse or complex music “develop an ear” and “learn how to interpret” the music; they learn the language by exposure, just as children learn spoken languages. The best (classical and jazz) composers may have been able to improvise so effectively because they spoke the language that fluently. Music theory is just an understanding of syntax and semantics: grammar.
Also fascinating how nonverbal people who are sometimes thought of as being separated from the world around them clearly respond to music. And ppl who have brain damage or conditions such as Alzheimer’s retain their musical memory
So glad you pointed out UP. I was literally typing it out as you mentioned it. Still, to me, Pixar’s greatest theme in any movie. Just so moving and perfectly used throughout the movie with different instrumentation.
The background vocals in Radiohead's Weird Fishes is a great example of this descending half step. Has always been an incredibly impactful and emotion moment of the song for me.
Samuel Barber wrote a terribly moving and melancholic piece in Adagio For Strings. I first heard it in The Elephant Man. It's full of sadness, longing and loss.
We played it in my high school marching band when I was in 9th grade. It was the third movement in our set. It wasn't something I particularly cared to play back then as a trumpet player, but I always remembered it.
It has been 8 years TO THE DAY since I've heard Barber's Adagio for Strings. I know this, because it was performed, at his request, during my father's memorial service in 2015. It was as gut wrenching today as it was then. I thought I had passed this. Guess I'll try again in 2031.
For those that aren't up on their classical music, Shostakovich wrote this piece to represent the attrocities of the Soviet Union and how full of despair the people of Russia were during that time. Shostakovich's life was threatened, along with all of his family, if he didn't write that particular Symphony correctly. That moment in the Symphony is supposed to represent darkness, the deepest depression, anger, and loss of hope.
@@AytCH12Urmomissohot This is the third movement of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. The best performance of it is by Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The album is on RUclips. Bernstein is wearing a turtleneck. Each movement of the symphony has its own video but all the movements are there to listen to. I bought the album back in the early seventies and, as luck would have it, this is considered one of the best recordings of this work. For fun and giggles check out Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony. It's amazing!
Charles just casually dropped us a free playlist for heart rending sad music to listen to at night. Also, a starkly missing but quintessential example of the heartbreaking half step is obviously Chopin's 'Suffocation' prelude in E minor, whose melody and accompaniment is literally descending half steps almost throughout. Can't blame him for missing it though cause I've played this prelude my entire life but never stopped to question what exactly makes that piece so sad. Beautiful stuff.
Seriously. I need these songs immediately, especially the Barber piece. That Bernstein conducted it makes it even more necessary. My heart is completely broken.
I played the violin in first chair for 12 years. I came in here thinking "surely not", then the notes were played and I started tearing up lol. It's the flats. Every time we played a melancholy piece it was just full of flats and slow tempo. It almost evokes a sense of nostalgia. It can either be a wonderful memory, or a horrible one. It can also evoke a feeling of loss, present or future. So yeah, absolutely a heart wrenching masterpiece.
One Summer’s Day from Spirited Away, specifically the scene after Chihiro goes with Haku to see her parents. Right after the piano does that descent from A minor to the resolution in C (first inversion I think? Not sure about the correct term) and then the orchestra’s strings and wind take over, swelling just as the tears well up in her eyes. Of course, the part that hit for me was the descending half step you’re talking about! Every time I watch it I can’t help but cry. Joe Hisaishi is a master of heartfelt composition
Joe Hisaishi is the first composer I thought about. There's a lot of those half-step heart-wrenching bits in the soundtracks he's made for Studio Ghibli.
I have my own theory as to why some of these songs come off as more heartbreaking, and others sound more traditionally sad. A lot of these songs hit so hard because that descending half-step tends to revolve around the tonic of the piece. 0:58 - The heartbreaking note is a C, in the key of D-flat, a “Ti” to the “Do.” We expect to resolve back to the tonic of D and instead the composer holds the melody at that C, to let us sit in the discomfort. We feel that as heartbreak. 2:55 - That heartbreaking note of F, is the “Ti” to the “Do” of G. It’s arguably more heartbreaking, not only due to the context of the song, but because the melody originally climbs up the scale to a major third, before descending and HOLDING on that F#, really emphasizing that heartbreaking dissonance. 4:31 - This example may come off as more traditional sadness rather than heartbreak because that descent into E isn’t on “Ti” compared to the other two. We’ve established D minor as our tonic. E is the “Re,” and our brain expects a resolution back to the D tonic, but that note is held to emphasis the distress of the piece. In other pieces, we hit the tonic and descend into the dissonant “Ti,” showing that we had “comfort” and then lost it, like heartbreak. In this piece, the previous note wasn’t the tonic of D, but we descending to a point that was just ever so close to tonic without hitting it. It’s still sad, but in a different way. 7:28 - This descending note, lands on the “Sol” of the tonic. We hit a B-flat, and the next chord established is an E-flat tonic base; Our ears expect to resolve to this tonic, but the composer holds this note, leaning into the dissonance. Earlier in the piece, 6:31 , some of those descending half-steps landed on the “Ti” of the expected B-flat tonic “Do” but when they resolved to the “Do” of B-flat, the artist doesn’t let us linger on the tonic, instead moving rapidly and not allowing us to properly relax in that new tonic. It’s beautiful. My own favorite example is in Bear McCreary’s “The Summit” from God of War 2018. The vocalist when she sings “lysis um nótt,” descends into the “Ti” of B from the established tonic of C, since we’re in C minor, and it just breaks my heart. (Though the entire context of this piece in the story proper doesn’t help to make the piece less heartbreaking.) Truly these composers are masters at their craft, playing with these descending tones to dance around the tonic and play with our musical expectations in ways that emphasis that longing. God, I love music.
There aren't many people that are devoted to music like this. I really love your theory, the way how you understood the songs/pieces in this video, I truly admire that. Of course, I enjoyed this video as much as I did reading this comment. Hope to see more content like this in the future!
@@cowflick1180 In music theory, each note of a scale is given a designation so we can better identify how the pitches relate to each other. You’ve probably heard of Do-Re-Mi, those are the first three syllables we use to describe the first three notes in a major scale. Do-Re-Me-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do is the whole sequence. The “Ti” is the final note in the scale before we repeat back to Do. It’s the closest note to Do on the scale and often we expect Ti to resolve to Do when we hear it.
Jacob and the Stone was the song I used to help me grieve after a friend died. The melody encapsulates the tragedy of losing someone so young, so energetic and full of love, to
Adagio for Strings is probably my most favorite example of this, it’s utterly heartbreaking! I played an arrangement of it with my university’s tuba-euphonium consort in college and it was so amazing
"Music mimics life." - Charles Cornell That was the most deep, thought provoking, and unique quote I have yet heard, this quote pretty much sums it all
Surprised not to see this already, but Black Parade has this in its intro melody that carries throughout the beginning part of the song, both the piano and the vocal line. The infamous G note is immediately followed by a note a half step down, and these half steps continue on down the line.
I'm so grateful to Charles and people like Adam Neely and Rick Beato for helping me to put vocabulary to the things I've always felt intuitively about music. I didn't know about "music theory" until my 20's, but it's so nice to see people feeling the way I feel about chords and scales and songs and knowing that it's been happening and understood, documented, and used for hundreds of years. It's endlessly fascinating and gives me a whole new level of appreciation for the craftsmanship of great music.
likewise!! i’m such a huge music fanatic, and while i’ve never committed to learning music theory, there’s always been parts of musics that i absolutely adore or just make me feel a certain way, and it’s through videos like these that help me find the proper term for them! it’s always so fun learning that’s there’s a proper reasoning behind this thing you’ve been picking up on in music :)
Christopher Nolan's Interstellar has such spectacular music, it's astronomical. Hans Zimmer has such an amazing talent. The scene that characterizes this descending half step is when Cooper leaves Murph to go into outer galactic worlds in search for humanity's new home. However later in the film, the docking scene, sent chills down my spine just because of how immense the music was.
Adagio for strings always breaks my f*cking heart, ever since i first heard it in homeworld when Karak burned, i have never quite felt music like that before.
If I'd had a music theory teacher as excited and invested as you I might not have given up piano or spent so much focus on using TABs. My sense of composition has vastly improved since watching your channel.
@@breqbs i read a bunch of different translations more or less meaning the same thing. I saw it translated as 'tears', 'tearful', 'the day of tears', 'the crying' ect... I went with the simplest term
I was a teenager the first time that I heard Barber's Adagio for Strings. I was alone, driving in my car listening to Minnesota Public Radio. I had to pull over the moment that I heard that descending half step. It was agonizingly, painfully beautiful to my young ears and couldn't afford to be distracted by the road.
I was surprised to see no ones mentioned On the Nature of Daylight by Max Richter; has the same descending half step as Jacob and the Stone, absolutely devastating piece
This is fabulous. The clearest example that occurs to me is in Vesti la Giubba from Pagliacci. The character sings a descending half step on the word "ridi"(laugh). He is crying over his lost love while lamenting that his work as a clown means he must continue to laugh. This one definitely mimics crying, as you suggest. A couple of others that I thought of are Joanna in Sweeney Todd, and at the end of Maria in West Side Story. My own recent go-to heartbreak piece is Four Notes by Paul Harvey (the orchestrated version), but half of that is the story behind the composition.
And, of course, Lacrimosa from Mozart's requiem - the very word for weeping has a descending half step at the end of it. What you describe also makes me think of that phrase "a dying fall" from Twelfth Night. I've always been told it just means the music gets quieter, but it would make more sense to me if it means a descending interval of some sort, perhaps this one!
Yes, I immediately thought of Vesti la Giubba, though I wanted to check the score to confirm it's a descending half step as I don't fully trust my ears. It's the prototypical "sad operatic music".
I'm not a musician or have extensive knowledge of music like this (but it's still incredible to listen to and learn about) but as a writer who uses music A LOT for inspiration for scenes, dialogue, and characters - the half-step sort of has the same effect as an "Oh!...oh..." like happiness coming to an abrupt but also an oddly soft stop. It's like a simple event or thought that makes you go "oh..." after otherwise feeling happy, and your heart just drops.
I love that I thought of Adagio for Strings as soon as I saw this video's thumbnail. That piece of music almost always makes me want to cry. Who knew that a half step could kill me every time?
i have always wanted to research this, like the one time in music that nobody other than me noticed that i call the "sentimental part" of the song. now i can finally understand and i am super grateful!
The soundtrack for UP plays with that sound throughout and kinda builds a narrative around it. It goes from happy, to sad, to depression, to finding new purpose and then happy again.
That half step relationship is part of the reason why I adore a major four to a minor four chord. (And then if you resolve to the one there’s another half step in there.) Keep up the good work!
I really didn't expect my eyes to actually get teary, but as soon as I heard each one of them, even though I wasn't feeling sad, I started to tear up. Also, I had never heard Barber's Adagio for strings before, but I'm very glad I just did. It sounds just like what I feel on most days and it's so beautiful.
Oh lord I knew in the first few mins that we were gonna talk about Barber’s Adagio for Strings. This song is chock full of defending half steps and tears descending down my face!
I’ve always loved the descending half step interval, it has the power to deliver so much emotion and nostalgia to the listener. My favorite example is playing the b6 scale degree and then falling back into the 5th scale degree while in a major key, it just has such a beautiful resolution! (Especially in progressions like IV-iv-I). Great video!
The entire Tristan Und Isolde, by Wagner, is based on the descending #4th to 3rd in the lydian harmony. It's the climax to the piece and it represents a non resolved love
@@mikepro500 e flat-a flat-a-flat-g natural are the first 4 notes of the Liebestod so indeed has the descending half tone...5th note is yet another descending half tone to g flat
The soundtrack to murder on the orient express uses it a lot and it’s perfect for conveying the personal struggle Poirot goes through and the grief of the passengers
I visualize the feeling of this descent as resignation and acceptance. Like receiving heavy news and physically slumping in your chair knowing you can't change what happened or your mood shifting downward when you remember something bittersweet.
In pop music, I immediately thought of "Drive" by The Cars. The descending half step (B to A#) in the introduction, as well as the underlying accompaniment in the verses, illustrate the melancholy of the song. Such a hauntingly beautiful classic.
I also think that the half step emulates a particular motion/emotion in us: the tentative, hesitant feeling of trying to reach out for something that is tantalizingly close but always retreating just right before our eyes, be it the past, a future we've lost, or a loved one that is going away.
the third movement of sibelius' fourth symphony has a very strong sense of melancholy at its climax. the melody doesnt as prominently feature a descending semitone but its absolutely beautiful and crushing at once
Adagio for Strings holds a powerful place in my heart, ever since I heard the version (rearranged for choir singing Agnus Dei) in the game Homeworld. It really helps set the sadness and desperation of the storyline, and then the despair that happens... not too long after the start at the game.
YES I HAVE EXAMPLES!!! This kind of thing has totally been my roman empire, if you will, because while most people usually get a little emotional from some music, I find that effect to be amplified and I can get extremely emotional- so I have always wondered why. I feel so validated that the first examples you use, not just "Jacob and the Stone" ( it makes me sob relentlessly), but also "Married Life", have been on my mind every since I first heard them. For the longest time, I just figured the sad story and lone instrumental piece of "Married Life” was what made me so incredibly emotional (and attached) to the song, but I realized that the situation was actually reversed. This effect, totally amplified my emotions and empathy FOR the STORY in “Up” and I didn’t even know how it did that for the longest time. I came to the same conclusion you did (without all of the music theory, I have no where near the knowledge that you do lol) through compiling the list of songs that gave me the specific phenomemon that "my emotions were so abundant and heavy and heartbreaking, it created a hole in my chest". The list is not limited to: "Space song" by Beach House (even the synthesizers they use give the sounds a certain vowel- to make it sound even MORE like a cry in my opinion), “Pluto Projector” by Rex Orange County, obviously "jacob and the stone", and ***Scott Street by Phoebe Bridgers.*** ------>>>**** If you haven’t listened to this song PLEASE do!!!!*****. Without even paying attention to the songs lyrics (heartbreaking, DUH), this song’s background vocals and instrumentals starting from 2:50 to the end single-handedly bring you to a state of paralyzing nostalgia, regret, and somehow grief for your younger self?? I SWEAR, it’s the EXACT effect that you talk about here!! Please give it a listen!! I feel so validated with your video because this theory- coming from you and your amount of knowledge- matching what I’ve been thinking for the longest time makes me feel like I’m not crazy for thinking this!! So me and my emotional self thank you!! 💗💗
Honestly have been looking to find a playlist full of this on spotify and came back to this video to remember what this uh two step was called lol. I’m not very musically knowledgeable but I love this stuff
I love how he was able to put into words the feeling I get when I listen to some music. The feeling where it's so painful but there's beauty in it and the notes help you find that feeling by guiding your emotion.
Wow for me it invokes the bittersweet feeling of nostalgia. It's this feeling of happiness and comfort adjacent with a feeling of longing or lost. I love your passion for a half step!
I think it's more about the beauty behind the suspension - - that dissonance >> consonance resolution which elicits this 'sighing' or 'whimpering' feeling. It's absolutely lovely
Chopin - Nocturne No. 20 in C# minor One of his most hauntily beautiful pieces. Uses this half step often but in the style of Chopin. Beautiful longing runs on the piano. "Bach is an astronomer, discovering the most marvellous stars. Beethoven challenges the universe. I only try to express the soul and the heart of man." ~ Frederic Chopin
The first time I heard Adagio it was the Agnus Dei choral rendition, and it was used in the 1999 video game Homeworld. Its first appearance is the opening cinematic depicting the launch of a colony starship, and it’s timed to the music so beautifully that it just makes you ache with this deeply sorrowful but hopeful longing. It’s triumphant, but still tinged with sadness somehow. The woman voicing Fleet Command also does a marvelous job of playing into that sadness with her dispassionate recitation of the launch proceedings. It’s just beautiful. Then 2 missions later, it comes back in a completely different context as you return home from your shakedown cruise to find your entire planet has been firebombed by the game’s big bad. What was a beautiful but pained sense of hope has been transformed into a feeling of absolute despair and devastation, even though it’s the *exact same music*. It is hands down one of the best uses of music in video games to this day. If you haven’t played Homeworld, I encourage you to do so or at least seek out playthroughs of the first 3 missions to hear it. Absolutely masterful, and I just can’t hear Adagio without being snapped back to those two scenes. Legit they never fail to make me tear up.
At the very end of the movement, the basses below move first to create a sus4 chord, which the upper strings resolve to the third by descending the half step. Extra beautiful. Great example.
Totally agree. One of my favorite moments is during the first play through of the theme at the beginning in f major. The orchestra goes to a G7 chord with the violins hanging on to a C for a beat before descending the half step. The violins then descend another half step to B flat, briefly go to a D with a gorgeous minor ninth with the violas (who are also descending in half steps) before returning to the B flat to descend yet another half step.
I’ve seen it live twice! It’s totally awesome from the beginning solo (CSO brass definitely helps) to the very end (CSO also brass helps a lot there). Mahler uses every trick in the book to pull out emotion. The 4 mvt of the ninth makes extensive use of half steps.
Wow, I couldn’t have imagined two notes could be so absolutely heartrending! Absolutely fascinating to me how something so simple could elicit such a strong emotional response.
the decending half step has beend used for this exact purpose for hundreds of years. you can find countless examples of this interval in the melody in pices by almost every composer ever. i was taught this as being a "musikalischer seufzer" a musical sigh. its such a powerful way of conveying emotion and i think its really cool to still being able to find it used for the same effect even today
The Land Before Time utilizes this in its soundtrack (Whispering Winds & If We Hold On Together) and it always made me feel pain in my chest as a kid and I didn't know why
I've been writing music since I was a child, before it was pen and paper, now it's a DAW. I've never had any training in music whatsoever. I love watching Charles' videos, he puts to words what I only know as feeling. I now know that the "descending half-step" is something I often use, and it explains how I've achieved all the melancholy in my music. I guess that beautiful sadness is my signature. Thanks Charles for teaching me more about myself
I think Omori’s “Final Duet” does this as well!! and It’s perfect that it sounds like crying, as it represents Sunny finally letting go of his beloved sister and the guilt he feels, it’s so cathartic because like us, he has spent the whole game repressing his feelings, and so we get to cry by his side for a moment, before he gets the courage to say what he needs to and end the game;;;
I started watching this video thinking, "hey I think Adagio for strings probably has that" (the HAUSER version is just heavenly). Made me very happy that I was right
The vocal line in "Feast of Starlight" from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has the same descending half-step. It kind of reminds me of Jacob and the Stone.
My favorite descending half step is a really simple one -- a Isus4 chord resolving to a I chord. Such a powerful sound that can be equal parts triumphant and bittersweet. It's one of those sounds I was obsessed with and recognized before I even knew music theory, and was very excited when I finally discovered what it was. It always fascinated me how powerful the movement of a single note was.
I remember playing Adagio for Strings in a concert orchestra, and it brought me to tears midway through the piece. Such a beautiful and timeless work of art
It's not just the interval, it's not just the slow tempo, it's also the underlying harmony, with the held suspensions, the emphasis, the orchestration, and the visual impact of the conductor and orchestra's body language. Yes, the Barber Adagio; a prime, and totally perfect example.
I remember watching that one scene in Up, and I didn’t really understand it when I watched it as a kid but I was still sad because of the soundtrack. Rewatching it as an adult though… Brought tears to my eyes, it’s so heartwrenching
I think one thing so beautiful about the Minari piece is that it contrasts with the pain you see on screen and you're forced to feel hopeful because of a major key in the music. So it makes a content vibe to something sad - in other words, you know it's the end because all this bad stuff is happening at once, but you gotta feel faithful because it's the end of something.
The song "Johanna" from Sweeney Todd is a great example of a descending half step around the tonic. It expresses the deepest romantic longing for as-yet unrequited love.
I personally think that this descending half step is so powerful because it occurs commonly in the resolution of suspended chords (4th to the 3rd). The sound of this resolution creates an anticipation that can elicit many emotions
This is so interesting - I have a similar thing with descending P4s when it’s mi down to ti/3 down to 7 in a major key. I don’t know why but I’ve always found that sound so poignant, it really tugs on my heart strings! I made a highlight of all the ones I’ve found so far on my Instagram !
Bach's Come Sweet Death has many great examples of this, as well as some other very simple phrases that tug at the heart strings. Simple ascending, and descending lines can be so powerful; especially when combined with contrary motion. I would love to hear your thoughts on that beautiful piece. I first heard it when I was 12 years old and I think it might be the first time I had a strong emotional reaction to music.
As soon as I heard the first note I knew what was coming next. The half step down always carries beautiful heartfelt feeling at least to a minimal extent despite whatever is going on with the other harmonies. I use that interval a lot in my music, it's very emotional.
A fine example of this is the song “Watashi no Uso (My Lie)” from the anime series Your lie in April. The piece utilizes the descending half step multiple times throughout the piece and is most-assuredly heart crushing the entire way through.
The theme song (written by Gustavo Santaolalla) for the movie Brokeback Mountain starts off with this half-step dissonance, and sounds so pure and happy with its gentle, soft classical guitar, and then it just... devastates... the musical equivalent to an empty ribcage left behind because the heart was too big for its body.
Its a very melancholic sound and feeling, but i think its more about bringing out your emotional state. Like imagine listing to this while its raining and gloomy vs sunny and hot.
So it's kind of long, but DeVotchKa has this song called "How It Ends" which features in the film Little Miss Sunshine. And it's so bittersweet. The climax at 4:54 is what will get you (and ofc it incorporates the half-step mentioned!)
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
What are your favorite "painfully beautiful" pieces or themes?
Oh man, Debussys “Girl With the Flaxen Hair” got me cryin 😭😭
Diving Bell or Perfect Mahine by Starset, it's, they both give off an ethereal feeling when i hear it, makes wanna just float away
Infinite Love by Emile Mosseri is another one that hits hard, Emile knows his stuff
Summer of ‘42 is a favorite.
Clair de Lune is always a classic and amazing
Charles is the only person to be able to make a whole video on a half step and make it so interesting. I love how passionate he is
Makes me so happy to see people who are passionate af about music
Yo , comments Inspire a lot , and specially in an intelligent musical talks section ...My God , Bless us all.@@feelsunbreeze
was that…. a JOKE?!
@@ThatHorribleMusiciandork7 no I’m being dead serious😂😂
real
I’m surprised no one’s brought this up yet but Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Mvt. 2. From the melody to the middle voices, they use that half step down to a subtle effect. It’s not one you notice right away but it still hit you all the same. No wonder it was interpolated into one of the biggest songs about heartbreak, a.k.a All By Myself.
I was thinking just the same...one of the most sad yet beautiful melodies ever written ...
Very well put and pointed out! My favorite symphony of them all
- Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 is my favorite classical piece.
My favourite ❤️
Rachmaninoff is one of my go to examples of emotionally eloquent music! I love to listen to his stuff. You can literally tell how he was feeling when he wrote it. It's awesome.
For me this half step sounds like a person breaking down, falling to the knees and just crying. It’s absolutely beautiful
This. Great explanation
To me the half step just sounds like the jaws soundtrack 😂
That’s exactly it. Like someone trying to hold back tears but breaking.
To me, I think it's like disappointment. I expect a full step or an up, and just like climbing a flight of stairs and the last step is lower than it should be, my heart drops. Without context and just sound it hits the feeling of being let down.
I think I'm missing something. I don't feel sad from this sound. I like music, and the music is beautiful, but I don't feel so overwhelmingly emotional that I'm going to burst with tears any second.
C418, the man behind the Minecraft music, uses these half-steps a *lot*, especially in Volume Alpha, and to me it's no surprise that album is considered one of the most heart-wrenchingly nostalgic soundtracks of all time.
He's a genius. Lena Raine is a genius too. I don't think Minecraft would be nearly as ubiquitous as it is without the music.
amen@@RemixedVoice
Something that was not particularly singled out is the “longing” that duration of the notes achieves. The fact we stay on that half step for some time is also something that keeps us trapped in that feeling.
Right? Because in “Joy to the World”, the pitches on the words “joy” and “to” create a descending half-step, but really not nearly so filled with pathos!
felt exactly the same thing TuT
I am convinced that music is a near universal language based in emotion. I've looked at a lot of music, a lot of cultures, languages, use of tone in communication, stories, dreams, even animals and the sounds they make, and the language of music seems constant across the board once you strip it down to that core emotion. It's absolutely fascinating.
“Music is a world within itself, with a language we all understand”
-Stevie Wonder in ‘Sir Duke’
True words!
We kind of do the same pitch movement when are sad, when we cry is a deceding pitch. When we are happy we do the opposite. Harmony is different depending the culture and not that universal. (he talked about that in the video later, I notice it now)
@@augusto7681 The differences I've noticed between culture seem tied into the psychology of the culture itself - they reflect each other, the emotion of the music and the culture that made it. But it's all still human psychology. When the culture changes, the preferred music changes too.
I think it’s even more of a language than the people who agree that it’s a language think; I think it is just as effective of a language as spoken language, but it accomplishes similar things as spoken language in different ways, just as spoken languages accomplish similar things in different ways. This is also why I think people who play or listen to a lot of diverse or complex music “develop an ear” and “learn how to interpret” the music; they learn the language by exposure, just as children learn spoken languages. The best (classical and jazz) composers may have been able to improvise so effectively because they spoke the language that fluently. Music theory is just an understanding of syntax and semantics: grammar.
Also fascinating how nonverbal people who are sometimes thought of as being separated from the world around them clearly respond to music. And ppl who have brain damage or conditions such as Alzheimer’s retain their musical memory
So glad you pointed out UP. I was literally typing it out as you mentioned it.
Still, to me, Pixar’s greatest theme in any movie. Just so moving and perfectly used throughout the movie with different instrumentation.
ruclips.net/video/V30f7fPwLGA/видео.html this theme in up also uses the same interval with the same chord as the one in the video
I was literally humming it to myself as I scrolled down to see if anyone else mentioned it, then found this comment right as HE mentioned it lol
Same lol
Just those four notes... 😭
I felt the same but immediately thought of Barber Adagio 😅
The background vocals in Radiohead's Weird Fishes is a great example of this descending half step. Has always been an incredibly impactful and emotion moment of the song for me.
wait no i've always noticed that, 2:16 in weird fishes, always made me feel some type of way
Another example by Radiohead could be the first notes of Knives Out.
Videotape always makes me really want to cry.
this vocal pattern can also be found in swing lynn after the verse, it goes goes up and down, but everytime it goes down, it's something else man.
I was told that Ed's background vocals there sound like him singing his name and I can't unhear it now.
Adagio for Strings always gets me every time. It's one of the most heartbreaking pieces ever written.
Samuel Barber wrote a terribly moving and melancholic piece in Adagio For Strings.
I first heard it in The Elephant Man.
It's full of sadness, longing and loss.
Totally Agree.
Adagio for Strings hits hard especially when the first time i heard it was in the movie Platoon near the end.
Man, Barber's Adagio for Strings has to be one of the best pieces I ever played in high school orchestra. What a work of art.
There's a reason it's so famous. It's one of the most evocative pieces in all of music.
I love to play it on the organ. There has long been a bit of a contest among organists for who can deliver maximum agony.
We played it in my high school marching band when I was in 9th grade. It was the third movement in our set. It wasn't something I particularly cared to play back then as a trumpet player, but I always remembered it.
The way Bernstein just lingered on that high note before allowing the resolution... the suspense is delicious.
I'm a bigger fan of the choral version of it. Check it out!
It has been 8 years TO THE DAY since I've heard Barber's Adagio for Strings. I know this, because it was performed, at his request, during my father's memorial service in 2015. It was as gut wrenching today as it was then. I thought I had passed this. Guess I'll try again in 2031.
Man, asking for Barber's Adagio at your own memorial service is like salting the emotional wound of your death.
For those that aren't up on their classical music, Shostakovich wrote this piece to represent the attrocities of the Soviet Union and how full of despair the people of Russia were during that time. Shostakovich's life was threatened, along with all of his family, if he didn't write that particular Symphony correctly. That moment in the Symphony is supposed to represent darkness, the deepest depression, anger, and loss of hope.
Thank you very much! I didn't know that, I will try to read more about it now. Cheers!
What’s the name of the piece? I really like it
@@AytCH12Urmomissohot This is the third movement of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. The best performance of it is by Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The album is on RUclips. Bernstein is wearing a turtleneck. Each movement of the symphony has its own video but all the movements are there to listen to. I bought the album back in the early seventies and, as luck would have it, this is considered one of the best recordings of this work. For fun and giggles check out Shostakovich's Leningrad Symphony. It's amazing!
@@AytCH12Urmomissohot Shostakovich: Symphony No.5, Dmin, Op.47: III. Largo
Make so much sense, man!
Charles just casually dropped us a free playlist for heart rending sad music to listen to at night. Also, a starkly missing but quintessential example of the heartbreaking half step is obviously Chopin's 'Suffocation' prelude in E minor, whose melody and accompaniment is literally descending half steps almost throughout. Can't blame him for missing it though cause I've played this prelude my entire life but never stopped to question what exactly makes that piece so sad. Beautiful stuff.
Seriously. I need these songs immediately, especially the Barber piece. That Bernstein conducted it makes it even more necessary. My heart is completely broken.
can i get a link of this playlist
I played the violin in first chair for 12 years. I came in here thinking "surely not", then the notes were played and I started tearing up lol. It's the flats. Every time we played a melancholy piece it was just full of flats and slow tempo.
It almost evokes a sense of nostalgia.
It can either be a wonderful memory, or a horrible one. It can also evoke a feeling of loss, present or future.
So yeah, absolutely a heart wrenching masterpiece.
One Summer’s Day from Spirited Away, specifically the scene after Chihiro goes with Haku to see her parents. Right after the piano does that descent from A minor to the resolution in C (first inversion I think? Not sure about the correct term) and then the orchestra’s strings and wind take over, swelling just as the tears well up in her eyes. Of course, the part that hit for me was the descending half step you’re talking about! Every time I watch it I can’t help but cry. Joe Hisaishi is a master of heartfelt composition
Joe Hisaishi is the first composer I thought about. There's a lot of those half-step heart-wrenching bits in the soundtracks he's made for Studio Ghibli.
I knew it sounded familiar!
Beautiful song :)
I have my own theory as to why some of these songs come off as more heartbreaking, and others sound more traditionally sad. A lot of these songs hit so hard because that descending half-step tends to revolve around the tonic of the piece.
0:58 - The heartbreaking note is a C, in the key of D-flat, a “Ti” to the “Do.”
We expect to resolve back to the tonic of D and instead the composer holds the melody at that C, to let us sit in the discomfort. We feel that as heartbreak.
2:55 - That heartbreaking note of F, is the “Ti” to the “Do” of G. It’s arguably more heartbreaking, not only due to the context of the song, but because the melody originally climbs up the scale to a major third, before descending and HOLDING on that F#, really emphasizing that heartbreaking dissonance.
4:31 - This example may come off as more traditional sadness rather than heartbreak because that descent into E isn’t on “Ti” compared to the other two.
We’ve established D minor as our tonic. E is the “Re,” and our brain expects a resolution back to the D tonic, but that note is held to emphasis the distress of the piece. In other pieces, we hit the tonic and descend into the dissonant “Ti,” showing that we had “comfort” and then lost it, like heartbreak.
In this piece, the previous note wasn’t the tonic of D, but we descending to a point that was just ever so close to tonic without hitting it. It’s still sad, but in a different way.
7:28 - This descending note, lands on the “Sol” of the tonic. We hit a B-flat, and the next chord established is an E-flat tonic base; Our ears expect to resolve to this tonic, but the composer holds this note, leaning into the dissonance.
Earlier in the piece, 6:31 , some of those descending half-steps landed on the “Ti” of the expected B-flat tonic “Do” but when they resolved to the “Do” of B-flat, the artist doesn’t let us linger on the tonic, instead moving rapidly and not allowing us to properly relax in that new tonic. It’s beautiful.
My own favorite example is in Bear McCreary’s “The Summit” from God of War 2018.
The vocalist when she sings “lysis um nótt,” descends into the “Ti” of B from the established tonic of C, since we’re in C minor, and it just breaks my heart.
(Though the entire context of this piece in the story proper doesn’t help to make the piece less heartbreaking.)
Truly these composers are masters at their craft, playing with these descending tones to dance around the tonic and play with our musical expectations in ways that emphasis that longing.
God, I love music.
You are literally brilliant
There aren't many people that are devoted to music like this. I really love your theory, the way how you understood the songs/pieces in this video, I truly admire that.
Of course, I enjoyed this video as much as I did reading this comment. Hope to see more content like this in the future!
What is a “Ti”?
@@cowflick1180
In music theory, each note of a scale is given a designation so we can better identify how the pitches relate to each other.
You’ve probably heard of Do-Re-Mi, those are the first three syllables we use to describe the first three notes in a major scale.
Do-Re-Me-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do is the whole sequence.
The “Ti” is the final note in the scale before we repeat back to Do.
It’s the closest note to Do on the scale and often we expect Ti to resolve to Do when we hear it.
I literally have goosebumps, wow!
Jacob and the Stone was the song I used to help me grieve after a friend died. The melody encapsulates the tragedy of losing someone so young, so energetic and full of love, to
Adagio for Strings is probably my most favorite example of this, it’s utterly heartbreaking! I played an arrangement of it with my university’s tuba-euphonium consort in college and it was so amazing
"Music mimics life." - Charles Cornell
That was the most deep, thought provoking, and unique quote I have yet heard, this quote pretty much sums it all
Surprised not to see this already, but Black Parade has this in its intro melody that carries throughout the beginning part of the song, both the piano and the vocal line. The infamous G note is immediately followed by a note a half step down, and these half steps continue on down the line.
Omg! You’re so right!! 🤩🤯
When i understood the subject of the video I "CTRL F" immediatly Balck parade. good job :))
Was looking for this comment!!
Yes!!! I was thinking the exact same thing when he was breaking down the piece from Up. They both share most of the same notes.
I was about to say this! Super deliberate on MCRs part and good God it works
I'm so grateful to Charles and people like Adam Neely and Rick Beato for helping me to put vocabulary to the things I've always felt intuitively about music. I didn't know about "music theory" until my 20's, but it's so nice to see people feeling the way I feel about chords and scales and songs and knowing that it's been happening and understood, documented, and used for hundreds of years. It's endlessly fascinating and gives me a whole new level of appreciation for the craftsmanship of great music.
Here, here! Hooray for the ones who love and teach others how to love.
I feel the exact same way
likewise!! i’m such a huge music fanatic, and while i’ve never committed to learning music theory, there’s always been parts of musics that i absolutely adore or just make me feel a certain way, and it’s through videos like these that help me find the proper term for them! it’s always so fun learning that’s there’s a proper reasoning behind this thing you’ve been picking up on in music :)
Christopher Nolan's Interstellar has such spectacular music, it's astronomical. Hans Zimmer has such an amazing talent. The scene that characterizes this descending half step is when Cooper leaves Murph to go into outer galactic worlds in search for humanity's new home. However later in the film, the docking scene, sent chills down my spine just because of how immense the music was.
I was thinking of this music as well! 😢❤
Astronomical... that's a clever one.
But for real tho, Interstellar soundtrack is truly beautiful, personally it's my favorite work from Hans Zimmer.
@@Kennedy00Louis Agreed 👍🏽
Absolutely
“detach” from the interstellar soundtrack, makes me want to cry every time
Adagio for strings always breaks my f*cking heart, ever since i first heard it in homeworld when Karak burned, i have never quite felt music like that before.
If I'd had a music theory teacher as excited and invested as you I might not have given up piano or spent so much focus on using TABs. My sense of composition has vastly improved since watching your channel.
I CANNOT EXPLAIN HOW GRATEFUL I AM FOR SOMEONE TO FINALLY TALK ABOUT THE MINARI SOUNDTRACK AND SCORE OH MY GOSH-
I've just learned of it. Has now moved to head of the line of my favorite soundtracks ever.
My mind immediately went to Mozart's Lacrimosa, which definitely fits into the emotional category!
same here
That’s exactly the first song I thought of as well. I came to the comments to see if someone mentioned it
Funny that he said that the half step down mimics the sound of crying, and Lacrimosa means tears
@@A_Lion_In_The_Sun lacrimosa actually means tearful
@@breqbs i read a bunch of different translations more or less meaning the same thing. I saw it translated as 'tears', 'tearful', 'the day of tears', 'the crying' ect... I went with the simplest term
I was a teenager the first time that I heard Barber's Adagio for Strings. I was alone, driving in my car listening to Minnesota Public Radio. I had to pull over the moment that I heard that descending half step. It was agonizingly, painfully beautiful to my young ears and couldn't afford to be distracted by the road.
LOL, that plot twist at the end
@@Ardorstorm Foolish people laugh at things they do not understand, producing the sound of braying donkeys.
@@Ardorstorm Foolish people laugh at things they do not understand, producing the sound of braying donkeys.
I was surprised to see no ones mentioned On the Nature of Daylight by Max Richter; has the same descending half step as Jacob and the Stone, absolutely devastating piece
This one absolutely destroys me
The theme when Edward Scissorhands is making snow has the descending half step and it’s hauntingly beautiful and gut wrenchingly sad.
This is fabulous. The clearest example that occurs to me is in Vesti la Giubba from Pagliacci. The character sings a descending half step on the word "ridi"(laugh). He is crying over his lost love while lamenting that his work as a clown means he must continue to laugh. This one definitely mimics crying, as you suggest. A couple of others that I thought of are Joanna in Sweeney Todd, and at the end of Maria in West Side Story. My own recent go-to heartbreak piece is Four Notes by Paul Harvey (the orchestrated version), but half of that is the story behind the composition.
And, of course, Lacrimosa from Mozart's requiem - the very word for weeping has a descending half step at the end of it. What you describe also makes me think of that phrase "a dying fall" from Twelfth Night. I've always been told it just means the music gets quieter, but it would make more sense to me if it means a descending interval of some sort, perhaps this one!
Came to my mind as well!
Yes, I immediately thought of Vesti la Giubba, though I wanted to check the score to confirm it's a descending half step as I don't fully trust my ears. It's the prototypical "sad operatic music".
I'm not a musician or have extensive knowledge of music like this (but it's still incredible to listen to and learn about) but as a writer who uses music A LOT for inspiration for scenes, dialogue, and characters - the half-step sort of has the same effect as an "Oh!...oh..." like happiness coming to an abrupt but also an oddly soft stop. It's like a simple event or thought that makes you go "oh..." after otherwise feeling happy, and your heart just drops.
I love that I thought of Adagio for Strings as soon as I saw this video's thumbnail.
That piece of music almost always makes me want to cry.
Who knew that a half step could kill me every time?
i have always wanted to research this, like the one time in music that nobody other than me noticed that i call the "sentimental part" of the song. now i can finally understand and i am super grateful!
The soundtrack for UP plays with that sound throughout and kinda builds a narrative around it. It goes from happy, to sad, to depression, to finding new purpose and then happy again.
That half step relationship is part of the reason why I adore a major four to a minor four chord. (And then if you resolve to the one there’s another half step in there.)
Keep up the good work!
This is the comment I was looking for. This movement is the basic melancholy inducing effect in any pop song 101.
nice addition, even though the mystery dampens a little bit the melancholy/sadness feeling in that case imo
I explain this to my students all the time! How the 3rd of the IV walks chromatically to the 5th of the I chord is so nice!
very beatle-esque too!@@JPBrooksLive
I really didn't expect my eyes to actually get teary, but as soon as I heard each one of them, even though I wasn't feeling sad, I started to tear up. Also, I had never heard Barber's Adagio for strings before, but I'm very glad I just did. It sounds just like what I feel on most days and it's so beautiful.
Every descending half-step gives me goosebumps. They sound so majestic
Oh lord I knew in the first few mins that we were gonna talk about Barber’s Adagio for Strings. This song is chock full of defending half steps and tears descending down my face!
I’ve always loved the descending half step interval, it has the power to deliver so much emotion and nostalgia to the listener. My favorite example is playing the b6 scale degree and then falling back into the 5th scale degree while in a major key, it just has such a beautiful resolution! (Especially in progressions like IV-iv-I). Great video!
I immediately thought of the intro to believe from the polar express 😊
My favorite descending halfstep is the end of the melody for “Flying” from E.T. It’s just so beautiful.
Oh hey I thought about this
The entire Tristan Und Isolde, by Wagner, is based on the descending #4th to 3rd in the lydian harmony. It's the climax to the piece and it represents a non resolved love
yup surprised it wasn't featured.
It isn't #4th to 3rd a whole-tone?
@@mikepro500 Yes it is
@@roderickmckinley4738wagner isn’t very en vogue
@@mikepro500 e flat-a flat-a-flat-g natural are the first 4 notes of the Liebestod so indeed has the descending half tone...5th note is yet another descending half tone to g flat
The soundtrack to murder on the orient express uses it a lot and it’s perfect for conveying the personal struggle Poirot goes through and the grief of the passengers
I visualize the feeling of this descent as resignation and acceptance. Like receiving heavy news and physically slumping in your chair knowing you can't change what happened or your mood shifting downward when you remember something bittersweet.
In pop music, I immediately thought of "Drive" by The Cars. The descending half step (B to A#) in the introduction, as well as the underlying accompaniment in the verses, illustrate the melancholy of the song. Such a hauntingly beautiful classic.
Yasssss
Great example! ❤
I LOVE that song. It pulls at you and you can't break free until it's over.
I also think that the half step emulates a particular motion/emotion in us: the tentative, hesitant feeling of trying to reach out for something that is tantalizingly close but always retreating just right before our eyes, be it the past, a future we've lost, or a loved one that is going away.
the third movement of sibelius' fourth symphony has a very strong sense of melancholy at its climax. the melody doesnt as prominently feature a descending semitone but its absolutely beautiful and crushing at once
threw my head back in pain when you brought out the adagio for strings😭
LOOOL I mostly listen to rock indie pop but Barber snatched me and I was waiting for you to mention his adagio.
Adagio for Strings holds a powerful place in my heart, ever since I heard the version (rearranged for choir singing Agnus Dei) in the game Homeworld. It really helps set the sadness and desperation of the storyline, and then the despair that happens... not too long after the start at the game.
‘This Woman’s Work’ - Kate Bush. I cry every single time…
A wonderful song.
YES I HAVE EXAMPLES!!!
This kind of thing has totally been my roman empire, if you will, because while most people usually get a little emotional from some music, I find that effect to be amplified and I can get extremely emotional- so I have always wondered why. I feel so validated that the first examples you use, not just "Jacob and the Stone" ( it makes me sob relentlessly), but also "Married Life", have been on my mind every since I first heard them. For the longest time, I just figured the sad story and lone instrumental piece of "Married Life” was what made me so incredibly emotional (and attached) to the song, but I realized that the situation was actually reversed. This effect, totally amplified my emotions and empathy FOR the STORY in “Up” and I didn’t even know how it did that for the longest time.
I came to the same conclusion you did (without all of the music theory, I have no where near the knowledge that you do lol) through compiling the list of songs that gave me the specific phenomemon that "my emotions were so abundant and heavy and heartbreaking, it created a hole in my chest". The list is not limited to: "Space song" by Beach House (even the synthesizers they use give the sounds a certain vowel- to make it sound even MORE like a cry in my opinion), “Pluto Projector” by Rex Orange County, obviously "jacob and the stone", and ***Scott Street by Phoebe Bridgers.***
------>>>**** If you haven’t listened to this song PLEASE do!!!!*****. Without even paying attention to the songs lyrics (heartbreaking, DUH), this song’s background vocals and instrumentals starting from 2:50 to the end single-handedly bring you to a state of paralyzing nostalgia, regret, and somehow grief for your younger self?? I SWEAR, it’s the EXACT effect that you talk about here!!
Please give it a listen!!
I feel so validated with your video because this theory- coming from you and your amount of knowledge- matching what I’ve been thinking for the longest time makes me feel like I’m not crazy for thinking this!! So me and my emotional self thank you!! 💗💗
MY GOD SCOTT STREET MY PHOEBE BRIDGERS HITS ME LIKE A TRUCK, im so glad you included this example oml 🫶🫶🫶
Honestly have been looking to find a playlist full of this on spotify and came back to this video to remember what this uh two step was called lol. I’m not very musically knowledgeable but I love this stuff
EXACTLY!!!
I love how he was able to put into words the feeling I get when I listen to some music. The feeling where it's so painful but there's beauty in it and the notes help you find that feeling by guiding your emotion.
Wow for me it invokes the bittersweet feeling of nostalgia. It's this feeling of happiness and comfort adjacent with a feeling of longing or lost. I love your passion for a half step!
My favorite example of the half-step drop is found all throughout Mahler's quartet for piano and strings in a minor. So beautiful
I think it's more about the beauty behind the suspension - - that dissonance >> consonance resolution which elicits this 'sighing' or 'whimpering' feeling. It's absolutely lovely
Adagio for Strings most emotional piece of music ever written. Always gets to me 😞
I can't unhear this, I've heard it so many times in the past without even realizing it! What a great video!
THIS VIDEO!!! you just put all the songs that ever made me cry together and now i understand WHYYYY
Chopin - Nocturne No. 20 in C# minor
One of his most hauntily beautiful pieces. Uses this half step often but in the style of Chopin. Beautiful longing runs on the piano.
"Bach is an astronomer, discovering the most marvellous stars. Beethoven challenges the universe. I only try to express the soul and the heart of man."
~ Frederic Chopin
That and his e minor prelude are the first things I thought of.
The first time I heard Adagio it was the Agnus Dei choral rendition, and it was used in the 1999 video game Homeworld. Its first appearance is the opening cinematic depicting the launch of a colony starship, and it’s timed to the music so beautifully that it just makes you ache with this deeply sorrowful but hopeful longing. It’s triumphant, but still tinged with sadness somehow. The woman voicing Fleet Command also does a marvelous job of playing into that sadness with her dispassionate recitation of the launch proceedings. It’s just beautiful.
Then 2 missions later, it comes back in a completely different context as you return home from your shakedown cruise to find your entire planet has been firebombed by the game’s big bad. What was a beautiful but pained sense of hope has been transformed into a feeling of absolute despair and devastation, even though it’s the *exact same music*. It is hands down one of the best uses of music in video games to this day. If you haven’t played Homeworld, I encourage you to do so or at least seek out playthroughs of the first 3 missions to hear it. Absolutely masterful, and I just can’t hear Adagio without being snapped back to those two scenes. Legit they never fail to make me tear up.
Such a creative way of using a fantastic song
The Adagietto from Mahler’s 5th does a lot of this. It’s absolutely heart wrenching.
At the very end of the movement, the basses below move first to create a sus4 chord, which the upper strings resolve to the third by descending the half step. Extra beautiful. Great example.
Totally agree. One of my favorite moments is during the first play through of the theme at the beginning in f major. The orchestra goes to a G7 chord with the violins hanging on to a C for a beat before descending the half step. The violins then descend another half step to B flat, briefly go to a D with a gorgeous minor ninth with the violas (who are also descending in half steps) before returning to the B flat to descend yet another half step.
@@aaroncrnkovic1398I watched that symphony live last night, it was unbelievably beautiful.
@@aaroncrnkovic1398 Mahler also does this in his second symphony, especially that low brass chorale during the last movement.
I’ve seen it live twice! It’s totally awesome from the beginning solo (CSO brass definitely helps) to the very end (CSO also brass helps a lot there). Mahler uses every trick in the book to pull out emotion. The 4 mvt of the ninth makes extensive use of half steps.
mann.. its so adorable and good to see how he appreciates music, even simple things he can feel
Wow, I couldn’t have imagined two notes could be so absolutely heartrending! Absolutely fascinating to me how something so simple could elicit such a strong emotional response.
the decending half step has beend used for this exact purpose for hundreds of years. you can find countless examples of this interval in the melody in pices by almost every composer ever.
i was taught this as being a "musikalischer seufzer" a musical sigh.
its such a powerful way of conveying emotion and i think its really cool to still being able to find it used for the same effect even today
The Land Before Time utilizes this in its soundtrack (Whispering Winds & If We Hold On Together) and it always made me feel pain in my chest as a kid and I didn't know why
1:21 Remember Reach
Omg that section from Adagio for the Strings gave me such Tony’s Funeral vibes. I literally had tears.
Immediately thought of Up when you said you were going to play another example. The music for Up is so great!
Amazing and painfully beautiful as you said! Bravo👏🏻 your analysis was so great Charles!
I've been writing music since I was a child, before it was pen and paper, now it's a DAW. I've never had any training in music whatsoever. I love watching Charles' videos, he puts to words what I only know as feeling. I now know that the "descending half-step" is something I often use, and it explains how I've achieved all the melancholy in my music. I guess that beautiful sadness is my signature. Thanks Charles for teaching me more about myself
I think Omori’s “Final Duet” does this as well!! and It’s perfect that it sounds like crying, as it represents Sunny finally letting go of his beloved sister and the guilt he feels, it’s so cathartic because like us, he has spent the whole game repressing his feelings, and so we get to cry by his side for a moment, before he gets the courage to say what he needs to and end the game;;;
ugh i was thinking about duet based on the title and thumbnail. my beloved 💜
Yes thank you exactly!!! I cant hear this song without crying 🥲
HUH
OMORI SPOTTED
I started watching this video thinking, "hey I think Adagio for strings probably has that" (the HAUSER version is just heavenly). Made me very happy that I was right
The theme to the old black and white movie The Ghost and Mrs Muir. Beautiful!
The vocal line in "Feast of Starlight" from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has the same descending half-step. It kind of reminds me of Jacob and the Stone.
My favorite descending half step is a really simple one -- a Isus4 chord resolving to a I chord. Such a powerful sound that can be equal parts triumphant and bittersweet. It's one of those sounds I was obsessed with and recognized before I even knew music theory, and was very excited when I finally discovered what it was. It always fascinated me how powerful the movement of a single note was.
I remember playing Adagio for Strings in a concert orchestra, and it brought me to tears midway through the piece. Such a beautiful and timeless work of art
It's not just the interval, it's not just the slow tempo, it's also the underlying harmony, with the held suspensions, the emphasis, the orchestration, and the visual impact of the conductor and orchestra's body language.
Yes, the Barber Adagio; a prime, and totally perfect example.
It feels like the beginning of the end. The last little bit of happiness before the drop. That's why it has the duality of bittersweet feelings.
OML why am I tearing up at nearly 9am?! Darn it, Mr. Cornell!!😭💗
I remember watching that one scene in Up, and I didn’t really understand it when I watched it as a kid but I was still sad because of the soundtrack. Rewatching it as an adult though…
Brought tears to my eyes, it’s so heartwrenching
I think one thing so beautiful about the Minari piece is that it contrasts with the pain you see on screen and you're forced to feel hopeful because of a major key in the music. So it makes a content vibe to something sad - in other words, you know it's the end because all this bad stuff is happening at once, but you gotta feel faithful because it's the end of something.
yup - that is the power of the leading tone, it creates a feeling of lack - wanting to return home
The song "Johanna" from Sweeney Todd is a great example of a descending half step around the tonic. It expresses the deepest romantic longing for as-yet unrequited love.
That’s what I was hoping I wouldn’t be the first to say
I came to the comments to see if my ears were correct. During his explanations I felt like I could hear the song on a couple different occasions.
Also the song "Hymne à l'amour" made famous by Édith Piaf is a great example of this, which is probably why this song always gives me the feels. ❤️
I personally think that this descending half step is so powerful because it occurs commonly in the resolution of suspended chords (4th to the 3rd). The sound of this resolution creates an anticipation that can elicit many emotions
From the first note in this video on I was expecting Adagio for Strings as an example. That song never fails to give me chills down my spine.
This is so interesting - I have a similar thing with descending P4s when it’s mi down to ti/3 down to 7 in a major key.
I don’t know why but I’ve always found that sound so poignant, it really tugs on my heart strings!
I made a highlight of all the ones I’ve found so far on my Instagram !
Bach's Come Sweet Death has many great examples of this, as well as some other very simple phrases that tug at the heart strings. Simple ascending, and descending lines can be so powerful; especially when combined with contrary motion. I would love to hear your thoughts on that beautiful piece. I first heard it when I was 12 years old and I think it might be the first time I had a strong emotional reaction to music.
I would say John Williams' "Anakin's Betrayal (Lament for the Jedi)" from Revenge of the Sith is a painfully beautiful piece of music.
As soon as I heard the first note I knew what was coming next. The half step down always carries beautiful heartfelt feeling at least to a minimal extent despite whatever is going on with the other harmonies. I use that interval a lot in my music, it's very emotional.
Nice point! Max Richer's Daylight has also this half step and makes you wanna cry for a painful beauty.
Adagio for Strings always gives me the goosebumps. Such a beautiful piece.
A fine example of this is the song “Watashi no Uso (My Lie)” from the anime series Your lie in April. The piece utilizes the descending half step multiple times throughout the piece and is most-assuredly heart crushing the entire way through.
omg I love that song so MUCH
The theme song (written by Gustavo Santaolalla) for the movie Brokeback Mountain starts off with this half-step dissonance, and sounds so pure and happy with its gentle, soft classical guitar, and then it just... devastates... the musical equivalent to an empty ribcage left behind because the heart was too big for its body.
Its a very melancholic sound and feeling, but i think its more about bringing out your emotional state.
Like imagine listing to this while its raining and gloomy vs sunny and hot.
Anyone else crying throughout this video? Beautiful.
Fascinating and thoughtful breakdown.
So it's kind of long, but DeVotchKa has this song called "How It Ends" which features in the film Little Miss Sunshine. And it's so bittersweet.
The climax at 4:54 is what will get you (and ofc it incorporates the half-step mentioned!)
All the Sand in All the Sea does it too
"Vesti la Giubba" by Leoncavallo comes to my mind. The climax of this aria is so powerful and the lyrics make all that much more.