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HEY. Hi. This was a brand new level of effort for us and took a TON more planning and executing than we're used to. My team and I worked super hard on this video and we've been incredibly excited to share it with you all so I hope you enjoy it! Be sure to go and get a reminder for the upcoming Spring Sale here! cornellmusicacademy.com/springsale
Hey Charles!! Another *kinda* spacey game is called Sky: Children of the Light and it’s such a beautiful game… I think you should check out the soundtrack!
The chord is in Mars as well!! Holst was all over it, and Williams clearly used The Planets for inspiration when scoring Star Wars! (I think various movements were temp tracks?)
I just wish he used more musical development. Zimmer always finds great chord progressions and then everything he does is Copy/Paste + layering. It gets boring when you're accustomed to Williams, Goldsmith, Horner and their truly symphonic composing with modulations, shortening and prolonging of the motifs, reorchestrations, etc.
Hey Charles, I got an idea for a video - since we had the Academy Awards last night could you maybe make a video where you go through all the Original Score nominees and analyze them on what makes them so good?
6:37 That chord in Interstellar is mind numbing. I thought people normally dropped the natural 5th in favor of the #5, but having them clustered together here is awe inspiring. I don't know if it's the instruments or what.
I guess we can say that this is a Cmaj(b6) chord rather than a Cmaj triad with a #5! I find this chord to sound even more spacy than the augmented triad, love it!
Absolutely, mate. Having them clustered together somehow invokes the dreadful feelings of the unforgiving harshness of space, the radiation, the unsettling queerness of it all.
It is tedious to hear so many piano covers (amazing, the popularity it has in the piano sphere) that dismiss this chord altogether, without acknowledging that it is what makes the piece what the piece is, not so much the ostinato and chorale.
Your music analysis is untouchable. Your personality is one of a kind and very enjoyable. Your editing has elevated month after month. Your video ideas are rarely disappointing. Keep going guys.
It's perfect as the ending chord of the intro. Makes much more sense than the first one too, the first one is about grabbing attention, the last one is leaving the audience with the right mood to begin the story. It sort of summarizes the entire intro and gives all those feelings Charles talked about, but leaves some mystique.
I love that the space chord is also the Rivendell chord. Shows how otherworldly the elves are in Middle Earth! I also think of this as the Spy chord, being at the end of the Pink Panther theme (or very similar, at least).
Dude, it's the Wager Chord. "Ride of the Valkeries!" It happens in The Ring Cycle numerous times. That's where Williams and company got it. And that major I to minor ii shift looms large in "Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan."
Yea, the augmented chord is so typical for creating mystery. It's all over Williams and guys who did take it from, like Wagner. And every time you want to do some space thing, just go from a minor chord to sharp 4 or sharp 5 minor and done.
Holst's Planet's *is* space. He wrote the book on how to do it and everyone else more or less just tips their hat to his work because he captured it perfectly.
"We listened to a bunch of John Williams scores to find a chord that he used a lot to create a space-feel and that other people stole from him because he is the origin of all creativity." John Williams is the GOAT
Although you are right and John Williams is the GOAT, he is not the beginning of all creativity as for example this chords was developed in The planets by Holst. John Williams takes a lot from classical music, which is great as he is usually inspired by great composers. I still love John Williams though hahhaha
Bruh Williams literally stole from a lot of classical musicians Holst is probably the last famous listen to Mars from the planets suite and this chord is a big part of it
@@HectorGarcia-ho3xe yeah a lot of Williams' genius is in applying those older ideas into cinema, something that wasn't fashionable before he did it. Now it's just standard practice.
@@ethannorton564 Bruh you can't steal from classical musicians. Unless you like steal their actual sheets of music lol. Classical music has always been borrowing and improving on existing works. Currently and I believe in the past as well (though correct me if I'm wrong), classical music is public domain. You literally can't steal it.
I know this probably took a lot of effort, but I'm a 18 year old dude and im kinda done with this kind of jumpy editing. Sometimes low energy is just so much better so I can just sit back and relax and learn something about music.
While I enjoyed the video, I totally agree. My attention span is pretty shot at this point, but I don't need the screen to be a flurry of movement to keep me watching - it can be off putting.
Hey Charles, absolutely love these new types of videos. My ADHD would kick in on some of your "sitting in the studio and explaining music" types of videos but on this one I was 100% there the whole way so please keep it up. Since they take so much more effort tho be careful not to get overworked or burnt out.
Hey Charles, great video btw, as a huge star wars, interstellar and overall film music fan, really appreciated this video and the time and effort that you put into it. Would you consider analysing/ going through war film scores, of the likes of Dunkirk, 1917, All quiet on the Western front and others of this genre?
The Blue Devils are the winningest organization in the Drum & Bugle Corps activity. A few decades ago, they came up with a hornline warm up which melded standard brass warm ups, with non-traditional warm ups, with snippets of well known space movie music. It became known as “Space Chords”. There are many different vids of the Blue Devil brass line playing this excercise. They are all a little different as the official version has changed over the decades. But they are all amazing. Here’s a very good example in Hi Def audio. You’ll want to play this really loud on a hi fidelity system. It’s amazing. m.ruclips.net/video/2EDIDCdy5Es/видео.html
As soon as i heard that chord the force of a thousand Stargate Themes hit me right in the feels, would you guys consider taking a look at it too? It might be the closest to a whole piece predicated on that concept that i ever heard.
In the beginning I was like “it’s impossible to use just one chord to represent something so huge like the space…” but then… I heard it… mind blowing😍👌🏼
You really need to check out the music from Outer Wilds by Andrew Prahlow. That OST is one of the best videogame soundtracks imo, especially for the mood of space.
Seconding the Outer Wilds shout, the amount that soundtrack reminds me of the Interstellar OST is incredible. Cracking game too, by god do they GET space
omg yes, that ost is one of my all time favorites. to me it feels different from a lot of the other space media that's put out there, but still does an incredible job of encapsulating the wonder and amazement of exploring outer space
The best thing is, I was searching for the spacechord myself. And I found exactly the same chord!! It this sound that make me feel the excitement of discovering distamt stars but not forgetting the danger we might find. Amazing video!!!
i always thought the space chord was stacked 1 and flat 5 major chords like holst's Mars you hear those two chords together or alternating in SO many space things
The soundtrack to Cosmos: Possible Worlds is one of my all-time favorites ever. Alan Silvestri does such an incredible job making it so mysterious and magical.
Super nice video! May I suggest that you listen to Holst: The Planets and hear if the chord's in there? It probably is, people are comparing John Williams' Star Wars to it.
Hey Charles, this video came out great and it looked very professional, so I'll commend your team for that. That being said, I really hope this isn't the future of your content. I love the videos where you're sitting alone at your keyboard, listening to something live and reacting to it/analyzing it on the fly. They're personal, passionate, and genuine, and that's what make them great. This style of video was very informative and eye-opening, yes, but it felt... how do I say this? Corporate, maybe? It feels like your passion for music, which was always what made your content so engaging, has been neutered. Again, the production quality is really good, but the quality is being funneled to the wrong areas. The reason you've been able to create such a successful brand that attracts so many passionate musicians it because you are one yourself, and you aren't afraid to show it. This video, however, feels like pandering to the more modern, overly edited and fast paced style that appeals to the low attention span of many internet-goers. I levy these critiques because I care a lot about this channel, and I want to not see it deviate from what I believe makes it great.
Much as John WIlliams borrowed the epic opening from Korngold and Death Star material from Holst's Planets (Mars), check the Neptune movement of the Planets (by Holst) and you'll see where John truly derived his space-content. The more subtle, less in-your-face stuff comes from Neptune, including some magical augmentations.
You’ve nailed something I could only hear but never explain. I wish I were good at music theory so I could. The instant you mentioned the “space chord” I thought of ET and when you mentioned video games I had to listen to the soundtrack from Final Fantasy VII since the “Jenova” theme absolutely has that arpeggio you play later in the video. I believe Radiohead’s “Subterranean Homesick Alien” has the chord, too. I love this.
I think you have a good ear! There is a lot of 7ths going on in that Radiohead song. But mainly I guess it's spacey because of the high echoey bends on the notes and arpeggios. Also a C minor over G. Which isn't a sharp 5th, but is voicing that changes the feeling my moving it to the bottom of the chord instead of the top. Music theory is never ending, but with a basic knowledge of chord construction and learning some vocabulary for describing voicings and progressions, I think you could pick it all up quite quickly.
As someone who is obsessed with space and film scores and music composition - this is my new favorite video of yours and I am forwarding it to my roommates immediately thank you
Chromatic mediants and the add5# "magic" chord are common knowledge to anyone with an elementary background in music theory. If people just crack open a textbook (or even just Google the question), they needn't spend so much time and effort re-discovering old things.
My first thought before clicking the video: "I bet it's an augmented chord." I'd begun to doubt myself, but then you got to it. To me, the use of the augmented chord to indicate the mystery of space goes back to classic 1950s sci-fi.
Aside from Holst, that motif is all over Star Trek - check out Battle in the Mutara Nebula for a particularly good example. This was a fun video - it may have been a lot of work, but I enjoyed it!
Perfect 5ths stacked on top of each other is always my go-to space sound - reminds me of those science videos we used to watch in elementary school in the 90s 😂
You're kinda sleeping on the I-III and I-bIII progressions. C maj to Eb major just screams sci-fi to me, as well as Cm-Abm. Pretty sure a few sci-fi films use this
How about the popular lick, the mitsuda lick? Its in many popular game songs, such as ocarina of time, main title theme where the lick descends chromatically
This space chords you're all looking for has a name screaming out of it: Holst (whose The Planets Suit was, by the way, one of the biggest influences for John Williams to compose Star Wars themes).
I've been watching Star Trek Picard S3 and the end-credits theme, which is from the main title of Star Trek First Contact gets me every single time, I just have to stay and listen to it. I would love to see a breakdown of what makes this theme so evocative :)
Does anyone know how Charles gets the live piano with the green highlighted keys at the bottom? Is it a specific software? Could really use something similar for a Masters Degree Project I’m working on at the moment so any insight would be really appreciated!
I had the same reaction to that chord that you did. Once you pointed it out I was like: “yes! That’s it! That’s space!” Wow. Musics amazing isn’t it? *gasp*, now we need to find a chord for everything!
"We listened to a bunch of John Williams scores to find a chord that he used a lot to create a space-feel and that other people stole from him because he is the origin of all creativity." Gustav Holst - the Planet Suite. That man wrote the templates to Scifi Music.
Not a space chord but the piece with the buildup starting at 4:20 of Imperial Attack always causes me to break down into a whimpering mess. I can't define it but that is the most powerful piece of music I have ever heard.
Given that John Williams seems to have pioneered this sound that you conclude is "spacey," did you examine other John Williams scores that _weren't_ set in space (such as Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, or Jaws) to see if they also utilized this sound? About midway through the video, you mentioned a particular chord relationship that, when you hummed it, reminded me a lot of the Jaws theme. If this sound you discovered is more than just spacey, perhaps it's more accurate to say it represents the wonder/mystery/beauty that you then attributed to space? Just a thought
Completely agree. This video is a very nice example of congruence bias: find as much data as possible that tests the initial hypothesis without considering any alternative hypotheses. (for any interested readers, check out the Veritaseum video "The Most Common Cognitive Bias") In particular, throughout the video, everything kept sounding like the Rivendell track from Lord of the Rings - it includes both the the major sharp 5 and the I-bVI in its main theme, despite very much not being in space. To Charles' credit, it does seem like all the examples so far of these motifs have a common thread of "hugeness" about them (not just any kind of beauty/mystery, but specifically the kind that overwhelms you with how all-encompassing it is and how small you are in comparison) but even that could just be more congruence bias on my part.
To sum it up you just need any two major chords that don’t share any chord tones and the root of the second one isn’t diatonic to the key of the first. In other words, use the most unrelated major chords you can make. So, like C/C# or C/F# are good examples. That’s basically it. You can add other tones and make more complicated chords but that’s icing on the space cake.
I think you found it, but I'm surprised you didn't look to Holst's The Planets. Or maybe you did and just didn't include it in the video. I wonder if some of the stuff you found is also in there. That would be cool if some of the root inspiration come from Holst because that whole suite is incredible.
Literally the exact chord I thought of when I clicked this video! That's amazing. Btw, this chord also features prominently in Holst's Mars, the OG space music.
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The best use of aug in cinema for me is in the scene in Empire Strikes Back when Yoda lifts the X-Wing from the swamp. The theme is called Yoda and the Force and the chord can be heard briefly around the 2:50 mark.
really like the video, the production quality certainly took a huge step. great effort! i really enjoy your more unedited content reacting to music and really being in the moment more to be completely honest, but im certain that will stay, so geat to see you exploring and trying out newe things.
Love the passion behind every second of this video! Your videos have a way of tapping into the sheer wonder of experiencing music. It reminds me to be happy with living even when anxieties are present. Thank you to everyone at this channel and keep up the wonderful work
I've had no formal instruction (not counting piano lessons from age 6 to 15), but I LOVE playing with chords, chords upon chords, chord progression, etc. Your channel makes my spirit soar!!
I love this new style of video! It combines your awesome teaching ability with the creativity/skit like feel that first brought me to your channel in the first place!
I was curious to see what you guys thought the “Space” chord was, and I’m so glad we both reached the same conclusion of the augmented chord! However, I knew this from the beginning of Toy Story 2 where Buzz was in the video game fighting Zurg. It’s such an awesome chord, gives me the feeling that there’s more out there than meets the eye.
Hey Charles, I think Acura watched the video. Checkout their "space" commercial - ruclips.net/video/zVmFuUoDjAU/видео.html Pretty sure they go I - bVI - I (Ab - Emaj7 - Ab). Also I'm absolutely obsessed with your content, especially this video. I show it to everyone. This video in particular brings me such joy. Thank you so much for making it, and keep up the amazing content 🥹.
Atlantis the Lost Empire uses both the I - bII (#4) and the Major (add b6) chords extensively, makes sense since it has similar themes of exploration, mystery, and danger as many space movies
I figured out awhile ago that if you take a major triad, add a half step on top of it, and play them in descending order it sounds really spacey. Now there’s a whole video about it. Love it! Actually I think I learned it from Ratchet and Clank 2 OST - Wupash Nebula truth be told. The opening arpeggio is that exact sequence.
I LOVE the structure of this video! I do stuff like this all the time, and I loved coming along on the investigation with you. When you first asked the question, I said “D/Bb” so I’m happy we ended up in the same place
Oh yeah. I find it hilarious that you decided that augmented chords are the key because for years now I've used the C E G G# arpeggio (and its correlates) to introduce spacey vibes. It is in fact the perfect space chord, adding mystery and wonder to a piece.
HEY. Hi. This was a brand new level of effort for us and took a TON more planning and executing than we're used to. My team and I worked super hard on this video and we've been incredibly excited to share it with you all so I hope you enjoy it! Be sure to go and get a reminder for the upcoming Spring Sale here! cornellmusicacademy.com/springsale
Hey Charles!! Another *kinda* spacey game is called Sky: Children of the Light and it’s such a beautiful game… I think you should check out the soundtrack!
Obnoxious.
That hard work definitely paid off! Amazing work!
My goodness, it shows! Great work!
Oh my god what the hell happened here? Last time I was there you had 136k subs, not M
I feel like the "spacey" sensation that we get out of Williams' music is mostly derived from Holst's Neptune.
The chord is in Mars as well!! Holst was all over it, and Williams clearly used The Planets for inspiration when scoring Star Wars! (I think various movements were temp tracks?)
I'm so glad someone mentioned this.
You're no the only one! IIRC, Lucas originally planned to use Holst's music but commissioned Williams to write something of a substitute.
indeed. bi-tonal. em and g#m. ah yes. (same chord relation as the imperial march, by the way (AND "the end of all things" at the climax of LOTR.)
I don't read or make comments usually, but I commented this time, and scroll down to see a bunch of people said exactly the same thing 😅.
The soundtrack of Interstellar really shines, I immediately got goosebumps from only those 4 bars…
Hans Zimmer is a genius when it comes to Epic scores
I just wish he used more musical development. Zimmer always finds great chord progressions and then everything he does is Copy/Paste + layering. It gets boring when you're accustomed to Williams, Goldsmith, Horner and their truly symphonic composing with modulations, shortening and prolonging of the motifs, reorchestrations, etc.
Hey Charles, I got an idea for a video - since we had the Academy Awards last night could you maybe make a video where you go through all the Original Score nominees and analyze them on what makes them so good?
I concur with DexterLol’s idea
@@MocahHamel I concur with your concurrent
Yes please!
@@TheDeadOfNight37 I concur with your concurrent of their concurrent
@@spencer7167 To all of the cocurrents above, I concur
6:37 That chord in Interstellar is mind numbing. I thought people normally dropped the natural 5th in favor of the #5, but having them clustered together here is awe inspiring. I don't know if it's the instruments or what.
I guess we can say that this is a Cmaj(b6) chord rather than a Cmaj triad with a #5! I find this chord to sound even more spacy than the augmented triad, love it!
@@clemlvn9598 could also be an Abmaj7#5 in first inversion
Absolutely, mate. Having them clustered together somehow invokes the dreadful feelings of the unforgiving harshness of space, the radiation, the unsettling queerness of it all.
At last someone mentions it!!
It is tedious to hear so many piano covers (amazing, the popularity it has in the piano sphere) that dismiss this chord altogether, without acknowledging that it is what makes the piece what the piece is, not so much the ostinato and chorale.
Your music analysis is untouchable.
Your personality is one of a kind and very enjoyable.
Your editing has elevated month after month.
Your video ideas are rarely disappointing.
Keep going guys.
Dave Bennett Piano gives him a run for his money, just quietly..... 😉
(I'm H's son) do you have a crush on all of them?
I still remember the first time I heard that chord in the Star Wars theme, it gave me chills and it still does. It had to be that chord.
It's perfect as the ending chord of the intro. Makes much more sense than the first one too, the first one is about grabbing attention, the last one is leaving the audience with the right mood to begin the story. It sort of summarizes the entire intro and gives all those feelings Charles talked about, but leaves some mystique.
É a dissonância harmônica.
@@ZZubZZeroÉ a dissonância harmônica.
Yup, it's the major with a twist.
The sudden jump to that chord from the preceding mostly major tune makes it even more outstanding.
I love that the space chord is also the Rivendell chord. Shows how otherworldly the elves are in Middle Earth! I also think of this as the Spy chord, being at the end of the Pink Panther theme (or very similar, at least).
100%, and it also turns up in the Númenor theme from Rings of Power. Mystery, expanse, unknown things. So majestic!
@@kurodashinkei Ooh! I don't know the RoP music well enough yet to spot it. Very cool!
Came to the comments to see if anyone pointed out the chord is also in the Rivendell theme :) So beautiful!
A different type of video from your normal reviews! Love to see you exploring space!
Dude, it's the Wager Chord. "Ride of the Valkeries!" It happens in The Ring Cycle numerous times. That's where Williams and company got it. And that major I to minor ii shift looms large in "Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan."
Yep - Wrath of Khan is _riddled_ with these sorts of chords, at times with some obvious nods to Shostakovich 5 as well.
Which is what exactly?
I thought he got it from Holst?
Yea, the augmented chord is so typical for creating mystery. It's all over Williams and guys who did take it from, like Wagner. And every time you want to do some space thing, just go from a minor chord to sharp 4 or sharp 5 minor and done.
Gustav Holst's The Planets always leads to good space inspiration music
Holst's Planet's *is* space. He wrote the book on how to do it and everyone else more or less just tips their hat to his work because he captured it perfectly.
@@jttech44
WORD...
The "ostenato" at 7:19 sounds exactly like the arpeggio used in the Jenova theme from Final Fantasy VII. Jenova being a monster from space
I call that line of ostenato strings the "Awe-peggio".
Really love this new format Charles! This is an awesome progression for the channel, super excited to see more like it in the future
Amazing how a single chord can evoke such a specific and powerful feeling. Hearing all those space themes back to back like that was intense.
What amazes me is that there isn't any "chord dictionary" to this day, that would document such things.
Charles goated
Entirely accurate comment
Mi dica governo italiano, perché ha commentato sotto questo video ?
The first time I heard that little sequence in the Starfield teaser, I think I was sold on the game. They nailed the space sound.
"We listened to a bunch of John Williams scores to find a chord that he used a lot to create a space-feel and that other people stole from him because he is the origin of all creativity."
John Williams is the GOAT
Although you are right and John Williams is the GOAT, he is not the beginning of all creativity as for example this chords was developed in The planets by Holst. John Williams takes a lot from classical music, which is great as he is usually inspired by great composers. I still love John Williams though hahhaha
Bruh Williams literally stole from a lot of classical musicians Holst is probably the last famous listen to Mars from the planets suite and this chord is a big part of it
ruclips.net/video/tysCiL1-24w/видео.html
@@HectorGarcia-ho3xe yeah a lot of Williams' genius is in applying those older ideas into cinema, something that wasn't fashionable before he did it. Now it's just standard practice.
@@ethannorton564 Bruh you can't steal from classical musicians. Unless you like steal their actual sheets of music lol. Classical music has always been borrowing and improving on existing works. Currently and I believe in the past as well (though correct me if I'm wrong), classical music is public domain. You literally can't steal it.
I love how Charles is just so pumped about finding the chords and the other guys look just so done with the whole thing, it's kinda hilarious.
I know this probably took a lot of effort, but I'm a 18 year old dude and im kinda done with this kind of jumpy editing. Sometimes low energy is just so much better so I can just sit back and relax and learn something about music.
While I enjoyed the video, I totally agree. My attention span is pretty shot at this point, but I don't need the screen to be a flurry of movement to keep me watching - it can be off putting.
For me the spaciest chord is whatever the chord is at the end of Holst’s “Mars.” Leaves me in awe every time I hear it
Hey Charles, absolutely love these new types of videos. My ADHD would kick in on some of your "sitting in the studio and explaining music" types of videos but on this one I was 100% there the whole way so please keep it up. Since they take so much more effort tho be careful not to get overworked or burnt out.
I like it in some ways, but I was going to say that it is a bit over-stimulating for me so it's actually harder for me to follow
@@kevinwells9751 same, but nowadays this is the only type of content possible to get many views, fast pace and a Lot of stimulation
This was really exiting. I new there was something about that chord in Interstellar. It’s so familiar.
Jesus loves you!
The brilliant part about this chord is the augmented 5th makes it feel like the chord is constantly expanding, just like space.
Hey Charles, great video btw, as a huge star wars, interstellar and overall film music fan, really appreciated this video and the time and effort that you put into it. Would you consider analysing/ going through war film scores, of the likes of Dunkirk, 1917, All quiet on the Western front and others of this genre?
4:40 We have *WHAT* chords ??
ඞ
:|
Two kinds of them: imposter and crewmate
The quality of the videos is just getting better and better. It’s insane what you’re able to do 👏🏽
The Blue Devils are the winningest organization in the Drum & Bugle Corps activity. A few decades ago, they came up with a hornline warm up which melded standard brass warm ups, with non-traditional warm ups, with snippets of well known space movie music. It became known as “Space Chords”. There are many different vids of the Blue Devil brass line playing this excercise. They are all a little different as the official version has changed over the decades. But they are all amazing. Here’s a very good example in Hi Def audio. You’ll want to play this really loud on a hi fidelity system. It’s amazing.
m.ruclips.net/video/2EDIDCdy5Es/видео.html
Was looking for this comment!
The Phantom Regiment FTW!
As soon as i heard that chord the force of a thousand Stargate Themes hit me right in the feels, would you guys consider taking a look at it too? It might be the closest to a whole piece predicated on that concept that i ever heard.
Yes, my first thought was Stargate as well!
In the beginning I was like “it’s impossible to use just one chord to represent something so huge like the space…” but then… I heard it… mind blowing😍👌🏼
You really need to check out the music from Outer Wilds by Andrew Prahlow. That OST is one of the best videogame soundtracks imo, especially for the mood of space.
Seconding the Outer Wilds shout, the amount that soundtrack reminds me of the Interstellar OST is incredible. Cracking game too, by god do they GET space
omg yes, that ost is one of my all time favorites. to me it feels different from a lot of the other space media that's put out there, but still does an incredible job of encapsulating the wonder and amazement of exploring outer space
The best thing is, I was searching for the spacechord myself. And I found exactly the same chord!! It this sound that make me feel the excitement of discovering distamt stars but not forgetting the danger we might find. Amazing video!!!
i always thought the space chord was stacked 1 and flat 5 major chords
like holst's Mars
you hear those two chords together or alternating in SO many space things
Right when I thought his videos can't get any better YOU ARE CRAZY, GOOD SIR
The soundtrack to Cosmos: Possible Worlds is one of my all-time favorites ever. Alan Silvestri does such an incredible job making it so mysterious and magical.
Dude you nailed it. Every awe-inspiring space scene I can think of, this exact chord is there.
I was so happy to see Starfield’s music included in this. I’ve been hooked on the score since the announcement teaser trailer.
Super nice video! May I suggest that you listen to Holst: The Planets and hear if the chord's in there? It probably is, people are comparing John Williams' Star Wars to it.
He did borrow a lot of ideas from Holst.
Holst basically invented cinematic movie scores decades before it was a thing.
Already a fan, but this video especially is 🔥🔥🔥
Hey Charles, this video came out great and it looked very professional, so I'll commend your team for that. That being said, I really hope this isn't the future of your content. I love the videos where you're sitting alone at your keyboard, listening to something live and reacting to it/analyzing it on the fly. They're personal, passionate, and genuine, and that's what make them great. This style of video was very informative and eye-opening, yes, but it felt... how do I say this? Corporate, maybe? It feels like your passion for music, which was always what made your content so engaging, has been neutered. Again, the production quality is really good, but the quality is being funneled to the wrong areas. The reason you've been able to create such a successful brand that attracts so many passionate musicians it because you are one yourself, and you aren't afraid to show it. This video, however, feels like pandering to the more modern, overly edited and fast paced style that appeals to the low attention span of many internet-goers. I levy these critiques because I care a lot about this channel, and I want to not see it deviate from what I believe makes it great.
Much as John WIlliams borrowed the epic opening from Korngold and Death Star material from Holst's Planets (Mars), check the Neptune movement of the Planets (by Holst) and you'll see where John truly derived his space-content. The more subtle, less in-your-face stuff comes from Neptune, including some magical augmentations.
Thanks for doing the work for me. I've been getting into film scoring, this is helpful. I hate studying
Who even needs college?
You’ve nailed something I could only hear but never explain. I wish I were good at music theory so I could. The instant you mentioned the “space chord” I thought of ET and when you mentioned video games I had to listen to the soundtrack from Final Fantasy VII since the “Jenova” theme absolutely has that arpeggio you play later in the video. I believe Radiohead’s “Subterranean Homesick Alien” has the chord, too. I love this.
I think you have a good ear!
There is a lot of 7ths going on in that Radiohead song. But mainly I guess it's spacey because of the high echoey bends on the notes and arpeggios. Also a C minor over G. Which isn't a sharp 5th, but is voicing that changes the feeling my moving it to the bottom of the chord instead of the top.
Music theory is never ending, but with a basic knowledge of chord construction and learning some vocabulary for describing voicings and progressions, I think you could pick it all up quite quickly.
As someone who is obsessed with space and film scores and music composition - this is my new favorite video of yours and I am forwarding it to my roommates immediately thank you
Chromatic mediants and the add5# "magic" chord are common knowledge to anyone with an elementary background in music theory. If people just crack open a textbook (or even just Google the question), they needn't spend so much time and effort re-discovering old things.
5:32 That chord is not actually C#5. It's a polychord built of C Major and Db Major at the same time.
I hear this chord in almost every Star Trek film soundtrack, so I was already associating it with space before I knew it was The Space Chord!
My first thought before clicking the video: "I bet it's an augmented chord."
I'd begun to doubt myself, but then you got to it. To me, the use of the augmented chord to indicate the mystery of space goes back to classic 1950s sci-fi.
Aside from Holst, that motif is all over Star Trek - check out Battle in the Mutara Nebula for a particularly good example.
This was a fun video - it may have been a lot of work, but I enjoyed it!
Perfect 5ths stacked on top of each other is always my go-to space sound - reminds me of those science videos we used to watch in elementary school in the 90s 😂
You're kinda sleeping on the I-III and I-bIII progressions. C maj to Eb major just screams sci-fi to me, as well as Cm-Abm. Pretty sure a few sci-fi films use this
5:32 I cant get the Leonardo Dicaprio meme out of my head here hahaha
How about the popular lick, the mitsuda lick? Its in many popular game songs, such as ocarina of time, main title theme where the lick descends chromatically
That chord in isolation immediately makes me think of the theme for Wrath of Khan.
This space chords you're all looking for has a name screaming out of it: Holst (whose The Planets Suit was, by the way, one of the biggest influences for John Williams to compose Star Wars themes).
I've been watching Star Trek Picard S3 and the end-credits theme, which is from the main title of Star Trek First Contact gets me every single time, I just have to stay and listen to it. I would love to see a breakdown of what makes this theme so evocative :)
Does anyone know how Charles gets the live piano with the green highlighted keys at the bottom? Is it a specific software? Could really use something similar for a Masters Degree Project I’m working on at the moment so any insight would be really appreciated!
I had the same reaction to that chord that you did. Once you pointed it out I was like: “yes! That’s it! That’s space!”
Wow. Musics amazing isn’t it? *gasp*, now we need to find a chord for everything!
1:33 Everything In Its Right Place
Love this channel, but the editing on this video felt uncomfortably like a panic attack. Hopefully this is just a temporary experiment.
"We listened to a bunch of John Williams scores to find a chord that he used a lot to create a space-feel and that other people stole from him because he is the origin of all creativity."
Gustav Holst - the Planet Suite. That man wrote the templates to Scifi Music.
I didn't understand jack of what you were saying. But damn I watched until the end. Some of these short themes are so cool to listen to.
Hey Charles, can you do a breakdown on Baka Mitai and Never gonna let you go - Sergio Mendes
Check out the stellaris video game soundtrack. Very ethereal/space-y
Not a space chord but the piece with the buildup starting at 4:20 of Imperial Attack always causes me to break down into a whimpering mess. I can't define it but that is the most powerful piece of music I have ever heard.
ori and the blind forest, Dark souls and arrival(2016)
So space is where flamenco musicians go when they're tired of Earth
E.T. is J.W.'s best soundtrack. Change my mind.
Given that John Williams seems to have pioneered this sound that you conclude is "spacey," did you examine other John Williams scores that _weren't_ set in space (such as Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, or Jaws) to see if they also utilized this sound?
About midway through the video, you mentioned a particular chord relationship that, when you hummed it, reminded me a lot of the Jaws theme.
If this sound you discovered is more than just spacey, perhaps it's more accurate to say it represents the wonder/mystery/beauty that you then attributed to space?
Just a thought
Completely agree. This video is a very nice example of congruence bias: find as much data as possible that tests the initial hypothesis without considering any alternative hypotheses. (for any interested readers, check out the Veritaseum video "The Most Common Cognitive Bias")
In particular, throughout the video, everything kept sounding like the Rivendell track from Lord of the Rings - it includes both the the major sharp 5 and the I-bVI in its main theme, despite very much not being in space. To Charles' credit, it does seem like all the examples so far of these motifs have a common thread of "hugeness" about them (not just any kind of beauty/mystery, but specifically the kind that overwhelms you with how all-encompassing it is and how small you are in comparison) but even that could just be more congruence bias on my part.
That sound also pops up in a lot of Star Trek music as well, go take a look!
To sum it up you just need any two major chords that don’t share any chord tones and the root of the second one isn’t diatonic to the key of the first. In other words, use the most unrelated major chords you can make. So, like C/C# or C/F# are good examples. That’s basically it. You can add other tones and make more complicated chords but that’s icing on the space cake.
this is also the sound of mythical gods. see : age of mythology theme
I think you found it, but I'm surprised you didn't look to Holst's The Planets. Or maybe you did and just didn't include it in the video.
I wonder if some of the stuff you found is also in there. That would be cool if some of the root inspiration come from Holst because that whole suite is incredible.
Literally the exact chord I thought of when I clicked this video! That's amazing.
Btw, this chord also features prominently in Holst's Mars, the OG space music.
The best use of aug in cinema for me is in the scene in Empire Strikes Back when Yoda lifts the X-Wing from the swamp. The theme is called Yoda and the Force and the chord can be heard briefly around the 2:50 mark.
The b2, it started with Jaws. Its suspenseful.
That moment when the chord dropped in the Star Wars bit was so satisfying
Lost In Space. The Martian. Passengers.
Anyone know what the music is at the end of the video?
really like the video, the production quality certainly took a huge step. great effort!
i really enjoy your more unedited content reacting to music and really being in the moment more to be completely honest, but im certain that will stay, so geat to see you exploring and trying out newe things.
Love the passion behind every second of this video! Your videos have a way of tapping into the sheer wonder of experiencing music. It reminds me to be happy with living even when anxieties are present. Thank you to everyone at this channel and keep up the wonderful work
when you do minor to minor flat six, you get Imperial March, the epitome of necrocosmos vibes
I've had no formal instruction (not counting piano lessons from age 6 to 15), but I LOVE playing with chords, chords upon chords, chord progression, etc. Your channel makes my spirit soar!!
I love this new style of video! It combines your awesome teaching ability with the creativity/skit like feel that first brought me to your channel in the first place!
Mass effect has lots of other worldly soundscapes. The main theme is just pure bliss
Next, check out music my Melodysheep
I was curious to see what you guys thought the “Space” chord was, and I’m so glad we both reached the same conclusion of the augmented chord!
However, I knew this from the beginning of Toy Story 2 where Buzz was in the video game fighting Zurg.
It’s such an awesome chord, gives me the feeling that there’s more out there than meets the eye.
E aug is the chord I used in one of my own space songs, just gives off space vibes.
As soon as you said it’s from Star Wars, I knew it!
Wow! It’s like a Mr. Beast video, but it’s for music!
Hey Charles, I think Acura watched the video. Checkout their "space" commercial - ruclips.net/video/zVmFuUoDjAU/видео.html
Pretty sure they go I - bVI - I (Ab - Emaj7 - Ab).
Also I'm absolutely obsessed with your content, especially this video. I show it to everyone. This video in particular brings me such joy. Thank you so much for making it, and keep up the amazing content 🥹.
I would use the whole tone scale on that chord
CHARLES UPDATE CHARLES UPDATE CHARLES UPDATE
God please make more videos like this
Atlantis the Lost Empire uses both the I - bII (#4) and the Major (add b6) chords extensively, makes sense since it has similar themes of exploration, mystery, and danger as many space movies
Nice video!
Very well edited and presented.
If you like this chord, you gotta dive into Ondine, the first movement of Gaspard de la Nuit, by Ravel. The whole piece is structured around it
I figured out awhile ago that if you take a major triad, add a half step on top of it, and play them in descending order it sounds really spacey. Now there’s a whole video about it. Love it! Actually I think I learned it from Ratchet and Clank 2 OST - Wupash Nebula truth be told. The opening arpeggio is that exact sequence.
I LOVE the structure of this video! I do stuff like this all the time, and I loved coming along on the investigation with you. When you first asked the question, I said “D/Bb” so I’m happy we ended up in the same place
That's it. Expansive. Mysterious. Hopeful. Threatening. Unknown. Challenging. Glorious. All rolled into one.
2:15 3blue1brown intro iykyk
Oh yeah. I find it hilarious that you decided that augmented chords are the key because for years now I've used the C E G G# arpeggio (and its correlates) to introduce spacey vibes. It is in fact the perfect space chord, adding mystery and wonder to a piece.