Sunday 14 August 2011

Eleven Gifts in depth, part 10: t

This short piece came to my head in one lucky, inspired moment. I don't know exactly what prompted me, but I was seeking for a slow, solemn theme that transmitted a stately, not exactly sad, but poignant feel. Not that there's any special significance to this track, but I wanted it to have a different feel from the others. I guess I was thinking of using the sustain pedal for an enhanced effect, and when this sequence of notes hit my head, I scribbled them down on a notebook, with the working title of "Pedal".

Writing it was very easy a fast -- the song pretty much wrote itself from start to end. It uses a pretty predictable trick halfway through, which is to switch to what would be the relative major key, but in the minor key. In practical terms, the song starts in G minor, which has B-flat as its relative major key, but the song switches to B-flat minor instead. Yet, the tail end suggests a major key, and I like the effect of the trailing notes, which creates a hazy, ambiguous tonality.

Just not I realised that G minor and B-flat minor are exactly the two keys used in the song The Wedding, by the Legendary Pink Dots, which is also a piano led track which I truly, really love -- but I don't think I knew that particular song back then! A minor coincidence, I believe...

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