Chapter 6 Flashcards
Relative and Parallel Minor Switches
How would you define the sound of minor tonality?
At the heart of the sound is the use of a tonic chord featuring a minor triad. This is an instant and practical definition, but from that raw material of a tonic and 3, a number of scales can be built – of which our infamous Aeolian mode (a.k.a. the natural minor scale) is merely one option. In Beatles music alone we must also consider the Harmonic minor scale and two other minor modes (the seemingly exotic ‘Dorian’ and ‘Phrygian’) when appreciating some very specific and memorable sounds.
Why do most songs not stay in minor keys for their totality.?
The answer no doubt lies in the profound effect of the minor tonality itself. For all the power of such songs, most songwriters know that, in minor, a little goes a long way. Another songwriting secret: the success of contrasting tonalities. After a major verse and chorus, for example, a minor bridge invariably brings sudden textural poignancy. And vice versa: when in minor, a chorus or bridge in major often creates a much needed emotional ‘lift’ that equally can make a song.
What is the minor-key equivalent of the Three-Chord Trick?
This is no longer I, IV and V, of course, but the minor triads labelled ‘i’, ‘iv’ and ‘v’ as they each consist of a root, minor third and perfect fifth (1, 3 and 5).
What is the sound of the minor ‘v’ in the repeated verse vamp of McCartney’s ‘Things We Said Today’?
you= i (Am)
you= v (Em7)
love= i (Am)
have= v7 (Em7)
go= i (Am)
thinking= v7 (Em7)
me= i (Am)
Notice also the particularly appropriate use of the chord – in a melodic sense – as the word ‘will’ appears as the defining 3rd.
Breaking the diatonic minor rules – the ‘borrowed V7’
Aeolian cadences aside, many (indeed, probably most) minor-key songs break the diatonic rules in one fundamental respect. They adopt a ‘regular’ V chord – a dominant V7 – just as we expect in a major key. The purpose of the dominant V7 in minor is to create the same voice-leading that resolves so effortlessly to the tonic in a major key.
Breaking the diatonic minor rules – the ‘borrowed V7’
The Beatles understood this distinction between v and V7 as early as what appears be their first minor-key original, ‘Cayenne’, dating apparently from the summer of 1960. McCartney’s instrumental consists of just these three chords: Em, Am and a dominant B7 – a major V7 chord that can now be rationalised as deriving from the leading tone in a closely related minor scale – the harmonic minor.
Why use the “borrowed V7” ?
We already know that, in a major scale, the leading tone lies a semitone below the root. And it is this note that, when the scale is harmonised, appears as the 3rd of the V chord, thereby creating the resolution to the tonic as the note moves up a semitone to the root. This doesn’t happen in the diatonic natural minor scale because (as we know from the last chapter) the seventh degree is flattened.
Why does the minor v not establish tonality or have the same pull as the ‘borrowed V7’ ?
‘A Taste Of Honey’ certainly had a very distinct flavour but classical theorists would say that the whole step between the 7 and root simply does not lead the melody (or the harmony) to the tonic with quite the same degree of ‘pull’. The characteristic half-step in a major key is a strong factor in establishing tonality, while its absence in natural minor often makes tonality less conclusive.
Why is a major dominant chord needed when we move between major and minor tonalites?
we don’t question tonality in ‘A Taste Of Honey’, that’s because there’s no distracting potential major tonic to cloud the picture. But when we move between both major and minor tonalities as we will be doing throughout this chapter, a major dominant chord is often needed to reinforce our feeling of a minor tonic.
How is the flaw in the natural minor scale corrected?
It is for this reason that this ‘flaw’ in the natural minor scale is ‘corrected’ by artificially raising this 7 note by a semitone, back to the natural 7th, thereby making it, once again, a leading tone. It is with this new minor scale, harmonic minor – with its new interval sequence – that the V7 chord is created.
Creating V7 in minor – the harmonic minor scale
Here’s the harmonic minor scale in the key of A minor.
1= A
2= B
Flat 3= C
4= D
5= E
Flat 6= F
7= G#
8= A
Creating V7 in minor – the harmonic minor scale
When harmonised conventionally in thirds, the scale yields some interesting ‘new’ chords:
i= Am
ii dim= B dim
flat iii augmented= C aug
iv= Dm
V= E
flat VI= F
vii dim= G# dim
And, if we add the sevenths, we can now spot the V7 itself:
The important point here is that minor songs tend to be based in natural minor using, chords that are within that family, and only occasionally ‘borrowing’ the odd chord from the harmonic minor family – the V7 being by far the most common.4 The two scales can therefore happily co-exist within a song.
Why do minor songs based in natural minor occasionally “borrow” chords from the harmonic minor family?
The important point here is that minor songs tend to be based in natural minor using, chords that are within that family, and only occasionally ‘borrowing’ the odd chord from the harmonic minor family – the V7 being by far the most common. The two scales can therefore happily co-exist within a song.
The relative minor bridge
We can take the presence of V7-i minor for granted in helping to establish and reinforce a feeling of moving to the minor tonic, noting also that this can be used either instead of – or in conjunction
with – the modal VII-i move from the last chapter. For these two chord changes together prove to be vital landmarks to look out for when navigating between major and minor sections in Beatles songs.
Take a look at our first example, ‘There’s A Place’, a criminally under-appreciated song from Please Please Me, which has a special place in the hearts of Beatles musos. For it appears, chronologically, as the group’s first convincing flirtation with the dual tonics of major and relative minor on a recorded original.
Key of E Major
IV(A)—————————–V(B) Pivot
Love—————————-you
Key of C# Minor
flat VI(A)————————-flatVII(B)
Love——————————-you
i (C#m)—————————IV(F#)
In———————————–no sorrow
flatIII(E)—————————V(G#)–i(C#m)
Reinforcing Minor Feel
Don’t——————————-So———–
Key of E major
————–I (E)
There’s a place
How does “There’s a place” convince us of the minor tonality?
Here, the build-up on the B chord and the C# melody note soon makes us feel that we are more than just flirting with the minor tonality. As such, we subliminally reinterpret the entry to the bridge as ‘VII-i’. Meanwhile, we now also enjoy a ‘reinforcing’ feel from a V-i, as the G# chord primes the C#m at and again before the next verse resumes in E major.
‘I’m Happy Just To Dance With You’
Key of C# Minor intro
i(C#m)–iv(F#m)–V(G#)–i(C#m)–iv(F#m)–
V(G#)—–i(C#m)—iv(F#m)—V(G#)–6VI(A6)-
Before—dance—-love——–too—–happy–
6VII(B6) Pivot
Key of E Major
V6(B6)—————I(E6)—V7(B7)—I(E)—–
Dance—————me—————–wanna–
iii(G#m)–ii(f#m)–V7–I(E)—-iii(G#)—ii(F#M)
hold——-hand———funny-un-der-stand-
V7(B7)—There is
How does ‘I’m Happy Just To Dance With You’ get to the relative minor?
– ‘I’m Happy Just To Dance With You’ cleverly uses the same versatile pivot premise (remember ‘VII = V’?) but now in mirror image. Having earlier seen how McCartney’s ‘I-iii’ ‘formula’ accounts for the verse, we can now identify the bridge as in the key of C# minor – the relative minor of E. This time, instead of moving to the minor chord via the pivot as in both ‘There’s A Place’ and ‘When I Get Home’, The Beatles dive straight to the C#m from E (no problem with that, of course, as it’s just ‘I-vi’!), with the V7 of the minor key then helping to reinforce the feeling of the minor key.
How does the song ‘I’m Happy Just To Dance With You’ pivot from C#m to E major?
But note how they emerge from the excursion with those A and B major chords not leading us to the minor tonic but back to the brighter world of E major. The crux is the B chord – it can be interpreted as either the VII of C#m (the key we are now leaving) or as the V of E major (our destination key), and duly creates a ‘Perfect’ V-I move to E major. Indeed, the very same structure starts the song,
How does the song “Should have known better” Transition to the minor bridge?
Key of G major
IV(C)————–III7(B7)——vi(em)
Cant you see, Cant you see, That
Key of E minor
6VI(C)————V7(B7)———-i(em)
Cant you see, Cant you see,(pivot) That
the B7 and Lennon’s frantic cry ‘can’t you see’ is a clear point of transition, a harmonic delineation between the primitive major verse and the more intricate bridge in the relative minor.
In the song “Should have known better” in the bridge we soon get another B7 (like an exclamation mark on ‘oh’) that reinforces the V-i minor feeling, at least for those first eight bars, before the D chord crucially succeeds in tilting us back to G.
Bridge
i(Em)————6VI(C)—– 6III(G)——–V7(B7)
That————-I tell——–love you—–oh
i(Em)————————III(G)—–III7(G7)
Your gonna say———too——–oh
6VI(C)-----6VII(D7)---------I(G)--vi(Em) C Major IV(C)------V7(D7)Pivot---I(G)--vi(Em)
And when---I ask--------mine----
IV(C)——-V7(D7)———I(G)—–V(D)——I(G)
you’re—-say you——–too
How can the ‘IV-III7-vi’ formula lead to a new section?
I(E)—–vi(C#m)—IV(A)—III7(G#7)—vi(C3m)
never—–pow—always—day———please
(or V of vi)
The verse looks headed for a simple I-vi-IV-V, only for the dominant to be shunned as the IV backtracks to III7 (another G#7). Just like ‘I Should Have Known Better’. This effective formula is an inspired ‘IV-III7-vi’ that leads to a new section (this time a chorus) starting on the relative minor.
This is in contrast to the cheeky euphoria of ‘Drive My Car’, where the same move is emotionally more of a major-ish ‘V-vi’ where we don’t feel as if we’ve really strayed too far from D major.
V7(A7) aug————vi(Bm)———IV(G7)
But you can———–baby————car
vi(Bm)—-IV(G7)—–vi(Bm)—-II(E)—–V(A)
yes———star———baby—–car—–maybe
– —–D Major
I(D)————–IV(G)———V(A)
Love you
Verse
I7(D7)———————————–IV(G)
I told that girl Prospects were
The bridge of ‘We Can Work It Out’ establishes a minor-key quality far more strongly – with a bassline that drops purposefully to the F# chord that acts as the dominant of Bm thereby establishing the minor mood of the new key centre – i minor. The bridge is assisted in its task by John’s downbeat lyrical theme (which contrasts with Paul’s famously optimistic, major verse). In this way we can view the A chord as the ‘gateway’ to the minor territory, a ‘VII-V’ pivot that uses the VII element to reinterpret the A to Bm move as VII-i minor.
Chorus
IV(G)—————I(D)————-IV(G)——–V(A)
we out we out
Bridge
i(Bm)—-i(Bm)—–Bm/A——6VI(G)—Vsus4
Life short there’s time (F#sus4)
V(F#)——–i(Bm)—–Bm/A—Bm/G—Bm/F#
fussing fighting friend
Verse D Major
I(D)———Isus4(Dsus4)———I(D)
try to my way
I(D)——–Isus4(Dsus4)—-I(D)
only tell I
Why do you not feel such a minor shift from the song ‘In My Life’, also on Rubber Soul, as you do on “Drive my Car” ?
The same goes for the short bridges of ‘In My Life’, also on Rubber Soul. A ‘vi’ starts each four-bar strain but each time the sequence is headed inexorably for the A major tonic. While the song is reflective and poignant, we don’t feel a dark, minor shift and, as with ‘Drive My Car’, this is partly because the relative minor chord is not heard subsequently in conjunction with either its V or VII chords.
As with ‘I’m Happy Just To Dance With You’ there’s no priming V or VII chord to ‘segue’ us into the bridge, we jump straight in from the major tonic. But notice how both these chords do then appear, taking turns to reinforce our sense of the A minor tonality. There’s even a Dm chord that gives a feeling of iv, but McCartney brilliantly interprets this as the relative minor of F major, a chord that then helps him to exit the bridge by means of the easiest of all ‘retransition’ ploys: IV-V-I (again just as we saw in ‘I’m Happy Just To Dance With You’). In particular, the G chord really earns its keep here by appearing as both VII of A minor and V of C, a dual manifestation for our favourite pivot chord.
Chorus C Major
II(D7)—–V7(G7)—–I(C)—V(G)—-I(C)
When sixty four
Bridge A Minor Relative Minor
i(Am)———————-6VII(G)————–i(Am)
Every summer of Wight dear
reinforcing minor tonality
—-V7(E7)——–i(Am)—-iv(Dm)———-6VI(F)
and save on your knee Vera
further reinforcement C Major IV(F)
6VII(G)———-6III(C) Cmajor V(G)——–I(C)
Chuck Dave
V(G)—————I(C) Send me
Minor to relative major switches – a caveat
So far all our examples have focused on the ‘relative minor bridge’ – a phenomenon that appears in a song which has already fundamentally established the major tonality. But this is only one context in which The Beatles exploited the scope for switching between these same tonalities. There’s also the mirror image. Songs like ‘Girl’, ‘Wait’, ‘I’m Only Sleeping’, and ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’ generate their effect from using the major-to-relative minor principle in reverse. They first establish a downbeat minor tonality from which a following major section emerges like a breath of fresh air.
Lennon seem to be describing the time-honoured ‘I-vi-I-vi’ vamp, but there’s now an important twist in the tail. In both these songs Lennon crucially turns the sequence around – opening first with the offending minor chord.
Chorus
vi(C#m)————————–I(E)—————–
wont be long wont be long
vi(C#m)—————V(A7)—-A769———-I(E)
wont be long till I you
What effect does the vi—-I create?
A rather small difference, you might think. But in doing so, Lennon creates a very different effect from the ‘I-vi-I-vi’ we know so well. Now the listener is dealt a sudden minor body-blow before he regains his senses as the tonality gradually confirms the ensuing major chord as the tonic.
What effect does the vi—-I create?
An opening minor chord creates a different atmosphere and tonal reference point right from the start. After all, if you stop the song after the first bar, what key are you in – major or minor? That’s just the point – for the name of the game even with such a simple two-chord structure is, once again, tonal ambiguity.
Lennon seem to be describing the time-honoured ‘I-vi-I-vi’ vamp, but there’s now an important twist in the tail. In both these songs Lennon crucially turns the sequence around – opening first with the offending minor chord.
Chorus
vi(Bm)————–I(D)————–V(A)
at all at all
vi(Bm)————-IV(G)———–V(A)——-I(D)
at all call I’ll there
we can now sample some songs that start out more by establishing a minor-key verse before a transition to relative major. The latter is now, of course, defined as the key of the major triad built on III (for example, an A minor verse that moves to a chorus or bridge in C major). This can be seen as the mirror image of the major to relative minor move we’ve been examining so far this chapter – but note how the character of the song is now entirely different as a result.
Lennon introduces the sound of the III first on the word ‘stay’, progressing to V7 and back to the tonic to remain in minor for the repeat. But just as with the vi chord in a major key, so the III is now the point of liberation – and when Lennon needs an upbeat chorus to swoon dreamily over the subject of the song, he knows he can to jump back to E major, and effortlessly begin a familiar I-iii-ii-V7 sequence.
Verse C Minor
i(Cm)———–V7(G)———i(Cm)——i7(Cm7)
anybody going to story
iv(Fm)———6III(E6)——–V7(G7)——–i(Cm)
all stay shes kind
V7(G7)———i(Cm)——–i7(Cm7)——iv(Fm)
want makes sorry still
i(Cm)————-ah
day
Chorus E Flat
I(E6)–iiiGm)–ii(Fm)–V7(B67)–I(E6)—iii(Gm)
Girl girl girl
ii(Fm)——–V7(B67)
When I think
How does “Im Only Sleeping” advance the concepts in “Girl” ?
By the time of Revolver, Lennon had developed the principle a stage further. From a songwriting point of view, ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ is similar to ‘Girl’ in certain respects – but now Lennon cleverly makes use of a new chord from minor – the VI, which lies conveniently up a fourth/down a fifth from the III. Specifically, he exploits it as a ‘pivot’ chord when targeting the relative major (G), which once again represents the desired major harmony with which to generate the song’s lyrical contrast. But just watch how Lennon achieves the transition within the whole theme of bleary-eyed sleepwalking:
The first time around, the VI just acts as an embellishment as we resume the same i-iv of ‘Girl’. But, on the repeat, the G-C move almost has the effect of making the VI chord a ‘local tonic’, with Lennon encouraging us to literally ‘float upstream’ as that same slide to C major defies the currents. We’ve labelled it however as a ‘pivot’ as, from here, a Plagal return to the G now has the effect of making this chord the ‘new I’, duly cueing the chorus action in the relative major as intended.
Verse E Flat Minor
i(E6m)——-iv(A6m)——-6III(G6)——6VI(C6)
when morning lift head
6III(G6)—–V7(B67)—–i(E6m)——–iv(A6m)
I’m yawning when dream
6III(G6)——6VI(C6)——6III(G6)——6VI(C6)
stay bed float stream
Pivot
Chorus Key G Flat Major—-IV(C6)
I(G6)—————ii(A6m)——–iii(B6m)
please dont no leave
ii(A6m)—————–IVMaj7(C6Maj7)
am sleeping
What is the special case of ‘And I Love Her’ ?
Here we drift ominously between tonalities, only ever establishing a firm foothold at certain fleeting moments. As a result, the song makes for an essential (if, at times, infuriating) case study against which to pit our understanding of tonality. It is also designed to lay the ground for other tonally ambiguous Beatles excursions that go far beyond this very specific major/relative minor context.
The first complicating factor here is the presence of the E6 chord in the intro, which challenges the listener as to the predominance of major or minor because it can be regarded as an inversion of C#m. This author hears the intro as major, with the verse opening with a minor ‘iv-i’ as the F#m now settles into an alternation with the C#m itself. Meanwhile, the refrain: ‘You’d love her too, I love her’, would appear to reflect a clear ‘IV-V-I’ to at least the temporary tonic of E major. But it seems you can’t win, for even this overview is at odds with certain Beatles experts. But that’s just the point with genuine tonality ambiguity – it’s open to interpretation.
Intro F#m / F#m / E6 / E6
E Major ii I
C# Minor iv 6III
Verse
F#m / C#m / F#m / C#m / F#m/
I give / my love / thats all / / and if /
ii vi ii vi ii
iv i iv i iv
C#m / A / B / E / E /
my love youd love I love her
ii IV V I
iv unambiguous IV V I
The same goes for the bridge – the harmony now appears to be unequivocally minor, with the C#m now being even more at the centre of things, alternating against its natural minor dominant and an Aeolian VII. Once again, while on balance this author feels the bridge to be in minor, he accepts that others might analyse it in relation to E major.
Bridge
C#m / B / C#m /G#m /
A love like ours could never die
i 6VII i v
C#m / G#m / B / B7 /
as long as I have you near me
i v 6VII
What makes “And I Love Her” good?
Whatever the view, the effect of this song is not just down to the simple pitting of major/minor verses and bridges against each other. For the ambiguity also results from the way the verse and refrain blend seamlessly as a single song section.
Just to complicate things, the song “And I Love Her” has now modulated up a half step by the time we reach the coda (starting with George’s guitar solo.
the entire song has merely shifted up a semitone, creating a lift for the listener – but without changing the chordal relationships in any way. Our ear still hears the problematic ‘relative’ tonal ambiguity though, to the extent that C#m was perhaps slightly ahead in asserting its superiority, it’s now the Dm that is the strongest tonal draw with the F chord in the closing vamp heard as an inversion of this tonic.
‘And I Love Her’ – the final chord – a Picardy third?
This interpretation means that we can reconcile that closing D major as a classical gambit whereby a minor tonic defers to its parallel ‘I major’ for a final confident coup de grâce. This is a trick known as a Tierce De Picardie, or ‘Picardy third’, whereby a minor tonic chord gets its 3rd tweaked up to a major 3rd to lift a sequence out of the gloom with all the overtones of ‘joy’, ‘enlightenment’ and ‘relief’ that this implies.
Notice also the particularly appropriate Ilse of the chord - in a melodic sense - as the word ‘will’ appears as the defining b3rd .
However, the v minor chord in this context is by no means the most common dominant in minor -key pop music. Aeolian cadences
aside, many (indeed, probably most) minor -key songs break the diatonic rules in one fundamental respect. They adopt a ‘regular ‘ V
chord - a dominant V7 - just as we expect in a major key.
McCartney’s instrumental consists of just these three chords: Em, Am and a dominant B7 - a major V7 chord that can now be rationalised as deriving from the leading tone in a closely related minor scale - the harmonic minor.
Creating V7 in minor - the harmonic minor scale:
The important point here is that minor songs tend to be based in natural minor using, for the most part, chords that are within
that family, and only occasionally ‘borrowing’ the odd chord from the harmonic minor family - the V7 being by far the most
common. The two scales can therefore happily co-exist within a song.
But note how they emerge from the excursion with those A and B major chords not leading us to the minor tonic but back to the brighter world of E major. The crux is the B chord - it can be interpreted as either the bVII of C#m (the key we are now leaving) or as the V of E major (our destination key), and duly creates a ‘Perfect’ V-I move to E major. I ndeed , the very same structure starts the song, as follows:
Minor to relative major switches - a caveat
Lennon introduces the sound of the
bIII first on the word ‘stay’, progressing to V7 and back to the tonic to remain in minor for the
repeat. But just as with the vi chord in a major key, so the bIII is now the point of liberation - and when Lennon needs an upbeat chorus to swoon dreamily over the subject of the song, he knows he can jump back to Eb major, and effortlessly begin a familiar I- iii-ii-V7 sequence.
This author hears the intro as major, with the verse opening with a minor ‘iv-i’ as the F#m now settles into an alternation with the C#m itself. Meanwhile, the refrain: -You’d love her too , I love her’ , would appear to reflect a clear ‘ IV - V -I’ to at least the temporary tonic of E major. But it seems you can’t win, for even this overview is at odds with certain Beatles experts. But that’s just the point with genuine tonality ambiguity - it’s open to interpretation
The same goes for the bridge - the harmony now appears to be unequivocally minor , with the C#m now being even more at the centre of things , alternating against its natural minor dominant and an Aeolian bVII
The ‘minor two-five -one’: ‘ii7b5- V7-i minor’
This is a great way of demonstrating to songwriters how unrelated ‘chunks’ of pop harmony can be pieced together. Here The Beatles do it in almost cut -and-paste fashion (in keeping with the whole history of the medley), with a pivot chord just linking two seemingly disparate sections. The first of these can now be revealed as nothing more than the minor -key version of the diatonic Cycle Of Fifths.
Despite the term ‘fifths’, we can see that not each and every one of these chord changes follows the formula quite as religiously as we saw in major. This is a quirk of the cycle in minor, and occurs because the drop between the F and B roots must be an augmented fourth in order for the roots to remain diatonic to the key. A further pure descent of a fifth at this point would maintain the visual symmetry but spoil the party by bringing in new notes from beyond the scale. Nevertheless, the ear is successfully fooled, and accepts the tritone root- jump for the very reason that, hot on its heels, our very same ‘ ii7b5-V7-i minor
cadence will yield such a perfect resolution of tension. And how appropriate that McCartney should negotiate this particular quirk of music theory over the very word ‘negotiations’
the same minor Cycle Of Fifths soon reappears as ‘Money’ is reprised in the minor -key ‘filling’ in the ‘sandwich’
between the two choruses of the upbeat pub sing-a-Iong, ‘Carry That Weight’. This time the pivot nature of that G chord (which makes the same transition from minor to major) is made even more obvious by just continuing the V-I move throughout the whole major key section.
Once again, here are The Beatles contrasting an intricate
minor progression with a blatantly simple, two- chord vamp that acts as an instant ‘tension- breaker’. As a brief philosophical observation, this moment also provides a clue to the popularity of Beatles songwriting insofar as this type of careful structuring
provides something for everyone, covering the bases for listeners of varying sophistication.
The ~ VI7-V7-i minor’ resolution
The ~ VI7-V7-i minor’ resolution
The minor rock runs: bVI-bVII-i and i-bVII-bVI-V7-i
We can’ t discuss the minor tonality without exploring a family of sequences that has become arguably the most famous in the history of minor - key rock and pop. These sequences all exploit the bVII and bVI, the major triads a whole step and two whole steps
below the root, respectively
And while ‘I’ll Be Back’ also features a parallel major bridge (in fact three!), the song is most interesting for the way it brings an A major chord back into a minor verse sequence!
Most of The Beatles’ parallel switches (which go equally to either major or minor depending on what key the verse starts out in) are clearly delineated in a bridge section. ‘Norwegian Wood’ is a case in point. It features a simple minor progression that is of most interest for the way that a ‘plain’ ii triad (in a minor key) leads us back from the bridge to the major verse with , yes, a ii -V-I sequence.
Here we get a straight drop from Lennon’s major verse to a parallel minor bridge that’s usually attributed to McCartney.
no discussion of parallel major/ minor in popular music would be complete without reference to Cole Porter, the
pioneer of such juxtaposition in popular song, who often toyed with the two moods in disorientating fashion. Never more so than in ‘Night And Day’ where C major and C minor are repeatedly set against each other , teasing the listener with a juggling of the lyrical/musical associations of bright ‘day’ and dark ‘night’
Just watch as the 3rd of D major drops by a semitone to depict - if not quite Porter’s ‘night’ - then certainly the setting sun, as dusk falls on the subject at the end of another futile day. The parallel minor here forms a discrete chorus section before the D6 chord lifts the gloom by reflecting McCartney’s intuitive sense of musical ‘daybreak’.
‘While we’ve only a seen a few extracts so far, this parallel major/ minor contrast emerges as critical to the structure of several songs from all three Beatles songwriters - dating once again all the way back to the debut album. Here’s an at-a-glance reference to their
use of the device, albeit in a range of contexts of varying subtlety.
The song is clearly in a minor blues setting for the verse itself, and it is the fleeting incarnation of the parallel major tonality that is really responsible for the welcome respite from the moody atmospherics. The more positive refrain: ‘Come together , right now ‘ -complete with the introduction of the F# note (the major 3rd of D) in the melody - provides another example of The Beatles’ matching of music and sentiment before they plunge back into the menacing minor world of ‘old flat top’ and his disturbing idiosyncrasies.
