KVR Audio

Toxikator · Post by **Toxikator** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 4:14 pm

Watching the Simpsons last night got the song "The Aquarium" in my head... I picked me up a MIDI file and just can't figure out how to analyze the chord progressions.

For those unfamiliar with the song, the chord progression starts like this:

A minor (composed of A, C, A, C, E, C)
? (composed of A, F, A, B, Eb, B)
A minor (composed of A, C, A, C, E, C)
? (composed of A, F, A, B, Eb, B)
A minor (composed of A, C, A, C, E, C)
D minor (composed of D, A, D, F, A, F)

A minor (composed of A, C, A, C, E, C)
? (composed of A, F, A, B, Eb, B)
A minor (composed of A, C, A, C, E, C)
? (composed of A, F, A, B, Eb, B)
A minor (composed of A, C, A, C, E, C)
D Major (composed of D, A, D, F#, A, F#)

A minor (composed of A, C, A, C, E, C)
? (composed of A, F, A, B, Eb, B)
A minor (composed of A, C, A, C, E, C)
F minor (composed of Ab, F, Ab, C, F, C)
? (composed of A, D, G, B, D, B)
? (composed of A, Eb, G, A, Db, A)
? (composed of A, D, G, B, D, B)
? (composed of Eb, B, Ab, E, B, E)
A minor (composed of A, C, A, C, E, C)
? (composed of A, Eb, A, B, Eb, B)
D major (composed of D, A, F#, D, F#, D)
? (composed of E, B, Ab, B, E and Ab, B)

All of the chords (barring the simultaneous E and Ab in the last one) are arpeggiated up.

And that's to say nothing of the second part.

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 4:20 pm

the aquarium?

do you mean age of aquarius?

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 4:59 pm

It might help if you gave us a link to that midi file you used...

Toxikator · Post by **Toxikator** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 5:07 pm

It's the Aquarium, a movement from "Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saens.

http://www.kunstderfuge.com/-/midi.asp? ... ajares.mid

That's the MIDI File (the chords I outlined are played by the two "piano" parts

EDIT: BBC URL tags not working, just copy-paste the whole thing

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 5:14 pm

Toxikator wrote:It's the Aquarium, a movement from "Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saens.

why didnt you just say that...
i love CoA.

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 5:21 pm

music-scores.com has the sheet music:

Toxikator · Post by **Toxikator** » Mon Jan 08, 2007 5:53 pm

So any assistance on those chords?

I know that Romantic Era composition is really chromatic but I would love to understand it, it's so spooky and serene at the same time.

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 8:45 am

This is a rather crude transcription of the chords of the first eight bars. Lots of additions left out:

Code: Select all

| Am  F7/A  Am  F7/A | Am  Dm/A  Dm/A    |
| Am  F7/A  Am  F7/A | Am  D/A   D/A     |
| Am  F7/A  Am  D/G# | G   E#7/G G  Am/F#|
| F   G     E        | E                 |

That's from the top of my head, left the actual scheme at home...

SARcazm · Post by **SARcazm** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 12:02 pm

Toxikator wrote:It's the Aquarium, a movement from "Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saens.

http://www.kunstderfuge.com/-/midi.asp? ... ajares.mid

That's the MIDI File (the chords I outlined are played by the two "piano" parts

EDIT: BBC URL tags not working, just copy-paste the whole thing

Good site that> has some interesting theory stuff on fugues as well!

cheul · Post by **cheul** » Tue Jan 09, 2007 10:20 pm

Holy Molly Toxikator, thanks ! I've been wondering for years now what the title of this tune was ! And it confirms I'm really fond of chromaticism.
Spooky and serene, that also depicts quite well Elfman's style that seems to rely heavily on chromatic relationships.

Toxikator · Post by **Toxikator** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 2:50 pm

That's from the top of my head, left the actual scheme at home...

I would love to see it. It's a startling progression scheme, I'm not too familiar with the Romantic Era (more well versed in contemporary and classical) but there's a lot to be learned about functional chromaticism from these sort of compositions.

cheul · Post by **cheul** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 11:06 pm

So who will do us the honour of analyzing this piece ?

birrbits · Post by **birrbits** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 5:32 am

since noone else will take a stab, I will give you my analysis

there are many many many many notes
and together they make it work

sorry, it looks very interesting but a bit complicated

vurt · Post by **vurt** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 12:56 pm

cheul wrote:So who will do us the honour of analyzing this piece ?

hmmm, im not sure what kind of analsysis people are after, i mean, the track is available for anyone to listen to, the sheet music is there, you either understand whats happening or you dont. if you can explain which bits you do not understand its easier to know where to start...

Toxikator · Post by **Toxikator** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 3:15 pm

A functional harmonic analysis. As in, how do those notes form chords that build a functioning harmony?

The Aquarium (analysis help)?