Modulation from Cm to Am

[neueliteratur]

Hi forum,

Check this song out:

Intro)

Gm

Verse)

Gm Bb Dm Eb
I III Vm VI

Pre-chorus)

Cm Dm Gm
IVm Vm I

Chorus)

Em Bm Am, Cm Dm Gm
Im Vm IVm, IVm Vm Im

Basically modulating between Gm natural to Em natural.

Is this type of modulation common in classical music / pop?

Do you know other songs that do this?

Thanks for sharing your wisdom.

[Ogg Vorbis]

A couple of terms come to mind..."direct modulation" is just jumping through a tonal wormhole into the new key.

Rather than a traditional modulation where you have a common chord type of cadence in the new temp. key, by planing or simply moving directly you are getting to very remote tonalities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_harmony

You can use planing to get to some REALLY remote keys, just by treating a harmonic structure as a basic unit unto itself and step or jump in one direction or another.

You can do the same thing with a set of harmonies (your example sort of does this with the primary chords in G natural minor and JUMPS them up to the primary chords of A natural minor)...sort of a planing-type idea.

(I'm not sure I'd even call this a modulation because it never really establishes a new key does it? It jumps there and jumps right back to G natural minor. To me, a modulation establishes a new tonal center, even if very temporarily. Here, the jump in tonality is used coloristically rather than functionally.)

The other term that comes to mind is "modal planing" which is what Miles Davis' tunes are doing on the "Kind of Blue" record. If you look at the changes to "So What," it starts in G dorian for 8 bars and then goes up to A dorian for 8 bars (I think..).

What does G dorian have in common with A dorian? Not too much. But it doesn't work functionally like a traditional harmonic progression. It just "shifts" the whole sound up and down, like someone is operating a great big lever and moving the whole framework in one direction or other.

But all the above seems to approach the analysis of the song's harmonies but doesn't quite NAIL it. In the end, it's "what are my ears telling me?" To me, the song has a a bit of the psychedelic haze like a throwback to 1960s British music. The chord progression and its remoteness is a bit disorienting and floaty and so helps create that kind of trippy vibe.

Hope that gives you something to chew on at least..

[neueliteratur]

Thank you for such a comprehensive reply!

[idolo1co]

What scares me is that I have hardly any, IF any "traditional" understanding of music theory and yet Ogg Vorbis's explanation made sense to me...