Help with this super weird music?

[MackTuesday]

You can hear it .

I have it transcribed, one line per measure, one dot per eighth note, with underlying chords in the right column: (We really need some music transcription markup in here.)

Code: Select all

.... triplet(A#-C#-G)    Bmin
F#..... G.               Dmin
C#..... F.               G#min
C.......                 Dmin
.... triplet(A#-C#-G)    Bmin
F#.... G. D              Dmin
C# B. G#.. F#.           G#min
F.......                 Dmin
... B.. A.               Bmin
D.. E.. F.               Dmin
G#..... F#.              G#min
F..... C.                Dmin
B.. A.. B.               Bmin
D.. E.. F.               Dmin
G#..... F#.              G#min
F.......                 Dmin

Now, just because I have it transcribed, doesn't mean I *understand* it Apparently the key is some sort of B minor, but there are many accidentals and the chords don't fit into any scale I know of. Can someone shed some light on what's going on here music-theoretically?

Also, how did the composer come up with this? I assume the style is borrowed from some corner of classical music, right? Is there a scale/mode/template of some kind that tends toward this spooky mood?

[jancivil]

it's some fairly common devices, 'non-chord' tones or extensions [or other devices*] to sound slightly creepy on purpose.

A# C# G are actually within the key B minor. You can think of the first two as ^7 and 9 on Bm in fact.
The G is like an escape tone to F#. That's actually normal, BUT if there is a D minor with that F#? we could sound smart saying 'major/minor chord' but I think 'it's a wrong note on purpose' suffices. I think the reason for D minor is it sticks to this plan:

*notice that the chord's roots taken as a whole amounts to a diminished chord construction, ie., the relationship between these minor chords is all about the minor third (G#, B, D); rather than heed chords native to one key. That's its first trick I think. Just kind of super-minor ideations.

the lick A# C# G is itself a diminished chord, that establishes the vibe.

[MackTuesday]

Thanks for the pointers jancivil.