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Topic: Sad Sounding Piano Chords  (Read 124593 times)

Offline dough_mouse

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Sad Sounding Piano Chords
on: April 04, 2007, 12:41:03 AM
What are some really sad-sounding chords/chord progressions in your opinion?
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Offline ted

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Re: Sad Sounding Chords
Reply #1 on: April 04, 2007, 01:15:57 AM
Successive minor harmony in the keys whose roots form an augmented triad, e.g.
Bm - Ebm - Gm.

I have always thought this cycle particularly haunting but I suppose anything loses its charm if it is overdone.
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Offline Bob

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Re: Sad Sounding Chords
Reply #2 on: April 07, 2007, 01:27:38 AM
mM7 chords.  That's a minor triad with a M7 -- C, Eb, G, B.  I think it has some kind of sad quality possibly.  It can sound kind of nauseous or like it's crying if you play that around the circle of fifths -- CmM7, FmM7, BbmM7, etc.  Have some fun and warmup in front of a group with that.

C, F, B  resolving to C, F, A   Just a major triad with a appog on a #4 resolving down to the third.  That pattern can keep going down by whole tones, the chords moving down by whole tones.  Sounds like a sigh.
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Offline phil13

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Re: Sad Sounding Chords
Reply #3 on: April 07, 2007, 02:41:06 AM
I don't believe there is such a thing as a sad-sounding chord or chord progression. The quality of the chords is determined by its timbre and voice-leading from one chord to another.

For example, Brahms's 4th Symphony opens with a beautiful, melancolic E-minor chord progression, but it would not have the expressive quality it has without the haunting voice-leading of the melody.

Phil

Offline mcgillcomposer

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Re: Sad Sounding Chords
Reply #4 on: May 17, 2007, 06:06:03 PM
I don't believe there is such a thing as a sad-sounding chord or chord progression. The quality of the chords is determined by its timbre and voice-leading from one chord to another.

For example, Brahms's 4th Symphony opens with a beautiful, melancolic E-minor chord progression, but it would not have the expressive quality it has without the haunting voice-leading of the melody.

Phil

Ya, Brahms 4 is great for "sad" sounding progressions. Check out the opening of the final movement...now THAT is harmony! It is a passacaglia (harmonic progression that repeats over and over...although brahms being Brahms modifies this as the piece progresses).

It is in e minor and opens with a iv6 chord

iv6 - iio6 - i - iv6 - V/V - i6 - [Fr 43 - V] of iv ---> and back to the beginning :P
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Offline counterpoint

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Re: Sad Sounding Chords
Reply #5 on: May 17, 2007, 06:42:35 PM
I don't believe there is such a thing as a sad-sounding chord or chord progression.

I don't either!

The character of a musical piece is not defined by the used chords - but by the rhythm, the tempo and the articulation. There are some C major pieces, that sound really sad and depressed (for example the beginning of Schumann's 2nd Symphony), and there are some C minor pieces, that sound exceptionally funny and sparkling (Rondeau and Capriccio from Bach's Partita 2).
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Offline mcgillcomposer

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Re: Sad Sounding Chords
Reply #6 on: June 16, 2007, 05:05:16 AM
I don't either!

The character of a musical piece is not defined by the used chords - but by the rhythm, the tempo and the articulation. There are some C major pieces, that sound really sad and depressed (for example the beginning of Schumann's 2nd Symphony), and there are some C minor pieces, that sound exceptionally funny and sparkling (Rondeau and Capriccio from Bach's Partita 2).

You have a great point here...but the chords should factor into the other elements you mentioned. I think what  you mean is that the entire ensemble of these various parameters is what creates a particular effect.

- D.
Asked if he had ever conducted any Stockhausen,Sir Thomas Beecham replied, "No, but I once trod in some."

Offline Barbosa-piano

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Re: Sad Sounding Chords
Reply #7 on: June 21, 2007, 05:58:04 AM
       There is a song by twentysevenfold (spelling?) (Yes, a rock band...) that has an awesome choral part in its middle - The Wicked End. The chord progression is hauntingly beautiful and sad. I stick to classical music to the end, but this song just broke through me. I suspect the progression has been inspired a classical piece... :P
      I'm yet to decipher those.

       Rachmaninoff and Brahms wrote miraculous sad chord progressions, but Rachmaninoff goes beyond sad sometimes- His "far away" chords can take you places.
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