stumped: how does a song made up of only I, IV, V, and ii chords sound so sad!?

[silph]

i rediscovered some music i loved years back [when i listened to a /lot/ of country music], and i ran across one of my old favourites: When I Call Your Name by Vince Gill.

now, i found some chords on the internet:
https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/v/vince_gill/when_i_call_your_name_crd.htm
and i tested those chords out on a virtual guitar "game" called Jam Session on my nintendo DS, by playing the chords in the link above along with the actual song; i found that the chords in the link match up perfectly with the actual song. (note: the chords written in the link are in the key of G, but the link says that the song actually is in they key of F, so i transposed all the written chords in the link down to be in the key of F, and played those transposed chords along with the song)

the thing is,
- if i treat the chord F as the I chord [which makes sense, given that the music feels most stable at the F chords -- ie the chord that begins and ends the song --, and also given that most phrases (including the one that ends the song) end on the note F], then:
- the only chords in the song are: I, I plus the minor seventh from its root [i don't know how to write the proper symbol for this chord], ii (briefly used), IV, and V

so given that the song is made up almost only of major chords, why does the song sound so sad?! i can't figure it out! surely it's more than just the words; if they were singing in some language that i know nothing about, and i had never heard the song before, i am guessing that it would still sound sad to me.

can anyone help crack this puzzle for me?

[nystul]

Complex harmonies aren't everything.  Here are a few contributors:  Slow tempo.  Downward movement at the end of melodic phrases and downward movement in the chord voicings.  The tone of the vocals and lead guitar fits the emotion of the lyrics.  I think that musical emotion is to some degree imitative of how humans express emotion in speech. 

By the way, I chord plus a minor seventh is I7 (a dominant seventh chord).  You see that in a lot of blues based ideas.

[starstruck5]

Didn't listen to the whole song - but even in a Major chord there is of course a minor third. For example, C Major Triad consists of C-E-G -

C to E is a major third ( 4 semitones) which when rising sounds very positive and cheerful - E to G, however is a Minor third ( 3 semitones). This interval rising or falling sounds quite mournful - Hey Jude by The Beatles, starts on a Major chord, but that falling minor third is really soulful.

As the last poster more or less  pointed out the Blues scale isn't called the Blues scale for nothing!  Quite a few minor intervals.

[keypeg]

I've noticed that a number of sad sounding songs seem to dwell on the third degree note (like E in C major).  That is the dominant note of the relative minor and maybe that is what gives a minor feel, along with the minor third if you keep going from the dominant note to the mediant note like someone pointed out.

[silph]

@nystul:
thanks for your thoughts. i have to say that though you mention
- slow tempo
- downward movement in melody
as factors, i still felt not very convinced after first reading your post. i just couldn't believe that those factors could have such a strong affect on how happy or sad a song can feel!

i found myself experimenting with tempo later on, though, when walking to a friend's house; i essentially hummed the melody to myself, but three times faster than normal tempo. i was surprised to find out how much happier the melody sounded! so you might actually be onto something!

@startstruck5 and keypeg:
that is interesting, about the role the mediant of a scale can make, and how the dominant falling to mediant can give a soulful feeling! thanks for that Hey Jude observation; i'll take a listen to see how i react to it.





i wonder -- does anyone else know any songs that are mostly made of major chords, but sound sad?

[keypeg]

Hey Jude was one of my teen heartthrob oh-so-emotional songs (I'm that old, lol).  It keeps swinging from sad to trying to be happy, for me me, and I think it is done by the choice of notes and harmonies.  That is also what the song is about, I think.