Final Masquerade and Rebellion - harmonic analysis part 1 Note: roman numerals refer to a chord's relative position in a scale. Upper case letters are major chords and lower case are minor chords. I noticed that the latest two songs from THP have a great deal in common musically, something that surprised me given the fact that Daron supposedly brought the foundation for Rebellion into the studio with him and Final Masquerade is 100% LP. A lot of the commonalities are shared by a massive amount of other popular/modern music, though, so it isn't that strange. I just found it interesting. First of all, both songs are in the key of Eb. They jump around to various modes within the Eb key area, but the Eb major key forms the harmonic basis for both songs (more on this later). At the start of both songs the vi (c minor) chord is the center of attention, with Daron's riff adding chromatic upper leading tones to keep the tension on C throughout Rebellion's intro and throwing in a few Ab power chords (IV). This actually creates the same harmonic structure as Iridescent's intro, which jumps between the vi and IV chords in the key of C. Final Masquerade also seems to borrow from Iridescent during the intro, with harmony bouncing back and forth between C minor and Eb Major (I), but this connection is much weaker. This is because vi and I are the two tonics (focal points) of the major and minor modes of any given key, which can be used somewhat interchangeably. While iridescent hints at this type of substitution, the progression through G to C firmly establishes these chords as vi to IV in C major. In other words, without the context of the rest of the song, Mike's piano intro sounds like i VI i VI, when really it is vi IV vi IV in a different key. Final Masquerade, however does use the vi I vi I (in a major key rather than minor). You may notice that the chord doesn't seem like it REALLY changes, and this is because, as mentioned above, the vi and I are so closely related and serve such similar purposes. They are like twins, where the I is happy and confident and the vi is gloomy and reserved. The really interesting parts of both of these songs, however, are the respective choruses. They both use "standard" LP chord progressions, but they start them on what is normally the second chord. Rebellion uses the same ii IV I V modal progression found in What I've Done, In the End, Given Up, and a billion other LP songs, with a twist. Rather than start on the ii chord (f minor), the chorus of Rebellion starts on the V chord (Bb major). Instead of ii IV I V ii IV I V etc., the progression is V ii IV I V ii IV I etc. This goes a long way to explaining the slightly different yet still familiar sound of this song. It uses the same old tricks, but in newish ways. Final Masquerade uses this exact same idea, in the same key, but with a different progression. vi IV I V vi VI I V (Crawling, Numb, Waiting for the End choruses, a billion others not on the top of my head) and I V vi IV I V vi IV (the messenger, half blink-182's songs and every other pop song in the world) are two sides of the same coin (notice that they are rotations of each other) and together form the most common chord progression in all of pop music and the basis for a LOT of LP songs. Final Masquerade uses this progression as IV I V vi, starting on the second chord and ending on the first just like Rebellion. A note: I realized that after each repeat of IV I V vi (Ab Eb Bb c) the chord changes 1-2 times before returning to Ab, but these chords are less important. On half of the repeats, the song passes through Bb on it's way, forming c Bb Ab. In this case, the Bb is a passing chord that just smooths the transition. The other repeats go through Bb and Eb, making a V-I resolution that resloves the progression on the last two beats. This is a standard turnound, and both of these alterations are just that: They alter the main progression just a smidge in order to smooth it out and allow it to remain fluid despite starting on the "wrong" chord. In other words, they help the odd progression phrasing without really changing the "feel." Also: a note on why these songs are in the key of Eb, besides just having that key signature. Both use Bb as the V chord (known as the dominant in music speak. It serves to build tension toward the tonic chord, in this case Eb). If you look at FM, for example, Bb creates tension and resolves upward to c minor, which is a V-vi resolution (this is a standard music theory thing, and solidifies the key as a perfect fifth below the V chord aka Eb). Usually Bb->Eb would be the main resolution in this key, which happens a few times in FM, but it doesn't have to be. It's more the presence of the Bb major chord that hints at this and the lack of a G major chord or use of the note B natural that rules out the key of c minor). I've noticed in the past that LP do this fairly frequently. With each new album, they seem to take a new harmonic idea and add it to their toolbox, using it to modify their older techniques in new but consistent ways. From what we have seen, using old progressions with nonstandard phrasing and in different places within a key seems to be one of their new tools this cycle. Makes me curious as to when else this sort of thing will pop up on THP, and what other tools will be added to the toolbox. When I get some more time I will try to get more in depth with these songs (write out the melodies and look at the interplay between parts and how they are altering these chords etc.) and take a look at some of the other songs from THP to see if the same patterns appear.
halp https://soundcloud.com/zakaria-ahmed/final-masq/s-DhvH4 edit: I'm basically recreating this via ear. ignore the crappy synths and stuff for now. Was wondering how accurate all this is so far. here's a midi version of the incomplete thing 'cos I know you people are going to ask for it. https://www.dropbox.com/s/n77xj5ioo47hjhw/Final Masq.mid
...How is Rebellion in any way, shape, or form in the key of Eb major? I know it's the relative major to C minor and all...but that song has about as strong of a minor key tonality as anything I've ever heard. C minor all the way as far as I'm concerned. I think people GREATLY over-estimate how "musically smart" the members of Linkin Park are. Do you seriously think Mike and Brad sat down in the studio and racked their brains about whether to substitute a B natural for a Bb major chord and therefore put the song in a different key? No, they probably sat down, wrote the song, and that's just how it came out. Particularly on Rebellion with Daron being involved and how much chromaticism he works into his guitar riffs, you can't exactly establish a key through "traditional" means when analyzing his compositions, it's easier to just go by common sense and where it sounds like the I is. If you were to ask Daron or any of the LP members about the key Rebellion is in, you'd probably get a response along the lines of "Well it sounds like the I is on C, and all the C's are minor chords...so it's in C minor, right?" Over-analyzation of theory is really pointless sometimes. If it sounds like it's in C minor, why can't it just be in C minor?
I didn't mean to say that it's 100% in Eb major, but I hear that more than c minor in most places. That's why I said that it "jumps around to various modes in the Eb key area." That chorus progression is a Dorian mode progression the way it's traditionally used, and I agree that Daron's into and a few other parts seem to lean toward Aeolian (c natural minor). It still doesn't have any of the hallmarks of minor tonality, unless I missed something (entirely possible, I actually usually do these things after you finish your tabs haha). I just notice that when the melody resolves to an Eb (like at 0:39) it sounds like a tonic to me, and c minor sounds like a vi when I play it alongside the song. I agree that the band probably isn't hyper aware of any in depth music theory (although it wouldn't surprise me to find out mike, brad, or especially phoenix had some knowledge in the area) and probably doesn't think through all of this shit when they write a song, but that isn't really an argument either way haha. Either they know a lot or their explanation would by definition not be "technically" accurate. I've just always been taught that it's just good practice to refer to something by the major scale that it would be written in whenever the exact tonality is ill defined or constantly changing, for the sake of consistency between works and analyses. A shit ton of modern music doesn't really have a tonality in the classic sense, so I find it makes it easier to stay on the same page when comparing things. Of course note where something else is tonicized in a really thorough analysis, but for the sake of keeping everything from being overly confusing I kept it simple in the post. I realized when I started typing that out that only doing this sort of thing via text would be an absolute bitch, and if I had a good way to write out music notes with text and labels all around them I would do that, but it would be even more confusing for the average person and I don't have a reliable source for sheet music. I certainly agree on the overanalysis thing, but I still think there is some valuable information to be had. I also only looked at the song for 10 minutes with no sheet music haha. Please don't misconstrue me as calling you an idiot or trying to start an argument, I really do appreciate the work you do on tabs as a fan of both LP and studying music, but I was just trying to point out a cool pattern (that I'll admit I explained horribly and half tried to keep within layman's terms and half not). I've always found it an interesting question to assign tonicization to popular music, and I'll admit some of my ways of looking at things don't really work for some people. It's just how I've trained myself to think after starting out looking at 20th and 21st century popular music, going back and finding things in common with music from all periods of time, bach to beethoven to blues to beatles, and comparing how they are used, then going back and attempting to coming up with some consistent method for modern pop (I say pop meaning anything that isn't "art" music, music for the average person, not the radio definition. From an analysis standpoint, death metal or hardcore punk or rap or whatever all fit in this category). I just generally stay in major key until I start seeing harmonic minor scales or melodic minor scales or blues scales or anything else like that. I'm afraid I've painted a broken picture for the sake of not writing a thesis on a song that we don't have sheet music to and that, like you said, is by no means intended to be analyzed like this haha. But then again I'd look at Given Up and say D major if you asked me for a one word answer as to what key it was in, so I may just be insane. (my full answer would be a page long, though haha) Side note: Damnit, I've distracted myself with an interesting question now... E is Definitely the tonic of like 90% of the song, and it's chromatic as f*ck, but I'd say the choruses are textbook Dorian (based on E, but 2 sharps), so ii IV I V if you write it based on the key (again, just writing in D because modal or not, it sounds the same as those chords in a major key which is how our brains tend to hear shit, and I would argue that if you played a D major after the chorus it would sound like "home" because of that). The F chord it jumps to during that main intro riff creates problems, though. Really it's an out of key chord that resolves down by half step, which usually means something similar to an augmented 6th chord or tritone substitution (not saying it is one of those, but the tension in an augmented 6th chord or tritone substituted dominant resolves down by a half step when you look at the resulting harmonic series of that and the usual resolution chord). Tritone sub makes the most sense, since the other chord it jumps up to is Bb, which would be the ii or V/V in a tritone sub off of the E tonic area. This basically gives ii-V-i or V/V-V-i depending on whether or not that Bb chord is major or minor (it's just a power chord, and not other notes play along with it ever I believe but it doesn't really matter), which would be a straightforward way to tonicize E. So I guess I would say the verses/choruses are E dorian with some tritone substitions going on, and would write it as ii IV I V for choruses and (i xx xx xxx xx x i xx xx xxx xx x i xx xx xx i xx V/TT i)/ii for the verses (put the x's in for clarity since, again, cant draw and label notes here ><) in the key of D for the sake of consistency and ease of comparison to other songs. The bridge is another matter (there the D is brought out as the focus, also that's what she said) I need to listen to you and stop doing this... I have a problem lmao.
I applaud your effort. I haven't applied straight theory to music outside of needing to connect some songs live via modulation. These songs are a bit tough because there are a lot of chromatic passages. I'm sitting here like "Ok, 3rd fret, 1st fret, open. Wait... now 5th, 6th, 2nd..." lol. These songs play around with key a lot with the chromatic guitar passages. I would say you almost have to just ignore those parts if you want to assign a real key to these songs and focus on the overall tone, the chorus parts and the vocal melody to establish a key.
Im just saying holy shit into how much people look into the song. I'm just sitting here waiting for my album to arrive by mail
As musicians sometimes it's fun just to analyze a song from a more academic perspective. Keys, progressions, lyrical content, technique etc.