This is the case with a lot of Jobim's music BTW, because the originals are often played by a guitar and voice with no bass. Those chords are put there to prescribe scales and are not meant to be "changes" in the actual meaning. How Insensitive is famous for being very similar (if not a rip-off) of the Chopin Prelude, however the chords from the lead sheet are not following any typical functional logic (from Jazz standpoint, such as ii - V - I, etc.) with a few tiny exceptions. Im not so sure, Carlos Jobims "How insensitive" is basically the same structure and can be explained by chord scales. To add to my theory, Rachmaninov's Vocalise follows a similar pattern to a certain degree and thus creates a similar feel of sadness. And of course, we have a genius who managed to extract something so great that it can't even be explained, it works on a subliminal level.
I guess this is what causes the enormous sadness. Since the entire harmonic movement is downwards, as already stated, it creates a logical muddle that induces uneasiness, lack of resolution and functional direction. In a certain way it's very avant-garde piece of harmonic structure that is vaguely tonal and barely functional. This create a lot of unresolved tension, a constant voice leading that goes seemingly nowhere and it's your musical imagination/brain that is left with perceiving these harmonic structures any way there is. Not with this prelude though because you only have narrow-voiced (often rootless) chords in the left hand that are a bit vague as function. To a certain degree many classical pieces from the Romantic period can be deduced into chord changes because there's a definitive bass note and so the actual chord function can be determined. In my Jazz period I tried to improvise/harmonize anything I could. Please take in mind that on various occasions I've stated this is what I consider the best single piece of music ever written, so I'm much into this prelude I'll try a (quasi) theoretical explanation.
0 kommentar(er)
