Halloween Blog: The Mystery of Reharmonization
It’s spooky season once again, and what better way to celebrate Halloween than with the music of … a Disney princess? Take a listen:
I know what you might be thinking, and I promise this will add up soon. But first, how would you describe this music? Some might call it:
Okay, so maybe not exactly what you’d expect this time of year… This soft melody is in a major key, which means that the range of tones used create a happy picture. Even when a moment of tension arises, it always has a brighter, satisfying resolution. This lends itself nicely to the hopeful context of this movie scene!
Composers Frank Churchill and Larry Morey wrote the song to be featured in the 1937 Disney classic “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” This tune has stayed relevant for nearly a decade, not just because of the movie’s popularity, but also because it was picked up as a Jazz Standard, a musical work that continues to be the basis of Jazz arrangements and improvisations. In other words, it’s the “standard,” original version of a melody that musicians can then deviate from in their own performances.
Lucky for me (both for my own listening, and for the sake of this blog), one of my favorite Jazz artists, composer-pianist Tigran Hamasyan, has performed numerous versions of this standard and brought his own personality into it using reharmonization. Essentially, the melody, which remains recognizable and ultimately the same as the original, is placed into a new context. This new context has lots of new harmonies and chords, and it can even be exaggerated by changing up rhythms and speed.
What could that mean for this beloved movie theme? Let’s find out: (as a hint, I will tell you the melody doesn’t come in until a whole minute in… 👀)
NOW do you believe me that this tune is just utterly haunting?! All thanks to reharmonization. Whereas the original is in a major key, Tigran’s version of the song has more complex harmonies and paints a much more dissonant picture in a minor key. The result is super different and eerie!
This isn’t just the case with our classic Disney tune. We see this in many pieces of music. In fact, this is something Rebecca and I love diving into with our students, using music that is more familiar to them. Oftentimes, we play them the original version of the song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams, with its undeniably cheerful lyrics in all their glory, and then we counter with this “sadder” version of the song:
We think it’s pretty wild that, even with such evocative lyrics, the tonality (the overall character and range of tones) ends up overpowering the mood in this song! Reharmonization can change everything.
Are there other songs that you’d want to hear undergo a major transformation using reharmonization? Share your deepest, darkest, spooky desires with us! And happy harmony hunting. 👻
Quick Links:
Read our other Halloween blog about sounds of bones in music!
Watch our film When the Bell Rang for the chilling musical story of a young man who returns to his childhood home, only to find it abandoned.
Celebrate Halloween with spooky, pirate-themed fun for the whole family in our musical storytelling film, The Treasure Hunters.
Misc. Audio Credits:
Sad version of “Happy” by Pharrell Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go_p6oD7AIE
