Re: chord function (waters of march)

David McGillicuddy ( davidm@scruznet.com )
Tue, 1 Jul 1997 12:42:50 +0100

>
>Well any note can be placed under a chord. For example, what about
>when a pedal tone is being used? It doesnt need to be analyzed
>as some kind of chord tone or extension. If this werent the case,
>you would be unable to analyze almost any of Chopins music.
>
>Jazz and classical composers are often putting an interesting bass
>note under a chord even in cases where the bass note is not part
>of the chord.

I agree that pedal tones are not always able to be analyzed functionally.
But I also try to keep things as simple and consistent as possible. I don't
say Ebmaj/C when I mean Cm7 and I don't say Cm6/F when I mean F7. Occam's
Razor says call it F7.

>Well this has actually been discussed on many occasions on this list
>and this is the first time I havent been able to convince someone
>of my claim, though the discussion has been interesting. Bert Ligon also
>recently explained this in a post.

I'm new to the list, and I just started digging through the past posts at
your site.

>>So, onto the next changes in Just Friends...
>>
>>How do you see the Bbm7 to Eb7 ?
>>
>
>Well I believe originally the change was Bbdim7.
>
>Bbm7/Eb7 is a substitution.
>
>Bbm7/Eb7 goes to Am7/D7 .
>
>This is a pretty easy one. Eb7 is the tritone sub of A7.
>
>Essentially we have A7 to D7, changed to Eb7 -> D7 and then
>the ii7 chords are tossed in.

Sounds good to me. Do you think the original change in meas. 3 a Cdim7 or
was it always Cm?

David