The Perfect Chord For The End Of The World

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[nathanielc]

The true resolution chord was the friends we made along the way.

[CapnKV]

Leonard Bernstein said the prelude to Tristan und Isolde was the single most important moment in the history of modern music. Like the love, the chord will not resolve until the very end, in death

[uacce]

I love a teacher who's passionate, a teacher whose love for what he teaches is contagious. And Charles totally does it ❤

[edwardtoal]

never found it depressing or sad, just very very yearning... and the final reward makes all the yearning worth it

[bulkvanderhuge]

Wagner was a genius for waiting until the very end to resolve the “Tristan Chord”, because the unresolved theme showed their Want and Desire to be together, but they couldn't until the very end. It's brilliant.

[googooblabla]

I never really thought the Tristan chord was sad. It sounded more like it was yearning to me.

[Monticello]

The musical score to Vertigo by Bernard Herrmann is filled with excellent tristan chords. That melancholic longing.

[charlieinslidell]

The movie Melancholia is such an artful representation of depression and the struggle for meaning and motivation. My favorite imagery is of the bride trying to run but held down by wooly grey yarn wrapped around her legs. Something that is supposed to weigh nothing at all has the weight of iron shackles to the depressed. The ending is total panic, despair and overwhelming helplessness to what is inevitable.

[JasonMartineauMusic]

The prelude is in A minor.
The chord itself is spelled F-B-D#-G#, the spelling reveals all.
The G# is a prolonged non-chord tone, the actual intended chord is F-B-D#-A, which occurs on beat 6.
This is a Fr+6 in Am, resolving as it should to E7, V7 of Am, the A# in the melody is an accented chromatic passing tone.
This makes it clear that the prolonged F in the opening phrase is also a non-chord tone, which also resolves on beat 6 to E, and that we are in Am even from the very start.
The next phrase uses E major to build the opening gesture, then sequences the Fr+6 chord to end up on G7, with a C# accented chromatic passing tone.
This is V7/III, secondary dominant of the relative major of Am (which is C major).
The next phrase uses G major to build the opening gesture, then sequences the Fr+6 chord a third time to end up on B7, V7/V, secondary dominant of the dominant of Am (which is E7).
The big buildup on E7 that follows results in a deceptive cadence to F, which is VI in Am, and the harmonic rhythm picks up from there.
The ambiguity is generated by the prolongation of non-chord tones, and the accenting of chromatic non-chord tones on strong beats, the prelude is otherwise firmly in A minor from start to finish.

[jessicaMApiano]

This piece sounds like what I imagine floating out in space with no tie to the ship would feel like. Beautiful but silently terrifying.

[JrgenHelland]

17:29 I felt that resolution to the bottom of my soul. It must be an incredible experience listening live.

[etzenhammer]

This is what hopelessness is. Constantly destroying your false sense of security, destroying any grounding and in the end it's death.

[oskarzgoa]

Tristan's chord 😂 a nightmare of harmony classes in musical highschool. Playing it all around the circle of fifths with it's 'unresolving resolve' I'll remember forever

[QuillonFrostbane]

the Melancholia Prologue · using Tristan und Isolde as a way to provide a short review of the entire movie is pure genius and the music is a huge part of why I watched the movie in the theater 4 times in 2011.

The pathology of the melancholic state is that it cannot let go, unable or unwilling to part and bring itself to rest. Based on the in-depth review of the video we can see the music does the same bringing all aspects of the directors vision in complete harmony with itself.

[rachelblaquiere]

2½ hours in, Wagner teases the ending resolution, only to break it with a hideous growl of a dim7 right on the brink of climax (no, literally, that type of climax), as Kurwenal barges in. We don't hear that music again until after Tristan has died.

[PierreLM]

Melancholia is a movie that stroke me powerfully when I first saw it, that atmosphere, that awkwardness and ambiguity of the main character, constantly off amongst other people, except when the world comes to and end... You did a wonderful job highlighting how Wagner work is such an important and highly moving masterpiece !

[andrewmazzarini]

Tristan und Isolde is basically the musical equivalent of edging. Wagner just made you sit through a 4½ hour tonal goon session and by God you're gonna love the resolution!

[AudunWangen]

I was on a business trip all by my lonesome when I figured I should go to the movies, and Melancholia was on that day. It was a slow weekday, so I was the only one there. Alone in the dark, with only the big screen illuminating the room in desaturated soft browns, greens, blues and yellows, and that music.

Man, that movie made an impact. Both the movie and the music hold that tension going, and it feels like a 9 hour opera marathon. It's "lump in your stomach" music, and even after the tension is released, that lump of melancholia, a deep latent silence and mournful peace remains.

[strippins]

Best video you have ever done. More classical music analysis please!

[thelyghter]

OMG, I literally cried in this video. One of the best music pieces. What a CHOICE to talk about this, in the middle of more light tones videos, videogame music, jazz, cartoons, etc.

And I like how you linked to the movie, but also talked about the real Opera