SandmanWeek

Affective Tonality—Musical Keys Make Us Feel

“A Kind Word and a Friendly Face” is set in the key of a minor. In affective tonality, a minor is the key of softness and tenderness of character (if this is something that interests you, have a look at Schubart’s or Charpentier’s works on the matter), but also of sadness and melancholy (Charpentier calls it “plaintive”). It’s more difficult to make an affective tonality assessment for Dream, since his leitmotif changes key several times throughout the series, depending on whom he interacts with (it also changes slightly overall, depending on context). For this purpose, the main theme (“The Kingdom of Dreams”) would probably be the best to use for comparison. It is set in B major, about which Schubart writes, “(it is) strongly coloured, announcing wild passions, (...) despair and every burden of the heart lies in its sphere”, while Charpentier calls it “solitary and melancholic”. I think you couldn’t give a more accurate description of character of these two via tonality if you tried.

Sound Effects That Hint At Deeper Meaning

Another aspect of Death’s theme I’d like to draw your attention to is the use of what we call backmasking. I recommend you listen to the beginning of “A Kind Word and a Friendly Face” at above video link with your headphones on. You will hear a faint sound effect in the background that is actually achieved by playing sounds in reverse. I was fairly sure it was her own leitmotif, but just to make sure I’m not telling you rubbish, I actually sent it through my sound processor, and it’s eerie how Death’s motif sounds almost the same played normally and in reverse (only that the background “noise” becomes the melody when you play it backwards). I think this is a wonderful, skilled musical hint at the interwoven nature of life and death: The moment you are born, you are essentially on a journey to die. But “oblivion is not an option”—there is a reversing of time in using this effect, an ethereal quality that is also mirrored in other aspects of the tune, e.g. in using flageolet in the string section. You create this effect by not fully pressing your finger down on the string, hence creating harmonics of the fundamental (the “original note”, so to speak). One could almost say it’s the sound of the cosmos: There is a long tradition, going back to Ancient Greece, to connect the relationships between musical notes and harmonic ratios to the universe (and ultimately life). All life is regarded as iterations of what could be called “cosmic music”. This isn’t really as woo as it might sound, but it would lead much too far in a meta like this. If you’re interested, you can make a start here:

Or a bit more in depth…

Melody Lines And Cadences Are Seldom Chosen At Random

Last but not least, I’d like to draw attention to the actual melody line. Despite being set in a minor key (which tends to evoke sadness in many listeners of western music), we have a hook largely based around an ascending pattern: 1-2-(m)3-1-(7)-1-1 (you can hear this right at the beginning of the video in linked above).

Compare this to Dream, who is mostly based around descending patterns: 1-(7)-(6)-(5)-(4) (I already explained this a bit more in-depth in the meta about Johanna).

As you can see, it’s not just the choice of key, it’s also the directionality. One lifts regularly and is inherently hopeful, the other descends quite frequently. However, people perceive music very differently, so this is rather food for thought than exact science.

I’d like to end this post with an interrupted cadence, just like Death’s motif:

When a piece of music ends, we want to hear a resolution. Usually, this means that we go back to the tonic (I) in some way, either via a perfect (V—I) or plagal (IV—I) cadence. It just sounds like a song is “done” or finished. In Death’s case, this would mean returning to the chord of a minor. However, we finish in F major, which leaves us hanging on the VI. It’s what’s called an interrupted cadence: There is no resolution, no end. And perhaps, that’s what Death hints at when she tells Harry now he’ll find out (video is time-stamped at around 1:28)…