The wonderful work “Hedwig’s theme” composed by John Williams for the Harry Potter film, transports us to a world full of magic and fantasy, it is so well designed that it is practically the most representative theme of the entire soundtrack of the Harry saga Potter (and that in itself is full of spectacular themes) The measure of the work is 3/8 and the melody is basically in Em, however after a few bars the music takes us through unexpected harmonies to create a mysterious but pleasant atmosphere. In summary, the harmony continues like this:
Em | % | % | % | % | % | % | % |
Em | % | Gm | Fm | Am | F # 7 (b9) | Em | % ||
Em | % | % | F # | Em | F # | Em | % |
Em | % | Gm | Fm | Am | F # 7 (b9) | Em | % ||
However, the section where he shows a great imagination is when he decides to use scales to represent harmony and to give that magical or esoteric feeling he uses the harmonic minor scale, since this scale has a 2 ° increased in its structure (between the 6 ° to the 7th grade) and that evokes much all the mysticism of oriental music. Thus we have:
Em: E harmonic minor (E - F # - G - A - B - C - D # - E)
Gm: G harmonic minor (G - A - Bb - C - D - Eb - F # - G)
Fm: F harmonic minor (F - G - Ab - Bb - C - Db - E - F)
Am: A Harmonic minor (A - B - C - D - E - F - G # - A)
F #: F # mixolídio b9 (F # - G - A # - B - C # - D # - E - F #) that has a 2nd augmented between 2nd and 3rd degree.
Going more to the concept of arranging, it is necessary to consider that everything is adapted according to the needs of the passage, and I say this because there are times when Williams uses chromaticism, in the measure of Am he plays A - B - C - C # - D but it is known that the base scale is A Harmonic minor.
Furthermore, when these chords appear that are out of harmony with Em, start by playing the chord’s arpeggio (to define the tonality output and enter this constant minor chord structure) to continue with the specified scale and not lose the chord. way to accompany that raised. Actually, this work has more details to explore, but basically I focus on this rather peculiar way of accompanying that evokes us to wave the wand and achieve its objectives. “Ah the music! A magic beyond anything we do here.” - Albus Dumbledore.
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Social Media Author: Pablo Bobadilla Rider
