Haken, Lapse (2016)
Further to the 2×4 post and the Tiny Moments series…
What I often find special about songs often has to do with just the structure itself. It’s the story arc (I’m talking about the musical story, not the story the lyric tells). Where does the pattern break, and why?
Here’s an obscure number from a latter-day prog outfit, Haken.
There’s only one verse-chorus combo. A second chorus is missing, it just goes straight to the bridge. Why?
In the first place, it’s a very heavy-textured tune and a second chorus iteration would have made a 6-minute opus out of what is essentially a simple love song. Second, there was a lot to say in the two-part bridge. There’s a synth solo, a guitar solo, and a reprise of the intro; that’s more than most development sections have, especially outside of the 8-minute opus form. Third, the ‘story’ they wanted to tell lasted longer than just the usual climax in the bridge – this song’s climax is actually in the repeated chorus after the bridge.
But on the third iteration of the chorus, the harmonic progression changes. A subdom major-7 (at 3:51) subs in for the minor chord in the original architecture, and then, in a wonderful landing, the whole musical drama hits down on a sweet major-7 chord squarely on the tonic (or ‘root’, the home note of the song’s key) that the song has been working toward for four full minutes. This euphony drops at the very point new text is added to the chorus, an uncommon lyrical gesture in most familiar song forms
Dreams of our two worlds connecting
Fade as soon as they’ve begun
That chord weighs a thousant tons.
We were kept hanging on this thought throughout an entire song framework, beyond the allegory of physical adventure and loss, the musical bridge, which packs the usual climax. This is a love song, told in the first person. It’s about feeling bittersweet joy and pain through time, distance, absence and a mission in metaphors. We only feels that sweet resolution after all the distance has been traversed and all our feelings have been prosecuted. And that musical arc transcends the lyric’s textual narrative. The relief is overwhelming.
Or course, there’s nothing wrong with 4×4 ABABCB stick-to-the-rules stuff. There’s way more than enough room within that framework to get creative and inspiring. Most of the time I want to be challenged, even to the point of bewilderment. That’s why I love Yes and Gentle Giant and the Professor from Money Heist.
But then sometimes I don’t want to be challenged or even inspired – I just want a fun, whistleable toon. You know, a cupcake. I love cupcakes.
