Picking up where we left off..
Click to hear the first sixteen bars:
Measure 5
As is always the case in music theory, there are multiple ways to interpret chords and harmonic sequences (I joke with my students about it being called “music theory, not music fact!” In this bar, Bill plays a half-diminished chord with B as the root. This can be read as either a vii chord in the prevailing tonal center (C) or a super-tonic seventh chord in the relative minor (A); if you see it as the latter, than the subsequent measures fill out a ii-V-i. I will leave it as a leading-tone seventh chord in C, with the following harmonies acting as secondary dominants.
Measure 6
After the beautiful contrary motion between the hands, Bill arrives on a E7 chord, or a V7/vi. I love the voicing here – so quintessential-Bill!
Measure 7
The penultimate harmony, as we would expect, resolves on the vi chord. What I love is the way Bill’s voice-leading, in this case all of the pitches move down by step, keeps a sense of continuity.
Measure 8
The submediant (or tonic, if you are thinking in the temporary key of a-minor) moves to a Eb chord. This is the progression as it was originally written — so there should be no surprises here. What is wonderful is Bill’s quartal voicing of this tri-tone substitution: G3-C4-(added dissonance with the Db4)-C4-F4. It makes my heart ache — but thankfully.
MC
