Blogging Assignment - SAY YES

Title of Song: SAY YES
Music: Ryo Aska
Artistes: Chage & Aska
Arranged: Steven Lai

Key: C Major

(NOTE: The score image is quite small and you may want to right-click and save the picture to have a bigger view instead)

This is a wonderful piece of music although it’s quite an old song. I chose this song not just because of its nice melodic line but also some of the nice chromatic harmonies and “surprises” happening in the music. Attached is the beginning extract that I have analyzed, and a YOUTUBE recording of it - enjoy!

I will first look at the phrase structure and by enlarge it is characterized by “L-S-S” feature. Notice at bar 16, I did not include it as part of the phrase structure as that portion itself is not sung.

The bass line in the beginning is quite interesting, in that it is literally “moving up the scale” (i.e., C-D-E-F). Bar 5 involves a secondary mixture harmony - chord III. It involves a change of mode of the chord with the diatonic root. Also the G# that is involved has a tendency to go to A the following bar, and indeed, it is proceeded by an A-minor chord (vi) which is expected.

At bar 8, although the chords are similar to the beginning, there is more harmonic rhythm in the bass line as compared to those in the first few bars. The use of quavers increases the momentum of the music a little as heard. I also notice the use of intervallic “3rds” at bar 9 (marked in the score) which is a common cliché that we encounter. This is similar to bar 14 to 15 in the RH-part – the 3-6 cliché is being used here as marked in the score.

At bar 11, the tonicization of F major can be seen as indicated in the Roman numeral. I would expect another tonicization to occur at bar 12 by looking at the score and also the expectation created by every chord in the bar; however it did not really happen. This is also where I have problems doing the Roman numeral analysis for this particular bar. For example at bar 12, I would expect a sort of sequence similar to the previous bar. However there is a surprise created when the D half-dim 7th chord occurred, when I’m expecting just a D-dim chord for example. Also when the C-major chord occurred – I would expect an Eb chord instead. This will be a good case whereby the composer surprises the listener by playing around with the expectation of the listener.

Tonicization also occurs at bars 12-13 and another at bars15-16. There seem to be another surprise created from bars 16-17. The chord V6/V will tend to lead to V (with G in the bass – root position), but it did not happen. It went on to V4-2 instead, with F in the bass. This expectation would be quite strong as the leading tone, F# is quite heavily doubled. However from another point of view, that F# can be treated as a chromatic passing note leading from G to F. Perhaps the surprise wouldn’t be as great if I were to double the G in the bass!

I hope you've enjoyed the music and please feel free to comment on it.

Regards,
Benji