"A Rose for Emily"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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For whatever reason, I got thinking about "A Rose for Emily" this morning, and I realized that there's a descending chromatic phrase in the chords.  However, since the chords are really difficult, I'm not sure of the extent of that phrase.  It's at least four notes: G F# F E.

In any case, there are few interesting things about this:

1.  It's an-other instance of a chromatic phrase in one of Argent's songs.  Usually, they're three-note phrases, but this one is longer.

2.  As a descending chromatic phrase on Odessey and Oracle, there's some connection between this, the backing vocals during the choruses of "Maybe after He's Gone" (chromatic from E to C#), and the bass part during the verses of "This Will Be Our Year" (chromatic from A to E).  Descending chromatic phrases are a feature that's present in multiple songs and give the album a coherence.

3.  It doesn't fulfill the definition of a lament bass (it might be a perfect fourth, but it's certainly not from the tonic to the dominant, and it's not in the bass, rather it's sort of hidden in the chords), but as a descending chromatic line, it fits with that tradition, and so do the lyrics of "A Rose for Emily."