"Stepping Stone"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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When I listened to Argent last week, I noticed this guitar part in "Stepping Stone."  It reminded me of two things: a theme in Sibelius' Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82 and a section of the Easybeats' "You Me, We Love."  I'd noticed the connection between that Sibelius symphony and the Easybeats before (I listened to Sibelius pieces on twenty-two of the twenty-eight days of February this year), so I decided to look into them all.

First, I learned the guitar part from "Stepping Stone."  My guitar tone doesn't really match, but I always have problems with that.  I might have some of the glissandi out of place, but I'm pretty sure on the notes themselves.

Then, I looked up that part of the Sibelius symphony (this morning, I started going through what Sibelius symphonies I have, and, fortunately, I guessed the one that the phrase is in).  It's in the first movement of Symphony No. 5.  I found it most clearly in the violins just after section J begins, but I think it's in one of the brass instruments a bit earlier (and I think that phrase is foreshadowed in the flutes and clarinets at the beginning of the B section earlier in the movement too).

(notation found here)

Then I knew that there wasn't a real similarity because that phrase in the Sibelius symphony is chromatic.  In the first and second measure there, it's Bb, A, Ab, G (and then it goes back up into the third measure - Ab, A, Bb).  The guitar phrase in "Stepping Stone" is very conjunct (the biggest leap is a third - from B to D), but it's not chromatic.

But I went on and looked at the phrase in the Easybeats' "You Me, We Love" anyway.  The guitar doubles the vocals during what I think is a bridge ("But if he knew / Of the life I go through...").  Like the guitar phrase in "Stepping Stone," it's very conjunct, but it's in a different key (although I'm not sure which key either is in).  That phrase in "You Me, We Love" also has a lot of accidentals.  It switches between A & A# and D & D# in spots.

So what I was hearing in these pieces was the conjunction (diatonic in "Stepping Stone" and "You Me, We Love" but chromatic in Sibelius' Symphony No. 5).  There really isn't anything specific that connects them.