Edo: I'm like excited. I think this is gonna make us like cooler just by proximity.
Joseph: well i'm hoping we'll get famous i dunno about you umu: yeah that's gonna happen
Edo: oh Me? actually this is why I got into classical music Joseph: I actually got a great haircut
Joseph: Yeah yeah don't we all Edo: yeah yeah yeah
Joseph: Hi, my name is Joseph Vanderstell
I play some guitar, and I also do some piano used to play a classical double bass and now in my theory major
And I'm in my fifth year currently
Edo: hi my name is Edo Frenkel
I am a conductor composer and pianist finishing my doctorate
at the Eastman School of Music
Umu: Alright, and have you guys ever heard of kpop before?
Edo: my knowledge is
Starbucks basic just very minimal minimal at best, but yeah, I've heard (Umu: ok)
Joseph: I've never heard of it before today
So I'm geared up and all set to watch my first video,
Umu: so this one is named gfriend
And this is their September
2017 release called summer rain they consist of six members and actually the song was composed it arranged not by them
But a composing duo named seo youngbae and Iggy
And then it quotes a classical piece see if you can recognize it and then I'd love to hear thoughts on how they use it
afterwards
edo: ehhh Joseph: ah
Umu: and just like
blurt out any music stuff you want no matter how music theory-ish it is *they agree to terms*
Edo: I mean I'll leave the music theory to him Umu: *laughs*
Joseph: i'll-i'll keep it fairly low key [omg cap call thor lowkey loki is behind you]
i don't wanna overwhelm the viewers
Umu: you want to overwhelm the viewers that's the whole point! [but not the subber pls]
Edo: here we go... conductor style: ready and *click*
Oh boy ah dudes The Tempest- Oh, No no
Joseph: Is that a reference Edo: yeah, I mean I wasn't- it's something Joseph: It started b6 to 5 (e:yeah)
oh
Modulated to relative minor, okay
Joseph: It's very common practice tonal Edo: yeah, I'm feeling this Joseph: oh that wasn't though
Nice M4, m4 (Major is capital, minor is lower case) down
scale degree
It's
It keeps going back and forth between relative major and minor. (e: yeah) it's trying to go to one key or the other but it's
Edo: I mean by the end of this song I'll figure out what that song actually is. It's not it's a reference to actually something
I know, I think it's actually verbatim
Joseph: Really? Edo: yeah
it's like its whole mantra... anyways
Joseph: oh nice... applied dominant, okay
That's a nice progression that's pretty cool
Edo: That's clearly a reference back to Brittany's
Early period
Britney Spears, that's clearly
Joseph: oh yeah
Edo: That's oops I did it again territory
Joseph: Last time, it went to the 5 in the relative minor that was unexpected that's cool
That's my favorite chord: half diminished That's the ii of the relative minor
half-diminished 7
Joseph:There's that little thing from the beginning Edo: yeah I- *sigh*
Umu: schumann
Schumann
Edo: that's what it is
So wait what so wait hold on it was that uh it's it from fantasiestucke?
and is that what it is?
Umu: Dichterliebe
Edo: dichte- AH Oh my god yeah ugh
*singing the lyrics* sing not the right words anyway whatever
Joseph: oh there we go. Edo: Thank you *the slap of frustration*
Joseph: Are we pausing now?
Umu: sorry i should have specified- Edo: *must sing the rest*
okay great
Umu: Yeah, it's kind of cool. Some k-pop songs do either good or questionably bad
You know quotes of
Classical pieces
so!- Edo: *sings still* yeah now I know what it is. That's funny.
Umu: yeah what do you think of that quote?
Edo: I liked it I mean that's actually it's because of the you know they increase the tempo on on me there
No, because you know it's the same figuration... Tempest goes
*singing tempet*
So you know you hear it at the different tempo, so they tricked me but
Dichterliebe was one of my favorite song cycles, so it had the nostalgic like
Effect- but here's the downside I was so distracted trying to figure out what it was that I
Missed the whole relationship to the video
Because now I actually make she's like sitting on the rain, and I'm like staring in
You know trying to I assume longing for a beloved someone, because that's what definitely was kind of- kind of about
Umu: right it is Dichterliebe
Edo: *pronouncing guide*
*all of them saying Dichterliebe while i'm copy pasting it*
It is that song about longing and love
Edo: Yeah, it's yeah. Yeah. It's a male protagonist
Typically sung by a male. Now It goes it goes either way
but yeah, so it's you know it's about basically love and longing and the beloved over there
It's a very intense set of songs also
It's about like dealing with loss, and you know the big climax arguably
[*German*] is basically about I don't remember the exact translation, but basically like- "I will deal with it. I will not
Falter, I will not" uh yeah
You know I'm not gonna keep suffering because of this and there's this big like C major like climax, and it's pretty pretty great
Umu: Right yeah, and what do you think about the song overall musically you said it has your favorite chord
Joseph: yeah, I really liked the move from the
Relative major to minor by the iiᴓ7 chord in minor that was nice
Umu: alright. Joseph: so Yeah
Umu: well Let's move on to the next group so
Alright now. We'll be reacting to a solo artist named
IU this song is a b-side song, meaning there's no music video to it
But it is from this artist's 2017 palette album
It is composed by Kim Jaehui and the lyrics are written by this artist and also
This is the lyric video, so you'll be seeing lyrics that she wrote (J:cool)
Edo: You want it you wanna do the honors this time?
Joseph: I'll do the honors Edo: you do the honors yeah please
Joseph: all this is very jazzy (e:yeah) a lot of jazzy harmonies
Joseph: and that suspended chord Edo: I'm actually really struck by a lot of the like close voicings
in the right hand in the mid-range in the piano
Joseph: They really like that applied 5 of 5 (V/V)
Edo: *laughs bc V/V happens again*
oh Yeah, digging me some chromaticism man, just
Joseph: di- there it was again you like to sit on it, too
So just a big descending fifths sequence,
Edo: you know that's interesting they reference a lot of kind of like
1950s like big band almost... this and also in the previous one. They had like some other historical
kinda rock and roll references
Joseph: That was weird ii to I
There's V/vi , vi, and down to II and then ii
And then down to I which is why it's just so weird minor 1 or uh ii to I.
Joseph: it's a little too predictable maybe
Although there's some soul
Edo: I'm trying to be you know like the thing I'm d- I get
honed in on is like actually a lot of the voicings in the upper part of the chord rather than
Joseph: Yeah the harmonies are very full Edo: definitely
Joseph: The grooves there too so Edo: Stevie Wonder reference is that what that is
hear that little weird synth sound in there
Joseph: oh now onto IV
and back to I
oo
Edo: Dude I feel like I'm gonna saloon someplace now, that's the
It's actually pretty stylistic improv man
joseph: That was a nice chord, Edo: that was nice it's nice at the end
There's a lot of energy, but it's also- it Also has its delicate moments. (E:Yeah) nice balance.
Edo: No I quite I'm quite a fan of that very expressive
glissando in the vocal harmony parallels especially, you know there's this thing and a lot of pop music though. It's though
It's a bit like there's this a bit of too much of a sheen on it
But I like when there's like this technique. They do a lot recording
I don't know if they know how many times they overdubbed it
But like you have this really nice
Kind of gritty kind of glissando in the upper voices of the chord well like everything else kind of sits
There's kind of like this repose moments a very. I don't know it's almost like a kick back to like old like recit(ative)
It's not it's not but it's like to me. I hear it almost like you know
Weirdo like you know aria russet you know in like a Mozart opera or something it's kind of like
And it's like that's the moment you know. I don't know like you know like in
Or even like in the opening moment of like Hoffner Symphony the tail end of the first theme where
There's this kind of thing there that I like ah
All right, and then the next thing happens, and you're just like back into zone one, but that's my aesthetic impression
Joseph: to me It sounds like they're borrowing elements from modern pop music and especially with the previous video
50s rock and roll and then jazz harmonies
But the harmonic progressions are sort of unpredictable from common practice or jazz theory so for example the two chord going right to one
was kind of
Unexpected that was actually kind of shocking good. Oh my god
I never hear that
Never hear that
Edo: I mean I wonder if like some of that because they have a lot like a lot of these weird closed voicings it almost-
It's like cuz they just kind of plop over. Yeah, they don't prepare anything
They're just kind of mmm next thing it's kind of yeah,
Joseph: they also love their cycle of fifths
Six two five one six two five one six two three, which is five of six six
so they like to do that a lot...same thing with the previous video too
Umu: Yeah, welcome to the kpop world of secondary dominance and also using like as many genres of music as possible in one song
Joseph: Yeah, it's kind like a mosaic
Edo: but purposefully. It's it's actually it's it's not
It's not not falice
Umu: There was a song that was released last year that was just wild
Genres just thrown in every verse every chorus every bridge
Umu: And it was a lot of people didn't like it because it was so wild Edo: really well
umu: Maybe...maybe i'll invite you guys back and show you that one.
Edo: That'd be cool Joseph: sure Umu: it's weird
Okay, so now we're reacting to male artists. This is a collaborative release in 2017 between two artists
de-ear it's probably just dear. D.ear wrote an arranged and composed this song and then he and an actual k-pop idol boy
From a boy group called NCT performed it I believe d.ear is an R&B or jazz solo artist so
With you know with his type of music he collab with like a more poppy
vocal performer and so the person who starts singing the song is
D.ear, and then the second person who kind of like answers his line is the k-pop idol
Joseph: okay Edo: ready?
Joseph: oof edo: hm
edo: mm
Joseph: Ya
Edo: ooo Joseph: whoa
what?
Edo: Oh boyzIImen in the house
Edo: whoa Joseph: oh wow
Joseph: That's interesting Edo: I like that a lot
Edo: actually are you a fan or no, Joseph: I don't know i'll have to listen some more
and see if i like it edo: dude it's...
Like move over lush life man. Do you know that tune lush life? (J: which one)
lush life. You know that tune (J: yeah yeah)
it's like it....just kind of swims.
Joseph: Well. It's like like you said before it's like. (Yeah) just one chord. (Yeah) down a step
Joseph: oh i was expecting that b7 to go down to 1
Edo: ah Nice inner voicing man
Edo: Yeah some Joseph: Oscar Peterson
Joseph: I Like that now (yeah) the one scale degree 5-6, and then the b7 that's cool
Edo: Berlioz would like it for sure.... I think Berlioz would be a fan
Joseph: same chord that the other one ended on edo: yeah
Edo: pause? Umu: is it done? Yeah
Okay, so do you mind explaining the moment that you guys were like eh??
Joseph: there was a moment where at first I didn't like it and that was where went from scale degree I-ii and then there was a
V/VI chord so the base went down a half step
And then that was followed by b7 chord so the bass would have another half step
And then I think the base went down another half step. (Yeah) quarter down six and at first. I was like that's that's not
something that's not anything that I've heard in a long time but
Like the third or fourth hearing I started liking it.
Edo: I-I'm a big fan of like hardcore
applied chromatic harmony, so I like go listen to like jaswaldo moralasso [*cries*] from the sixth book of his madrigals
*stabbed*
That's the most adventurous thing you get until like you know
vogner tristan and Joeseph: just- he's one of the most adventurous composers period.
Edo: I Love that stuff anyway
Not necessarily saying this is like up there, but it has that reminiscence of chromatic swimming
And it kind of it pulls you in all these different tonal directions, so I I was in love at first here
But you know he took some persuasion
Umu: right yeah, I know you know yunyi G
But they yunyi said before that
When they just do the chord chord chord thing they called it planing.
Joseph: Yep. Edo: Yeah, Joseph: it's like a Debby
C technique,
Umu: is that what they were doing or is this something different? Edo: mmm No
this this was like a product of voice leading?
joseph: Yeah
Edo: It sounded like it was definitely with applied harmonies in mind
joseph: the device going from a major chord
Based on a half-step first inversion based on a half-step major chord is a device from 19th century classical music
you get that a lot
(Yeah) in songs so that's not unheard of but then it going directly down from b7 to a 6 chord
That was weird so (right) but you know I'm trying to listen with open ears
Umu: yeah