Building A Mystery

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The dominant on the other hand can be interpreted as a step forward. Combined with this chord we often find lyrics in which the singer addresses someone else explicitly. In the key of The answer to the question of how we have to interpret the progression depends on the answer to the question which key the song is in.

It is clear that the song ends on an A chord. In music theory this is an important clue for the tone center of a song. Moreover, in Phoungphol's interpretation, it also starts with this chord.

Building a Mystery

Taken together this means, the song is unmistakably in key A. Thus, so it seems, up until now we have been on the wrong track and the progression must be analyzed as: There is, however, a way to escape from this solution. If we assume, that there is some kind of a key shift or modulation in the song, we can still cling to our interpretation of the progression as: Female rock singers made a deep impact as they definitively entered the rock scene in the nineties as autonomous singer-songwriters.

Many of their songs are built around repetitive cadences like this one. At first glance these songs seem rather simple and repetitive. Of course repetition is an important element of rock music. It cannot be denied that repetition gives rock songs much of their compelling character. However, as we have seen, a lot of variation can be made with the help of just a few chords.

Being not so repetitive after all, "Building A Mystery" offers good prove of that. Here Sarah McLachlan turns a simple progression into a complex rock song. Unless someone somewhere used it earlier on in a song, Sarah's Progression seems an appropriate name for this rock cadence.

The tablature made by Mark Ferris November 2d, , is based on this live version. Here a capo is set at the seventh fret. Therefore, other finger settings can be used for the progression. We would expect the series: Ferris, however, presents us with the progression: This may seem slightly different, but the outcome is almost the same.

Not to correct or even better Ferris, but just to explain some of the discrepancies, let's take a short walk along the chords. A good record still can sell itself. Surfacing entered the charts at number two in the United States. In her homeland of Canada the album even reached a number one position, selling only about 7, records less than the soundtrack of the then popular movie Men in Black.

The album not only did sell very well. It was also received with praise in the papers and in the music press commentaries. The single almost instantly became a hit in Canada and the United States. It took some time, but somewhere in the middle of the clip reached MTV Europe to attract some following under attentive listeners on the old continent. Now listen for a moment to the start of the song. It will take just about thirty seconds, but you'll get the picture.

The track on the CD itself takes a full four minutes and seven seconds. That makes "Building A Mystery" rather long for a rock song. The structure of the song shows why. In the lyrics a woman voices her complaints about her lover.

The text not only expresses a complaint, however. At the same time it is an analysis of the reason why she finds herself attracted to him. She describes him as a man who is hiding his inner self behind a careful constructed image, letting nobody look at his emotions deep down inside. The poetic lyrics of the first verse seem a direct inversion of the ironic "Suzanne" of the old master of Canadian folk-rock, Leonard Cohen the first track of his album The Songs of Leonard Cohen. Instead of the rags and feathers of Cohen's Jesus hippy Suzanne, Sarah's nameless character is dressed in Rasta wear.

The Christian cross of Suzanne is replaced by a Celtic one. Cohen's sun, which "shines like honey on our lady of the harbor", has gone down under the horizon; in McLachan's song the only light comes from the street lamps of a city at night, where "the vampires roam".

A short bridge directly follows upon this description: E G A-Asus4-A came: The short bridge is formulated as some sort of conclusion following upon the description. All this man is doing, is aimed at one and the same thing: The way it is sung, makes it sound like a conclusion too.

And again the person that McLachlan addresses, is the opposite of Cohen's Suzanne. Where Cohen pictures his Suzanne as acting really authentic, McLachlan's lover is constructing his identity to give an impression of mysteriousness to the outside world. This line is followed by a break, which takes us back to the now familiar chord pattern. A definite conclusion is not voiced, but keeps hanging in the air: Like all ordinary major and minor chords the A chord is built out of three tones; in this case: In Asus4 the place of the major third C has been taken by the fourth D.

That's half a tone up.

It is rather easy to play on the guitar. As Phoungphol writes, most of the time you just play the 'sus4'-notes by bringing one extra finger — the little finger — into play on the neck of the guitar.

Changing the A chord into Asus4 steers it toward the D chord and this little trick imparts a dreamy touch to the interpretation of the lyrics. It goes as easily with other chords, especially the E and D. The subtle effect of changing a chord into a 'sus4' chord within the span of one measure is very popular in folk-rock.

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It is for instance a favorite of Leonard Cohen again listen to his "Suzanne". In McLachlan's song the change in the tone material of the chord also has some interesting musical implications. We'll come to that later. For now that's already complicated enough. Depending on the key we choose, it can be interpreted by the singer — and analyzed by us — in two ways. For key A the progression can be formulated as: We'll start here with the last one. Some progressions can easily be repeated over and over again.

The song Building a Mystery is about…

Often they start with the tonic and end at the dominant, which then leads back to the tonic again. A well-known progression is the turn-around, which consists of four chords: As you see, it ends at the dominant. This dominant 'leads' to the tonic. Ending a sequence on the dominant, will raise the listeners expectation that the tonic — and with it the whole previous chord sequence — will return again. A good example of the workings of the turn-around is the well-known song "Please Mr.

It was originally performed by The Marvelettes in for the Motown label and some years later the song was successfully covered by the Beatles in on their album With The Beatles. When you listen to this song, you can hear how the dominant V at the end of the chord progression keeps asking for a return of the progression itself. Though the other chords are shuffled and the tonic at the start is replaced by the submediant vi, the dominant V at the end still asks for a return of the progression.

The combination of dominant and submediant here is the musicological mechanism that drives the progression forth in its circular repetition. And again the person that McLachlan addresses, is the opposite of Cohen's Suzanne. Where Cohen pictures his Suzanne as acting really authentic, McLachlan's lover is constructing his identity to give an impression of mysteriousness to the outside world.

As the song nears its apotheosis there is a decisive end in last line of the lyrics: This time the progression leads toward the A chord without any added or changed tones. It sounds like ending with an exclamation mark! The last chord is an A chord, which seems to make the concluding end into a direct confrontation of the singer with her lover. The mystery has become a double mystery: There was an error. It also reflects a personality type that is described in astrology.

If you know anything about astral birth charts which is the placement of all other planets, moon, and asteroids. It goes more in depth then your sun sign which would just be the month of your birth. There is a specific placement known as Mars in Scorpio it is the strongest Scorpio position even greater then your sun being in Scorpio.

In the video it describe the traits of a mars in Scorpio man and the mars in Scorpio woman who loves him singing about him.

There is even they symbolic scene where he casts his shadow across the moon in the resemblance of Scorpio as dose she. When just one mars in Scorpio is in love it is an intense and life changing experience that your may never find again in another unless they have this placement. But when two of these people are in love with each other there raw sexual energy dark mysterious personalitys and strick obsessive devotion to one another is a love that blows all others out of the water.

I just recently because of my studies in astrology and into my own relationship being mars in Scorpio in luv with another mars in Scorpio helped me discover the meaning behind my favorite song of Sarah's that seemed to parallel my feels. It made me love this song even more and it goes to show you.

There is always something new to discover even about thing you thought u already thought u did. General Comment This is about a man who is untouchable, it is impossible to capture his soul. He is unique, he shines and he is captivating.

No Replies Log in to reply. General Comment Note the eclectic elements of this guy's posturing. It won the Juno Award for Single of the Year in The video for the song features Moist front man David Usher. It was 91 on VH1's Greatest Songs of the s. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article's lead section may be too long for the length of the article. Please help by moving some material from it into the body of the article. Please read the layout guide and lead section guidelines to ensure the section will still be inclusive of all essential details.

Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page. Billboard Hot [6] 13 U. Billboard Adult Contemporary [6] 28 U. Billboard Hot [10] Retrieved 16 July

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