An article I wrote about '39

Felicitation. Your article isn't on my level besause I never study classical music (you speak about baritone, tenor...). But you give me the envy to study tone and other things you speak about in this article. So thank you very much. When (or if) I will understand it, I will take time to let you know my definitve appreciation. ;-)

I am writing an article about Sebby.

Ok ... so i read the whole article and understood some of it, so perhaps I have an IQ over 50. It was definitely worth the 10 page read despite my lack of understanding of music theory.

The overwhelming majority of it has nothing to do with music theory anyway.

Brilliant and informative, as always.

Wow, amazing detail. Such rigour is so welcome. Thank you!

So, when are you publishing your book? :-P You could pick up a few tracks from every album and it could be one of the best releases ever.

As a musician, I loved it. As a space engineer, I think it misses the point completely.

Thanks for the article. Just one question: on page 7, referring to Freddie's nodules, you wrote "he eventually sought a voice coach for a brief period". Where did you find this info? Or is it just an educated guess?

[QUOTE] [b]Cyborg wrote:[/b]

Thanks for the article. Just one question: on page 7, referring to Freddie's nodules, you wrote "he eventually sought a voice coach for a brief period". Where did you find this info? Or is it just an educated guess?[/QUOTE]

It's what some voice coach said in an interview a couple of years ago i think.

Doesn't mean it's true though.

[QUOTE] [b]Cyborg wrote:[/b]

Or is it just an educated guess?[/QUOTE]

Everything's ' just an educated guess' if you wanna be pedantic enough. Can we be sure Shakespeare existed? Napoleon? Henry VIII? Hitler?

Can we be certain Brian wrote and sang that song, or is it just speculation? Can we be positive Roger did that high falsetto, or perhaps someone else did it and gave him the credit?

This is great. Well done!

Very insightful article. I especially like the page 6 when you included sheet music of vocal harmonies so I can try it on my piano. I have 2 qustions.

1. What is the 'unique tt0' chord (page 2)? How does it look like?
2. 'For the final mix, the song was slightly sped up and it sounds a semitone higher than it was recorded' How do you know it? Where did you learn that?

A diminished chord whose root is a tritone apart from the tonic. In the key of G Major, that chord would be dbdim; in C Major, it'd be gbdim; in E-Flat Major, it'd be adim, and so on.

Speeding songs up or down a semitone was common practice. It probably still is. Queen did it occasionally (Sheer Heart Attack, Another One Bites the Dust). There are quite a few points suggesting that's what happened with ''39' as well, including a quote by Brian (which I vaguely remember but couldn't find so I didn't include it in the AT/WT section). Is it a 100% certainty? Of course not - but then again, can we be certain Brian wrote the song? What if Kerry Ellis did and they decided to give him credit instead? I know there are sources claiming she was born in 1979, but how can we trust them? What if her birth certificate was forged? Can anyone prove that wasn't the case?

The point is, I go with the best temporary conclusion based on the available evidence. If one day it turns out there's, say, footage of Roy Baker singing the flying falsetto, and it can be somehow demonstrated not to be forged or staged, then I'll change the article accordingly. Until then, the fact's it sounds like Roger, it's been claimed to be Roger and the timbre's strikingly similar to what Roger did in live versions (though he didn't hit the top note), and that's enough for me to claim it's Roger.

Same for the song having been varisped, Frederick having briefly taken lessons from Benvenuto Finelli, the 'Love of My Life' harp having been recorded at Sarm, John playing the 'Misfire' guitar solo, 'Bo Rhap' not having a 180-piece choir, etc.

Thanks, got it!

Great article Seb, with your trademark exhaustive research and detail.

Sorry to nitpick, but I do feel the structure and flow of the article could be improved. It jumps around a bit with little explanation.

One other thing: there is no diminished tritone chord, ie, C#dim, anywhere in the song, is there? There's a D#dim (functioning as a secondary dominant), but no C#dim. Or am I going (slightly) mad? One of us is, at least!