John Williams needs no introduction as his film music is the most played of any living composer. What I am interested in is what gives him his immediately recognizable sound, and so what better way to get started in that endeavour than by looking at one of his most famous pieces, the Theme from Superman.
Written in 1978, it uses his familiar march like movement, which he varies for many movies. It is in the key of C Major, and starts off with a nice change in bar 7, shown in example 1:
Ab Major/C – Bb Major/C – Db Major/C – G7 sus4/C – C Major
The first change is to the parallel minor, C Major to C Aeolian (Eb Major). Ab Major and Bb Major are chords IV and V from Eb Major, but the important point to remember is the key was accessed by a parallel change, whether you prefer to think in terms of Eb Major or C minor.
The next chord, Db Major 7 (3rd inversion) is chord IV from Ab Major, so its back a fifth from Eb Major to Ab Major. Simple. Then the nice change back for a perfect cadence, the G7 sus4/C just has the Db raised to D so not too much alterations for the ear, and the notes are G C F D, avoiding the altered notes that we had a moment ago, Bb, Eb and Ab. A very ambiguous chord, perfect for getting back to C Major without sounding jazzy.
That is something to remember, he likes to visit keys that are quite distant, C Major to Ab Major for example, without the jazz or baroque steps involved.
The middle section has a change of note too, shown in example 2:
C Major 7 – Dmin7/C – G/C – Ab/F – Dmin7b5/Ab – Db Major7/C – C Major7
You can see it is a circular sequence, starting and ending on the same scale, C Major. The first three chords are I – ii – V in C and then the Ab/F chord is from C Harmonic minor, another parallel minor change. The modal sound is F Dorian #4, mode IV of C Harmonic minor. This is confirmed in the second bar with the B natural. The next alteration is a Db in the next bar, which takes the music into C Neapolitan minor. Now, some of you may be thinking, isn’t that a Db Maj7 chord? Well, yes it is, but the presence of the B natural means the chord comes from the Neapolitan minor scale. Its a clever way of keeping the tonality, the chord is the same but the notes outside of the chord are altered.
The route John takes us back into C Major is very clever, the notes Ab and Db resolve to G and C, from F Hungarian minor (F G Ab B C Db E). Yes, it is a C Maj7 chord, but F Hungarian minor contains a C Major 7 chord, on degree V, the C Double Harmonic mode is on this degree. Ingenious.
So in this preliminary study of the style of Mr Williams, I can see his penchant for distant keys accessed by parallel modulations and lesser used scales such as Neapolitan minor, which are cleverly disguised by the careful use of triads or tetrads. Interesting.
Next, I’ll take a look at one of the Star Wars themes. Thanks for reading.
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