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Gymnopedie No 1 Analysis

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When you listen to Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie No. 1 you are struck with a sullen, dreamy chord progression striking the root on the one of the measure and the 3rd, 5th, and 7th of the chord on the 2nd and 3nd of the measure with its waltz like ¾ timing. You hear this song and it almost immediately hits you with a feeling of sadness but there is a sort of beauty to it. But why? Why is it that this song makes you feel sad? Many people who are untrained in music will have a simple explanation such as “it’s because it’s slow” or “because it’s in a minor key”. While yes it is at a slow 78 bpm but anybody with a trained ear can tell that it’s in the key of D Major. So there must be more to it than just its tempo or what key it’s in. As you move further along in this endeavour of understanding music you learn that instead of it being just one or two things that make a song happy or sad it’s a combination of many different attributes. Such as key signature, tempo, meter, chord extensions, intervals, and etc.Music in it many forms makes us all feel different emotions. Music can evoke so many different types of emotions some will make you want to dance and some will make you want to cry. Some will make you remember the best times of your life and some will remind you of the worst. To understand the invisible connection that so many of us feel towards music one must first understand at least the basics of music theory. How is it that a combination of pitch all caused by synthetic or

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