Meanwhile, the Es from mm.40-41 act as passing tones between D and F#. That A at the end of measure 37 resolves up again to a B in measure 38 and a similar gesture occurs in measure 39. In fact, if anything it dramatizes the affect of superimposing another chord’s harmony over D: from the G, the emphasized notes in those measures spell a seventh chord, not just a triad. There’s any number of ways you could explain how measures 34-35 (on here - these measure numbers aren’t accurate to the song) end on G - whether it’s an anticipation of the next chord or resolves “late” to the A at the end of measure 37, but neither of them change the harmonic/melodic syntax of the tune. What’s clever about this is that the tension leading up to that final D at the end of the chorus really starts to build with that first E in measure 15, before the chorus itself.Īgain, that B minor triad is emphasized in nearly every measure. Although there is an A and B between those two notes, the E is emphasized over the A and B because of the melodic leap from B and because it is on the downbeat. It’s after this repetition of 1-2-1 that the listener expects to hear it again after the last D of the verse goes to the first E of the chorus. In other words, those Es act like classic neighbor tones. On the other hand, nearly every E in the melody is sandwiched between two Ds, which are either triadic tones or sevenths of each chord. It doesn’t change the emotional effect.) Even when the melody changes slightly in measure 15, that suspension-y sound of 1-4-3 puts at least as much emphasis on the F# as the G proceeding it. From that first bar of the verse, the listener is primed for the extensions those notes make with every chord: DM6, GM7, and Em9 (or alternatively, you can think of B, D, and F# as pedal tones that don’t affect the underlying harmony or name of each chord. The notes B, D, and F# are emphasized in every measure of the verse, and the major sixth between D and B is emphasized from the pickup measure of the tune. (You’ll see that the score below goes straight from Post’s verse to Swae’s verse, which isn’t how the song goes, but the chorus is already transcribed in the graphic.) Let’s look at how Post uses these two notes throughout his verse prior. I’d like to push their analysis a little bit farther using one word: contextualization. (Disappointing, because I warned them that I might trash this graphic). Despite my initial doubts, I came to the conclusion after some analysis that Top40Theory was indeed correct. So why does the chordal sixth need to resolve over G but not over D? And it seems rather old-fashioned to assume that the 9 has to resolve down, especially when it’s repeated over an entire progression. On top of that, when it goes to IV (G), E is the sixth of that chord. The B in measure 1 never resolves to a chord tone, and B and E are the two pentatonic extensions of D Major, which means, to me, that they create a similar level of dissonance over that chord. This resolution to I is teased at in measures four and seven (using Top40’s numbering) when the melody, but not the harmony, goes to the tonic. In the chorus to Post Malone and Swae Lee’s Sunflower, the scale degree 2 at the end of almost every measure suggests an eventual melodic resolution down to D, or 1, on the tonic. I’ve reposted it below with the permission of the page admin. A couple of weeks ago, a post came up on my Facebook feed from Top40Theory.
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