first of all, this is a lovely 80s pop song, composed by the legendary kadomatsu toshiki, just gorgeous in every way and a shining example of the sophisticated genre of city pop.
BUT i want to point out a specific chord, which has a legendary status among anime nerds: the “blackadder chord”, at 0:52. (also known as the “ikisugi chord” which sorta translates to the “going too far” chord).
the easiest way for me to understand the chord is to take any augmented chord, and play a bass note that sits on the 2nd. For example, Caug + D in the bass. The resulting chord has a beautiful tension and resolves in several directions, and is striking because of its whole-tone leanings and lack of a third, both features that are very unusual in pop music (and even jazz!).
this chord was noticed by joshua taipale in the song “guilty eyes fever” composed by yuki honda, and he made a video about it, which turned into a bit of a meme with many people enthusiastically weighing in on both the structure of the chord as well as its function (and the name, also–fun fact i think someone in josh’s chat named this chord? ridiculous name. anyway…). so many composers use this tech, as pointed out by otogokudo in his video, fujii kaze uses this chord a LOT as one example.
however all these songs are relatively modern, and by contrast “last summer whisper” is from the early 80s, making it by far the oldest example i know of. the casual way the chord is used by kadomatsu toshiki here makes me wonder if this was already an established technique at this point? i’m really curious if anyone else can think of older songs that feature the pure blackadder chord (notably lacking the third, unlike some older examples in late romantic/impressionistic music that are cited in this article). if anyone can cite an earlier example of this chord being used, please link it to me!
Leave a Reply