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The omnipresence of the lord
Hi everyone, today i'll share to you another arrangement that i did, this time with the awesome song from the great man Leonard Cohen: Hallelujah. Motivated for the contest "Steemit Vision Quest" organized by 
, this time under the theme "Howllelujah".
, this time under the theme "Howllelujah".
I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this:
The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to the kitchen chair
She broke your throne, she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Baby I've been here before
I've know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew ya
And I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah.
There was a time when you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show it to me do ya
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Maybe there's a God above
And all I've ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew ya
And it's not a cry that you hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah (x2)
What is "Howllelujah"?
To me, "Howllelujah" is a pun, the combination between the words Howl and "Hallelujah". Hallelujah comes from the hebrew הַלְלוּיָהּ and basically means "praise".
And who are we usually praising? Well God of course. God is the reason of praise, of gratitude, of Howl. The Hallelujah is the howl that we have for God, as wolfs to the moon we howl to God and we praise him beacuse he is great and he glorifies us, he gives us and takes away and above all, he teach us.
Cohen once said that this song "Explains that there is many hallelujahs, and all of them -perfect and broken- had the same value". Based on that i decided to translate my interpretation of what he meant to say, through music.
Before we start i suggest you to watch this video from the 12Tone chanel on YouTube who talks about some important material about the theory involved in the song that i can't explain any better.
Life is tough, it have an strong strike, but we have to remember that maybe she didn't hit you with her best shot yet ¡Hallelujah!
Naturally the melody has to be change to get adapted correctly into the harmony changes, here's an example:
This is my arrangement, my vision, my howl
Well that's all from me, i hoe you like it, see you the next time.
(The interpretation on this post does not represent the believes of his author, it's just a vision based on his kwoledge and personal experiences)
-danig
Music by Leonar Cohen - "Hallelujah" (1984)
Before we start i suggest you to watch this video from the 12Tone chanel on YouTube who talks about some important material about the theory involved in the song that i can't explain any better.
The Creative Process
When i think of God i always though that he is someone that is always there in every moment, good and bad, thats how i was instructed about his omnipresent power. But when i hear music related to to him it's always with this glorious, wonderful, epic, happy tone, but life isn't that way and our relationship with God neither. We suffer, get sad and sick and thats part of living, and from my point of view God is there all the time.
Let's talk about my work so you can have a better understanding what i mean : The first step is to transcribe the origianl song, this way i can understand the structure and components, here i show you a lead sheet from the harmony (chords) of the original song (this will be the firs verse + chorus on the arrangement)(The audio is a whole step up that the chords described below).
Life sometimes is simple and stable, no worries ¡Hallelujah!
We can apreciate that the chords only have 3 notes, we call this "triad", this are the simples and basic chords that we have. Now we proceed to add a little more tension to this harmony (harmony it's like the environment in where we are, can be calm and quiet or turbid and confusing)(this correspond to the second verse + chorus).
Life without tension isn't life ¡Hallelujah!
What i did was adding a fourth note to each chord, specifically the seventh, now the chords have 4 notes, they are very similar to the triads but a little more disonant (extremely popular on Jazz music). Of course, adding or changing notes from the chords makes that the their names change also but the essence are the same.
It consists in taking the "3rd" of the chord and replace it with the "4th" or "2nd". The 3rd caracterize the chord, that is to say, it tell us if the chord is major or minor, when we replace it with any of the options. it results in a chord without "quality" or "suspended" as i mentioned. Notice that the E7 remains the same as he have a very important function in the song.
Some times life isn't happy or sad, it's just neutral, without flavor or color ¡Hallelujah!
Here we have the more drastic change of all, it's when wfinally the song change his tone, what i did was replace the chords that were major with minor ones but still having the Asus to avoid an overcharge of minor chords and the E7 who, as i said, has an important function to make (fourth verse + chorus).
Life can be dark and melancholy, sad and nostalgic but all of that is part of her bauty ¡Hallelujah!
Finally we keep it sad and drepressed, but is not enough, there is still more. Now our minor chords have sevenths so they sound even more disonant than before (fifth an last verse + chorus).
Let's talk about my work so you can have a better understanding what i mean : The first step is to transcribe the origianl song, this way i can understand the structure and components, here i show you a lead sheet from the harmony (chords) of the original song (this will be the firs verse + chorus on the arrangement)(The audio is a whole step up that the chords described below).
Life sometimes is simple and stable, no worries ¡Hallelujah!
We can apreciate that the chords only have 3 notes, we call this "triad", this are the simples and basic chords that we have. Now we proceed to add a little more tension to this harmony (harmony it's like the environment in where we are, can be calm and quiet or turbid and confusing)(this correspond to the second verse + chorus).
Life without tension isn't life ¡Hallelujah!
What i did was adding a fourth note to each chord, specifically the seventh, now the chords have 4 notes, they are very similar to the triads but a little more disonant (extremely popular on Jazz music). Of course, adding or changing notes from the chords makes that the their names change also but the essence are the same.
It consists in taking the "3rd" of the chord and replace it with the "4th" or "2nd". The 3rd caracterize the chord, that is to say, it tell us if the chord is major or minor, when we replace it with any of the options. it results in a chord without "quality" or "suspended" as i mentioned. Notice that the E7 remains the same as he have a very important function in the song.
Some times life isn't happy or sad, it's just neutral, without flavor or color ¡Hallelujah!
Here we have the more drastic change of all, it's when wfinally the song change his tone, what i did was replace the chords that were major with minor ones but still having the Asus to avoid an overcharge of minor chords and the E7 who, as i said, has an important function to make (fourth verse + chorus).
Life can be dark and melancholy, sad and nostalgic but all of that is part of her bauty ¡Hallelujah!
Finally we keep it sad and drepressed, but is not enough, there is still more. Now our minor chords have sevenths so they sound even more disonant than before (fifth an last verse + chorus).
Life is tough, it have an strong strike, but we have to remember that maybe she didn't hit you with her best shot yet ¡Hallelujah!
Naturally the melody has to be change to get adapted correctly into the harmony changes, here's an example:
This is my arrangement, my vision, my howl
Well that's all from me, i hoe you like it, see you the next time.
(The interpretation on this post does not represent the believes of his author, it's just a vision based on his kwoledge and personal experiences)
-danig
