![]() ![]() The sound recording copyright covers the sounds that are on a recording - i.e., what you end up hearing when you listen to the finished song. ![]() The musical composition copyright covers only that which would appear on a song’s lead sheet - i.e. It’s the essence of all analog-to-digital conversion.) In practice, if you sample a melodic phrase from an existing piece of music for use in your own music, that implicates two copyrights associated with the piece you’re sampling: The musical composition copyright and the sound recording copyright. It literally means to capture information that describes a continuous-time analog waveform for storage or processing in the digital domain. (The term “sampling” has origins in a branch of electrical engineering and information theory known as digital signal processing. In the context of music production, “sampling” means using a piece of one recording in another recording. All of this parallels Beyoncé’s lyrical theme of divesting from the past and envisioning a new-found freedom. It creates the impression of percolating energy, threatening to break free of the constrained i7-to-iv7 chord architecture. Because the bass note moves up a half step (or semitone) from G# to A, while the rest of the harmony remains intact, it injects a sense of optimistic defiance. The effect of this new chord is subtle, but important. In the second chorus, the song slides in an AMaj9 as the second chord in the sequence - a decidedly non-diatonic chord relative to the G# minor key center. Neapolitan Isn’t Just About Ice Cream And Pizza It’s as though Beyoncé is trying to lull us into a harmonically uniform and predictable space… that is, until she furtively expands the harmonic palette using a musical sleight of hand. Coupled with Beyoncé’s impeccable mezzo-soprano vocal, the chords establish a trance-like quality, with a fluid groove and minimal harmonic tension. This persistent back-and-forth motion between the i7 and iv7, the two most fundamental chords in this harmonic system, creates a kind of mesmerizing effect. ![]() It is these two chords - and only these two - that we hear during the entire first minute of “Break My Soul,” from the intro through the first chorus and second verse. The chords G#min7 and C#min7 represent the i7 and iv7 in the key of G# minor. Indeed, this new Beyoncé single might initially sound like it uses only standard house music tropes, but there’s actually some skillful innovation going on. However, if you scratch the surface of a song like “Break My Soul,” you may notice some deceptively sophisticated composition techniques. Because expertly crafted public relations accompanies everything Beyoncé does, it can be tempting to reflexively dismiss her music as mere ear candy-i.e., alluring sonic confections that lack nutritional value but attain cultural buoyancy due to strategic marketing. It’s is a four-on-the-floor, fastball-down-the-middle club track, threaded with raucous New Orleans bounce chants (courtesy of a Big Freedia sample), and replete with archetypical house production characteristics. Beyoncé’s hypnotic new single, “Break My Soul,” has topped the Billboard Hot 100, and if pandemic restrictions continue relaxing, you’ll soon experience this ebullient ’90s-inspired house jam on a dance floor near you. ![]()
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