# Any idea what’s going on with this progression of A Link to the Past?



## ManolitoMystiq (Dec 8, 2012)

I know this is a classical music forum, while the following seems to be jazz, but since the progression seems to work for its horizontal movement, rather than the vertical stacks of triads, and since classical musicians might have a classical and a jazz mind, you could help me out.

I transcribed all of _A Link to the Past_ note for note exact, and am a very analytical thinker, wanting to understand everything that I touch. However, I don't understand how this progression works. I know that it does work. I know that sometimes progressions can't really be analyzed vertically, but are delayed movements of tension and resolving. With that way of thinking, I do have some ideas of how it can work, but I'd still like your thoughts.

It's about this part of _The Dark World_


Horizontally thinking, the 'A' in bar 4 is a delayed resolution of the third chord of the previous bar, which makes the 'Bb' a suspension of the Adim7 chord. The 'F' in the third bar then is nothing more than a neighbor of the 'Eb'.

In that sense, the 4th chord is really Fm7 or Fm13 (if you add the 'D') with this delayed 'A'.

Also, bar 3-4 is a pseudo-sequence of bar 1-2, which is another reason why it works.

Bar 5, 6, and 7 are chromatically downward progressions. Bar 6, 7, and 8 are completely understandable, but bar 5 is a bit odd. A bII of the bII of D7 would sound okay, but maybe you've other ideas?





It starts at 0:45 and 1:45

Sincerely,

Mano


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

You need to watch the bass line and know it is horizontal, down by chromatic half-steps to the penultimate bar before the repeat: That is horizontal, not vertical, activity.

Ditto the thirds in the tenor, merely moving stepwise down the scale.

Then you can think of chords, or not. I'd consider it more horizontal 'slide-slipping' than name each chord per bar as a functioning harmony, because of that sliding chromatic line. (Chroma = 'color') Well, in theory, color has no 'harmonic function,' and harmonic function is the only reason to assign a numeral to a vertical 

[I find the music mediocre in the extreme, and do advise not analyzing the mediocre, since there is so little to really learn from it other than how to make mediocre music.... personal taste, personal opinion.]


----------



## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Haha, this tune is still engraved in my brains. Of course it's mediocre, it's not meant to be anything more and the reason some people like this is mostly nostalgia. It's a background tune for a 1991 adventure video game primarily meant for kids, on a gaming console with very limited sound system. You have to judge it for what it is. I know it worked for me when I was playing the game at age 11.


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

DeepR said:


> Haha, this tune is still engraved in my brains. Of course it's mediocre, it's not meant to be anything more and the reason some people like this is mostly nostalgia. It's a background tune for a 1991 adventure video game primarily meant for kids, on a gaming console with very limited sound system. You have to judge it for what it is. I know it worked for me when I was playing the game at age 11.


Sentiment is often key in people liking video game music, especially video games, attached as they are to several generations' childhoods


----------



## Llyranor (Dec 20, 2010)

Oh yeah, Dark World summons a lot of nostalgia for me. I know it's a simple tune, but I just love it.


----------



## ManolitoMystiq (Dec 8, 2012)

Thanks, guys.


----------

