Tchaikovski's Baby Swans

One of my all time favorite musical / ballet pieces is a dance from Swan Lake: The Dance of the Cygnets:

Cygnets 

One comment: when I first heard this piece, as a little kid of 9 or 10, the piece ended softly; just two staccato chords, pop, pop!  That's my preference even today, not two thundering chords, which sound really stupid. 

Tchaikovsky was really a genius.  I occasionally try to imagine composing this piece—thinking of it as just a piece of music—and I think what an amazing piece of music it is!  Deep and learned, a well a cute and cheeky, at the same time. 

And then the orchestration, starting of with nothing but double reeds (at least, that what it sounds like to me; there could be other hidden instruments.  And later, there are flutes joining in)!

It is so magical to see it ḍanced; these days just a small group of four dance it, with linked hands, I think following the choreography of Petipa, or someone like that.  And I have seen not one but two comedy versions of the same dance, with one baby swan totally confused, and confusing the other three a well!  I declare there's nothing funnier than the comedy version of that dance!  If only Tchaikovsky were alive to see it!

Pure genius. 

The Chord of the Ninth

The chord of the 9th—not at all a rare chord in 19th, 20th and 21st century music—is interesting.  I was just thinking of the song 'Close 2 You', made popular by The Carpenters, and I realized that I had not often talked about harmony from the viewpoint of amateur musicians, especially guitar players.  The very first chord of that song is a subdominant 9th.  To avoid horrible terms like 'subdominant,' we have to decide what key the song will be in; let's say F.  The most common chords of F major are

(1) F-A-C, the F chord;

(5) C-E-G, the C chord;

(4) B♭-D-F, the B-Flat chord.

But the first chord of this song is, stripped down, B♭-D-F-C.

Hey, you're probably thinking, what's that C doing there?

Well, before the chord sounds, there are two notes: D F, which correspond to the words 

"Why do ..."

The next word is "birds," and that word is sung to C, which is why the chord of the 9th makes sense here.

The song continues with "...suddenly appear, anytime you are near?"

There is an excellent reason why this chord works well there; it's because the notes to which the next few syllables are sung are B♭ C and D, so we would consider the C an (accented)  passing note, which are notes that are not harmonized; they're just sounded over the preceding harmony.  The rules of popular music have evolved to allow those passing notes to be incorporated right into the chord, and it's given a name: chord of the (added) ninth.  (On B♭, of course.)