hey, welcome to 12tone! Bohemian Rhapsody changed
music. it started its life as a musical sketch called The Cowboy Song in 1968, two years
before Freddie Mercury even joined Queen. for seven years, he polished it and built it
up, until finally it was ready for its debut on the band's fourth album, A Night At The Opera.
they were so enthusiastic about the song that they made it the album's lead single, but there
was some concern from the label about whether the public would be interested in a sprawling,
6-minute epic with clashing musical influences and no clear chorus. those fears were quickly
put to rest after DJ and friend of the band Kenny Everett went rogue and began teasing
bits of the unreleased song on his program, playing it 14 times in two days and driving a
huge demand for this revolutionary new take on what rock music could be. almost 50 years later,
Bohemian Rhapsody is still one of the most unique, beloved rock songs ever made. I've
been saving it for a special occasion, and we just recently passed half a million
subscribers, so… let's take it apart. (tick, tick, tick, tick, tock) the song starts like this: (bang) and I already talked about the role of
harmonized acapella intros in rock music in my video on Carry On Wayward
Son, link in the description, so I'll keep it brief here. the short version is
that they're unusual and difficult to do well, so they tend to be used as a marker that this song
is gonna be something special. of course, Queen did them more than most bands, because they were
very good at them, but still, when you hear this: (bang) you know you're in for a treat. and
Bohemian Rhapsody takes that a step further: while most rock songs with these kinds of
intros will just sing the chorus, here we have a complete, unique, minute-long section featuring
multiple different approaches to vocal writing. the first of these is pure choral singing.
here, there's no clearly identifiable lead part. he's using closed voicings, which means all the
notes are within a single octave, and he's singing in tight harmony, so all the lines are moving
with roughly the same shape. combine that with the fact that, because Mercury just multi-tracked
his own voice here, it's all the exact same tone, and you wind up with a vocal harmony so
thoroughly blended that it becomes almost meaningless to call any one of them the melody.
it has a melodic contour, but no definite pitch. so let's look at that contour. it starts like
this: (bang) sitting perfectly still on a beautifully mysterious opening chord.
when I'm analyzing a piece of music, I like to start by asking what it's about, because
the narrative shapes the music and vice versa. so what is Bohemian Rhapsody about? well… it's
complicated. it might be a story about a murder, or a deal with the devil. it could be a
religious, political, or philosophical statement. one common interpretation is that it's Mercury's
coming out song, a cryptic exploration of his own queer identity. Polyphonic did a great video
on that one, link in the description. but if you asked me which of those answers is correct,
I'd have to say… all of them. and none of them. like many great works of art, Bohemian Rhapsody
has layers. it never quite tells you what it is, instead leaving the door open for you to work
that out for yourself. and that's extremely intentional. throughout his life, Mercury refused
to explain what the song meant. in one interview, when pushed on it, he responded "I think people
should just listen to it, think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it
says to them." and after his death, the rest of the band honored that. in a 2003 interview,
guitarist Brian May explained "I have a perfectly clear idea of what was in Freddie's mind, but it
was unwritten law among us in those days that the real core of a song lyric was a private matter for
the composer. So I still respect that." and I will too. instead of pushing one particular reading,
I'm going to focus on how the song creates so much space for different interpretations,
how they build the structure of an epic story without filling in any of the details,
and that all starts with the very first chord. the notes here are D, F, G, and Bb. these are
the notes of G minor 7, but they're also the notes of Bb6. the way we'd usually tell these two
chords apart is by looking at the bass, but here, none of these voices are low enough to
really sound like a bass part. besides, the lowest note we do hear is a D, and
this is definitely not a D chord. now, this isn't really an ambiguous tonality: it's
gonna become pretty clear pretty quickly that we're in the key of Bb, but what's left unclear
is whether or not we start on the I chord. the notes are arranged in such a way that
either answer feels a little unsatisfying, so we're left with this sort of liminal harmony, a
rich, complex chord voicing without a clear root. from there, the line starts to move: (bang) with
a descending figure spelling out C7. the E natural in this chord creates a tritone with the Bb held
over from the last one. it's a pretty striking pair of chords, perfectly encapsulating the
duality in the lyrics between real life and fantasy: real life is vague and mysterious while
fantasy is clear, bright, and powerful. but the C7 isn't just a random chord: it's also a
secondary dominant. that just means it's setting up a resolution to somewhere other than
the root. basically, when we hear C7, no matter what key we're in, we expect it to be followed
by some sort of F chord, which it is. (bang) here, they repeat the same melodic contour,
sitting basically still in the first bar before walking down in the second. the first chord is
F7, another dominant chord, but this time it's the primary dominant, pointing back to the
I chord, Bb. this is all a very classical approach to harmony writing, using dominant
resolutions to strongly establish a clear, unambiguous key center. in fact, it's way more
classical-sounding than what most rock bands were doing in the mid-70s, but that's not surprising:
Bohemian Rhapsody is meant to sound like a mock opera. they're using the vocabulary of a very
specific musical time period that we've all, somewhat ironically, learned to interpret as
timeless in order to tie in to the cultural associations we have with that style.
again, it's all about creating a journey, and this harmonic approach provides
a clearly recognizable roadmap. after that, we get our next vocal approach,
the supported lead. the choir sings this: (bang) but let's be honest, that's not
what you sing when you're blasting this song in your car on the way to
work. no, you sing this: (bang) because now we have a clear, separated
lead melody. most of the voices are sitting almost perfectly still, highlighting
the similarity between two chords, but on top, Mercury adds one line that walks down, then back
up. by developing a lead melody, he also begins to develop a lead character: we're getting our
first glimpse of our narrator's point of view, which he drives home with the line "open your
eyes". and just… I want to take a second to appreciate how beautifully the music and the
lyrics interact here to create something that's so much more than the sum of its parts.
this widening of the musical texture on this particular line is just so clever, and it
shows just how much care and attention to detail went into building this song. I love it. this is
also where they introduce Mercury's piano: (bang) which again helps expand the texture. I'm
not gonna spend too much time on this piano part yet, because it's largely
in support of the vocals here, but it's gonna become pretty important
pretty soon so I wanted to mention it now. the next line gives us our third vocal
approach, the independent lead. here, the choir shifts from singing along with
the lead to simply responding to it: (bang) creating further separation between the two
parts and really letting our main character's voice shine. harmonically, this whole section
is building on the ideas we saw previously: we get G minor, the VI chord, which the song
might possibly have started on, then Bb7, another secondary dominant, this time pointing to
Eb. that's the IV chord, then we go II, then V, which points back to I. just like before, a very
simple, recognizable, classical chord progression. but then something weird happens. (bang) that's… not nearly as classical sounding. this is
a technique called planing, where you just take a chord voicing and slide it around in half-steps.
in this case, we're sort of dancing around the Bb chord, taking turns resolving to it from above
(bang) and below. (bang) in the second half, they even amplify the disorienting effect
with some panning shenanigans. (bang) so what's happening here? well, I
think the simplest explanation is that, while this takes place in the intro, it's not
actually from the intro. this is foreshadowing for a later section. so, yeah. keep this in
mind. it's gonna come up again… eventually. from there, the intro wraps itself up: (bang) with
a bass walk-down that leads to the V chord, where it hangs for a moment before finally returning to
I to start the ballad section. underneath that, we go back to a supported lead, before finally moving
on to our last vocal approach: the solo lead. (bang) here, our narrator symbolically leaves the
choir behind as he begins to tell his own story. one thing I specifically want to
highlight in this song is its transitions: there are 6 distinct sections, none
of which sound all that similar. now, having 6 different ideas that sound good isn't
that hard: the real challenge is fitting them all together into one coherent song. that
means you need not just great sections, but great transitions, and Bohemian Rhapsody
has great transitions. looking at all of them together, the pattern seems to be one of
increasing intensity: early in the song, they're smooth and subtle, while later on they get
more obvious and dramatic. this is the first one, though, so it needs to be well-hidden. that's why
I mentioned the introduction of the piano earlier: it's about to become the star of the show,
so sneaking it in partway through the intro, as they slowly disassemble the choir, helps
make this feel not so much like a change, but more like an inevitable conclusion. the
ballad follows the intro with very little fuss. the first thing we hear in
the ballad is this: (bang) so let's talk about that arpeggio pattern.
specifically, let's talk about those two high notes at the end. he's actually crossing his
hands for this part, playing those two notes with his left hand while he maintains the
basic chord shape beneath it with his right. and, throughout the section, these two
notes follow a very specific pattern. the second one is a chord tone, in this case F,
but the first one isn't. it's a note a whole step above the second one, sitting outside the chord
and resolving back down. this places the tense, non-harmonic tone on beat 3, one of the strongest
metric positions, so you really feel how it wants to drop back down to somewhere stable. if I
flip them around so it's on beat 4: (bang) it loses a lot of its power. he starts by sitting on a Bb chord, with the
high notes resolving from G to F as a nod to that ambiguous Bb6 from the start of the song.
when the vocals come in, he moves into another relatively straightforward classical progression,
going I-VI-II-V, basically the same thing as the intro. in terms of melody, the first thing I want
to highlight is the first bar: (bang) where he sings the word "mama", in that particular rhythmic
pattern, on D, the third of the key. that's gonna be relevant in a moment. beyond that, the big idea
here is space. he alternates between short phrases with lots of room in between (bang) and longer
runs with small gaps that blend together into a single statement. (bang) this gives the melody
a sort of push and pull to it, as the narrator flips between shock at his actions and panic about
what comes next. as the section builds, he starts to lean further and further into the long phrases,
providing a sprawling account of the events that transpired, although again, without enough context
to work out exactly what those events mean. the second time through, he starts
playing the same progression again, but when he gets to the C chord, he suddenly
veers off in a new direction. (bang) now, I could go through and tell you what
function each of these chords has in our key, but I'm not gonna, 'cause that's not
really what's happening. this whole thing becomes a lot easier to explain if we
just listen to John Deacon's bass. (bang) he's walking down in half-steps, with random
chords on top. this sets up what I like to call a tension modulation. y'see, when you're trying
to change keys, there's a couple ways to do it. the two you'll probably learn in music theory
class are the direct modulation, where you just start playing in a new key with no preparation,
and the pivot modulation, where you smooth it out by using notes and chords that are shared
by both keys in order to mask the transition. the tension modulation goes in the opposite
direction, using notes and chords that don't belong to either key in order to build up so much
dissonance that anything stable is going to sound like a resolution. the falling half-step
line, the unfamiliar chords on top of it, and most of all the sudden addition of an
ominous cymbal swell by Roger Taylor: (bang) means wherever we wind up next will probably
feel like a perfectly fine I chord by comparison. but Mercury does give us a clue where we're going.
I said the chords on top were random, but that's not quite true. here, I'll play it again, and I
want you to listen to the line at the top of the voicings. (bang) did you catch it? throughout the
whole thing, he keeps playing Eb and G. in fact, that's all these chords are: they're what you get
when you combine the moving bassline with a static Eb and G. the fact that they create recognizable,
named chords is kind of just a coincidence. the insistent repetition of these two notes over the
increasing dissonance of the bass establishes them as stable, consonant points that your ear wants
to return to, and these two notes establish the key of Eb major, so when we finally go to that
chord, it feels like home. and in order to really stick the landing, the first bar of the melody is
this: (bang) with Mercury singing the word "mama", in that particular rhythmic pattern, on G, the
third of the key. told you that'd be relevant. the progression here is pretty much
the same I-VI-II-V that we saw before, but a little more dressed up. like,
we've got this passing chord: (bang) there's a little mini-walkdown
over F minor to set up the Bb: (bang) and they give the V chord a whole bar
this time, with a big dramatic rhythm: (bang) but basically it's the same idea. and that's not
surprising: in classical music, it's really common to state a theme or idea, then play it again in a
new key, typically either a fourth or fifth away. these keys are harmonically close but melodically
distant: that is, they share a lot of notes, so it's easy to pivot between them, but their
roots are pretty far apart, so you wind up in a very different range. here, Mercury uses that to
shift his vocals up into a more powerful register, taking on an almost pleading tone that
complements the rise in musical energy. as an aside, my favorite flourish in this
section happens when he goes to the C minor. in this new key, it's the VI chord, but
it was also present in our last key as the II chord, so Mercury ties the two keys together
by repeating the same arpeggio pattern. (bang) it's a really subtle thing, but
it makes such a huge difference. after the tension modulation, it kinda
feels like that initial Bb tonality is lost, but here we see a little piece of it
poking through in the arrangement, breaking up the more emphatic structure
with something soft and gentle. it's great. again, though, the second statement goes in a
different direction. it starts similarly: (bang) but as it goes, it fades down in volume, and
eventually gets interrupted by this Ab minor chord that glides back to Eb. if you're a fan
of negative harmony, you'll recognize this as an inverted dominant, a sort of dark mirror to a
traditional V-I resolution, bringing us back to I in a way that feels a little more somber. that
leads into this: (bang) which is like that tension modulation but in reverse. he holds an Eb on top
and slides the other two notes down in thirds, slowly melting into F minor 7, which sets up a
soft, gentle return to our initial key of Bb. this leads to a second verse of the ballad
section that's fairly similar to the first, but with a bit more sonic energy thanks
to the addition of Taylor's drums. (bang) it's a pretty simple groove, but that's all it
needs to be. adding a drum part elevates this second verse to more of a rock ballad, as opposed
to the musical-theater sound of the first verse. it does mean they can't use the cymbals as a
surprise during the tension modulation this time, though, so instead that role is filled by May on
a distorted electric guitar. (bang) same idea, just with an even larger orchestration, ramping
up the intensity of the section even further. when we go back to Eb, the first half is
the same, but instead of starting to wind down and drift back to Bb again, we get
interrupted by a guitar solo. musically, it's one of the smoothest transitions, since
it keeps playing over the exact same chords and orchestration that Mercury was singing
over, but structurally it's a bit surprising, since it comes halfway through a vocal phrase.
as for what he's playing, I don't really like to analyze solos note for note, 'cause I don't
think that's the point. solos are improvised, or at least that's the implication. actually,
in this case, May apparently planned it out in advance because, in his words, "the fingers tend
to be predictable unless being led by the brain," but still, it sounds improvised, and that's
how I experience it. so instead of breaking down the exact melody or whatever, I think it'd
be more insightful to look at the overall shape, and examine the musical vocabulary and
specific ideas that it's built out of. the first question to ask is which scale is
he using, and fortunately for us, the answer's pretty simple: it's Eb major. he does add in some
other notes at the very end, which we'll get to in a minute, but by and large he's sticking with the
basic tonality of the section. nothing too spicy so far. but the big idea that seems to guide this
solo is the same thing we saw Mercury play with in the piano pattern: juxtaposing the stable points
in the key with more colorful notes a whole step above them. unlike the piano, though, where the
tension was played first and then resolved, in the solo May usually goes the other direction, hitting
the consonant note first and then sliding upwards. this generally matches the changing harmony,
so that he hits the dissonant note right as it becomes the root of the new chord, turning it
from a harmonic tension into a melodic resolution. the primary pair of notes he plays with here
is Bb, the 5th, and C, the 6th. he announces his interest in this relationship pretty
clearly at the start of the solo: (bang) and then he gives it to us again in the walk-ups.
listen to the notes he walks up to. (bang) we also get them the other way around: over
the first Bb7, he plays this big walk down, starting on a high C and falling
back down to a low Bb. (bang) but it's not all Bbs and Cs. whenever the band
goes to C minor, May plays this figure: (bang) using a very specific rhythmic pattern
to outline the bottom part of the triad, first walking up to Eb, the root of the key,
before sliding up to F as the chord changes. it's the same approach, just based on the
root instead. the first time we hear this is near the start of the solo, where he's
mostly been holding notes, so it serves to ramp up the intensity, but the second time
it's after those blazing-fast walk-ups, so the exact same rhythm now serves as a
break, cooling things off and letting you catch your breath. it's a really interesting
demonstration of the power of musical context. and he uses this same pattern to help
transition into the end of the solo, where the key starts to dissolve. remember how,
in the Eb section, the II chord featured that funky little bass walk-down? (bang) well, at the
end of the solo, that line keeps going. (bang) hitting every note from F down to Bb.
this creates another tension modulation, this time setting us up to resolve
to A for the opera section, and May alerts us to the changing tonality
by moving that pattern to a new root. (bang) this doesn't actually tell us where we're going,
'cause that's still supposed to be a surprise, but it does tell us that we're going somewhere. in the
last bar, the harmony starts on Db major, a chord borrowed from the parallel minor, and throughout
the bar May leans on the root, Db. (bang) this is a really clever trick: Db
major doesn't belong to our target key, but the note Db does. or, at least, C# does,
but for our purposes they're the same thing, so May is covering up the tension
modulation with a pivot tone, a single shared note that ties the two keys
together just enough to bridge the gap. this creates our first really noticeable
transition: up to now they've been pretty smooth, but here we see a sudden, unprepared change
in orchestration as most of the band drops out: (bang) leaving just Mercury's piano playing
staccato chords. it's a striking change, and it marks the point where this song really starts to
become something truly unique in the rock canon. but, well… there's a lot of stuff left in this
song, and I've already been talking for a pretty long time. I feel like if I try to fit everything
into one video, I'm gonna wind up rushing through some really interesting points, so instead, I
think I'm gonna stop here and make this my first ever two-parter. I'll be back in a week to talk
about the opera section, the hard rock section, and, of course, the ending. if you
want to see that when it comes out, don't forget to subscribe, hit the bell, do the
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