Bach's Contribution To The Writing Of The Beatles Music

To what extent has Baroque elements of Bach’s work, compared to Classical elements of Mozart’s works, contributed to the writing of the Beatles’ songs.

Introduction

The evolution of music took us from single lined chorale melodies performed only in churches in the medieval times to popular music with synthetic sounds on Billboard now for everyone. In between, each era has its own qualities that act as a foundation for the coming eras. The influences of these musical eras certainly remain immortal and are beyond their designated time frame.

Baroque and Classical are two of the most prominent eras of the history of music:

Lasting from 1600 to 1750, Baroque represents the extravagance of European lifestyles during the time. Bearing the literal

Links to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue includes the utilization of circle of fifths as well as the manipulation of counterpoint. From the Classical period, the Beatles picked up the eminent element of a string quartet as well as the I IV V primary triads.

Yesterday

The Beatles

Yesterday was a hit written by Paul McCartney that was recorded in June 1965 and released September 1965. This song is a milestone for the band not just for that it was the most covered song in history, but also that it marked the growth of a band and its members. The composition process of the song was said to be incredibly easy, as, apparently, the song “ ‘fell out of bed’ ” according the Rolling Stone reciting Paul McCartney himself.

The recording captures the Beatles' inventive spirit, opening the door to a willingness to experiment with new sounds. "Yesterday" signaled to the world that the Beatles — and rock & roll — had made a sudden leap from brash adolescence to literate maturity.

The song is in the style of a pop rock ballad, unlike many other hardcore rock ‘n’ roll hits of the band. Simple accompaniment of the strumming guitar adds rhythm to the heartfelt lyrics, followed by

Circle of fifths is a chord progression derived from the equal tone tuning. In a circle of fifths, the 12 keys are arranged with equal intervals in between, in a way that each key is a fifth below, or a fourth above each other. Figure 1. Circle of fifths (Shepherd, 528)

It was known as the most logical, natural movement of one chord to another in Western music. Each of the twelve keys is arranged like numbers on a clock representing the root notes of a chord (including major, minor, or dominant seventh). Moving counterclockwise around the circle, each chord root descends in an interval of a fifth, representing three and a half whole steps, which is equivalent to moving a fourth, or two and a half whole steps clockwise. This series of chords demonstrates the strong tendency or pull of the “V” (dominant) to “I” (tonic) chord. This is the strongest chord movement or cadence in Western music. The counterclockwise movement through the circle of fifths, or descending fifths is often a more popular choice for the songwriters than the clockwise, or ascending