Possible Error in 2007 Group Paper?

[domislong]

During the course of my revision programme, I've stumbled across what I believe to be an error or 'misjudgement' on the part of the VCAA. I have a nagging feeling that I'm definitely wrong, but wanted to hear someone else's opinion on this.

Question 6d of the 2007 Group Performance paper (p.12) asks to compare differences in musical qualities between the verse and chorus of the piece Tomorrow's Gone by Motorhead, one of the options being tonality.

After my response about the verse concentrating around the submediant of D major (B minor) and then focusing on the V-IV-I pattern in the chorus, I was surprised to see that the assessor's report (p.10) showed a key change from B Aeolian to A major.

This struck me as odd because
1) The A-G-D (I-vii^o-IV as they say) progression is not common and doesn't seem right
2) The leading note chord is diminished in a major scale and should be G# dim not G major (unless it's Mixolydian, which they didn't say)
3) It feels more natural for the whole piece to be in D major, and fits better theory-wise.

ANYWAY... it's not a big deal, I just like to challenge answers when I believe they're wrong. I would be very frustrated if I lost marks for not writing the 'correct' answer they did.


Any opinions?

[ninwa]

Are you talking about the chorus? I listened to the Youtube video and to me, the chorus is in A major. Can't really help with whether that's correct theory-wise, I'm absolutely terrible at theory

It returns to the A major chord on the first beat of every bar

[domislong]

The chorus's chord progression is A - G - D - D, so I personally feel that the phrase ending on the D is more indicative of its key.

When I was doing this paper I identified it as being in D major with the plagal cadence sounding so... natural.

It's definitely a G natural, so that's why I'm skeptical that it's in A major.

[ninwa]

When I was doing this paper I identified it as being in D major with the plagal cadence sounding so... natural.

It's a plagal cadence if it's in A major too D -> A

Also I noticed that they stay on the A major chord for double the time they stay on the D major, which I think is quite indicative of the key, too.

[domislong]

Touché, ninwa.

Two points still stick out for me:

1) If it's in A major then the IV-I Cadence is overlapping the two phrases which seems odd... to me a cadence at the end of a phrase makes much more sense. And the V-IV-I progression seems so much more appropriate for a pop song like this... I-VII-IV is an odd progression within mainstream music. 

2) The G natural is still unexplained. Is it mixolydian? My hunch tells me a big "no".   

[ninwa]

1) I'm classically-trained, overlapping phrases is very normal in classical music, but I can't comment on pop norms because I wouldn't have a clue

2) Mixolydian is the only mode that fits. Listening to it again, the first chord is actually a suspended chord: A-D-E-A (rather than pure A major A-C#-E-A) - might have something to do with it? Maybe? (I don't know )


... I am so glad I didn't do group if this is what you guys have to learn >_<

[domislong]

It's all-in-all an easier subject than solo... I'm just nit-picking with this once question.

In the scheme of things it doesn't really matter... a little part of me just wants the VCAA to be wrong  .

[humph]

I'd say A mixolydian. Even though there's a plagal cadence if you think about it in terms of D major, the focus is definitely on the A note as the root note, not the D note. Plus the chord progression goes something like
Asus4 - Gsus2 - D - D - Asus4 - Gsus2 - F#m - F#m
so the plagal cadence only occurs the first time through.

That being said, it's often difficult to pigeonhole a piece as being in one particular key; there's not always a unification between the scale being used and the "home chord".

[domislong]

I'm just hesitant as they clearly state A Major in the report.

On another note, a question in the 2008 paper asks the tonal differences between verse and chorus, and the answer simply states the key that it is in (and remains in both secitions) and provides the key signature.

Lesson learned: Don't talk about tonality.

[ninwa]

VCAA don't want to make it TOO complicated to accommodate for weaker students, I guess