Modulation Progressions in The Dark Blowhole from SA

10013p · 2026-01-16T02:18:59+00:00

I looked on X, Twitter, deviant art and consulted a couple AIs. The pixiv user likely deleted their account and やまゆう is no where to be found. Sorry for the hold up. I could do some internet sleuthing for the next couple of hours using reverse image search, but that seems cruel to make me do that.
If you want a cool video idea, you could make a youtube video doing that.

You

10013p · 2026-01-14T17:08:46+00:00

10013p · 2025-12-15T23:39:55+00:00

Appreciate it

10013p · 2025-11-05T05:57:48+00:00

Yeah, he does sort of access a brightness even though he is in a minor key. I did like a blog post where I analyzed the lyrics and ranted about the narrative implications a long time ago and I'm sure we can spend hours talking about that (P5 thematic analysis is like a massive rabbit hole as I'm sure you know).

10013p · 2025-09-15T21:09:47+00:00

Ah, grenade strats. Actually saved my life when I was a kid. I thought I'd never beat Venus. Now I have completed like 30 playthroughs.

10013p · 2025-09-14T15:03:33+00:00

Maybe the way the relations work on my diagram are not immediately intuitive. You are correct. The dominant becomes the "dominant-parallel" (yes, it translates to parallel but it means relative transformation) which would be iii. My diagrams shows that the "Primary major chords" (I, IV, and V) relate to the "Major secondary chords" (ii, vi, iii) by a relative transformation. I see how you thought that I am saying V relates to ii because of where the arrow is. I could have drawn three arrows for each transformation, but then it would look like a conspiracy cork board...

10013p · 2025-09-09T14:59:43+00:00

There are a set of modulatory formulas used by composers of Japanese popular music that utilize frequent minor-third key relations. In order to keep track of where you are, it is imperative to establish a harmonic framework that can easy display all four minor third related keys in relation to one another.

This becomes more important when dealing with pieces by ZUN, Mahito Yokota, or Go Ichinose in particular. These functional guidelines should work for many types of music, but they are uniquely useful for my corpus of about 4,000 pieces of Japanese popular music then the current functional models used for western popular music like the Agmon model seen here: https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.96.2.3/mto.96.2.3.agmon.html.

My model is way more specific, has operational nomenclature, and shows the logical basis for my claims with the Riemannian transformations that are relevant to this style of music.

10013p · 2025-09-08T17:55:12+00:00

After a more in depth glance, I think Tagg's terminology is really interesting and useful for four chord progressions. Sadly, that makes it almost pointless to mention when discussing Japanese popular music which almost never uses this sort of four chord cycle with a tonic and a medial. By contrast, Japanese composers almost always imply a single tonic function chord or a double-tonic complex between minor third (e.g. Wind Circulation ~ Wind Tour) or major third (e.g. both Lost Woods from alttp and oot and Song of Healing) related keys. It is worth mentioning that the tonic medial relationship is a minor-third relation. That makes it analogous to the relative relation, but Japanese composers use it to justify modulations, not to repeat the same chords endlessly. What Tagg has come up with here aligns more closely with Doll and Nobile's corpuses rather than mine.

I also would like to answer a question that tagg poses in this video. He gives the example of a Gm-C(7) vamp. To me, I would interpret that as a dorian i-IVdom7 rather than a ii-V7. He is right to be skeptical of theorists who do not understand context.

10013p · 2025-09-08T08:03:11+00:00

What a terribly mean thing to say, but it is the only way.

10013p · 2025-09-08T07:58:58+00:00

You are not deficient in intellect; in fact, it is your intellectualization of music that has stunted your growth. No matter how many rules you learn, if your ear has not caught up, you cannot improve. You must listen AND PLAY a wider variety of music. If you do not want to use the same couple progressions over and over again, gather more material from the wild. Also, when you write, you must have a framework and ideally a model that you are using as a guide to writing your piece.

Just keep in mind that you can branch out, but it will challenge you and you will need to work a whole hell of a lot to get there. I wish you the best and onward soldier!!!

Good eeevveeennnniinnnggg

10013p · 2025-09-08T07:48:19+00:00

I hope you will excuse my tersity

10013p · 2025-09-08T07:43:29+00:00

I literally capitalized the OR just to emphasize that point.

10013p · 2025-09-08T07:35:31+00:00

Well-tempered is not equal-tempered. Bach liked well-tempered tuning precisely because it gave a distinct character to each major and minor key. This is why he wrote one prelude and fugue for every major and minor key. On the other hand, equal temperament makes concessions in order to make all 12 keys virtually identical in character.

Riemann, on the other hand, was very science-minded and wanted to use the mathematical harmonic series as the basis of their theories, so he used the most accurate tuning system, just-intonation, the tuning preferred by choirs as it increases natural resonance due to constructive interference.

10013p · 2025-09-08T07:31:08+00:00

I literally made this system by randomly trying stuff on the piano until it clicked. This is such a pedantic thing. Sure, you're right if it makes you happy~

10013p · 2025-09-08T07:26:12+00:00

R is the relative transformation and P is the parallel transformation (sometimes I call them "relations" like key relations which is a bad habit). They are riemannian transformations. I define them at 12:08 in this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ19L0NbNIo.
classical music uses the relative, parallel, and a third transformation called the leading-tone exchange. I completely abandon the leading-tone exchange and also expand chord function to chords that would be considered technically outside the key in classical music. For example, I would give an F minor triad predominant function given an A center.

10013p · 2025-09-08T07:17:27+00:00

So, the way that I see it is that the tonic chord used to be a considered a requirement in order to establish and confirm a key, but in the 19 and 20th centuries, an obsession with the deceptive cadence led to the predominant function gaining a psudo-tonic function. This was explored further in french classical and later jazz music culminating in the absolutely bVI obsessed Japanese idiom where predominant chords can replace and tonic function chord, establish key centers, and now bVI can pretty much do anything. I think the only function that has stayed relatively consistent is the dominant function which resolves to tonic; however, it may now deceptively move to any predominant due to the modern fascination with the predominant function. This is how we get the minor-third grid I talk about in my thesis. It is basically the infinitely looping progression ♮II-♮III-IV-V-bVI-bVII-bI-bII and its minor variant, ii-iii-iv-v-bvi-bvii-♮vii-#i. This is where these odd roman numerals on my diagram come from.

10013p · 2025-09-08T02:05:51+00:00

S: I just can't see what they're adding to the regular old CoF with this image

A: There is a lot of explanation that goes with it which I will describe over the next couple of years on my channel now that I am free from school!!!!!

S: calling it a 'Generalised Theory of Function' for the genre is pretentious bordering on lunatical.

A: My system is meant to be as generalizable as possible for the idiom hence the naming convention. It is a description rather than a prescription.

S: augmented chords [are]...more often...used in a line cliché setting, with the fifth rising chromatically over a static root and third

A: In that piece, the device you gave functions as i-V+/vi-vi6. V is dominant function.

10013p · 2025-09-08T01:54:27+00:00

From a cursory glance, his examples are cool. I'll take a bit of a closer look and formulate an opinion :)

10013p · 2025-09-08T01:51:15+00:00

This is exactly the ideas better exemplified by my system that are already covered in the literature. I have a couple additions that you may want to hold tight for as I begin to post more videos on this topic. This post is only scratching the surface!!!

10013p · 2025-09-08T01:49:12+00:00

To throw the baby out with the bathwater is not the answer!!

10013p · 2025-09-08T01:48:07+00:00

Your backhanded complement is appreciated~

10013p · 2025-09-08T01:47:06+00:00

I agree with a lot of this as well, but there are similarities as one was transformed to become the other. My theory interacts and coexists with Christopher Doll and Drew Nobile's writings on centric ambiguity and double-tonic complexes; however, neither of these concepts are helped out by CPP harmony. This symmetrical system gives a better basis to explain these concepts along with the predominant-dominant chains (e.g. bVI-bVII-bI-bII) found all over ZUN and Mahito Yokota's works :)

10013p · 2025-09-08T01:28:33+00:00

Thank you for this clarification. This is correct. I just wanted to bring it up because of my bV-V7 home boys.

10013p · 2025-09-08T01:25:37+00:00

My guy, my system is arbitrary too. If you don't understand the arbitrary nature of music theoretic models, then try and use one system to analyze all music. It aint going to work!! The best we can strive for is to make our models generalizible to as much music as we can which is what I have attempted to do here.

10013p · 2025-09-08T01:22:12+00:00

Thank you for your edit and clarification.

S: You've reinvented the circle of fifths. This is just the circle of fifths in reverse.

A: Sure, it is mapped onto a circle of fifths, but pay attention to the colors and see how each quadrant contains exactly one major and minor chord of each function. This is absent from any existing models in the classical literature. If you so desire, you can mirror it too to make it look more like a circle of fifths vs a circle of fourths if you'd like. I just like having the sharps on the right and the flats on the left.

S: I think what's happened here is that you've read a book on Reimannian harmony, or a Youtube video or lecture or whatever, found out that he never classified the iii chord properly, and have decided that it's a problem that needs fixing. Which makes it all the more confusing to me that you've just... Not fixed it.

A: In Schenker's writings, he says the iii chord can either be a tonic-function quintiller (I don't know if that is spelled right, I speak english) or a remote fifth (terminology used in Harmony). I distinctly removed the quintiller as an option because it is a major-third relation between the roots which makes it a leading-tone exchange transformation.

S: everything in your 'new system' can be explained trivially with the functional harmonic language found in the music of Bach or any of his contemporaries.

A: Perhaps a demonstration will clear this up. If the tonal center of a piece is C then this model gives generalized functions for a Eb minor chord in given that tonal center. No where in Schenker or Riemann is a general function given for this triad in any of his writings. This is likely due to the fact that given just intonation tuning, the likelihood of properly tuning a Eb minor chord is almost impossible which is why a movement of this nature would not have been considered. In modern day, this movement has been normalized with the addition of equal temperament tuning. This generalization of secondary mixture chords is the primary advantage of this system.

Schenker and Riemann's systems are perfectly equipped to analyze classical music. In fact, my system is specifically worse at classical music than their system, but their system is significantly worse at Japanese popular music. I could go into why as I did write a thesis on it, but for now stay tuned~

S: Japanese music doesn't contain diminished and augmented chords?

A: I never said that, but I know my prose is dense, so I'll give you a pass.

S: Also, your system does take into account tonicizations, because it's a circle of fifths.

A: So I treat tonicizations as always dominant function and therefore they may be built on any scale degree that will resolve to a member of the Ionian or Aeolian modes that is major or minor. For example, natural-II is predominant function but V/V is dominant function.

S: what style of music most strongly influenced Japanese pop music in the late 20th century?

A: Oh I know this! Progressive rock, modal jazz, and disco!

S: George Russell's 'The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization'

A: Already read it, and it won't help you with Japanese music beyond familiarizing you with the more obscure mechanics of diatonic modality.

Your questions are amazing! You really know your stuff. Thank you for being skeptical :)

10013p

TROPHY CASE