UPDATE #1: Two people have offered the term “tritone” as the word I’m looking for. If that sounds right to you, or if you think it might be a different word, feel free to comment. :)
UPDATE #2: And a kind gentleman offers the (what might be obvious to people with any degree of music education, of which I am obviously not one) distinction between “major” and “minor” keys, which makes sense, and between that and other terms/insights offered, I think I can wiggle my way through the vexing paragraphs of the story concerned.
Therefore, free to ignore all the confused verbiage that follows and just play the tune if you’re in the mood for a goofy track from a musical. THANKS! Y’all are great.
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Okay, you’ve heard of “Name That Tune,” right? Well, this is more like “Name That Specific Word That Has To Do With Tunes, Else I Shall Remain Hopelessly Tongue-Tied.” (Yes I know, this is much ado over one stupid word, as my last HALP! inqury was much ado over a particular matter of grammar.)
So, try not to laugh at me. I’m in the middle of a piece that involves this song (from the Sound of Music soundtrack, the first record I owned, and the only one I had for quite some time, thus it became a sort of secondary, bizarrely ironic soundtrack for my life - BUT I DIGRESS), and I have none of the musical background that would be helpful for describing this scene.
Anyway, there’s a particular word on the tip of my tongue and I CAN’T FUCKING REMEMBER WHAT IT IS, and The Google is all full o’ Fail, so if you can help me remember the word, I’d be grateful.
The word I need is an adjective for when, during the melody of a song (hey, at least I kinda know what ‘melody’ means), there’s a note that sort of turns another way, so that it sounds kind of different and foreboding - where it has a different tonal quality, kinda flat-ish? Anyway, it’s a deviation from the normal melody.
If you can force yourselves to listen to this ridiculous track, you don’t have to get very far in to get to the point where this departure-from-the-ordinary-melodic-pattern thingie happens (this thing I could swear there was a specific word for, but damned if I can come up with it). It’s sort of like - the sound is cheerful, then there is this injected gloom. In this song, the “injected gloom” deviations are concentrated in the beginning of the song.
SO ANYWAY: In the following lyrics, the bolded lines are where this thingie happens. WHAT IS THE STINKIN’ WORD? (Or am I imagining that there is such a word?)
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Words to “I Have Confidence,” from Sound of Music soundtrack
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What will this day be like, I wonder
What will my future be, I wonder
It could be so exciting
To be out to the world, to be free
My heart should be wildly rejoicing
Oh, what’s the matter with me
I’ve always longed for adventure
To do the things I’ve never dared
Now here I’m facing adventure
Then why am I so scared
A captain with seven children
What’s so fearsome about that
Oh, I must stop these doubts, all these worries
If I don’t I just know I’ll turn back
I must dream of the things I am seeking
I am seeking the courage I lack
The courage to serve them with reliance
Face my mistakes without defiance
Show them I’m worthy
And while I show them, I’ll show me…
So let them bring on all their problems
I’ll do better than my best
I have confidence they’ll put me to the test
But I’ll make them see I have confidence in me
Somehow I will impress them
I will be firm but kind
And all those children, heaven bless them
They will look up to me and mind me
With each step I’m almost certain
Everything will turn out fine
I have confidence, the world can all be mine
They’ll have to agree I have confidence in me
I have confidence in sunshine
I have confidence in rain
I have confidence that spring will come again
Besides which you see I have confidence in me
Strength doesn’t lie in numbers
Strength doesn’t lie in wealth
Strength lies in nights of peaceful slumbers
When you wake up, wake up!
It’s healthy
All I trust I leave my heart to
All I trust becomes my own
I have confidence, in confidence alone
(Oh help……..)
I have confidence, in confidence alone
Besides which you see I have confidence in me
