9781 / 18210 · Workshop 80 — Harmonic Ambiguity and Delayed Identity: Sus Chords, No-3rd Voicings, Slash Chords, Pedals, and Letting the Listener Discover the Harmony← prev⊞ allnext →
80.101Apply it to “The Bare Necessities”
A comic possibility:
start absurdly serious and harmonically mysterious.
Pedal.
No 3rd.
Quartal colors.
The tune begins.
Then suddenly reveal:
bright F-major/boogie/New Orleans harmony.
The joke works because the listener expected one musical world and received another.
Later, you can briefly return to the ambiguous “serious” texture as a callback.