In his blog for American Songwriter, David Mead makes a teaching tool of Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah. In particular, Mead discusses the marriage between the lyric and the melody. But he stops short his discussion of the most extraordinary aspect of this marriage, though not without acknowledging this, as he states parenthetically, "(The fact that Cohen is actually executing the musical movement being described in the lyric is slightly beyond comprehension and worthy of an entire blog unto itself.)" I just thought I'd pick up slightly where Mead left off because I remember Anjani addressed this at one point. In an interview for Anjani's website (now since removed), Anjani very adeptly explains:
First I want to point out the technical merit of chordal movement in "Hallelujah." Here's a roundabout explanation of why it would escape you unless you knew music theory. There's a section in my favorite Cole Porter ballad that goes:
There's no love song finer
but how strange the change
from major to minor
Every Time We Say GoodbyeWhen the vocalist sings, from major to minor, the chord also changes modality along with the phrase. It's the only song I can think of besides "Hallelujah," where musical theory marries the lyric...but Porter's effort is nowhere near as developed as Cohen's brilliant ascending line before the chorus:
It goes like this
the fourth, the fifth,
the minor fall, the major lift
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