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(c) Ian Hammond 1999
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I have written the third chord as f#6 instead of d#75- mainly to aid in notation ("d#75-" is too long for examples). The chords are roughly equivalent and the bass does move to f# during the bar.

Note the distinctive Lennon fingerprints:

• xx-f#-G#, or xx-iv-V, where a minor chord is followed by a major chord a tone above is a favorite early gambit of Lennon's in songs as diverse as Strawberry Fields, Julia and Sun King (B section).
  
• The G#-A semitone progression is typical of the WHITE ALBUM period
  (I'm So Tired, Sexy Sadie, Revolution).
  
• c#-A7 (i-VI) is typical of Lennon. See From Me To You,  Glass Onion or Gimme Some Truth, also started around this time.
  
• The use of A7 in E:, with a high G natural is heard in Day Tripper, which also features an A-G# change.
  
• The out-of-key change A-D is typical Lennon.

New for Lennon's published songs at the time were:

• The second chord, d# minor 7 with a diminished 5th (notated f#6)
  
• The A seventh going to A seventh with a sixth (A13), a piece of Tin Pan Alley that fits into his South Seas style.
  
• D going to d diminished (d-)

The Ground
The ground is the inner bass line played on Lennon's guitar, doubled on harpsichord.

The basic figure is a dotted half note followed by a quarter note.  In the example below, the first C# of the ground is a dotted note, the first E is a quarter note.

Martin and McCartney change one or two notes, as indicated above.

Here's a sample bar in more detail. Lennon has not blindly copied Beethoven idiom but rather translated it into his own Rock language. Beethoven's arpeggios were counted, 3+3+3+3, Lennon's are counted 3+3+2, reflecting the classic division of the syncopated rock 4/4 bar:

This clever idea that works well in the intro. In the verses there are uncomfortable cross-rhythms with the unsyncopated vocal parts. One reason the unaccompanied version sounds better is because of the absence of this rhythmic confusion.

The top three notes of the pattern, G# C# E, are the distinctive notes of the gentle piano accompaniment that made Beethoven's movement famous.

The two lower lines of notes show how the inner bass line is formed quite naturally by the capped notes C#, E and C#. This type of device is used in classical music, however it is not prominent in the Moonlight.

Lennon's figure has a Baroque feel to it, an idea strengthened by the use of a Harpsichord, an instrument already outdated in Beethoven's time. Vivaldi's popular Four Seasons has an example where the inner bass line of a violin passage imitates the call of a cuckoo.

Perhaps more relevant is a prelude by Bach, in C minor (BWV.999), which comes quite close to Lennon's pattern. The piece has been transcribed for guitar in D minor. You can hear this prelude at http://www.prs.net/bach.html . Look for BWV.999. Interestingly, the piece finishes on its dominant.

The parallel use of arpeggios and ground on I Want You is striking. Both follow a presentation of the ground with variations on the verse (in Because, it's the florid coda). We can describe both songs as ground and variations, with B-section. You Know My Name, another work in this form, was completed in the same period.

Because, I Want You and Love all feature chord patterns with a single note inner bass line.

The Verse
The first four bars establish C# minor and clearly as Beethoven might have liked:

	c#	c#	c#	b#		cantus firmus
	c#	c#	f#6	G#7		chords
	i		ii7	V7

The following phrase starts near C# minor but the color is definitely A major. The abrupt in-your-face change from G# to A is as if the song has been bumped up-a-key.

	a	g#	g	f#		cantus firmus
	A	c#	A7	A76		chords
	VI	i	VI	VI

There's a definite slowing of the harmonic motion in these four bars which are not much more than the extension an A major chord. The lyric provides further evidence of this slowing. Here's the pattern over the first and second phrases:

	cause sky	blue	on
	c#	c#	f#6	G#7		chords

	cause	sky	blue	--
	A	c#	A7	A76

The first two bars of the first phrase have been extended to four bars in the second phrase.

	because the sky	is	blue it makes	me	cry
	because	the	sky	is	blue

The melody and harmony seem to stretch and slow, as if we're looking through a distorting mirror. Lyrically he is explaining why the sky is blue. However, his explanation makes no more sense than any answer found in Through The Looking Glass. Lennon is using the musical structure to illustrate the underlying concept he has for the song. 


The Link
Lennon ends his verse with a two bar link. All motion ceases at this point as the vocals reduce to "ahs".

	f#	f		cantus firmus
	D	d-		chords
	f#	d		ground
	bII	bii-

The first chord, although unusual, is approached in a natural Beatle style with a root movement of a fourth, from A to D, landing on the flat supertonic, a favorite chord of Beethoven's.

The second chord is another Beethoven's favorite: the diminished chord. This Cheshire Cat chord allows one to disappear and reappear somewhere else magically. Lennon's use of this chord, and the Link in general, is so elusive that I treat it separately in the next article, so as not to clutter this already long description.

As an introductory sequence it is quite reminiscent of the opening of Brahms' third symphony where the mighty chords F, f- introduce the main theme.

For the moment it's enough to say that it's the wrong chord to return to the verse with, but it manages to slide back in with chromatic grace. Put simply, the verse doesn't complete.

Something uses one bar lick to simultaneously end a verse and start a new verse, bridge or coda. Another Girl almost qualifies as an early example, however the implementation is left fuzzy.

In essence, these links are a development of the end-of-verse riffs from songs like Please Please Me. In the that song the riff is reworked for the bridge link (by being cut short), the bridge return (extra chords) and the coda (counterpoint added).


The Overlay
Formally, the link occurs at the end of each verse. Here's a diagram of the process. The middle base line shows the underlying ground-link structure. At this level there are simply five verses and one bridge, as shown by the bottom formal line..

intro

verse 1

verse 2

bridge

verse 3

coda

overlay

ground

lk

ground

lk

ground

lk

bridge

ground

lk

ground

lk

base

intro

verse

verse

bridge

verse

coda

formal

As with some other late Lennon Beatle pieces, the song has a second overlay structure shown by the top line. The start of verse 1 and 2 is pulled back, as is the bridge. The third verse starts at the right place, but is still shortened link the intro. The coda encompasses both an opening and closing link.

The position of the link is arbitrary in some ways. Another way to consider it is as being both the start and the end of a section at the same time. Does this sound illogical? Have a listen to Julia where the last bar of the verse is also the first bar of the succeeding verse. This is an overlapping technique.

Another song to use overlayed sections is Sexy Sadie where the G-F#7 chord sequence is remapped. Sexy Sadie shares other characteristics with Because.


The Bridge
After the oddness of the verse, the bridge is comfortingly normal. Everything seems to fit. 

The link diminished chord does resolve here, being reinterpreted as a dominant diminished ninth of F#, the first chord of the bridge. This is a copybook pivot chord modulation that Beethoven would have approved (although he may have chosen a different bass note).

F# contains A#, the only tone not present in the verse chords. The A# jumps at us because the Picardy affect caused by the sequence of F# minor chords preceding it.

After all the stuttering chordal figures, we finally get a stepwise tune here. The three note figure, "love is old", is based on the little figure in the second bar of the ground: (e f# d#). 

Lyrically Lennon swaps his riddles for "something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue" and reminds us of his song Love.

link	D	C#9-			chords
bridge	F#	F#   d#	G#7	G#7	chords
	c#	f#	d#	g# f# b# f# g#	inner bass
	f#	f#   d#	g#	g#	bass

The last four notes of the ground are a tritone followed by F# that goes to G#, rather than the verse F# that drops to F natural.

The verse following the bridge is the only verse (except the intro) not to be preceded by the link. Lennon takes full advantage of the opportunity, constructing the bridge as the only convincing full close in the song. Time for the a thousand strings to soar. And more closure.

	bridge		verse
	F#	G#7	c#

The affect is much more that of, say, a Chopin, than Beethoven, and the melodic rhythm is likewise typical of the Romantic period.

You can't get a much simpler bridge than IV to V. And what of the Moonlight "B section"? At bar 23 Ludwig repeats his tattoo theme in F# (minor) followed by a 14 bar peroration over a G# bass (bar 28). Both pieces use the same F#-G# game plan.

Lennon's bridge is functional, designed to provide a brief respite without detracting attention from the main game of the song. His bridge introduces exactly one new chord and reworks material from the verse. See Julia for another example of this minimalism.


The Coda
The coda provides another variation on the ground adding an melismatic development of the "love is old" bridge figure. Where the bridge figure began in the second bar, the coda takes off in the first. The affect is such that we hear the coda *starting* with the link. The florid vocal phrases function as questions which are answered by the Moog flute.

The resulting verse sections are now quite regular. It's as if we've been looking at the verse the wrong way around all along and we've just realized it.

		voices		flute
		D	d-	c#	c#		chords
	D:	I	i-	vii
	c#:	bII	bii-	i
		f#6	G#7	A	c#
	D:	iii6	bVI	V	vii
	c#	iv6	V	VI	i
		A7	A76	D	d-
	D:	V	V	I	i-
	c#	V	VI	bII	bii-

Played like this, the verse is recast very solidly in D major. To demonstrate just how independent the pattern is I've uploaded a MP3 Tango based on the chords to my website at www.beathoven.com/downloads -- I recorded it very quickly, so please be forgiving. It does, however, demonstrate, with two verses, how the chord pattern above can lead to a perfectly sensible piece of music.

It interesting to note that an early sketch of Because had the verse starting more like this.


The Final Close
The song concludes on the diminished chord of the link, a semitone up from the tonic. That's a rather unusual way to end a piece of music, although the standard blues ending on a tonic seventh is not far removed.

Melodically, the final leap is a sixth, echoing the leaps of the verse. Mellers says that "because that flat supertonic is a moment of revelation, it needs no resolution".

Although this kind of close was more difficult to pull off in the 1800's, Beethoven manages a convincing example in Ninth Symphony where the Andante Maestoso ("Seid umschlungen Millionen") roves through G major, F major and a modal g minor to close first on a D major chord, then a step higher on Eb (cf Good Day Sunshine) and then another step higher, on E diminished, as Because does.

All in all, it's like finishing a story with a question. Because is not always an answer.

Of course, the last thing we hear is that elusive F# to a Picardy E sharp. The last fading grin of the Cheshire Cat. Or was it a wink.