keith jarrett stella by starlight transcription

This is a common sub for chord I in major keys and adds tension and I’ve written about that before. The first chord is Bb dim7 or chord I dim7 and lasts for two bars. The chords for each 8-bar section are all different. The tonic chord is not stated until bar 9. See the C section in particular.Īnd the harmony is more modern than most jazz standards. There are a lot of chord extensions emphasised by the melody (eg maj 7, 9, 11).So, there is less of a feeling of conclusion than usual. It contains a lots of suspensions so that the melody does not directly fit the chords underneath until it resolves (eg B section bars 1 and 5).The melody is much more modern than most jazz standards. I show those chord changes here transposed to Bb for ease of comparison with other versions. It was the Frank Sinatra recording in the key of G from 1947, arranged by his musical director, Axel Stordahl. In the beginning …Īs usual, I don’t have the original sheet music to refer to, but I do have Spotify, YouTube and an internet connection, so I set out to find the earliest recording I could and transcribe the changes.

Here is my playlist of recordings of this song to compare. We’ll look at the song in Bb major, as it is most commonly played and seen in jazz real books. There is little of the usual repetition found in AABA or ABAC songs. It is 32 bars long as is most common for jazz standards, but it is ‘through composed’ meaning every section is different, so I call the form ABCD (8-8-8-8). But this is by far the most sophisticated of the song he wrote which became jazz standards. He also wrote Ghost of a Chance, My Foolish Heart and Beautiful Love. The song, written in 1944 by Victor Young as horror film music for The Uninvited (A composer and his sister discover that the reason they are able to purchase a beautiful gothic seacoast mansion very cheaply is the house’s unsavory past).

This article is a deep dive into various versions to explain what is going on. You may have looked at the standard, Stella By Starlight, and wondered what horrors lurk beneath those chords.

Keith jarrett stella by starlight transcription