A Geometric Analysis Of The Harmonic Structure of "In My Life"
This work applies geometric music theory to a specific song, offering insights for musicologists and theorists interested in analyzing popular music.
The authors analyzed the harmonic structure of The Beatles' song 'In My Life' using a Tonnetz approach, revealing a highly structured geometric logic in its chord progressions and harmonic rhythms.
After our book---Mathematics and Music: Composition, Perception, and Performance, 2nd edition, CRC Press, 2020---was published, we found a striking example of the importance of the Tonnetz for analyzing the harmonic structure of The Beatles' song, "In My Life." Our Tonnetz analysis will illustrate the highly structured geometric logic underlying the numerous chord progressions in the song. Spectrograms provide a way for us to visualize chordal harmonics and their connection with voice leading. We shall also describe the interesting harmonic rhythms of the song's chord progressions. A lot of this harmonic rhythm lends itself well to a geometric description.