I've always liked the arpeggio section in dance of the sugar plum fairy, it sounds so sweet and mysterious. I was trying to figure out the idea behind them. Here's the section in Synthesia.
From complete score, first edition, 1892.
I typed in the notes as followed:
D F# A C | D F# A C
D# F# A B | D# F# A B
*D F# A C | D F# A C
*D# F# A B | D# F# A B
F A C E | F A C E
*F# A B D# | F# A B D#
*F A C E | F A C E
*F# A B D# | F# A B D#
A C D# G | A C D# G
- B D# F# | B D# F#
- A C D# G | A C D# G
- B D# F# | B D# F#
- D F# A C | D F# A C
- D# F# A B | D# F# A B
- D F# A C | D F# A C
- D# F# A B | D# F# A B
And simplying further (removing repeated chords in asterisk) and using a reverse chord finder I found that the four main chords are:
(1) D F# A C -- D7, D dominant seventh, VII7 of the key
(2) D# F# A B -- B7, B dominant seventh, V7 of parallel key
(3) F A C E -- could be Fmaj7 or Dm9, or ???
(4) A C D# G -- could be Cm6 or Cm9, or ???
The key of the song is in E minor; here are its diatonic chords:
Emin, F#dim, G, Amin, Bmin, C, D.
Here are the chords of the parallel E major:
E, F#min, G#min, A, B, C#min, D#dim
So I think I know where (1) and (2) chords come from (please correct me if wrong). But I'm having trouble figuring out where (3) (4) came from. They are not in the key or the parallel key.
Another way to look at this is maybe this is a certain scale that he's arpeggiating and not chords. If I take the unique notes of the above section they are: D# F# A B C D E F. But this doesn't form a scale.
So maybe someone knows if its chords and what those 4 are, or if it's not chords maybe it's something else. (?) I noticed similar songs like John Williams' Hedwig's Theme or Saint-Saëns Carnival of the Animals VII Aquarium, or a bunch of Danny Elfman songs. They have that innocent/creepy vibe to them, is it something with sevenths, or chromaticism or..?
