Bohemian Rhapsody: Classical Theory & the Confession

We’re going to look at how Freddie Mercury constructed Bohemian Rhapsody using techniques of late 18th-century classical theory, and we’ll see how he cleverly lays out what could be a secret confession through his use of theatrical orchestration, the Roman Catholic church, the persecution of Galileo, his muslim upbringing, Italian opera, stylized piano and the blending of multiple styles.

The Circle of Fifths

The Large-scale Tritone: Diabolus in Musica

Freddie conjures Satan both in words and in his structural use of the “Devil’s Interval” or “Diabolus in musica”. This unstable dissonance occurs in chords, in the chord progressions, and in the larger, harmonic architecture.

Lucifer: “Bringer of Light”

The verse ends in Eb with the admission, “I sometimes wish I’d never been born at all.” Here, the guitar solo ultimately descends to our darkest keys of Db and Bb minor. This leads to the dramatic, “common-tone modulation” when the Db becomes the C# of A major (Diabolus key of Eb). This shocking key, which is like a ray of bright light on solo piano, is a full tritone from our warm home key of Eb. The tritone is equal to six chromatic steps. It is also six perfect fifths along the circle on the sharp side, and six on the flat side. The interval was banned outright by orders of the Roman Catholic Church in the middle ages. Freddie is using this as he plays out the operatic fantasy in the “silhouetto of a man” sequence, and the mock trial of Galileo for heresy against the church.

Coming Out?

Is this propositioning of Scaramouche (a bad guy in 18th century theater) to “do the fandango” (a seductive Spanish dance), an admission of his own “very, very frightening…thunderbolt and lightning” experience? The lyrics make sense in the context of him being put on trial, plausibly for homosexuality, with factions asking to “spare him his life from this monstrosity” (of homophobia.) Could his admittance to his mother that he’d “killed a man” be a reference to the death of his former, straight self? Bear in mind that at the time he wrote this there were no openly gay rock stars.

Classical Adornment

The embellished ornamentation of these passages was outrageously classical even for the time when many rock bands were exploring these realms. In this sense, Freddie Mercury defined the style later termed “Classic Rock” which he first foreshadowed in the early hit, “Killer Queen.” His theory is clear and precise, as was the style of the Enlightenment period from which he draws his material. Nearly every non-chord tone in the piece can be explained as a “neighbor” tone, a “chromatic neighbor,” or a “passing” tone. This is in keeping with the aesthetic of a Mozart opera. It is unclear, however, who Freddie was listening to for inspiration.

Passing Tones

The passing tones appear in two guises: in the piano figurations appearing throughout the second half of the song as on the very final phrase, “Any way the wind blows,” and on the sliding passages which seem to descend into Hell. These appear on “Now I’ve gone and thrown it all away,” or “I don’t wanna die”, and particularly on the aforementioned episode coming out of the guitar solo. Here, chromatic passing tones descend to the darkest moments before the bright key of the operetta.

Neighbor Tones

The neighbor tone idea appears on the second chord of the opening sequence with “Is this just fantasy?” It becomes prominent in the key of Eb with “Easy come, easy go” where the chords are chromatic neighbors of the V chord (Bb). Since A major is the lower chromatic neighbor of Bb, Freddie introduces this important foreign key immediately. This ties the sections of the piece together in ways which are unfathomable. The different variations of the neighbor tones are the glue of the framework and all are unique; as in the key of A on “I see a little silhouetto” and then again on an Ab 6/4 “He’s just a poor boy, from a poor family.”

All of these are variations on a motif. He uses this device again to modulate back from A major to Eb by using chromatic neighbors F and Bb on “Galileo.” These flatted pitches put us seamlessly right back at the opening key, Eb. Here our chromatic neighbors of V return, “I’m just a poor boy, nobody loves me.” When we contemplate the purpose of this whole passage, the arrival back at the “easy come, easy go” motif from the opening must have been his intent all along. He needed a way back to Mama.

A Devil Put Aside

But Eb is now the key of the devil as we arrive in a fantastic way on “Bismillah,” an invocation to Allah, and big V to I repetitions with timpani and choir. With, “Mama Mia, let me go,” we land on Eb, “Beelzebub.” And now the Ab IV chord goes to a V of iii, D major, on the word “devil”. That’s Ab major to D major (Diabolus) on the word “devil” which encapsulates the entire song at this critical juncture as Freddie claims he is damned to hell, while splitting the circle of fifths on its axis, and delineating, metaphorically, God from the devil.

This passage also highlights Freddie’s love of the mediant chord, iii, in this case g minor; which is another layer at work throughout the song.

The Magical Mediant

Another loved change of Freddie Mercury is the Puff-the-Magic-Dragon chord; the mediant or iii chord. Maybe, like me, you remember the experience as a kid of dreaming up an enchanted world where a “dragon lived by the sea” when you heard the chord that fell on that line. Freddie uses this chord change in his biggest songs to bring out an epic story as on the word “”Queen” in Killer Queen, or on the word “Champions” in We are the Champions.

The iii and vi Chords in Bohemian Rhapsody

The mediant (iii) first appears at the opening, to break up the circle of fifths sequence and accentuate Bb, on the words, “Open your eyes.” The submediant (vi chord) soon appears (though it becomes ii in Bb at “I’m just a poor boy.”) These two chords are peppered throughout the piece as a way of tying together an emotional, nostalgic realm separate from the classical material; as when he sings “Nothing really matters, anyone can see.”

The Ol’ Borrowed iv Chord

Freddie uses the borrowed version of the IV chord to tie up the song. In Eb major, the IV chord Ab is made into Ab minor by lowering the C to Cb on “nothing really matters…”. Everyone is familiar with the uniquely dark and poignant sound of this change. In the final cadence, this sad chord is followed with an exactly opposite type of chord, Ab major 7 over Bb. This is a very flippant chord over the final words, “Nothing really matters to me.” That juxtaposition also encapsulates the song by posing a very philosophical question: Does anything really matter? This idea of pitting the flippant against the serious is what shapes the work.

You Need the Light to Show the Dark

Freddie paints his grand narrative with all the intensity spelled out by these two opposing forces of light and dark. The fact that the two main keys are so diametrically opposed; Eb major with its dark warmth in three flats, and A major with its bright coldness in three sharps, sets such a clear canvas and stage for the drama. Though we can never unravel all its mysteries, and maybe that’s what is so appealing about the song, we all revel in the poetic mastery that Freddie had over the deepest realms of human philosophy and artistic expression.