In music, modulation is the practice of shifting a song between keys. Direct modulation is a simple transfer from one key to another.
“Repeating a section of a song in a higher key.
“This has become a clichéd move in pop songs and there is nothing smooth about it. In fact, I’ve heard it referred to as the “truck driver’s gear change.” It can be powerful when used tastefully.”
Practitioners range from Broadway productions to Stevie Wonder to Pat Benatar to Barry Manilow, all of whom employ the technique to magnify the emotion of the song, by ending their songs up a major key. But none of them equal the effect of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark’s “If You Leave,” which modulates…and modulates…and then some.
Count upon fellow Rose Bowl performer Martin Gore to create a (musically) perverse alternative—“Little 15,” which goes DOWN a key (at about the three minute mark).
While there are textual equivalents to musical modulation, such as initially adopting an overblown ridiculous tone and shifting to a more reasonable measured tone, I don’t have much occasion to use them in Bredemarket client writing. An analysis would be considered “less professional” if it suddenly changed tone part way through.
But I use them when I can.
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