#not another kim/walter parallel 😩😩😩

[singingninja4]

when I posted this update on my music cue analysis I so badly wanted to include that there are TWO kim/walt parallels happening here!! but I didn't want to spoil y'all lmao so I've had this queued up for the last 12 days

anyway, the two parallels are 1) the music cue parallel between "38 Snub" and "Hit and Run" AND 2) a narrative parallel between "38 Snub" and "Point and Shoot" because both Kim and Walter try to kill Gus, but are thwarted by one of Gus's men

*SCREAMS*

THEY CAN'T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS!!! these kim/walt parallels are driving me insane!! what are they trying to say???!!?!!

PETER AND VINCE I JUST WANT TO TALK

[singingninja4]

A new analysis, another Kim parallel! 🙂🙃

This analysis compares the Breaking Bad Main Theme (extended version) and the music cue from the ending scene in 6x06: Axe and Grind. 

The analysis method I used for these cues is a simplified version of the Shenkerian method, which essentially reduces the music down to its simplest layer by removing auxiliary notes and elaborations to show what makes up the primary tonal structure.

For the Breaking Bad Theme (x) I focused on the first few bars. This motif repeats throughout the cue:

This very simple theme is in D minor, and I have labeled the scale degrees below each note. As you can see below, very little reduction was needed to bring this down to its primary tonal structure. The basic structure climbs up the scale from 3 to 6.

Next is the cue from Axe and Grind, called It Happens Today (x) I am focusing on the B section of the cue, which starts in measure 19. 

This cue is in the key of Eb minor, just a half-step above the BrBa theme. As in the BrBa cue, I labeled the scale degrees below the notes. At first glance, these two cues don’t look very similar, but the tonal structure is the same. In the transcription below, I grouped neighboring tones together to show how I found the primary tonal structure. (the second picture shows a structural note in the bass line, which wasn’t included above.)

When the neighboring tones are removed, the primary tonal structure is as follows:

Both cues have the exact same tonal structure when looking at the scale degrees. The basic melody jumps up a third, then returns to 1, jumps up a fourth, then returns to 1 and so on, creating this slow ascent up the scale. Additionally, both cues utilize syncopated rhythm, with movement happening between the strong beats. (It Happens Today uses the syncopated rhythms a little more heavily, but the connection between the two can still be drawn.) The syncopated rhythms plus the climbing scale build tension as the cues progress.

Although many viewers may not have heard the extended BrBa main theme at the start of the each episode, it is also used in 5x15: Granite State (x) In this scene Walter sees Gretchen and Elliot on the TV and makes the crucial decision to go back to Albuquerque to force Gretchen and Elliot to give his money to his son, exact his revenge on Jack and the neo-Nazi’s. This chain of events ultimately led to Jesse's freedom and Walter’s death at the nazi meth lab.

In the Axe and Grind scene, Kim also makes a crucial decision to turn around and head back to Albuquerque so that she and Jimmy can execute their plan against Howard. This chain of events ultimately led to Howard’s death at the hand of Lalo in Kim and Jimmy’s apartment. So not only is there a general parallel between BCS and BrBa, but also a parallel between Kim and Walt (these Kim/Walt parallels are making me absolutely sick 😩)

Let me know what you think of my analysis or if you have any interpretations of your own! I’d love to hear them ☺️

bcs/brba music analysis 3/??