The darkest song on the record, sung from the flat sixth. The key is D flat major but the gravity is its relative, B flat minor, and the singer haunts G flat, the flat sixth of that minor, and the tonic B flat. Across the stem G flat is twenty-three percent of every note she sings and B flat is nineteen, the two most common. Underneath, the band rocks the minor field of E flat minor, G flat, and A flat, lifting to a rare major chord now and then like a mask over the minor face. Three sung sections are transcribed below from the isolated vocal stem, with the chord shown on the guitar staff and the interval each syllable makes against that chord printed over the notehead.
Why it sounds like Beach House
Four habits stack up to make the sound.
One, the voice haunts the flat sixth. The vocal stem's pitch histogram puts G flat at twenty-three percent, B flat at nineteen, F at thirteen. She circles the flat sixth and the tonic of B flat minor, the darkest scale degree sung more than any other, which is the mournful color of the whole track.
Two, the falling A flat, G flat, F, E flat. The refrain keeps sliding the same four notes down, the sixth, flat sixth, fifth, and fourth of B flat minor, a slow descent that never climbs back. It is the shape of the words her eyes, masquerade and it recolors under whatever chord the band puts beneath it.
Three, the minor fourth chord is the floor. The band leans on E flat minor, the minor four of the key, and G flat and A flat, the borrowed flat six and flat seven, a natural-minor field with no dominant pull. When the phrase reaches E flat minor the sung E flat is its root, home reached at its darkest.
Four, the mask of major. Now and then the harmony lifts a chord to major, B flat or E flat, a bright face over the minor body. It never lasts, the harmony turns back to the minor floor, and the brightness is the mask the title calls a masquerade.
Reading the numbers over each vocal note: 1 root, 3 major third, 5 fifth, 7 major seventh, 9 ninth, 11 the fourth sung as a color tone, 13 thirteenth (the sixth), b7 / b3 / b6 the lowered seventh, third, and sixth. Every label is the interval that sung note makes against the chord tagged on the guitar staff below it.
Masquerade · Beach House · Once Twice Melody
D flat major, B flat minor gravity · intro · the minor field opens, low voice
The song opens straight into the minor field it lives in.
The guitar rocks B flat and G flat, the tonic and the flat sixth, the two poles the whole song swings between.
The bass stays low on B flat and E flat, the root and the minor fourth, with no dominant anywhere to pull toward a cadence.
The voice enters low and close, more breath than pitch in the opening, so the melody staff waits for the first full phrase.
The frame is a natural-minor wheel, and every bright chord after this is heard against it.
favorite momentThe plain B flat to G flat rock at the open, the tonic and its flat sixth trading, the mood set before a clear word arrives.
Intro staves shaped from the guitar and bass stems (0:00–0:40). Chords from the chord chart derived off the isolated instrument stems. The vocal staff is silent, marked tacet; the first clear sung phrase lands near 0:43.
D flat major · verse · the melody circles the flat sixth over the shifting floor
The verse keeps the melody narrow and dark.
Over D flat (III) the line turns D flat, E flat, D flat, B flat, the root, ninth, and sixth of that chord, a small hovering shape.
Under A flat (VII) the same notes read as the root, ninth, and flat seventh, the melody barely moving as the floor slides.
Then E flat (IV) takes A flat, G flat, F, E flat down, the fourth, flat third, ninth, and root, the descent that runs the whole song.
The voice stays in a fourth of range and lets the chords do the coloring, the same handful of dark tones renamed under each.
favorite momentThe A flat, G flat, F, E flat fall at the end of the phrase, four notes down and no climb back, the gravity of the song in one line.
Verse staves from the vocal stem shaped at 0:43–0:55, quantized from the pyin transcription. Lyric is a whisper read of the vocal stem, wording approximate; the whisper hears she comes dressed like Sunday, string of pearls, and that fragment fits the note count. Guitar and bass carry the chord and the root.
D flat major · refrain · the falling line under the title words
The hook is the fall stated plainly.
Over A flat (VII) the line begins on A flat and B flat, the root and the ninth, for her eyes, mas-.
Under G flat (VI) the same A flat and B flat are the ninth and the third, and the melody steps down for -querade.
Then E flat minor (iv) takes F and E flat, the ninth and the root, and the phrase comes down to the minor four for feet to black.
The whole refrain is that descent, sung and left down, the darkest cadence the song has.
favorite momentThe word masquerade carried on the falling A flat and G flat, the flat sixth of the key sung right on the title.
Refrain staves from the vocal stem at 0:56–1:06. Lyric from the whisper read, wording approximate. Chords from the derived chart (A flat, G flat, E flat minor).
D flat major · state of grace · the line reaches E flat over the minor fourth
The bridge phrase reaches the darkest floor and rests on it.
Over A flat (VII) the line runs E flat, D flat, B flat, A flat, the fifth, fourth, ninth, and root of that chord.
Under E flat (IV) it turns B flat, A flat, G flat, A flat, the fifth, fourth, flat third, and fourth, circling without climbing.
Then E flat minor (iv) arrives for state of grace, and the melody comes down to G flat, F, E flat, the flat third, ninth, and root, home reached at its most minor.
The words say grace and the harmony gives its darkest chord, the two pulling against each other exactly as the song wants.
favorite momentThe word grace coming down on E flat over the E flat minor chord, the root of the darkest chord in the song sung on the brightest word.
State-of-grace staves from the vocal stem at 1:34–1:46. Lyric from the whisper read, wording approximate. Chords from the derived chart (A flat, E flat, E flat minor).