Why I Like This Song | Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen

I think, like many others, I first heard this song when I saw Shrek (a great movie, by the way) in a version performed by Welsh singer-songwriter John Cale. But I hadn't paid the greatest attention to the lyrics and what really stuck in my head was the melody.

Some time later I heard a version of Il Divo in Spanish. I really liked it and it ended up becoming my favorite version.

However, at a certain moment I wanted to try to sing it and I found myself with the surprise that its original author is Mr. Leonard Cohen and that its lyrics in English have a meaning full of much debate until these days.

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Unfortunately Mr. Cohen passed away in 2016. But he left some notions of what this one might actually mean, as far as "Hallelujah" is concerned, he said:

_{ES "El mundo está lleno de conflictos y de cosas irreconciliables. Pero hay momentos en los que podemos conciliar y abrazar todo este desastre y eso es lo que quiero decir con "Hallelujah".
La canción explica que existen muchos tipos de Hallelujahs, y tanto los perfectos como los defectuosos tienen el mismo valor. Es el deseo de afirmar mi fe en la vida, no en un sentido religioso sino con entusiasmo, con emoción".}

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Many have considered that his lyrics contain a certain religious or sexual message. That it presents in itself the contradictions inherent to these themes, to human nature or to the simple ambiguity with which we face our reality.

Now, maybe it has nothing to do with this. Or maybe it does. But that's what's great about music and this song in particular. The reason it can have different meanings for different people, including its author, is because of its ability to connect with different ways of thinking and feeling. I had already talked something similar in my previous post about Metallica's Welcome Home (Sanitarium).

So, what do I like about this song? The use of word painting in the first verse. But...

What the beans is word painting?

Simply put, it's a musical resource that has been around since the Renaissance, in which the music is subordinated to the text. That is, musical forms are developed, such as melodies or harmonies that are related to what the text describes.

For example, have you heard Happy by Pharrell Williams? There is a part of the song in which he says My level's too high, and when he says this last word he makes a high note. Something like that.

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For example, this first verse contains in itself biblical and descriptive references. On the one hand, it speaks of King David, who was able to bring peace to Saul (his predecessor) with his harp. In this first stage the harmony moves between a major mode (happy, joyful, sunny) and a minor mode (sad, nostalgic, cloudy). So the music also accounts for the ambiguity that will be described throughout the song. Also when it mentions which chords David "used", these correspond with the sense of the harmonic progression. Let me explain.

In music, each key has a group of chords that are natural to them and present a specific function. In C major we have:

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Together with the lyrics, these chords change in this way

_{When he says fourth he makes F, the fourth chord of the scale. When he says fifth he makes G, the fifth chord of the scale. When it says minor fall it makes Am (A minor) and when it says major lift it makes F (F major) again.}

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