Wolfie's Alarm Clock (The Leading Tone)

This episode explores the musical concept of the leading tone within the major and minor scales, using the anecdote of Wolfgang Mozart's childhood as a jumping-off point. Against the backdrop of this story, the podcast delves into the seven scale degrees, highlighting the tonic's stability and the supertonic's relative lack of importance. More significantly, it emphasizes the leading tone's unique characteristic: its strong gravitational pull toward the tonic due to its proximity (a half step away). For instance, the podcast contrasts this with the minor scale's subtonic, which lacks this magnetic quality, often requiring artificial raising to achieve the leading tone effect. The episode then analyzes Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" as a masterful example of using the leading tone to build tension and anticipation before finally resolving to the tonic, demonstrating the emotional power of this musical element. This exploration reveals how the leading tone's inherent properties contribute significantly to the emotional impact and structural resolution in Western music.