"Domestication" of Blue Notes in the Beatles' Songs

Abstract

Much of the Beatles' originality stems from the special way in which they handle blue notes. Blue notes, by nature, are alienated from their harmonic environment and have a dissonant relationship with them, giving the blues and all its derivatives a rough, angry character. Nevertheless, the hostility of blue notes toward the surrounding world may be mitigated—“domesticated”—through consonantization. From this perspective, the present paper explains the formation of several of the harmonic idioms that shape the Beatles' style. In broader terms, the paper attempts to uncover the blues affinities in the Beatles' repertoire, even when they are latent and expressed in ostensibly non-blues details. These affinities contribute to the unity of the repertoire despite its diversity and eclecticism.