The role of G in The Sound of Silence in A minor
So the chord sequence for The Sound of Silence in Am (the key I play in because I lost my capo) is roughly
Am G Am C F C F C F C Am C G Am G etc.
My question is why the G before Am, "within the sound," which has a lot of suspense and does not sound bright at all, sounds very different from the G after the Am, which is bright and cheery. It's G Am G, but the two G's sound very different. I took music theory a decade and a half ago and I've long since forgotten pretty much all of it, but I got the sense that the "chord of suspense" should be E or E7, which is nowhere in this piece.
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Laurence answered this. I'd just add that the "chord of suspense" is not E or E7 because this piece is modal, in A Aeolian, not in A minor.
We hear the first G chord as ?VII of A minor. The second one follows a string of C major chords and feels like V of C major. Yes, it's interesting what a big difference the context makes.
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