Polin's theme - a musical Polinalysis
Alright...I am very rusty with this stuff (I studied music theory ohhh 15 years ago or so) but I couldn't resist delving deeper into the subject of this post. Anyone else with more expertise in this area, I'd love to know your thoughts!
So, we hear a lovely soaring orchestral theme in the background when Colin and Penelope kiss for the first time, yes? To remind ourselves, here's the theme in full.
The actual theme starts at about the 18s mark, but I included those initial 18 seconds because what's going on in the strings at that point helps orient us in the proper key. There's a resolution to a D-flat Major chord around the 5s mark as Colin's starting to lean in. Given that, and the rest of the notes in the theme and how they relate to each other, I'm assuming we're in the key of D-flat Major. (And I'll get into why it's meaningful to know this throughout the analysis.)
The theme we hear in this scene is made up of two main musical phrases. The first goes like this:
The second starts the same but takes a slightly different path at the end. It sounds like this:
What I think is interesting about both of these phrases is that we neither start nor end on the tonic (aka the first) note of a D-flat Major scale (which is D-flat). The phrases start on A-flat and end on E-flat. Why is this interesting?
Think of the tonic note of a scale as "home." If you start a musical phrase on the tonic note, that gives you a good sense of where you are harmonically right off the bat. The phrase will always take you away from that tonic note, but what creates tension and movement in the music is that ever-present desire to return home.
The phrases in Polin's theme neither start us at home nor return us there. In fact, the last part of the first phrase descends within a D-flat Major scale from A-flat to G-flat to E-flat and then hangs there. E-flat is one note in the scale above the tonic. Musically, we desperately want to resolve from E-flat to D-flat, but the phrase suspends us in that desire. The next line, instead of giving us a nice solid D-flat, drops us back to A-flat and starts the phrase over again.
I think this is a beautiful bit of musical storytelling. Just like the music dances around the tonic note without ever grounding us there, Colin and Penelope's relationship at this point is heading into uncertain territory. And just as the tension in the melodic line builds and never quite resolves, we are left at the end of the kiss scene with a dramatic transformation having occurred in Colin and Penelope's relationship and no clarity as to what's next. (Except that we would desperately love for them to keep kissing. 😉)
Then we have Colin's dream. And in the dream, the moment his and Penelope's lips meet, we hear that theme again. But hark! Something's different...
It's subtle, but this repetition of the theme is a half-step higher than the previous iteration. Instead of being in D-flat Major, we're in D Major. I think this is cool for two reasons.
First, it sets the dream scene apart from the real kiss scene in a psychological way—by giving it a slightly higher musical tonality, it has a slightly higher emotional tone. There's a little less uncertainty, a little more freedom.
Which brings me to the second cool thing, which is that, historically, D Major was regarded as the key of triumph and victory. Composers liked to set marches in D Major. The "Hallelujah" chorus from Handel's Messiah is in D Major.
And what could be more triumphant than marching into your crush's firelit garden, brazenly confessing your feelings, and having those feelings returned in a passionate kiss? You can even hear in this variation of the Polin theme that the tempo is a bit more expansive. It feels more like a confident stride with your head held high than the previous iteration, which is just a touch more frantic.
Then Colin wakes up. His world has been rocked. The next time he and Penelope see each other is in the willow scene, and just before they duck under the willow tree's cover, we hear a third variant of the Polin theme (thank you to @i-know-the-endss for pointing this out!!)...
Two things that I think are interesting about this return of the theme are 1) we're still in D Major, and 2) the end of this variation, unlike the previous variations, actually resolves down to the tonic of the key (which in this instance is a D)!
What does this mean? Personally, I think it's a fun little tease. We're hearing the tune the same way it appeared in Colin's dream... Will this first real-life meeting between Colin and Penelope since the dream play out the same way? The phrase grounds us on a D at the end rather than leaving us suspended on the note above with a desperate need to resolve that tension. Does that mean we'll see a resolution to the tension in Colin and Penelope's relationship?
And of course we do not, which is why it's a tease, but I love that the music builds the excitement at seeing Colin and Penelope interact for the first time since their kiss—for the first time since Colin's newfound emotional conflict—in this way. Like dangling a little carrot for us and then yanking it away.
Finally, later in that same episode, we hear the theme one more time at the first party Penelope attends since her self-flagellation in Whistledown.
This time, however, we're back in D-flat Major. Back to the reality of the first kiss, where things were uncertain and unsteady, instead of in the hopeful triumph of Colin's dream.
This is also the shortest iteration of the theme we hear. It abruptly ends partway through the first phrase. In this case, we are left dangling on an F, which is the third note of a D-flat Major scale. Because we are not yet "home" on the third, we still feel a lack of resolution here. However, unlike the very first iteration of this phrase, where we traveled down to the second note of the D-flat Major scale and were left with a desperate feeling of wanting to resolve just one more note down to the tonic, the third note of the scale lacks the same urgency and sense of direction. We are unresolved, but without knowing exactly where we want or need to go in order to achieve that resolution.
I think this is a great bit of musical storytelling, as well. At this point in Penelope's arc, she just wants to move on and find a suitor, and she still does not believe Colin could ever fill that role. Later in that party scene, she makes a connection with Lord Debling, and her objective for a husband is renewed. Colin, on the other hand, is starting to pine for Penelope something fierce, but he's still battling with himself about who he is and what he really wants. The outcome that will bring them both happiness, while obvious to us viewers, is not clear to either Colin or Penelope. Thus, a dangling F in a D-flat Major key without a clear path home.
A couple more notes (ba-dum-tss) about this theme... I speculate in the musical transcription at the top that the first occurrence of this theme is in 12/8 time. This is because the strings that are running underneath the main theme have a dance-y triplet-like quality to them which made me feel like each beat of the theme is actually a quick three-count. I bring this up because the first movement of Beethoven's Appassionata, which Francesca indicates is a particular favorite of hers in her conversation with Lord Petri in ep2, is also in 12/8 time. Not only that, but the second movement of the Appassionata is in D-flat Major, the same key I postulate we're in for the first occurrence of Polin's theme. Nothing profound here...I just think it's neat.
And to anyone who read all this, know that I appreciate you deeply!! And I'd love to know what you think. <3
I wrote a part 2! | and a part 3!
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