Workshop 26 — “’Round Midnight”: Chromatic Melody, Diminished Color, Altered Dominants, and Making Dissonance Sound Beautiful

This workshop introduces a different problem:

What if the melody itself is chromatic enough that the harmony cannot be understood as “simple tune + fancy chords underneath”?

In “’Round Midnight,” melody and harmony are tightly intertwined. The expressive character comes from:

• semitone motion
• altered dominant tension
• diminished colors
• minor-major sonorities
• unexpected resolutions
• suspensions that feel almost painful before they settle

This makes it an excellent laboratory for learning how melody can generate harmony.

We’ll work conceptually around C minor, rather than reproduce a complete lead sheet.

The central lesson is:

Chromatic notes stop sounding “outside” when you can hear exactly what they are leaning toward.