one note songs

Every once in a while I hear a song that plays the same note over and over again throughout all or most of the piece, and I think of this:

So let’s do a galaxy oddity for music that plays one note over and over again throughout all or most of the piece, I’ll start:

NEXT SONG

NEXT SONG

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YesIdidItoldyoutodothelittlebendythingonceinawhile!

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check out the guitar that starts 3:19

technically two notes I guess but

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i used to fantasize a lot about doing a band that only played one chord rock songs. like each song could have a different chord but the whole thing was the same one. it’s like the even stupider version of three chord rock songs, so obviously it would be ten times better and i would get rich and famous and live forever

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Reiterating a note for a long time, it grows large, so large that you even hear harmony growing inside it. … When you enter into a sound, the sound envelops you and you become part of the sound. Gradually, you are consumed by it and you need no other sound. … All possible sounds are contained in it.

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Antônio Carlos Jobim has several tunes that melodically center around a single note or short cluster. this is the one that (obviously) fits the best - not strict, but the effect is striking nonetheless

Aguas de Março is another example in a similar vein, but it’s a bit more complex and outside the scope of this thread

it’s kind of a stylistic element of a lot of his music, the evocation of complexity and narrative through repetition - shades of Ravel’s Bolero

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Not one note songs. But they do have a sort of heartbeat note.