For You from Entropy by DZ Riley

While this song is about the senior and from the outside of his perspective, I wrote this song specifically about my Grandmother. She used to play the piano, and in this song, the piano represents her presence while the acoustic guitar represents mine.

For most of the song, the violin and the cello move in contrary motion, meaning that the pitches move away from each other - The violin moves to higher pitches while the cello moves to lower pitches to portray the growing separation between the narrator and the senior.

About halfway into the instrumental section, the piano quickly voices a chord across all of the keys, from low to high, as a transition. This is something my Grandmother did when she would first sit down in front of the piano. It’s also the last real thing that she could remember how to play. The last time I saw her at the piano, she did it twice and that was all we could get out of her. Perhaps that is why it stuck with me.

The song ends without resolution in musical harmony, leaving subtle dissatisfaction. The cello sits on the leading tone just before cutting off, and the piano’s final notes are A♯ and B: Two keys on the piano that are directly next to each other and when played together, create strong dissonance. This shows that the senior has been corrupted and agitated. All of the narrator’s questions remain unanswered and therefore, resolution is withheld.

DZ Riley is a Chicago-based rock band that focuses on creating conceptual and story-driven music. The band pulls from a wide variety of musical influences, ranging from funk, latin, R&B, blues, soul, psychedelic, and much more.

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