AMERICAN THEATRE: The second song in Hamilton, “Aaron Burr, Sir,” very conveniently features a chord progression that represents Aaron Burr throughout the show. As I’ve shown with the narrative chord progression associated with the opening number, it is possible for a chord progression to represent ideas. In the case of Aaron Burr, the chord progression represents a person, and that person represents an idea.
I could talk for hours about the genius of Hamilton. I wish there were more articles or frankly essays on the dissection of the Hamilton soundtrack. I would love to see this author go through every character's theme in the show. When I was in middle school I filled a notebook with tracking every character's theme and what songs they occurred in. Something that the author highlighted that I think it is genius is how Lin created Burr’s chord progression with a major chord before switching to the minor chords. That sense of stability reflects in his cautious character. With only having three chords in what we associate with a fourth chord progression, Lin is literally making us wait for it. This author did such a great job at highlighting the complexity of the music with simple explanations. This is one of my favorite articles I’ve read and I'm going to send this article to my mother cause I feel more people should read it.
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