Business strategy secrets
From leonard cohen’s Masterpiece
A song has different elements.
Words. Harmony. Melody. Tempo.
You probably have heard about these.
But have you heard about prosody?
In songwriting, prosody is how all the different elements in a song fit together and support each other.
This is key when it comes to music and lyrics.
The lyrics of a song must be interesting on their own.
The harmony and melody of a song must be interesting on their own.
But the real magic happens when the melody and harmony of a song support the lyrics.
Leonard Cohen does this quite literally in the opening verses of Hallelujah.
“Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you dont really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor falls, the major lifts
The baffled king composing Hallelujah”
The line “the fourth, the fifth / the minor fall, the major lift” describes the chord sequence taking place under those words.
The prosody may be quite literal but it also opens deep questions about the meaning of the song itself and the very nature of composing.
When Bob Dylan asked Leonard how long it took him to write Hallelujah, he answered two years . He later said he lied, it took him longer.
How does this relate to business strategy?
In 1996, Michael Porter, in arguably the most relevant paper about strategy, “What Is Strategy?” , said:
“Strategy is creating fit among a company’s activities.”