Classical Musicians React: Super Junior 'Burn the Floor'

Henry: This... mmh~ *croak* [Rossini's Semiramide Overture playing] Have you ever wanted to spontaneously play music whenever a piano is presented in front of you? Well you can learn to with today's sponsor, flowkey. Not to be confused with the board game Key Flow, flowkey is actually a brilliantly designed app that solves one of my biggest concerns when teaching beginner to intermediate students: The development of sight reading and memory skills. When you start playing the piano your brain wil

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you play it before moving on, perfect for any type of practice! So, wanna learn some Christmas music to liven up that upcoming party? Click on the link in the description to get a free week of flowkey premium. Henry: This is Super Junior 'Burn the Floor'. Henry & Charlotte: SUPER JUNIOR?! Charlotte: They were my first K-pop! Henry: Really? Charlotte: 'Sorry Sorry'! Henry: Oh my god. That was my jam though. "~Sorry sorry sorry sorry~" *Umu "singing" 'Sorry Sorry'* *Ju Young having K-pop flashback

* *Ju Young and Umu vibing, Jason being confused* Umu: You will be reacting to the performance video that they released for their 2020 single 'Burn the Floor' which is a pre-release for their 10th album called 'The Renaissance' that will be released some time in 2021 although it will probably be out by the time we release this reaction video. 'Burn the Floor' talks about the singer's passionate admiration for his lover and compares their relationship to a sensual dance performance. Charlotte: rr

rrrrr rrrrRRrrrr! Henry: When was this released? (Charlotte: rrrrrrrr!) Umu: Like, a few months ago. Henry: That's so cool - stop. (Charlotte: HRRrrrrrrrr!) Charlotte: Respond to my Hrrrrrs! Henry: Rrr. *loling* Charlotte: Do it again Charlotte: Hrrrrrr! Henry: Rrr. Umu: This song is composed by Jisoo Park, Blair Taylor, Jake K, aaand that's it. Yeah. Henry: Sorry sorry. Charlotte: Oh, oh, spoopy! Henry: Oh, strings, hello! Henry: It's like a waltz. Charlotte: It's not "like" a waltz, it

/IS/ a waltz. Henry: Shut up, it's a triple- Will: That was cool. The slowdown. Ooooo~ Owen: Huh. *mimics* Ju Young: I love that. Jason: Oh these strings are really pretty. Henry: This... mmh~ *croak* Will: The vocals sound so crispy. Ju Young: Wow, so smooth~ Aw, I love the chimes! Charlotte: His voice! Kevin: WWOO! Kevin: NICE! Henry: Bring it in! This is sexyyyy!!! Ju Young: I love how you can still hear the orchestra in the back. Usually they would like cut it off, if they put in an orchest

ra. Jory: This sounds fantastic. Raffi: Wow, that's captivating. Jory: That's such a great melody. Sam: I love that piano beat. Jason: That is like a grand piano on top of the strings now. Ju Young: I love that- ugh! UH! Jason: Oh, *imitates*, all that chromaticism was super nice. Jason: Oh, so this part is just so pretty. Ju Young: and the ascending- Jory: That is a splashy clap. Owen: Will they go from a tonicized C major to E major? Probably... Kevin: Oh, I like it when the G F and then the

E, that transition note makes ALL the difference. Raffi: I love how it just kind of overwhelms, that melodic phrase. Sam: That's exactly what I was gonna say. Jory: Pentatonic melody. Raffi: The orchestration is incredible. Jason: Now there's this beautiful harp, making this bridge even more... oh, and these horns in the back too! Ayayay, this is layered upon layered! Jory: It's so dreamy... Henry: Waltz! give me! Owen: AAAAAAHwow! What?! Jory: Okay, now it's dubstep. Will: That's cool. Hen

ry: Is that a FRENCH HORN?! Chralotte: Are those FRENCH HORN RIFFS?! Henry: That's... so epic. Charlotte: They are! Henry: And the rapping, these triplets, so... BAH! Sam: Wow, that's really really crazy. Jory: I think it's so cool when people can produce an orchestra and make it fit in this kind of genre, it sounds so good. Umu: How were the string parts? Jory: Oh, beautiful. Yeah, and it's like the: F, right? (Umu: Yeah) Jory: Very 'Carmen'. Umu: Ooookay. Ju Young: Hgnnn, I need to like, s

peak English, um... Umu: You can just make facial expressions. Ju Young: I really liked the fact that they used classical instruments and classical styles... Jason: I agree with you, I think the addition of the strings was really nice. I think that having the harp and these pizzicato style strings to accentuate that tango atmosphere was really nice and well done. Cloud: I think this is a classic example of pizzicato being used in the beginning and then moving to arco to evoke different emotions

and styles that they want to use where it's like "pluck pluck" versus like "Ah, we are dancing~" and I didn't have lyrics for this song but... you were talking about "a sensual dance for your lover", like... yeah, that's very much like a bowing kind of, like: "Oh, we're really feeling it- no!" instead of the "pluck pluck" like kinda hesitant "Oh, I like you". Brianna: And then they added the brass and specifically the horn riffs at the end, that's a common thing that Mahler tends to do as well,

to signify the big ending. (Cloud: The elephant toots.) Charlotte: I love all the elements that they bring back into things, like the waltz we had in the beginning comes back towards the end even though we've been jumping to something totally different Henry: Wub wub wub! Charlotte: Yeah. Which is really cool. Visually though this concept is incredibly simplistic looking but has such a strong visual effect to just be focusing in on light and shadow and to just bring out all of those things is,

it's just a genius idea. And then just the vocal things that they do, please... do your thing. Henry: That's just so high. I mean, there's no vocal pedagogy commentary besides going "Ah, high notes!" Charlotte: Um, can we talk about that operatic thing that happens towards the end? (Henry: The lalala?) Henry: That's so left field. Henry: So that's one of them? That's a male voice? Charlotte: Is it one of them? // Umu: I don't know. (Umu: It might be...) Charlotte: That's what I would be c

urious to know because he changes- if it is one of them they have definitely changed their timbre. Charlotte: Just the vowel sound on that... Henry: But that sounds like a male voice, it's a really dark "aa" sound. Charlotte: Yeah. I know things. I said vowels, look at me go! Henry: I wish I had listened to some more Super Junior before coming here cuz there's a lot of their singing that feels really nostalgic but I can't point out any particular sound or person, but it's beautiful. Will: The

chorus, the chorus melody I loved. Yeah, I loved that, it's just that minor pentatonic thing, and it starts on the minor chord and then it goes to ♭VI major 7 but it does the same melody over it, so it's like... Idk, I love it when it does that, it's like the melody stated one time on a chord and then the chord changes and the melody is the same but it has a new character cuz of the new chord. Raffi: And then the way the chorus develops, you're already in it but then they- I'm not articulating i

t well but they kind of flip the phrasing so that it's even more overwhelming. Umu: Right, so it's like *vocalizes*, lower melody, and then it goes... Raffi: And then higher, yeah. Raffi: You know? Umu: Yeah. Raffi: Sam, you look so pensive! Sam: It's just really interesting cuz when I think back on the song I think "oh"- the orchestration made me think it was gonna be a very delicate feeling but sort of the afterthought that I think about it is that there were moments of such almost triumph

or such big swells and beats and I am just trying to unpack... where that came from cuz I think about sort of the- especially thinking about the piano and the pizzi strings it was all very controlled, very within the *vocalizes*, very like, all of them had the same motif of descending lines and then when the chorus comes in you're just thinking: OH WOW! Like... that's huge! That just sounds big. So I'm just trying to process that, that's just really really cool and I just felt like a wave of mu

sic just rushed over me. Raffi: I wonder too, then, if it is also the combination of like- for us hearing it, the classical technique with digital, RaffI: going back and forth, it's passed so much in this song. Sam: That's true, I think... Sam: I think that might be true, especially cuz hearing the first verse and stuff like that, I had an expectation for what was gonna come and then for it to just drop us into this big chorus and just how it sort of flirted with that ascending line just makes

it seem like it's just swelling, swelling, swelling... until all the sudden it goes to this quiet hush of the piano and the pizzi. Jason: What I have to say about the orchestration of things, it was very clean and I thought that that was really nice, I think that something that is important when making an orchestration that stylizes tango is that there is a lot of space. Cuz tango is all about space. And it's all about the space where the two dancers, which is what they were speaking about, the

two two dancers, can intimately just be in the present moment when there's no sound or nothing, just there. And that's one of the big aspects of tango music, it's just the silence between these beautifully plucked strings, almost. I also liked how the instrumentation got thicker and thicker in an orchestral sense as we went along. Henry: For the first part you have these pizzicato strings and mixed in with bowed strings, right? No, it's pretty much all pizz. Jason: So there was like synth and a

mbient sound that was kind of following the chord structure with the strings in the beginning. Henry: That big industrial "bwww" right before the second verse and then we have the same kind of verse content but we have the piano with these arpeggios and pizz, and a percussion section, so it's, there's a verse, but we are adding on layers to it and I think it's such a smart build. They are building up in the pre-chorus in pitch *sings line* and it really builds up that tension, I was feeling here

like: "Just give it to me, give it to me, I need the chorus!" And this, with the trap 808 and everyone singing in unison, is just such a swell of sound and, I think, emotion. Jason: But then later we have this harp that gets more of the sound and then you have these, I don't know if they are real players, but there was this synth brass, brass sound that even more... Umu: The brass sounded pretty real to me. Jason: Yeah, it sounded pretty real, Jason: but it even more accentuated that orchestr

al touch to it which I thought brought a lot of levity and a lot of just like colorful aspects to the song. Charlotte: That was so good. Umu: Yey! Henry: I could listen to this over and over again. This is, man, what a quality. I love how like- I w- there j- there was- I was always ready to see what was next, always ready to see what was gonna come next musically. *Jason flexing vocals* Ju Young: Jason Collier. You just sounded like Jason Collier. Jason: "Jason" Collier? Ju Young: Is that his na

me? I don't even- Jason: JACOB Collier, you just made us t- Ju Young: Jacob- no, sorry!