of the chord preceding the refrain. In addition, the opening chords of the verse, while nondiatonic to the nominative E major tonic, diatonic to A." Lambert writes that the end of the refrain "recall[s] the chord progression of the introduction but[...] with an even slighter sense of tonal security." In a 2011 interview, Wilson commented that the melody of "I may not always love you" resembled the "I hear the sound of music" line from "The Sound of Music". Break and coda Like many of Wilson's compositions, "God Only Knows" subverted the then-standard 32-bar A-A-B-A pop song format. Following the second refrain, it segues into an instrumental linking passage, described by Dillon as an "avant-garde and unusually jarring transition for a tender love song" Lambert characterizes the passage as "a whirlwind of chord relations[...] based on wedging-together instrumental lines". The song proceeds to repeat the progression of the verse and refrain, however, transposed up by a fourth and with the addition of new vocals. Multiple vocal parts are sung in counterpoint, a technique that is distinguished from the "oos" and "ahhs" style of vocals for which the Beach Boys are known. Lambert identifies this section as a "choral fantasy" of wordless voices that "climax[es] on a dramatic diminished chord". Music teacher Richard Battista, referring to this climax as a "sigh" from the singers, said that it is "totally unique in pop music. He didn't borrow that from the Four Freshmen, or the Everly Brothers, or the Coasters. That sigh is pure Brian Wilson." It concludes once again with the hook line, after which there is a repetition of the second verse. According to Harrison, "The competition between E and A for tonic control is made clear during the break between verse 2 and the recapitulation of verse 1 lyrics.[...] the allusion to the harmonic structure of the verse is made subtle both by the transposition and by different melodic activity. Only when the music of the now A-major refrain is encountered do the voices return to their familiar words." Garratt writes, "While the idea of presenting the verse harmonies in the subdominant in the bridge was not new, what is striking here is the smoothness with which the song drops back into the original key – a moment rendered even more arresting by the truncated three-measure phrase that precedes it." Fusilli remarked that Wilson nearly "wr[ote] himself into a dead