Klarinet Archive - Posting 000039.txt from 2001/12

From: "Tony Wakefield" <tony-wakefield@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Chromatic FUNCTIONAL Modality System
Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 04:53:06 -0500

Does the term 'functional' have any significant meaning? To me it`s almost
superfluous. Even the term 'system' seems to screw the whole diverse
dimension of writing music down into a common and convenient 'scientific'
pigeon hole for the sole purpose of enlightening the unintelligent, for
example the 99% of college students who won`t make it to the professional
concert platform with their compositions, (which is in the main, a prime
concern for the educational institutions). So why do we have these terms
then? Surely we are all entitled to write with whatever intellect we wish to
use - with whatever 'system'. If someone enjoys playing it, and it has
style and balance, then anything goes, to coin a phrase. All of us have
different goals in our writing lives. If some of us wish to write a
composition in a major key, then end it abruptly on a minor chord, (for
example - a pierce de ticardie by the way :</ ) experienced composers in
the world of examinations would leap upon this to award a fail. This is an
over simplification of course because I`m trying to think as lucidly and as
quickly as possible before I get into my day. Are these terms only useful to
us then in students` study? Bear Woodson tells us that his work is being
studied by a composition student. That`s fine in itself. But he also tells
us that there are no other exponents of C.F.M.S. writing other than he, yet
simultaneously in his post he also tells us that 100`s of other writers use
it in jazz and films!
So I ask myself is this 'system' a system at all? With respect, is Bear
trying to invent an already existing 'system', with a view to claiming a
credit which we associate with Rameau`s thesis`.

I would say that even the Great Masters themselves have even ventured, long
before Bear was born, into the world of C.F.M.S. at times.

I would say that it is not a 'system', but mearly a variant of different
tonalities coming together.

There will be many others in the coming decades.

Tony W.

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