Klarinet Archive - Posting 000077.txt from 2002/07

From: LeliaLoban@-----.com
Subj: [kl] Syntactical ambiguities, linguistic and otherwise
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 2002 15:31:57 -0400

Bill Wright wrote,
>Another issue is rhythm content and the oft-discussed
>matter of 'feeling'. In order to 'feel' a rhythm, you don't
>have much opportunity to suspend processing ....

[snip]

>How much can I expect the listener to suspend judgement
>and later to 'think back' a few measures while continuing to
absorb new melody? The easy answer is: "If the theme is
>strong enough, the listener will recognize it many measures
>later." But there's more to it than just the 'strength' of a
>few measures, I think.

Yes. Several years ago, I composed a small piece for piano that I play often
enough to retain it, just in case one of these days I overcome inertia enough
to write it down. "Pentacle" is a perpetual motion dance (it would be danced
in a circle) in D minor. It opens with ten eighth-notes in the bass,
alternating presto between DD and D, with a heavy emphasis on each lower D;
and these notes do nothing except set the beat at an unambiguous 5/4 and
begin to set the key. The beat is a totally obvious "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and
5 and." Then the pattern begins, with a short tune in the bass (solo melody,
no harmony). The tune is 4 bars long, rhythmically organized like this:

ONE two three four FIVE
one two three FOUR five
one two THREE four five
one TWO three four five

ONE two three four FIVE
one two three FOUR five
one two THREE four five
one TWO three four five

Since the rest of the piece never deviates from 5/4 in exactly that pattern
of accents, I've given the whole game away from the get-go. The dirty trick
comes in the 10th measure, which I begin with the left hand alone playing the
DD, D pattern of eighth-notes the same as in the apparent "measure for
nothing" that opens the piece. But this time, on the "and" of the 3rd beat,
I add my right hand in the treble: three pickup eighth-notes to the second
theme, which then remains in the right hand (though variations move the pitch
around) throughout. The auditory illusion is that the quarter-note that
begins this treble tune (after the pickups) sounds like a downbeat (of
measure 11), because we're conditioned to expect a tune after a pickup to
start on a downbeat. But it's really the accented 5th beat of measure 10.

After every 20 measures of treble melody / variation, I play the "measure for
nothing" pattern again for one bar, and then I repeat the 8 -bar solo tune
that always really does begin on a downbeat with my left hand, just to
emphasize that we're still in the same 5/4. Then a new 20-bar treble
variation begins. The placement of the accents forces a *feeling* of 4/4
rhythm in the treble in between those repetitions. In other words, the music
sounds as though the right hand is in 4/4 while the left hand is in 5/4, even
though both hands are really playing 5/4. It's an oddly off-balance feeling
that I happen to enjoy.

I got the idea from Bulgarian folk musicians playing for dancers who danced
in a circle, in 5/4:

Left foot + right foot = 2
Head + right arm + left arm @-----.

They didn't just *count* 5/4; they *felt* it--and the way they organized the
beat to their perpetual-motion bodies suggested that if they didn't keep
moving, they'd fall down. When their music ended, dar from falling, they
froze, like statues, with heads up, feet together and arms hanging straight
down at their sides. Then the musicians started again with equal suddenness
and played on for a few more measures, just long enough for me to *watch* for
that pose and realize that, yes, that still-point was part of the dance all
along--but with the dancers in motion, I had to keep a sharp eye out or I'd
never see it. Most impressive.

I sure wish the busker who plays alto sax in front of the entrance to the
Federal Triangle Metrorail station in downtown Washington, D. C. would learn
how to feel 5/4 even if he has to learn by singing one syllable per note.

x x x He knows how to
Play the first few bars of Desmond's "Take
Five," getting them almost
Right, any old time you
Like. You can hear him
Play it in the sun, or in the cold
Snow, even in pouring
Rain, he never seems to
Go x x
This is the one tune he sort of
Knows, if he lets the rhythm
Slide into 4 when he forgets --
The rest of the melody's anyone's guess!

;-)
Lelia

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