Klarinet Archive - Posting 000022.txt from 2009/04

From: Bear Woodson <bearwoodson@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Date: Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:14:08 -0400

I grew up in a household where there was NO Classical
Music at all, yet somehow I was drawn to it. I was (and
still am), a True Nerd, who is best at studying alone, having
NO People Skills whatsoever. So I had planned to go into a
biological science, perhaps doing Viral Research to find cures
for diseases. By age 11, in 1965, I stopped listening to Rock
n' Roll, because it just didn't fulfill me. By 14 in 1968, I
started listening to Beethoven and Mozart symphonies, and
by age 16, I started to "hear" symphonic music in my
imagination, that was not on any of the records. In 1971, at
age 17, started college as a Composer and eager student of
18th and 20th Century Music Theory.

(I now hold a Master's as a Composer and Music Theorist,
with Specialties in Counterpoint and the 20th Century
Harmonic Language called "Chromatic Functional Modality".)

During the 1970's all of my Music-Theory-Illiterate college-
aged-friends would try to impress me, by bringing their Rock
n' Roll records to my apartment, convinced that they had found
examples of 20th-Century-Invented Harmony in their '5-chord-
wonder' moron music. The conversations often went like this:

"Is this Modern Harmony?"

"No, that's still I, IV, V harmony, which began to evolve in
the 1400's, became Common Knowledge by 1700, and was
ABANDONED by many Modern Classical Composers in
the Early 20th Century".

"So, is THIS Modern Harmony?"

"No, that's still I, IV, V."

After dozens of more records they'd say, "WHY do you
keep saying those same Numbers over and over again,
with every Rock Song I play for you?"

"How is it MY fault that YOU CHOOSE to only listen to
music that ONLY uses the Most Basic Chords in Tonality
from Hundreds of Years Ago; and yet you run away from
everything that actually uses More Harmonic Variety?"

Finally one day, one friend brought over the "Emerson, Lake
& Palmer" "Brain Salad Surgery" album, which had their
Transcription of the Alberto Ginastera Piano Concerto's
"Toccata" Movement, which was done with the Personal
Blessing of Alberto Ginastera himself! I was STUNNED and
Impressed! To this date, that is the ONLY example of Modern
Harmony that I know of, in any Big-Selling, Popular Music
Album!

I've been told that Frank Zappa wrote Modern Harmony in
many of his "popular-styled" music, but I don't remember ever
hearing any of his music. Even so, the sad point is:

Most of the "modern" public is still listening to Pre-1900's
Harmony, and getting angry and threatened, when you tell them
the True Age of those Lovely, but 150-to-600-YEAR-OLD
Harmonies!

The term "Harmonic Language" can be used in the 'Small
Picture' level, to describe the harmonies used by one composer,
or even in just one piece of music. But in the 'Big Picture' many
Music Theorist believe that a "Harmonic Language" lasts about
250 to 300 years, and then changes dramatically.

The Former "Harmonic Language" lasted from about 1600 to
1900 and was called:

18th Century Harmony,
Bach Harmony,
Traditional Harmony,
Tonal Harmony,
Tonality, or
Key Signature Harmony.

In 1859 Richard Wagner released his "Tristan und Isolde"
opera, which stretched Tonality to the limits, so that if you take
one tiny step further, you'd be playing in "2 Different Key
Signatures" at the Same Time, which is also called "Bi-Tonality".
By the 1890's and Early 20th Century, we find many examples
of "Poly-Tonal" and "Poly-Modal" Harmony.

"Tristan und Isolde" also contained the Chords (but NOT the
Style!) of Blues and some forms of Jazz. Those Kinds of Jazz
and Blues Chord Progressions would become Common in
American Popular Music by the 1920's, and finally display the
true respective Blues and Jazz Styles.

"Tristan und Isolde" also started the trend of Changing Key
Signature Drastically via Chromatics, every few bars apart in
some passages. But to have SO many Chromatics constantly
Correcting and Changing the Official Key Signature, became
more Confusing than helpful. THIS is why many 20th Century
Composers would use NO Key Signature, and just use "Free
Chromatics", to show the Rapidly Changing Modes and 'Key
Signatures'. I was trained that way 35 years ago, and am very
heartbroken every time I find another "professional musician"
who is NOT aware of this 150-Year-Old, Common Knowledge
Fact! (I have NEVER used a Key Signature in any Official
Work of mine, unless you count some of the Cadenzas I've
written for a few of the Mozart Concerti, since I know many
of them very well, for various Solo Instruments.)

(I've also been shocked and disappointed by too many
members of the Klarinet List, who may make a good living
playing Broadway Musicals, which have a Level of Tonality at
1830 or Earlier, while thinking that such harmonies are
NEWLY INVENTED, because they are too Unschooled in
Recent Music Theory! *sob!* And yet too few people on the
Klarinet List listen to, perform, or talk about, the many Clarinet
Works written in Modern Harmony in the last 50 years!)

At least Emerson, Lake & Palmer gave it a shot 36 years ago!
. . . But I don't think I'd eat a salad with them.

Bear Woodson

Home: 520 - 881 - 2558
"Bear Woodson" <bearwoodson@-----.net>

"If our Technology was as advanced as our Popular
Music Harmony, we'd be riding in horse-drawn
carriages by candle light, and dying of the Common
Cold!" - Bear Woodson (1998)

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