 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Amber
Date: 2000-12-24 23:58
I know all that stuff. thats easy to look up. what I am not sure how to look up is the real technical stuff....like did he change the way of instrumentation, did he vamp up the one three five chord, did he use leading tones to nowhere, stuff like that.
The other stuff is fairly easy, but the actual technical music stuff isn't mentioned in any of my readings
Thank you for the other help...I'll try those and see if any of them have what I am looking for!
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Author: deebee
Date: 2000-12-25 13:13
hmmm ... musings, part 2 ...
Firstly, some questions:
- is this an essay - or - a talk in front of the class/tutorial group?
- how many words / how many minutes?
- is the person handing out the marks coming from an essentially "classical" viewpoint?
For the level of theory you're alluding to, I'd really go for the Porgy and Bess score. In pp 1-17, say, (Beginning, to the end of the first song, "Summertime"), there are good examples of many of the things he was dealing with in what should have been his "middle" period - actually just prior to his premature death.
Frinstance (buckling up my seat-belt!)-
- bar 4: modal semiquaver figure (almost pentatonic, but not quite) - the bane of every mallet audition! - harmonically neutral, driven by the busy-ness instead. (ie - no harmonic tension and release)
- bar 9: quartal fanfare-like figure - again, harmonically neutral.
- both these motifs are given extensive development in the ensuing pages.
- p2, bar 4: the whole busy, but harmonically vague activity "slips" down a major third - a Gershwin-ism (also, of course, a Schubert-ism, and they're not alone). No V-I here!
- p2, last bar: a particular Gershwin favourite - a symmetrical pattern, whereby (in this instance) the first group of four semiquavers is transposed up a major third to produce the second set of semiquavers, and so on. Here it is harmonising a chromatic scale.
- p5, figure 2: the LH is doing the symmetrical pattern trick - this time in lots of two crotchets* - while the RH is executing what is essentially an embellished pedal point (but embellished in a bluesy manner)
- this is not a million miles from bitonality - perhaps more accurately "bi-logical" - the "logic" of the RH blues figure is pitted against a second "logic" of the LH chromatic figure - fugitive dissonances abound between the two figures, however the whole lot "comes out in the wash" (In other instances, Gershwin deliberately "sets up" the clashes - hint: work backwards from the intended hit-point)
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...hey! I can rave on like this for hours!!
Is this being of any help at all?
Must say that I'm not aware of any books dealing with the specifics of GG's theoretical outlook - that's not to say that they don't exist, of course.
Might be worth checking out tertiary theses, possibly through the library of a "jazz-oriented" university.
Good luck! - deebee
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* msipritn in the score - the 2nd LH chord should have C-sharp as its lowest note
ps - a lot of people wouldn't consider orchestration to be GG's strong suit
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Author: bob gardner
Date: 2000-12-26 00:38
I had a book "Porky & Bess" which was all about the play and the writting of it. Every one believed that GG was out of his mind for a doing a black opera. GG didn't the rest is history. See if you can find a copy of the book.
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Author: Ken Shaw
Date: 2000-12-26 18:29
Bob -
It's come out twice now as "Porky" -- It's "Porgy"
Nitpickingly,
Ken Shaw
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Author: deebee
Date: 2000-12-26 19:41
...an understandable mixup with the blokey teen-flick "Porgy's"...
...it's 1950s Florida...
...African-American high school dudes head north, driving a go-kart...
...they all end up bogged in catfish roe...
"Oh Lawd, I'm In The Way" - deebee
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Author: Amber
Date: 2000-12-26 20:03
It a ten minute talk in front of the class, with *really "encouraged* a score and small 2 minute bio. Then we have to play, manually, an example of our composers addition to the music world, then we have to play *on recording* a piece that really is a signature if his work.
Thanks Deebee thats exactly what he wants!!! I finallly feel like I am making headway with this!! You guys have saved my grade and my sanity!!
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Author: deebee
Date: 2000-12-27 03:26
Fantastic!!
Only ten minutes? - You're gonna have this one on toast!
[now I'm on a roll - please forgive me if I brainstorm a bit more]
How about just dealing with "Summertime"- the original is essentially a melody over four-part harmony - total: five parts...
Write it out for yourself and four colleagues, say in concert A minor (therefore most of the parts would appear as in the piano score) -
...4 Bb Clarinets and 1 Bass Cl (some octave transposition needed where parts go outside the lower instruments' ranges)...or...
...3 Bb's, 1 Alto and 1 Bass...
...or perhaps "just" for clarinet and piano (stay in concert B minor?)
All you need is an intro (figure 16 in the score), or just the melody anacrusis; then 16 bars; then skip to the extended ending (two bars after figure 21)
In that lot you've got a number of sets of ending chords (or "cadences") -
...bar 7 (of the main melody) into bar 8 - this lands on chord V
...bar 8 into bar 9 - lands on I
...bar 14 into 15 - another way of landing on I
...the very end - yet another way - and with a tonic pedal point sitting on top!
Each of these cadences differs from the "normal" ones of, say, Haydn, Mozart or the church hymnbook.
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A recorded example?
Surely the Miles Davis version of "Gone, Gone, Gone"
- it involves one of GG's "signatures" - the scale-wise bass lines beneath [in this instance not-so-]unrelated chords to which Ken Shaw has referred (score, p108)
- the Miles Davis / Gil Evans "Porgy and Bess" recording is easy to find
- the Miles version sticks fairly closely to the GG original
- I've got it playing right now - it sounds great!!
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Even though it's a talk, why not hand in a brief synopsis, including copies of the musical examples, nicely typed and bound. In fact, pass it round the class while you're out the front - let their ooh's and aah's of wonderment accompany your presentation!
(Might be worth getting someone to check the proof for spelling and grammar boo-boos)
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EASY!!!
retain that sanity! - regards - deebee
ps - vast oversimplification, but "blue" notes (in
high school classrooms) can often be thought of as flattened or bendy 3rd and 7th degrees of the scale. Sometimes you can use I7 as the tonic chord, instead of just a triad (and similarly IV7 as applicable)
cf - the melody of "Gone, Gone, Gone" and the famous clarinet solo at the beginning of "Rhapsody in Blue."
The long answer would start with an appreciation of certain West African people/music/culture, slavery and transportation to Southern cotton fields...
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Author: Amber
Date: 2000-12-27 03:45
Deebee you are sooo wonderful! And i though this would be a nightmare!! I think I've got a good direction to go in, thanks so much!!
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