Classical Music, Blues, Pop, Rock, Jazz, Electronic, Modern Composers

Audacious?

Jason Edwards, DM

Igor Stravinsky, Little Anthony, Weather Report, Steve Reich, the Moody Blues, James Brown…what kind of audacious format would allow the works of such diverse musicians to be heard together on one station? Won’t the listener be startled when the Oxford Camerata’s recording of the serene Ave genorosa by Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) ends and then Leon Redbone’s “Lazy Bones” begins? Well, maybe. We have expectations. We are accustomed to structure in our lives and music, the usual routines, which includes the usual categories of music, the...well…the “usual.” We expect the usual. Audiodacity Radio abandons format, categories, the “usual.” When I was asked to write something for this site, the question was: what to write? You might hear anything here, so I might write about any kind of music. Freedom from the “usual” comes with “freedom” from the usual structures of musical discourse that tend to guide the approach one takes in writing an essay such as this one: this style vs. that style, this artist vs. that artist. And what should my first column be about? With no structure to fall back on, maybe I should write about the nature of structure in music.

How do we perceive structure in different kinds of music? Well, melody and rhythm are two organizing factors. And the two are interrelated: a melody is characterized not only by its contour but also to how it unfolds in time. So are there melodic or rhythmic commonalities between, say, Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du printemps (the Rite of Spring) and Elmore James’ “Mean Mistreatin’ Mama”? There are, to put it mildly, substantial differences in musical detail that one could endeavor to point out. But consider Stravinsky’s famous opening (fig. 1):

Fig. 1: Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring

Part I (Adoration of the Earth), Introduction (bassoon solo), mm. 1-5

Looks pretty complex…does Elmore James do anything like that? But let’s break it down. The opening motive (i.e., a small musical idea), labeled as bracket a, is a pattern using five different notes. The second motive (b) uses, as it happens, exactly the same pattern of notes, just in a different rhythm—you don’t need to be able to read tenor clef, or even music at all, to see that the notes occupy the same positions on the staff in both groups. The third motive, c, begins the same way but then differs slightly—still using mostly the same notes, adding one new note (the highest, D) while leaving out the previous lowest note (E). Next is d, which uses the same pattern as a and b, in a still different rhythm. Finally, e begins like the previous four motives but changes and adds two new notes (B-flat and G-flat). Let’s simplify how it’s written and just look at the notes without all the clutter. We’ll change it from the original tenor clef to the more familiar treble clef, omit most of the small grace notes (which are not too important structurally), and remove rhythmic notation (fig. 2).

Fig. 2: Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring

Part I (Adoration of the Earth), Introduction (bassoon solo), mm. 1-5

Simplified notation

Now it doesn’t look quite so intricate and imposing—just a repeated melodic pattern with a little variation. One idea, repeated, varied, repeated again, varied a second time. That’s the structure of pitch, or the notes. Not so different, really, from what Elmore James does. Just as in Stravinsky’s Rite, James’ melody is made up a pattern of a few notes that repeat with variation. Here is an approximation of what he sings (fig. 3); however, it varies considerably from verse to verse, so this sketch cannot be considered definitive in any sense.

Fig. 3: Elmore James, “Mean Mistreatin’ Mama”

General melodic sketch, first chorus

We could follow up with a simplified version of Mistreatin’ Mama, but it should be clear visually that there is again a pattern of notes present that is repeated and varied. Again, you don’t really need to be able to read music to see the consistency of the position of notes on the staff. So, both pieces are similar in melodic structure: repeated but varied patterns consisting of relatively few notes in a relatively small range (spanning less than an octave).

Just as with Stravinsky, James’ rhythm does vary—and his rhythm in this melody is really more complex than I tried to notate here (so are the notes, actually). One big difference in rhythm between these two short examples is the organization of the beats (or meter). Elmore James and his band maintain a solid beat organized in groups of four, with each beat divided into groups of three (the classic “shuffle” feel). The steady chugging of the beat inexorably sweeps you along through the music. As you can see with the constant time signature changes in Rite, Stravinsky keeps changing the organization of the beats: a group of four, a group of three, then four, three, two… And the beats are divided in irregular ways (seen by the differing numbers of notes beamed together). So you don’t feel a strong sense of beat in this excerpt, much less a regular pattern of beats. And because there is no regular pattern of beats, you have to find your own footholds as you go through the music!

How are these melodic and rhythmic ideas organized? For Stravinsky, let’s consider if it makes sense to group some motives together and consider them a single unit. Since a is repeated right away (b), perhaps we might perceive both together as one unit; c is very short—maybe it can be linked with the next motive (d), which is the same pattern as a, to form a larger group. The last section, e, is the longest and maybe could be considered a comparable unit. So we can regroup the musical form in three parts as ab cd e . Now, we’ve already noted that b and d are the same pitch pattern as a, which means that the first and second units both end with the same pattern of notes—an end-rhyme, if you will. So, might we consider the second unit (cd) to be a varied repetition of the first (ab)? Let’s label each of these larger units with capital letters to reflect the structure; we'll add a superscript number to a letter in order to show varied repetition: ab=A, cd=A¹, e=B. So we can describe the musical pattern as: A A¹ B (fig. 4). All of the sections and subsections have unifying factors—for example, each idea begins with the same few notes. Yet this unity includes variety—the “new” notes, the different rhythms. You hear a lot of repetition, but it’s not all the same.

Fig. 4: Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring

Part I (Adoration of the Earth), Introduction (bassoon solo), mm. 1-5

Melodic organization

Fans of the blues will immediately recognize that the A A¹ B pattern described above corresponds to the common “twelve-bar blues” form, which is also the structure of “Mean Mistreatin’ Mama”: one line, the same (or similar) repeated, new line, as exemplified in James’ lyrics. Again there is repetition and variation.

You’re a mean mistreatin’ mama, mistreat me all the time; (A)

I try to tell you how much I love you, but you don’t pay me no mind. (B)

The second line is a variation of the first because the melody is a little different rhythmically while the words are the same—so it could be labeled A¹ (the harmony also varies). Okay, maybe it’s a stretch to say the bassoon solo from Rite is in blues form—you could group things differently, maybe call it A B C instead. And it’s also true that this A A B pattern is not unique to the blues; it’s found in many other kinds of music.

While there are certainly many interesting differences between what Igor Stravinsky and Elmore James do with their musical ideas, there are other interesting similarities as well. Both are rendered with an urgent quality in the high range—James is singing up in Pavarotti territory, and the pungent bassoon solo is notorious for its altitude (coincidentally, both are in about the same range). Stravinsky adds other motives, often short, narrow, and dissonant with each other; James grinds out guitar riffs which, like his voice, seem to grate against the rest of the musical texture—although that is as much a matter of his raucous tone quality as clashing of notes. Both works have a raw, powerful, earthy quality that would be lost with smoother harmonies, easier range, or a gentler tone quality. Such earthiness likely stems from the fact that both of these examples, as it happens, have roots in folk music traditions: the “blues” is, of course, an African-American folk music tradition, and Stravinsky borrowed his opening melody from a Lithuanian folk song. Folk music is often repetitious, yet irregular. Stravinsky, with his irregular beat structure, seems to vary, but really repeats, and James, with his steady beat, seems to repeat, but is endlessly irregular. Audacious to play the two back to back? Interesting, yes…audacious, maybe not so much.

Interesting what can be learned by examining even a small musical idea! Take, for another example, the melodic treatment in Steve Reich’s Piano Phase and Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, op. 57 (Appassionata). Or rhythmic organization in Uncle Dave Macon’s repetitiously irregular 1925 recording of “All-Go-Hungry Hash House” (Vocalion 15076) and the Beatles’ irregularly repetitious “All You Need is Love” (how many rock songs do you know that have the beats grouped in patterns of seven! and even so it’s inconsistently maintained. Just try to tap your foot to the back beats. Talk about audacious!)…but maybe we should save such discussions for another time…