MusicTheoryWithAndre

 Let’s continue our discussion of form with a very popular nursery rhyme: Frere Jacques. Frere Jacques is (well, can be, and very often is) an example of what’s called a “round.” Rounds are the simplest form of imitation. They are a special case of another imitative form called a “canon,” which we’ll discuss later.  Listen first to a purely monophonic Frere Jacques: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC6rvbxdywg&list=RDBC6rvbxdywg&start_radio=1 The idea is very clearly in 4:  1 2 3 1 | 1 2 3 1 | 3 4 5 ~ | 3 4 5 | etc.  (Here, I’m borrowing a notation from Laura from before I could read music; ~ turns the preceding number into a half note: quarter quarter quarter quarter | quarter quarter quarter quarter | quarter quarter half | quarter quarter half | etc.) So, what happens if you, very simply, start another 1 2 3 1… halfway through that four bar phrase I just put above, like  1 2 3 1 | 1 2 3 1 | 3 4 5 ~ | 3 4 5 ~ | etc           ...

 Two articles ago, we looked at functional harmony; the idea that certain chords that aren’t necessarily the tonic or dominant can “act” as if they were, and that certain chords are “pre-dominant,” that is, they exist to come before—to “prepare” the dominant. Last time, we looked at tonicization specifically looking at a harmonization of Jakob Hintze’s “Salzburg” hymn tune (used in English-language hymnody most often with “At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing”) by Bach, in his chorale BWV 262 “Alle Menschen müssen sterben.” Today, we’re going to look at something very closely related to both of those concepts, so be sure to read the articles mentioned above—in order—before continuing on with this one. We’re going to look at secondary harmony.  Go back to the Hintze score, and you’ll see, in clear-as-day D major, that, briefly, there is an E major chord. That, of course, doesn’t happen diatonically in D, since the ii chord is minor. E-G-B, of course, is different from E-G#-B. But b...

  Suppose you didn’t have the context of the rest of this hymn tune, and I gave you only the first two bars of the second line and asked you to identify which key it’s in. You would be totally correct if you analyzed the first 2 chords as I chords which move to a IV, which moves to a I while an F# from the IV hangs around a little later than it should, before actually moving back to IV, then to V, then to I, in the first two bars of that line. If that were your analysis—and it would be absolutely correct—then you’d essentially be arguing that the phrase is in A. After all, that’s the key in which I is A, IV is D, and V is E.  Allow me to put out what perhaps seems like a radical idea: even if I then show you the whole context, the analysis above remains absolutely correct. Each 2 bars is effectively one musical gesture here, and in the first 2 sets (that get repeated), everything is firmly grounded in D; this is, of course, nothing to write home about, since everthing else abo...

When this blog began, we introduced a quite rigid harmonic scheme rather soon. I was tonic, ii was supertonic, iii was submediant, and so on. V goes to I or vi. iii goes to vi goes to ii goes to V.

Now, I’m here to tell you that, in some cases, these rules may be bent slightly. Chords, of course, have a name, a number, and a quality, but, lying underneath that, they all have a function as well. 

 • I of course has “tonic function,” since it’s the tonic chord—but so does vi, since it’s the tonic of the relative minor • V of course has “dominant function,” since it’s the dominant chord, but so does viiº, since it’s exactly equivalent to the top 3 notes of a V7 • ii and IV have “pre-dominant function.”  • iii appears very rarely, and, depending on the circumstances, can have arguably either tonic or dominant function, exercising both of those much more weakly than the chords listed in the dedicated bullet points for those functions  What matters in functional harmony is...

One of the most important forms we have yet to discuss is also, at least in terms of its description, one of the most basic: theme and variations. That is, follow a 3 step process: 1. Play a thing 2. Change it somehow 3. Keep doing step 2 as long as you feel like it Theme and Variations can vary wildly in complexity. At one end of the spectrum we have the first work in the first of 10 Suzuki volumes: five (when I was growing up—but now six) purely rhythmic variations plus plain old nursery rhyme, sing-it-to-your-babies Twinkle Twinkle.  • Variation A gets students started thinking about detache versus staccato • Variation B introduces rests • Variation C works on bow distribution from tip to frog and vice versa • Variation D (since apparently relabeled “E”) works on right-hand flexibility  • Variation E (apparently actually “D” thanks to the relabeling) introduces triplets and/or counting in 6/8  • The theme is just straight, quarter-quarter-quarter-quar...

Cumulative music is a form that I rarely hear discussions about—except in one instance: “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. The premise of the song is that one’s true love gives them, from Christmas until the Epiphany: 1.        A partridge and a pear tree 2.        Yesterday’s gifts (another partridge) plus 2 turtle doves 3.        Yesterday's gifts (another partridge and 2 more doves) plus 3 French hens 4.        Yesterday’s gifts plus four (calling/colly—there is debate about this word) birds 5.        Yesterday’s gifts plus five golden rings 6.        Yesterday’s gifts plus six geese actively laying eggs 7.        Yesterday’s gifts plus seven swans actively swimming 8.        Yesterday’s gifts plus eight maids actively milking cows ...