Are you ready, Peter? I'm ready, you're ready. Here's the theme.
[theme: Mozart, Symphony No. 24]
Hello there, I'm Peter Schickele. And this is Schickele Mix, a program dedicated to the proposition that all musics are created equal. Or, as Duke Ellington put it, if it sounds good, it is good. And good, good, good vibrations in the form of paying our bills are coming from this very radio station to which you are listening even as I speak.
What if you wanted to indicate European classical music very succinctly, very efficiently, say in a Bugs Bunny cartoon or something like that? What would you do? You could have a singer with a big vibrato, Pagliacci, I love you very much, like Groucho Marx. Or you could have a symphony orchestra playing chords like these.
[music excerpt: Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, 4th Mvt.; Berlin Philharmonic/Karajan]
Why does that work so well as a label? Partly, of course, it's simply the sound of a symphony orchestra. But partly it's because that passage was made up of only two different chords. And those two chords define, or at least are a large part of the definition, of European harmonic practice for at least a century and a half. Okay, now we're talking about a seven-note scale here, right? Do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do.
Or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1, 1, 1 And you can build a chord called a triad. That's this kind of chord.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
On each degree of the scale.
1, 2, 3, 4
In harmonic analysis, these chords are identified two ways, with Roman numerals corresponding to the scale step of the root, the generating tone of the chord, and with names, only two of which we'll concern ourselves with now. The tonic, or one chord, which is based on the first scale step, that's the home base chord. Any piece from this period is going to end with some form of that chord.
And the dominant, or five chord, which is based on the fifth scale step.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
Tonic and dominant. The name of today's show is Dominant Characteristics. It's almost impossible to overemphasize the importance of the tonic-dominant relationship in music written from about the beginning of the 18th century to sometime in the 19th century and even later in popular music. Actually, the names are sort of misnomers. Face it, in non-technical English, dominant means strongest or most prevalent, which describes the tonic chord in music. And you hear so much of that chord that hearing a dominant chord is sort of a refreshing tonic, you know what I mean? Just trying to make sure that you start out thoroughly confused so we have somewhere to go.
Now let me point out that tonic and dominant are relative terms, not absolute. If you were to burst into this studio here, and if you could make it through the piles of LPs and CDs and everything to the authentic instrument, and you played a chord on it and said, okay, is that a tonic or a dominant? I couldn't tell you, and neither could anyone else, unless we knew what key you were in. If you said, here's the scale of the piece,
[music: keyboard demonstration]
I'd say, okay, it's a dominant chord. But if you said, this is the scale of the piece,
[music: keyboard demonstration]
I'd say, okay, that's the tonic. Now, if we take a pure dominant chord... Oh, by the way, could you please close the door quietly when you leave? Thanks. If we take a pure dominant chord, and add another note on top, we get a dominant seventh chord, because the top note is seven scale steps up from the root.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
Now, that's the salsa. That's the active ingredient. That chord, the dominant seventh chord, is one of the main differences between Renaissance music and 18th century music. Because, at least to pre-20th century European ears, that chord was like an unstable chemical. It had to change.
Or resolve, as we say in the music biz. The feeling that this chord has to go here was so strong that if it didn't go there, if it went here, for instance, instead, it was called a deceptive cadence. They didn't have the nerve to call it a sneaky cadence. Dealing with Renaissance music, in which dominant seventh chords almost never appear as distinct entities, It is not too much of an exaggeration to say that any chord can plausibly go to any other chord in the key.
But when you've got this radioactive dominant seventh chord, it either has to go to the tonic, or creates surprise by not going there. Listen to a little bit of this gorgeous psalm by Lassus, Domine ne in furore tuo. This is a piece of Renaissance music. Listen especially to how many different chords there are.
[music excerpt: Lassus, Psalmi Davidis Poenitentiales, No. 1, Domine ne in furore tuo; The Hilliard Ensemble]
And does that melt your innards or what? Lassus under the direction of Hilliard. What a combo. Now, in that 30 seconds of music, we heard chords built on all seven degrees of the scale. So now, listen to how long 18th century composers can travel on two chords.
This isn't a suite, it's a bunch of snippets, a collage. We'll call it Tonic and Dominant on Parade. Every single chord you hear in this minute and a half of music is one or the other.
[music excerpt: J. S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, 1st Mvt.; The English Concert/Pinnock]
[music excerpt: J. S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, 1st Mvt.; The English Concert/Pinnock]
[music excerpt: Mozart, "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 1st Mvt."; The Hanover Band/Goodman]
[music excerpts: Beethoven, Symphonies No. 5, 7 and 8, 4th Mvts.; Berlin Philharmonic/Karajan]
Tonic and Dominant on Parade. We had Bach, Brandenburg Concertos 2 and 4, Mozart, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, Beethoven symphonies number 5, 7 and 8. In extremely truncated versions. A couple of things I should have mentioned by the way. Chords can appear in different inversions. Put the bottom note on top or the top note in the middle or whatever. Take this chord.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
You put the bottom note on the top, you have this one.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
They're all the same notes but in different orders and you spread them around.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
A beautiful example of how different chords can sound in different inversions is this chord here. It's called a dominant minor ninth. Now if Beethoven's using this chord, he'd use it that way.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
Now you take exactly those same notes and here's the way Stravinsky uses it in the Symphonies of Wind Instruments.
[music]
That sounds like a completely different chord. It is in a way, but only in the disposition of the notes, not the notes themselves. Okay now also you often hear implied chords. There's nothing but melody, no chords at all, but the melody outlines a chord.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
Then there's the technique of having a melody note that isn't in the chord, but then changes to one that is.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
So there are all sorts of ways to spice the stew, but in what we're listening to, it's still a tonic dominant stew. Now I don't mean to imply that Mozart and Beethoven and those guys never used more than a couple of chords. They employed a larger palette, as a matter of fact, than Lassus did when they wanted to. But I think you would be hard pressed to find a Renaissance piece that goes on as long on two chords as do these excerpts we're hearing.
Probably the most common tonic dominant configuration, I can't tell you how common it is, is the one where the first phrase starts on the tonic and ends on the dominant, and the second phrase starts on the dominant and ends on the tonic. That is the Smith and Jones of harmonic practice. Here, just off the top of my head, here, we'll call this, this is the tonic, that's the dominant.
[sung: Schickele sings snatches of tonic-dominant songs at the keyboard, among them "Down in the Valley," "Santa Lucia" and "Goodnight, Irene"]
It's the old 1-5-5-1 formula, if you want to call it that. This next collage is called What Goes Up a Fifth Must Come Down a Fifth. That just refers to the roots of the chords, not what any given part or melody does. Harmonically, each one of these snippets starts out 1-5-5-1 and uses no other chords. Keeping that in mind, dig the length of some of these puppies.
[music excerpt: Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 21, 1st Mvt.; Andras Schiff/Camerata Academica des Mozarteums Salzburg/Vegh]
[music excerpt: Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 21, 2nd Mvt.; Andras Schiff/Camerata Academica des Mozarteums Salzburg/Vegh]
[music excerpt: Mozart, Symphony No. 39, 3rd Mvt.; The Academy of Ancient Music/ Schroder/Hogwood]
[music excerpt: Mozart, “Le Nozze di Figaro,” “Non più andrai, farfallone amoroso”; Petteri Salomaa/The Drottingholm Court Theatre Orchestra/Ostman]
[music excerpt: Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, 4th Mvt.; Berlin Philharmonic/Karajan]
[music excerpt: Beethoven, Symphony No. 7, 3rd Mvt.; Berlin Philharmonic/Karajan]
[music excerpt: Beethoven, Symphony No. 8, 1st Mvt.; Berlin Philharmonic/Karajan]
[music excerpts: Schubert, “Unfinished” Symphony, 1st Mvt.; Cleveland Orchestra/Dohnanyi; Strauss, "The Blue Danube"; Vienna Philharmonic/Boskovsky]
[music excerpt: Kristofferson/Foster, "Me & Bobby McGee" (Pearl), second half; Janis Joplin]
What goes up a fifth must come down a fifth. We heard little bits of Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 21, Symphony No. 39, Marriage of Figaro, Beethoven Symphonies No. 5, 7, and 8, Schubert Unfinished Symphony, Strauss' Blue Danube Waltz, and we ended up with the second half of Janis Joplin's rendition of Me and Bobby McGee. We all know who Bobby McGee is.
Me? I'm Peter Schickele. The program is Schickele Mix from PRI, Public Radio International.
Okay, now we're ready for a real suite. It's not so common to find whole pieces that only use these two chords, but they happen. The All You Need is Tonic and Dominant Suite has three numbers in it. I'll see you in seven minutes.
[music: Mozart, "Divertimento in C (KV 188/240b), 5th Mvt."; Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields/Laird]
[music: Prado, "Mambo #8" (A Carnival of Cuban Music); Perez Prado]
The All You Need Is Tonic and Dominant Suite. We began with a weird little piece, the Divertimento in C, KV 188/240b, take your pick, by Mozart, for two flutes, five trumpets, and timpani. That was the fifth movement, a minuet, performed by members of the Mitglieder der Membres de l'Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields.
Michael Laird was conducting. And by the way, if any of you out there listening to this program has just sold a supertanker or something and wants to give me a birthday present, July 17th, the complete Mozart Edition of Philips CDs would be just a wonderful present, and I have a room in the house available to store it there. The second cut was Perez Prado, Mambo No. 8, from a Rounder album called A Carnival of Cuban Music, Roots of Rhythm, Vol. 1.
And finally, The Everly Brothers, that old soft spot in my record collection, Songs Our Daddy Taught Us, one of my favorite albums. The song was called, as you might have guessed, Kentucky.
Proof of how the dominant chord is virtually a sine qua non, as we say in the music biz, of traditional music, is how hard it is to find a piece that doesn't have one. I defy anyone to find a piece by Haydn or Mozart or Beethoven or Schubert, no matter how short, that doesn't have a dominant chord in it.
More recently, however, like in the 20th century, there's been a lot of interest in modal harmony, which is the kind Lassus was using back there at the beginning of the program. Remember, in modal music, all the chords of a scale are more nearly equal in importance, which means that you can pretty much go from any chord to any other chord.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
Now, using modal harmony doesn't preclude having dominant chords. It just means they're less important, so there's a greater chance of finding a piece or two that doesn't have any, if you're the kind of guy who has to do things like that to prove his manhood. The Non-Dominant Gene Song Cycle is about six minutes long. It contains two numbers with nary a five chord in sight.
[music: "No Expectations"; Rolling Stones]
[music: Lennon/McCARTNEY, "All I’ve Got To Do" (With the Beatles); The Beatles]
The Non-Dominant Gene Song Cycle consisted of the Rolling Stones' No Expectations, one of my very favorite songs, which has chords based on the first, seventh, and fourth degrees of the scale, and the Beatles' All I've Got to Do, which has a bunch of different chords, but none of them dominant. Let's talk about one of those chords, the subdominant. Why is it called subdominant? Well, the root of the dominant chord is five steps above that of the tonic.
So the root of the subdominant is five steps, well, sub is Latin for hero sandwich. So if you go down from the tonic, about the width of a hero sandwich, you find yourself on a note that is the fourth degree of the scale. Now these three chords, I, IV, and V, or tonic, subdominant, and dominant, use all seven notes of the scale, so they really define the key.
Here's a little collage called Three Points Define a Plane, three snippets that use only I, IV, and V chords.
[music excerpt: Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, 4th Mvt.; Berlin Philharmonic/Karajan]
[music excerpt: Mozart, Symphony No. 41, 1st Mvt.; The Academy of Ancient Music/Schroder/Hogwood]
[music excerpt: Mozart, “Le Nozze di Figaro,” “Non più andrai, farfallone amoroso”; Petteri Salomaa/The Drottingholm Court Theatre Orchestra/Ostman]
Three Points Define a Plane: Beethoven, Symphony No. 5, Mozart, Symphony No. 41, and the end of Non più andrai from The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart, Petteri Salomaa singing Figaro. You know, that was a very interesting little bit of intonation there. All three of those numbers are actually written in the same key. But the first was a modern orchestra, conducted by von Karajan, and the other two were original instrument orchestras, conducted by Goodman and Hogwood. And so you perhaps noticed between the first number and the second number this drop of almost a half a step because a couple of centuries ago the note C was a half step lower than it is now and the original instrument people tuned down to that it made a little bit of a wrenching thing for me since I knew that all three of the pieces are supposedly in the same key now of course I have an authentic instrument right here in the studio that I was using to illustrate on before but it doesn't seem to have one of those pitch change dealies on it it's just It's where it is. But of course, that's what it is. I mean, it's an authentic early 1990s Casio tone bank.
Personally, I'm Peter Schickele. The show is Schickele Mix from PRI, Public Radio International.
Well, it's Tidbit Time. And today's tidbit is a rather exotic example of the 1-4-5 harmonic progression.
[music: Russell/Medley, "Twist and Shout"; Mae West]
Yeah, Twist and Shout, sung by, oh I'm mean, aren't I, Mae West, you knew all along, right? From one of the Golden Throats albums, put out by Rhino. So let's go out with a three chord suite, and demonstrate that those same three chords, tonic, subdominant, and dominant, can be used with more variety.
The If It's Good Enough for Twist and Shout Suite has four numbers, and I'll be back in about nine and a half minutes.
[music: Trad., "Barrio Latino"; Harp Music of the Andes]
[music: Salley, "Killing the Blues" (Woodstock Mountains); Mud Acres]
[music: Trad., "Polka Aus Reutte" (Folk Music of the Tyrolean Alps); The Engelkinder]
The If It's Good Enough for Twist and Shout Suite began with a tune called Barrio Latino from an album called Harp Music of the Andes. Then we had Mozart from Four German Dances, K602. This was the trio of No. 3, which features a hurdy-gurdy, and it has a subtitle, The Organ Grinder.
That was, by the way, Willi Boskovsky and the Wiener Mozart Ensemble. Then from an album called Woodstock Mountains, this is actually a compilation album called Woodstock Mountains, music from Mud Acres, another one of my favorite songs, Killing the Blues, a bunch of Woodstock people. And then ending up with an album, I can't remember whether I bought this on this sidewalk or in a store.
Anyway, it's folk music of the Tyrolean Alps, the Engelkinder, the angel children, except that's their name, Engel. The Polka aus Reutte, and this is a case where in order to get a little variety, the polka shifts among three keys, the keys of the tonic, subdominant, and dominant chords, and then in each of those keys uses the tonic and subdominant and dominant chords of those keys.
I think you'll agree that the music sounds simpler than the harmonic analysis. Just think of all the music we've heard in the last hour, and all of it just uses three chords or less. You can do a lot with three chords. Of course, sometimes you like to spread your wings a little, add a few more chords. Here's something that has a few more, but not that many.
[theme: Mozart, Symphony No. 24]
That's Schickele Mix for this week. Our program is made possible with funds provided by this radio station. We'll tell you in a moment how you can get an official playlist of all the music on today's program with record numbers and everything. Just refer to the program number, and this is program number 42. This is Peter Schickele saying goodbye and reminding you that it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that certain je ne sais quoi. Hey, you are looking good. See you next week.
[theme: Mozart, Symphony No. 24]
If you'd like a copy of that playlist I mentioned, send a stamped self-addressed envelope to Schickele Mix. That's S-C-H-I-C-K-E-L-E, Schickele Mix. Care of Public Radio International. 100 North 6th Street, Suite 900A, Minneapolis, MN 55403.