Public Radio for Acadiana, KRVS 88.7 FM, Lafayette, Lake Charles. What you don't know won't hurt you. 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. Good deal! Our bills are paid by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and also by my home away from home, this here radio station.
There's an old vaudeville joke, so old, in fact, that P.D.Q. Bach used it in his great cantata Blaues Gras, the bluegrass cantata. See, a carpenter is building a house for a guy, and he asks him, Do you want us to build this house from the bottom up or from the top down? And the owner says, well, from the bottom up, naturally. Rats, says the carpenter. Now we have to tear it down and start all over again.
In our culture, if you ask somebody to sing a scale, and the response isn't "say what?", they're almost certain to sing the scale going up.
But I'm told that if you asked ancient Greeks the same thing, they would sing the scale from the top down, or whatever scale they used. Now, isn't that something, how wrong they were about that? I mean, they wrote such great plays and made such fine statues and bank buildings and everything, and yet they sang their scales backwards. Well, usually when we music professionals talk about building chords, we work from the bottom up as well. In other words... But that's
not always the way it developed historically, at least not according to some of the liner notes I've read. Let's go back to basics here. Say you've made up this great melody, and by the way, I'm playing these examples on my authentic instruments, so no complaints from you purists out there. Authentic early 1990s Casio tone bank with built-in like-it-or-lump-it reverb. Anyway, here's that melody.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
You're right to be proud. It's very nice. Now, you don't want to just have the melody all by itself. You want to have a fuller sound, a richer texture. And you've ruled out drums because your parents are living with you now and the slightest mention of drums sets off a tirade about how the Budapest String Quartet didn't have to have drums and neither did Burl Ives or the Weavers, so you want to have other voices or instruments adding notes.
Well, you've got a bunch of options. I guess the simplest is adding a drone, a note that stays the same all the time.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
That's what a bagpipe is, a drone and a melody. I'm very partial to drones myself. Or you can harmonize the melody. Figure out notes down there that maybe don't move as fast as the melody, just to make it easy there. But
[music: keyboard demonstration]
Anyway, that's a harmonization. That's one thing you can do. Or you can make up another melody that goes with it. A counter melody.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
But what if you decide that you want the other parts to do something that has a direct relation to your melody? You think your melody is so great that you don't want anybody doing anything else. Well, there are two obvious possibilities. One is, have the other parts do the same melody, but not at the same time. And if you're lucky, it'll work.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
Hey, you're lucky.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
I hope you can get people who can play better than I can. That leads to rounds and canons and fugues and all sorts of other good stuff that we deal with on other shows. And the remaining obvious, simple possibility is to have the additional part or parts do the same melody at the same time, but starting on different notes. Okay, have the other one go down four.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
Okay, that little weird [sic]. Maybe this one.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
You could have all three of those. In other words, both the ones below.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
Or you could have the other voice be above the melody. Here's the melody, go up there.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
Now it's this last technique that we're going to explore here. Using other music. Music you didn't write. Here are two beautiful unaccompanied melodies. One from many centuries ago and one comparatively recent. They're both religious pieces and when the first one was composed Catholic Church choirs were men-only institutions. But we're going to have women do all the honors in these examples.
Since there's only one part, this kind of music is called monody.
[music: Offertory: "Felix namque" (chant) (An English Ladymass); Anonymous 4]
[music: Trad., "Poor Pilgrim of Sorrow" (Sweet Rivers); Jean Ritchie]
Our little pair of examples of monody began with an Offertory Felix Namque sung by a beautiful group of four women calling themselves Anonymous 4. This is from a spectacular album called An English Ladymass, and the words are Happy art thou, O sacred Virgin Mary, and most worthy of all praise.
And then, from a Jean Ritchie album, a hymn called Poor Pilgrim of Sorrow. She says in the notes that it's an old regular Baptist hymn as it was sung in the Little Zion Church in Jeff, Kentucky. It was sung often in the deep winter months when folks had time to think about life's hardships.
Now let's add a parallel voice to the monodic texture. Here's a bit of medieval plainsong that goes back more than a millennium.
[sung: demonstration of the plainsong melody]
Now we'll add the same melody starting four steps lower.
[sung: demonstration of the melody with a second line a fourth lower]
Now if you take those two parts and double them an octave higher with tenors, here's how it sounds.
[music: "History of Music in Sound, Vol. II: Early Medieval Music Up to 1300"]
That recording is almost as old as the plainsong. The History of Music in Sound, and I guess that was the Brompton Oratory Choir, singing in organum, Sit gloria Domini saecula, May the glory of the Lord abide forever. So let's hear a couple of examples of two voices singing mostly, but not exclusively, in parallel motion. Again, one is old, the other pretty recent.
Since there are two parts going here, we'll call it Duody, but I wouldn't use that term on your music appreciation exam if I were you.
[music: "La Que Sea" (Tejano Roots: The Women); Hermanas Cantu]
Okay, Duody began once again with the Anonymous 4, an early English thing, Blessed be thou,
Queen of Heaven, comfort of men, and bliss of angels, unblemished mother and pure virgin, such as no other is in the world. And then we heard the Sisters Cantu, doing a number called La Que Sea, Whoever Comes Along. I wander the world without direction, without feeling shame, and without feeling love. I'm only the ghost of my past, one of those souls that God has forgotten. And the song is actually from the point of view of a man, and apparently that was very common in these songs.
It was assumed that a woman, if she was a professional singer, when she got married she would retire and bring up her family. And the songs, many of which were on jukeboxes in cantinas, were from the male viewpoint. There were some women, by the way, who didn't do that, who continued to sing. This is from an Arhoolie album, Tejano Roots: The Women. My name is Peter Schickele and the program is Schickele Mix from PRI, Public Radio International.
Okay, it's on to three voices doing the same melody but starting on different notes. The most common three-part sound to move around is this one.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
Here's an example from the 13th century. Once again, it's not parallel all the time, but often.
[music: "History of Music in Sound, Vol. II: Early Medieval Music Up to 1300"]
The Bodley Singers on that History of Music in Sound set of LPs recorded in a 13th century recording studio, singing the conductus Beata viscera, Blessed is the Womb. Now let's hear a pair of, well, more sprightly examples of three-part parallelism. Let's see, monody, duody, why not triody?
[music: "Gloria" (An English Ladymass); Anonymous 4]
[music: Parton/Wagoner, "The Pain of Loving You" (Trio); Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris]
Okay, the two best girl groups around. Anonymous 4 and the Trio gang, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris. The Anonymous 4, from this wonderful album, An English Ladymass, doing the Gloria. And you know it's wonderful what's happened in my lifetime to the performance of old music. When you hear that old recording that I played earlier, that scratchy old thing, forget about the quality of the recording, the music was important that they brought that to the fore.
But still, it's quite stuffy sounding, the performance, compared to now when these groups are so zingy and zippy. It's tremendous. Anyway, from Trio, The Pain of Loving You. And you faithful listeners, I know I've used it before, but hey, what can I tell you? Love that song.
Alright, when you've got your strict triody going, the same melody at three different levels, what do you have at any given time? You've got a chord. Now, you can get into a good argument about whether it's possible to have a two-note chord or not, but hey, I'm easy, let's skip that.
Most people would say that a chord has at least three differently named notes, and the chords we heard most of in our examples were the major triad and the minor triad.
They are the most commonly used chords during the last 500 years or so, and we deal with them extensively on another edition of this program. Today's show is called Splitting the Octave, and what I want to point out now is that major and minor triads divide the octave asymmetrically. A semitone is the smallest interval on the piano, the distance from any key to its nearest neighbor.
That's a semitone. Just remember, four quarts in a gallon, three feet in a yard, two semitones in a whole step.
Now, if you count out the semitones between the notes of a major triad, here's what you get, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, brings you back up to the octave, 4, 3, and 5, in other words, completely asymmetrical, and that's what gives the chord its distinction, and it's also what makes it possible to have 12 different major triads. If you move them up here, in
addition to sounding like you're at the ball game, it's also true that you don't hit the same three notes until you get all the way up to the top octave there now what happens if you divide the octave symmetrically There are 12 semitones. What if you divide by four? One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. Back up at the octave here. That's called an augmented triad, and the reason it sounds so unsettling is that it is symmetrical, which means you can't get your bearings.
It's like the difference between a treasure map and a big orchard. A treasure map says you start at the tall tree and walk towards the large rock. Now that assumes that the tree is taller than the other trees and the rock is larger than the other rocks. What if you're in the middle of a huge orchard? All the trees are the same size, they're all planted in rows, you can't tell where you are. That may be one of the worst analogies ever perpetrated, but maybe not, there's something to it.
Anyway, the augmented triad and the scale associated with it, the whole tone scale, which is also symmetrical, two notes, two semitones between each pair of notes.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
That also makes you feel rootless, which is why the whole tone scale and the augmented triad are so often used for dream sequences or flashbacks.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
I shall never forget the night that Gerard smoked his handkerchief.
Gerard, I said, you're smoking your handkerchief. Bug off, he said, and that's the last time.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
Okay, now what if you divide the octave by three semitones? 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3
You get what's called a diminished seventh chord, and it too, being symmetrical, feels rootless and unsettling. But it seems to have more tension than the augmented triad. It can produce a feeling of dread or anxiety and was employed by silent movie accompanists when somebody was in trouble.
[music: keyboard demonstration]
So here's a little suite that has three numbers in it. The first is based primarily on major and minor triads, the second primarily on augmented triads and whole tone scales, and the last primarily on diminished seventh chords and a nice scale organized around a diminished seventh chord.
There'll be a test on this later. Now let me emphasize that, as in most music, there's a lot of extra stuff thrown in here. Passing tones, sexy added notes. But the basic harmonic organization involves major and minor triads in the first selection, augmented triads and whole tone scales in the second, and diminished 7th chords in the last. See you in about seven and a half minutes.
[music: Williams/Williams, "Royal Garden Blues" (Sextette from “Hunger”)]
[music: Debussy, "Preludes, Book 1, Voiles"; Walter Gieseking]
[music excerpt: Messiaen, “L’Ascension,” “Alleluia sur la Trompette, Alleluia sur la Cymbale”; London Symphony Orchestra/Stokowski]
That was the Splitting the Octaves Suite. It began with the Royal Garden Blues, played by the Sextet from Hunger on an old 45 that I have. Then we heard Walter Gieseking playing the second prelude from the first book of Debussy's Preludes, Voiles, and then finally part of the third movement of L'Ascension, The Ascension, by Messiaen, conducted by Stokowski, and it's the London Symphony Orchestra.
I'm Peter Schickele, and this is Schickele Mix, from PRI, Public Radio International.
Here's an interesting little factoid concerning the diminished seventh chord. During the Baroque and classical periods, the time of Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert, and the heyday of what is sometimes described as traditional harmony, the only chord that composers ever moved up and down the chromatic or semitone scale was the old diminished seventh. You hear this, major and minor triads being moved up and down a major scale, but you don't hear this.
Moving a major triad up or down a chromatic scale, or any other chord, except our nerve-wracking friend the diminished seventh chord. Here's a little snippet from Mozart's Quintet for Piano and Winds. Hearing it isolated like this almost makes you feel as if you're watching a silent movie.
[music excerpt: Mozart, Quintet for Piano & Winds (K 452), 2nd Mvt.; Murray Perahia/English Chamber Orchestra Soloists]
Our last suite is the Uh-Oh Suite, three pieces that feature diminished or diminished seventh chords sliding around in one way or another. In the first number, don't be fooled by the weird ascending effect produced by manipulating a tape recorder. It's right after that, in the mock melodrama section, that the diminished harmonies appear. Don't get upset. The Uh-Oh Suite is only about seven and a half minutes long.
[music: Wilson/Love/Parks, "She’s Goin’ Bald" (Smiley Smile); The Beach Boys]
[music: J. S. Bach, Partita No. 1 in B-Flat (BWV 825); Trevor Pinnock]
[music: Leiber/Stoller, "Along Came Jones" (The Coasters’ Greatest Hits); The Coasters]
The Uh-oh Suite began with the Beach Boys, She's Goin' Bald, off the Smiley Smile album. Trevor Pinnock playing the gigue from the first partita by Bach and the Coasters singing Along Came Jones. We're splitting octaves. The Beach Boys are splitting hair. I think it's time to split.
[theme: Mozart, Symphony No. 24]
And that's Schickele Mix for this week. Our program is made possible with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and also by this radio station and its members. 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. This is program number 51.
And 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. You're looking good. See you next week.
[No speech for 337 s.]
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, Minnesota, 55403.