1 00:00:09,010 --> 00:00:18,050 Public Radio for Acadiana, KRVS 88.7 FM, Lafayette, Lakeshawls. 2 00:00:18,990 --> 00:00:22,310 What you don't know won't hurt you. Here's the theme. 3 00:00:37,010 --> 00:00:48,970 Hello there, I'm Peter Shickley. And this is Shickley 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. 4 00:00:49,510 --> 00:00:57,770 Good deal. Our bills are paid by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and also by my home away from home, this here radio station. 5 00:00:59,610 --> 00:01:11,950 There's an old vaudeville joke, so old in fact that P.D. Kubach used it in his great cantata, Blauus Gras, the bluegrass cantata. See, a carpenter is building a house for a guy and he asks him, 6 00:01:12,030 --> 00:01:22,570 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. 7 00:01:23,390 --> 00:01:33,030 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. 8 00:01:36,290 --> 00:01:48,410 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? 9 00:01:48,970 --> 00:01:58,770 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. 10 00:02:00,310 --> 00:02:09,289 Well, usually when we music professionals talk about building chords, we work from the bottom up as well. In other words... 11 00:02:10,590 --> 00:02:23,560 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. Let's go back to the basics here. Say you've made up this great melody. 12 00:02:23,960 --> 00:02:35,740 And by the way, I'm playing these examples on my authentic instruments, and no complaints from you purists out there. Authentic, early 1990s Casio tone bank with built-in, like it or lump it, reverb. 13 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:37,900 Anyway, here's that melody. 14 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:57,880 You're right to be proud. It's very nice. 15 00:02:58,080 --> 00:03:08,280 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 there. 16 00:03:08,300 --> 00:03:20,460 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. 17 00:03:20,940 --> 00:03:28,940 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. 18 00:03:49,080 --> 00:04:01,480 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, 19 00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:02,640 just to make it easy there. 20 00:04:13,820 --> 00:04:22,800 I guess they do move as fast as the melody. But 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. 21 00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:55,740 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. 22 00:04:56,440 --> 00:05:05,800 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. 23 00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:20,780 I hope you can get people who can play better than I can. 24 00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:34,900 That leads to rounds and cannons 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 25 00:05:34,900 --> 00:05:43,700 do the same melody at the same time, but starting on different notes. Okay, have the other one go down four. 26 00:05:49,650 --> 00:06:01,440 Okay, that little weird, maybe this one. You could have all three of those. In other words, both the ones below. 27 00:06:10,460 --> 00:06:14,300 Or you could have the other voice be above the melody. Here's the melody, go up there. 28 00:06:21,970 --> 00:06:31,470 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. 29 00:06:32,110 --> 00:06:43,110 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. 30 00:06:43,930 --> 00:06:52,230 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. 31 00:08:39,299 --> 00:08:52,200 Now I'm going tooverplay a passage. First, this is Monody. . 32 00:08:52,200 --> 00:09:01,020 . . . . . 33 00:09:01,020 --> 00:09:07,300 . . . . 34 00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:41,630 to Rome, a city called heaven, I've started to make it my home. 35 00:09:44,130 --> 00:10:02,620 My father has reached the bright glory, my father is struggling in sin, my brothers and 36 00:10:02,620 --> 00:10:19,420 sisters won't own me, because I'm trying to get in, sometimes I'm tossed and driven, 37 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:34,680 I know not where to roam, I've heard of a city called heaven, 38 00:10:35,940 --> 00:10:37,240 I've started to make it my home. 39 00:10:42,260 --> 00:10:53,540 Our little pair of examples of monody began with an offertory, Felix Namkwe, sung by a 40 00:10:54,000 --> 00:11:02,320 beautiful group of four women calling themselves Anonymous Four. This is from a spectacular album called An English Lady Mass. 41 00:11:03,060 --> 00:11:10,840 And the words are, Happy art thou, O sacred Virgin Mary, and most worthy of all. All praise is how it starts. 42 00:11:11,500 --> 00:11:23,920 And then, from a Gene 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 43 00:11:23,920 --> 00:11:36,800 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 monotic texture. 44 00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:42,120 Here's a bit of Medieval Plains. It's a song that goes back more than a millennium. 45 00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:58,740 Sit gloria Domini in saecula, leti bitur Dominus in operibus suis. 46 00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:09,200 Now we'll add the same melody starting four steps lower. One, two, three, four. And it sounds like this. 47 00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:11,400 Okay. 48 00:12:17,730 --> 00:12:22,750 Now if you take those two parts and double them an octave higher with tenors, here's how it sounds. 49 00:12:24,510 --> 00:12:36,990 Sit gloria Domini in saecula, leti bitur Dominus in operibus suis. 50 00:12:41,860 --> 00:12:52,880 Recording is almost as old as the Plains song. The history of music and sound. And I guess that was the beginning. It was the Brompton Oratory Choir singing an organum. 51 00:12:53,220 --> 00:13:05,360 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. 52 00:13:05,860 --> 00:13:18,300 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. 53 00:13:18,380 --> 00:13:18,740 Okay. 54 00:13:34,800 --> 00:13:42,060 No. Let's try it again. Okay. 55 00:13:48,820 --> 00:14:31,460 Now we're going to sing the one that just came out, and we're going to use it here. 56 00:14:31,540 --> 00:14:32,920 Okay. Here we go. 57 00:15:07,830 --> 00:15:09,570 Here we go. 58 00:15:09,810 --> 00:15:22,480 Here we go. 59 00:16:17,920 --> 00:16:20,880 Okay. Here we go. Here we go. 60 00:16:20,880 --> 00:16:42,190 Here we go. 61 00:16:42,290 --> 00:16:45,630 Here we go. 62 00:17:16,540 --> 00:17:55,160 I don't feel pity, nor do I feel love, I am the ghost of my past, I am one of the souls that God has forgotten, I had a love that was my life, but the biggest was my torment, when he truly abandoned me. 63 00:17:55,160 --> 00:18:11,780 I am the one that comes, very welcome, if she wants to go, she just leaves, and there will come others, others and others, and today the one that goes is the same. 64 00:18:14,640 --> 00:18:48,540 I am not one of those that when they see each other alone, they want to kill each other or avenge their love, on the contrary, I sold her. 65 00:19:05,220 --> 00:19:27,170 I am the one that comes, very welcome, if she wants to go, she just leaves, and there will come others, others and others, and today the one that goes is the same. 66 00:19:27,190 --> 00:19:32,110 I am the one that comes, very welcome, if she wants to go, she just leaves, and there will come others, others and others, and today the one that goes is the same. 67 00:19:59,610 --> 00:20:10,230 And then we heard the Sisters Cantu doing a number called La Ke Sella, Whoever Comes Along. I wander the world without direction, without feeling shame, and without feeling love. 68 00:20:10,790 --> 00:20:19,990 I am 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. 69 00:20:20,110 --> 00:20:29,250 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 them, were like that. 70 00:20:29,270 --> 00:20:41,690 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 Arjuli album, The Tejano Roots, The Women. 71 00:20:42,910 --> 00:20:49,290 My name is Peter Shickley, and the program is Shickley Mix, from PRI, Public Radio International. 72 00:20:51,870 --> 00:21:02,550 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. 73 00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:14,100 Here's an example from the 13th century. Once again, it's not parallel all the time, but often. 74 00:22:27,790 --> 00:22:39,690 The Bodley Singers, on that History of Music in Sound set of LPs recorded in a 13th century recording studio, singing the conductus beatificera, Blessed is the Womb. 75 00:22:40,210 --> 00:22:50,910 Now let's hear a pair of, well, more sprightly examples, of three-part parallelism. Let's see, monody, duody, why not triody? 76 00:26:16,810 --> 00:26:38,770 Oh, the pain, you just can't stand to see me happy, to see me hurt, still I ain't got love in you, understand. 77 00:26:42,260 --> 00:27:32,900 Oh, the pain of loving you, oh, the misery I go through, never knowing what to do at the same time. 78 00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:43,200 The line between the two is fine, but you have bound me hard. 79 00:27:43,520 --> 00:27:49,720 And so, so strong that I can't let you go. 80 00:27:51,150 --> 00:28:03,720 Oh, the pain of loving you, oh, the misery I go through, never knowing what to do at the same time. 81 00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:35,860 Okay, the two best girl groups around. Anonymous 4 and the Trio Gang, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt. Emmylou Harris. 82 00:28:36,740 --> 00:28:47,960 The Anonymous 4 from this wonderful album, and English Lady Mass, we're doing the Gloria. And you know, it's wonderful what's happened in my lifetime to the performance of old music. 83 00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:58,240 When you hear that old recording that I played earlier, that scratchy old thing, forget about the quality of the recording. The music, it was important that they brought that to the fore. 84 00:28:58,460 --> 00:29:09,280 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. 85 00:29:09,460 --> 00:29:17,220 And you faithful listeners, I know I've used it before, but hey, what can I tell you? Love that song. All right. 86 00:29:17,620 --> 00:29:27,180 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. 87 00:29:28,140 --> 00:29:38,900 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. 88 00:29:39,500 --> 00:29:47,760 And the chords we heard most of in our examples were the major triad and the minor triad. 89 00:29:49,700 --> 00:30:01,140 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. 90 00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:08,020 And what I want to point out now is that... Major and minor triads divide the octave asymmetrically. 91 00:30:08,980 --> 00:30:17,180 Now, a semitone is the smallest interval on the piano, the distance from any key to its nearest neighbor. That's a semitone. 92 00:30:17,180 --> 00:30:28,280 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. 93 00:30:28,980 --> 00:30:30,260 One, two, three, four. 94 00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:43,740 One, two, three. One, two, three, four, five. Brings you back up to the octave. Four, three, and five. In other words, completely asymmetrical. And that's what gives the chord its distinction. 95 00:30:44,120 --> 00:30:49,580 And it's also what makes it possible to have 12 different major triads. If you move them up here... 96 00:30:55,340 --> 00:31:04,000 In addition to sounding like you're at the ballgame, 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. 97 00:31:04,980 --> 00:31:14,880 Now, what happens if you divide the octave symmetrically? There are 12 semitones. What if you divide by four? One, two, three, four. 98 00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:18,140 One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. 99 00:31:18,540 --> 00:31:30,180 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. 100 00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:41,860 It's like the difference between a treasure map and a big orchard. 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. 101 00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:53,440 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. 102 00:31:53,580 --> 00:32:05,880 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, 103 00:32:05,960 --> 00:32:11,500 which is also the scale of the whole tone scale, is also symmetrical. Two notes, two semitones between each pair of notes. 104 00:32:19,550 --> 00:32:31,250 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. 105 00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:49,340 I shall never forget the night that Gerard smoked his handkerchief. Gerard, I said. You're smoking your handkerchief. Bug off, he said. 106 00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:51,360 And that's the last. 107 00:32:56,940 --> 00:33:06,300 Okay, now what if you divide the octave by three semitones? One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. 108 00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:19,940 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. 109 00:33:20,020 --> 00:33:28,480 It can produce a feeling of dread or anxiety. And was employed by silent movie accompanists when somebody was in trouble. 110 00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:48,560 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 111 00:33:48,560 --> 00:33:58,200 and a nice scale organized around a diminished seventh chord. There'll be a test on this later. 112 00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:10,280 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, 113 00:34:10,520 --> 00:34:16,500 augmented triads and whole-tone scales in the second, and diminished seventh chords in the last. See you in about 7 1⁄2 minutes. 114 00:38:44,390 --> 00:41:51,580 That was the Splitting the Octaves Suite. 115 00:41:51,900 --> 00:42:04,360 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, Voile. 116 00:42:04,500 --> 00:42:14,940 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. 117 00:42:16,420 --> 00:42:27,300 I'm Peter Shickley, and this is Shickley Mix, from PRI, Public Radio International. Here's an interesting little factoid concerning the diminished seventh. 118 00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:36,780 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, 119 00:42:37,440 --> 00:42:46,360 the only chord that composers ever moved up and down the chromatic or semitone scale was the old diminished seventh. You hear this. 120 00:42:48,440 --> 00:43:00,600 Major and minor triads being moved up and down a major scale. But you don't hear this. Moving. Moving a major triad up or down a chromatic scale, or any other chord, 121 00:43:00,700 --> 00:43:13,100 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. 122 00:43:29,040 --> 00:43:37,760 Now our last suite is the Uh-Oh Suite. Three pieces that feature diminished or diminished seventh chords sliding around in one way or another. 123 00:43:38,060 --> 00:43:50,660 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. 124 00:43:50,840 --> 00:43:54,320 The Uh-Oh Suite is only about seven and a half minutes long. 125 00:43:55,700 --> 00:44:03,880 Silken hair, more silken hair fell on her face and no wind was blowing. 126 00:44:04,500 --> 00:44:12,540 Silken hair, more silken hair lay near her pillbox down at her feet. 127 00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:19,000 And on a dry weekend, and I saw she'd lost her hair. 128 00:44:19,220 --> 00:44:27,840 I thought I would tell her when she saw her shining forehead didn't stop. 129 00:44:27,940 --> 00:44:39,680 She swooned to the ground, really flipped her waist so hard. I cool, I blew myself over. 130 00:44:53,810 --> 00:44:58,740 La la la la la la la la la. 131 00:44:58,740 --> 00:45:01,500 La la la la la la la la la la. 132 00:45:05,640 --> 00:45:15,360 She drew a comb across her scalp and brushed what she had left. I tried to salvage what I could and threw it in a sack. She made it be lined to a room and grabbed all kind of juice. 133 00:45:15,460 --> 00:45:18,340 She started pouring it on her head and thought it'd grow it back. 134 00:45:20,490 --> 00:45:22,530 You're too late, mama. 135 00:45:22,770 --> 00:45:25,530 Ain't nothing upside your head. 136 00:45:25,990 --> 00:45:37,020 Nothing upside your head. 137 00:45:38,100 --> 00:45:43,460 You're too late, mama. Ain't nothing upside your head. 138 00:45:43,780 --> 00:45:55,360 Nothing upside your head. 139 00:45:56,160 --> 00:45:58,600 You're too late, mama. 140 00:45:58,760 --> 00:46:01,740 Ain't nothing upside your head. 141 00:46:01,960 --> 00:47:16,770 Here come the diminished seventh chords now. 142 00:48:48,650 --> 00:49:01,000 He tied her up. 143 00:49:01,160 --> 00:49:03,340 He turned on the buzz. 144 00:49:03,920 --> 00:49:10,140 And then, and then, and then a long day, John. 145 00:49:10,720 --> 00:49:21,610 We're talking, John. 146 00:49:22,070 --> 00:49:34,800 Commercial came on, so I got up to get myself a snack. You should have seen what was going on. 147 00:49:34,860 --> 00:49:47,090 Right on in the old abandoned heaven fence. Grabbed her. 148 00:49:47,270 --> 00:49:58,770 And then, he tied her up. And then, he lit the fuse to the dynamite. And then, and then, and then a long day. John. 149 00:50:08,110 --> 00:50:10,030 So talking, John. 150 00:50:10,690 --> 00:50:14,530 So long, great mommy. Thank you, John. 151 00:50:14,770 --> 00:50:38,240 Another show. 152 00:50:38,880 --> 00:50:47,500 But there was the same old shoe-up-up and the same old road-biddle. Salty Sam was a-trying to stuff sweet Sue in a burlap sack. 153 00:50:47,620 --> 00:50:52,160 He said, if you don't give me the deed to your ransom, I'll throw you on the railroad track. 154 00:50:52,480 --> 00:50:53,580 And then, he grabbed her. 155 00:50:53,580 --> 00:50:58,400 And then, he tied her up. And then, he threw her on the railroad track. 156 00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:00,120 And then, he dragged her. 157 00:51:00,140 --> 00:51:01,260 And then, he started coming. 158 00:51:01,500 --> 00:51:13,940 And then, and then, and then a long day, John. Then, John. John. 159 00:51:19,960 --> 00:51:32,990 The Uh-Oh Suite began with the Beach Boys. 160 00:51:33,430 --> 00:51:44,930 She's gone bald off the Smiley Smile album. Trevor Pinnock playing the gig from the first partita by Bach. And the Coasters singing Along Came Jones. 161 00:51:45,890 --> 00:51:50,770 We're splitting octaves. We're going to sing along. The Beach Boys are splitting hair. I think it's time to split. 162 00:52:07,160 --> 00:52:17,540 And that's Sickly 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. 163 00:52:18,280 --> 00:52:27,860 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. 164 00:52:28,780 --> 00:52:37,680 And this is Peter Sickly 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. 165 00:57:34,480 --> 00:58:19,700 If you'd like a copy of that playlist I mentioned, send a stamped self-addressed envelope to 166 00:58:19,700 --> 00:58:26,060 Sickly Mix. That's S-C-H-I-C-K-E-L-E. Sickly Mix. If you'd like a copy of that playlist I mentioned, send a stamped self-addressed envelope to Sickly Mix. 167 00:58:26,060 --> 00:58:35,100 Care of Public Radio International, 100 North 6th Street, Suite 900A, Minneapolis, MN 55403.