Time now on WFMT for Schickely Mix with Peter Schickely. Ready, Peter? Unlike Ethelred the unready and Ethelwill the unwilling,
I am both ready and willing. Here's the theme.
Hello there, I'm Peter Schickely, and this is Schickely 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.
Now the best things in life may be free, but the good things in life cost money. So I'm happy to report that our bills are paid by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, by the National Endowment for the Arts,
and by this very radio station, which provides me with what it takes to say what has to be said and play what has to be played, after which the whole oral enchilada is distributed to the four winds
by PRI, Public Radio International. On another edition of this program, we talk about the pentatonic scale. The easiest pentatonic scale,
to play is simply the black keys of the piano. And on that show, we deal with the scale mostly melodically,
and we also explore the entomology of the name. It turns out that pentatonic means five tones, which happens to be no coincidence, since there are, as luck would have it, five tones in a pentatonic scale.
Today, we're going to discuss harmony. More specifically, we're going to address the question, how does one harmonize a pentatonic scale, using the procedures of traditional European harmony,
but staying within the limits of the pentatonic scale? It's not as easy as you might think, because traditional European harmony is based on seven note scales.
For instance, the C major scale, which corresponds to the white notes of the piano. If you take, you know, it's hard to explain some of these things just verbally. They get a bit complicated.
I've found that it often helps to use the, the blackboard to illustrate these things. So I brought one into the studio here. I don't think there's anything scheduled in the conference room here.
Let me just move it a little bit closer to the mic. There we go. Okay. Now let me write out a C major scale here.
C D E F G A B C. The last C of course is a transposition of the first. So that's seven notes. Plus the octave.
Now when it comes to building chords, traditional harmony is based on triads. That's two superimposed thirds.
Da da da da da da da da da da da. And you can generate a triad on each one of the seven tones of the diatonic, the C major scale.
I'll just make brackets here with little prongy lines coming down to the notes. Now,
I'll have to extend the scale a little bit up here farther for these higher triads. Okay. Now look at that.
You can see how the seven triads interlock in their use of the notes of the scale. And we've got three major triads,
these three here and three minor triads, this, this and that, and one diminished triad, the one on B.
Okay. Now if we add another superimposed third to each triad, we'll get seventh chords. I'll just extend these brackets here.
And they're called seventh chords because the highest note is a seventh above the lowest one. Oh rats. I started out too close to the top of the board. I'm going to have to just squeeze.
Okay. Well anyway, the most often used seventh chord is the one, the dominant seventh chord,
but you've got some kind of a seventh chord on each scale step. That a doesn't show up very well there in the top court.
I mean on the wooden frame, but anyway, uh, you can do an awful lot of harmonizing using just those chords, which consists entirely of notes in the C major scale.
Let me play you the beginning of Mozart's, Jupiter, symphony. There are a couple of non-scale tones, melodically speaking, and I really mean just a couple,
but otherwise the first 48 seconds of the symphony could be played entirely on the white keys of the piano. And the harmonies are all based on some of the chords you see right here.
Neville Mariner and the Academy of St. Martin, in the raw with the opening of little joke there, the same Academy of St. Martin in the field, you know that with the opening of Mozart's Jupiter symphony.
Now let's compare the chordal possibilities of the major scale. And that excerpt we just heard doesn't even begin to use all the chords we've constructed here.
Let's compare them with the possibilities in the pentatonic scale. Now the five tones of the pentatonic scale correspond to five of the seven tones of the major scale.
So what I'll just do here is erase. Where is that thing? It was an eraser on this shelf when I, uh, wait a minute. There it is. There it is.
Hold on just seconds. Excuse me. It must have, uh, it must have fallen off when I wheeled the thing over here. Okay. Now I'm going to erase the two notes that are not common to both scales.
This one, the F and the B. So what does that leave us in terms of triads and seventh chords? Just look at the brackets, right?
It's very clear, isn't it? Almost all of those brackets have a line coming down to one of the notes that have been erased. We've still got the, uh,
triad on C but the next one is out, no F. So is the next one? No B, the next one. Two. No F.
and the next one no B we do have the a minor triad but no B diminished because
we don't have either F or B so instead of seven different triads we've got two one major and one minor and the seventh chord situation is even worse right
right only one seventh chord that's the a minor seventh now that's not much to work with especially since in traditional harmony the three most
important triads are C F and G and we don't have two of those so to get back to our opening question how does one harmonize a pentatonic melody using the
procedures of traditional European harmony but staying within the limits of the pentatonic scale and the answer is one doesn't one takes another approach if one knows what's good for one
here's a common Asian approach there's a bunch of people in this ensemble and quite a bit of rhythmic commotion but if you listen carefully you'll notice that
there's no harmony at all everybody's playing the melody part of white moon a
central Mongolian song performed by the ensemble melodies of the steps a very appropriate name for an ensemble playing on a program illustrating scales here's another approach
use drums to accompany the song since they usually don't have a definite pitch you or
rather one doesn't have to worry about harmony a Cree war song from central
Canada that was in English by the way and here's yet another effective technique for accompanying pentatonic songs a single note that is a drone
Dougie Pincock playing bagpipes a lament from a Christine Primrose
album well I think by now it's obvious that I have implicitly put the cart before the horse the central Mongolians and the native North Americans and the
Scottish Piper we've just heard they weren't using those various accompaniment techniques in order to avoid the triad problem or the lack of triad problem they were treating the melodies as they've always been treated
that is not from a harmonic standpoint most pentatonic melodies don't have the
obvious harmonic implications that most modern major and minor melodies have now I have a theory and it is mine well I'm not a musical anthropologist so I guess I
should call it a hunch as in the unified field hunch or the hunch of relativity I have a hunch and it is mine that many if not most purely pentatonic melodies or
basic melodic patterns are either very old predating the development of traditional European harmony or they come from
areas that had or have not been influenced by European style music here are two pieces of art music as opposed to folk music by modern classically
trained composers both pieces are completely pentatonic which is fairly unusual but neither one of them is at all harmonic in its approach that is
you're not tempted to analyze them in terms of chords whether it's an accompanying part or an out front line everything is melodic
melody rules I call this sweet lit all in the five tone family and I'll be back
in about seven minutes all in the five tone family two pieces there the first
one was the second gamelan from the suite for violin piano and small orchestra by Lou Harrison that was played by Lucy Stoltzman Keith Jarrett
and a small ensemble conducted by Robert Hughes then the second piece was called Pine Ridge from an album called Folk Images by
Paul Lansky and that piece was performed on a 1981 IBM mainframe using linear
predictive coding to model the violin playing of Cyrus Stevens what is interesting those of you if there's some of you out there listening who after you got done with your toilet training went on to ear training
you may have noticed that it sounds sometimes like there's an A major triad at some of those cadences now an A major triad has a C sharp in it which is not in the pentatonic scale that the whole piece is in as a matter of fact the rest
of the piece is so consistently white key that I contacted the composer and asked him about that because I had a suspicion that the C sharp is actually
an overtone and it was not played at all and he confirmed that suspicion the C sharp is not written in the music it's not played by anybody else it's just a
there because it's an overtone of lower notes Peter sickle is the name and sickly mixes the game from PRI public radio international today's show is
called gin and pentatonic we're talking about how to accompany melodies based on the most common five note scale one of the characteristics of pentatonic scales
is that they contain no quotes you know how I'm doing that little thing with my fingers again quote sharp unquote intervals no
what should we call them, jagged or harsh or highly unstable or naughty intervals. See, looking at the scale I wrote on the blackboard here, it's obvious that since I erased the F here and the B,
there are no longer any minor seconds or tritones regarded as an unstable interval.
So the intervals that are left are all mellifluous. If I play the notes of a major scale simultaneously, it sounds like a crunchy cluster.
But if I play a pentatonic scale all at once, hey, sounds like a chord out of a French piece, and we all know what the French are interested in, I mean, besides wine.
I mentioned before that the black keys of the piano keyboard constitute a pentatonic scale. Let me really swing around to the authentic. And if you use only the black keys,
why, just about anything you play sounds fine. It's very nice, actually.
In fact, it's kind of hard to stop. Hey, listen, the program will take care of itself.
What, me worry? It's really true that nothing matters
No mad, mad world and no Mad Hatters There's no one pitching cause there ain't no one No batters and coconut grove
You know, I never noticed before that that Lovin' Spoonful tune is pentatonic. Great song.
I wonder where my old bong is. Well, I guess I had better get with the program here. Get with the program.
Get with the program.
Oh, man. Oh, God. Gotta take care of business here.
Maybe I'll just keep playing while I talk. Where was I? Oh, yeah. Okay, what this no note sounds like a wrong note characteristic means
is that a lot of meandering, bland, aimless, new-agey music has been written using the pentatonic scale.
Get with the program.
It's a radio program. Whoa, brother. I have got to get out of this.
Maybe if I can reach the volume control with my foot. There we go.
Look at that. I'm still playing even though there's no sound. Okay, enough. Man. Man, that pentatonic scale is powerful stuff.
I mean, that's some heavy . It seems innocuous, but. You know, I still don't have it together. I'm gonna turn the volume back up here.
There, that's better. Cleared a few cobwebs away. What I was trying to get into was, What I was trying to get into was, that there is at least one situation in which the no note sounds like a wrong note
characteristic of the pentatonic scale can be put to good use. My wife's a poet, and she often teaches residencies in public schools, elementary and high schools, getting kids to write poetry.
And what she, and I guess a lot of other teachers have found, is that the first thing you do is get rid of the idea of rhyme. Not because rhymed poetry is bad, but because writing a good rhymed poem
is quite difficult. What happens with amateur poets is that the mechanics of rhyme become more important than telling the truth. Better to let the kids write completely free verse,
or use some other organizing principle, like acrostic poems, in which you choose a word and write it out vertically at the left hand margin, then you can use each letter of the word as the first letter of that line in the poem.
Ask for rhyme, and you get greeting cards. Give the students free reign, and you get personal poems. Poems that are sometimes absolutely amazing in their honesty and imagery.
There's a similar situation in music, teaching music to young kids. There is nothing, folks, nothing, that takes the place of personal involvement, of actually making music.
But your average three to seven year old tyke, I'm not talking about prodigies here, your average youngster, as they hate to be called, has neither the experience, nor even the muscle strength,
nor the muscle coordination to make pleasing music on a violin or clarinet, at least not without a long period of drudgery and delayed gratification. The German composer Carl Orff and some colleagues
developed a system of musical training, musical involvement, really, that makes a lot of sense to me. For beginners, kids who are just starting out, they designed a set of easy to play instruments, like xylophones,
that only have the notes of a pentatonic scale. This means that there are fewer fewer notes for the kids to keep track of, and it also means that when you get the kids
improvising, which they are encouraged to do early on, they're never going to hit a note that sounds like a real clunker. In these three examples, some of the kids are playing ostinati, short repeated figures
like bup bup bup bup bup bup bup bup bup bup, while one child improvises a melody.
Our tidbit time today was three instrumental improvisations played by young English children
under the tutelage of Carl Orff, Gunhild Kaetman, and Walter Jelinek. You may have noticed that the actual melodies that the kids made up only used three notes,
so they really didn't have too much to worry about. Now, so far, nothing we've heard has been harmonically oriented. If you really want to harmonize pentatonic melodies, have a sense of chord progression,
what most people do is forget about the pentatonic scale when it comes to the accompaniments. Remember when I changed an A major scale on the blackboard to a pentatonic scale by
erasing the two notes right here, the F and the B? Well, most harmonizations of pentatonic melodies make use of those notes in the accompaniment, and often use other colorful in-between or chromatic notes as well.
These next three numbers all have pentatonic melodies. The accompaniment to the first one is mostly not chordal, but it is non-pentatonic.
The second tune is harmonized in a strictly chordal fashion, but here again, the accompaniment uses more than five tones of the scale.
The last one starts out completely pentatonic, but then the harmonies get more complicated with lots of chromatic notes thrown in. The Mixed Marriage Suite No. 1 lasts about seven and a half minutes.
I'll see you then.
I'll see you then. I'll see you then. I'll see you then. I'll see you then. I'll see you then. I'll see you then. I'll see you then.
I'll see you then.
I'll see you then. I'll see you then.
I'll see you then.
I'll see you then. I'll see you then.
I'll see you then.
I'll see you then. I'll see you then. I'll see you then. I'll see you then. I'll see you then. I'll see you then. I'll see you then. I'll see you then. I'll see you then. I'll see you then.
Luj saja godina, luj soba, leto proleto
Luj soba, doj deni, doj nepozime
Doj deni, doj nepozime, da sa zazbirat momine
Da sa zazbirat momine, momine, na puprelkine
Je te rada, anki zdilo, da si ponozia
Pati mama, co jo glavi, jo glavi, jo ste ozenina
With Christine Primrose The song was One Day on the Misty Mountain Fortunately, I don't have to try to pronounce that in Gaelic And that was Christine Primrose singing
Also with Alison Kinnaird And let's see, on the mouth organ, that was Duncan McGillivray And then we had Village Music of Bulgaria
That was Molita, the Smolian Folk Ensemble And then Folk Ensemble, the Smolian Folk Ensemble And finally, the Maurice Ravel composition, Mother Goose Suite
Also known as an orchestral piece, but originally written for piano four hands Played here by Louis Lortier and Hélène Mercier
That was the third movement, L'Edronette Impératrice des Pagodes Which means, L'Edronette Impératrice of the Pagodas
Well, as far as I'm concerned That is one of the top pieces of the Pagode And one of the top three pieces for piano four hands I'd love to be able to play it But I'm just good old two-handed Peter Shickley
Host of Shickley Mix from PRI, Public Radio International In our culture, at least, you don't hear much purely five-tone music
Which is why this program is called Gin and Pentatonic Especially in accompaniments, other notes, other things get thrown in To expand the harmonic possibilities Now you may have noticed in that
Uh-oh I hope that isn't Hello? Oh, hello, sir Oh, you mean the blackboard Yes, I do have it here in the studio I didn't think any
Well, I'm using it to illustrate certain points Yes, on my radio show What do you mean, illustrate to whom? Naturally, to my It helps me organize
It's for my own sake, actually It helps me organize my thoughts Yes, sir Can you wait just a few minutes? I'm about to play some music And as soon as I get the first album on I'll bring the blackboard back to the conference room, okay? Thank you, sir Goodbye
I was afraid of that Man, they haven't used that conference room for two weeks Anyway, as I was saying You may have noticed in that last suite That the more the accompaniment strays from pentatonic tones
The less pentatonic the melody sounds Here are three more pieces with pentatonic tunes And non-pentatonic accompaniments And I'd like you to notice the difference Between the outer two numbers and the middle one
Although the accompaniment in the middle one Is not consistently pentatonic It's pretty close Only one extra note is used in each section And pretty sparingly at that But the accompaniments in the first and third numbers
Make no pretense to pentonicity I don't know if there was such a word But there is now And in fact, I can imagine a musician Who knows all about five-note scales Hearing this third number and not noticing
That the melody is pentatonic Here's the mixed marriage suite number two Just a second here I don't use the old 78 player very often Okay, I'll be back in about nine and a half minutes
Yes, it's a good day For singing a song
And it's a good day
For moving along Yes, it's a good day How could anything be wrong
A good day for morning
Till night And it's a good day
For shining your shoes
And it's a good day For losing the blues
Everything to gain And nothing to lose A good day from morning till night
I said to the sun Good morning, sun Rise and shine today You know you gotta get going If you're gonna make a showing You know you gotta get going
And you got the right of way Cause it's a good day For paying your bills And it's a good day
For curing your ills
So take a deep breath
And throw away the pills Cause it's a good day
From morning till night
And it's a good day
From morning till night
Good morning till night A good day for singing
Friends told me you had someone new
I didn't believe a single word was true I showed them all I had a faith in you
I just kept on saying Oh no, not my baby
Oh no, not my sweet baby You're not like those other guys
Who lead you on and tell you lies My mama told me when the moon was spread
There's truth somewhere and I should use my head But I didn't listen to what she said
I kept right on saying Oh no, not my baby Oh no, not my baby
Oh no, not my sweet baby You're not like those other boys
Who played with hearts like they were toys
Well, you might have had a last-minute fling But I am sure it didn't mean a thing
Cause yesterday you gave me your ring Now I'm glad that I kept on saying
Oh, no, not my thing My sweet baby
You're not like those other guys Who lead you on and tell you lies Oh, baby
Oh, no, not my sweet baby
The Mixed Marriage Suite No. 2
began with Peggy Lee singing It's a Good Day. Peggy Lee, of course, comes from North Dakota and sang at WDAY in Fargo, the radio station I used to hang out at. And that song, It's a Good Day,
was still the theme song for the morning show when I used to go in there just to be around some live musicians. Now, Peggy Lee bends a few notes and adds a few embellishments, but it's a pentatonic tune.
Then next came the last movement of the string quartet No. 1, American Dreams, by the well-known radio personality Peter Shickley. That was performed by the Audubon Quartet.
And then finally, Linda Ronstadt singing Oh, No, Not My Thing. Oh, no, not my baby. We've got to leave now, but I'd like to go out with some more of that ORF stuff. Those kids have a lot of fun with those pentatonic instruments.
These, I think, are not improvised. They're pieces that they've worked up. But let's just go out with some of that nice, wallpaper-y, soothing pentatonic music.
And that's Shickley Mix for this week. Our program is made possible with funds provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, by the National Endowment for the Arts, and by this radio station and its members. Thank you, members.
And not only that, our program is distributed by PRRM, Public Radio International. We'll tell you in a moment how you can get an official playlist of all the music on today's program with album numbers and everything.
Just refer to the program number. This is program number 117. And this is Peter Shickley 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.
If you'd like a copy of that playlist I mentioned,
send a stamped self-addressed envelope to Shickley Mix. That's S-C-H-I-C-K-E-L-E, Shickley Mix. Care of Public Radio International,
100 North 6th Street, Suite 900A, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55403.
PRI, Public Radio International.