| Home |  |
||
| About Us | |||
| Calendar | Photo Gallery | Sounds | |
Morning Music
... metric and tonal dissonance ...
To begin this discussion, we must first understand some general musical concepts - What is consonance and dissonance? What is meter and tonality?
Consonance - generally speaking, consonance refers to those sounds in music that are pleasing, in harmony, or "stable" - meaning not needing to resolve.
Dissonance - constrastingly, dissonance refers to those sounds in music that clash or rub against one another, and are generally unpleasing, or "unstable" - meaning requiring a resolution to a more stable sound. The classification of which intervals and chords are dissonant has changed throughout music history, and varies amongst various musical cultures.
Tonality - refers to the organization of tones or notes in music. In Western Tonal Music (any music spanning Western Civilization - generally speaking Gregorian Chant through Modern Day Popular Music), there is a hierarchy of tones and chords that revolves around consonance and dissonance, much like our language revolves around nouns and verbs. VERY generally speaking, consonances can be compared to nouns; whereas, dissonances can be compared to verbs. The point of the verb is to introduce action to our subject that most often returns us to another noun, such as the Direct Object or Predicate Nominative. About consonance and dissonance in tonality, Sampson says this about his compositional style:
"I don't use tonality in the traditional way but am very aware of consonance / dissonance." (3)
Meter - refers to aspects in music relative to time, that being primarily beat (or pulse) and rhythm. Specifically, meter is the underlying organization or grouping of regularly occurring pulses or beats. One way to think of it is this: Pulse/Beat is that to which you can clap your hands or stomp your foot. The organization of those pulses and beats is Meter.
Metric and Tonal Dissonances - therefore refer to a style of music composition that readily employs more modern techniques that creates an extremely unsettling sensation of experience in both of the avenues of time and tone. Morning Music largely sounds in conflict.
... complicated musical language ...
This segment discusses Sampson's musical language and compositional techniques, and includes a general musical analysis of the piece. When a musical ensemble is set with the daunting task of performing a piece such as Sampson's, Morning Music, there exists a need to understand the piece so that you, as a performer, are aware of binding entities that help you "play together." You need to make decisions such as: who or what is important here, who do I tune to, who drives the rhythm, how do we organize our rehearsals, what are the high and low points of the piece, and what do we want our audience to perceive about this piece? I have found some structural and compositional devices in my analysis that have assisted me, and the Apollo Chamber Brass in understanding and performing this piece.
Form - If tones in music can be compared to letters in language, and harmonic progression compared as sentences, then forms can be compared to the overall structure of written document. For example, a very standard form for drafting articles is: Introduction, Body, Conclusion. There are certainly various other forms, and music is not different. For a simple, yet detailed explanation of Musical Form, please visit Connexions. (4)
Form in Morning Music - Part of what makes this piece so powerful and effective, is largely due to the selection of formal structure that Sampson employs. Here, instead of relying on traditional forms, he instead modeled the form after his own very personal and emotional journey. This, in turn, creates a very familiar and "real" feel. It enables the listener to identify, as a human being, this experience of pain and life. I had the pleasure of corresponding with Sampson via email. Below are his comments on the form of the piece:
This work doesn't represent anything except my emotional journey. I have found that when one experiences a tragedy, the mind reacts just like the body does when it is wounded. It is first numb, then feels pain, is numb again until th ebody can stand another round of healing, then feels pain again. This spiral continues until one can think of the trauma without too much pain. But, do not believe the saying "time heals all wounds." That is total bullshit. The conclusion of the piece is positive but only in the sense that there is strength to continue. I felt any more than that was dishonest and "Hollywood." The heart of the piece is struggle, period. (3)
Although Sampson would say:
... I really never consciously compose anything. I trust my instincts which includes my intellect and when something doesn't speak to me, I explore every avenue of the craft until it does. Mostly though, I am a composer that says "does it sound right or not." (3)
Modalities and Pitch Class Set -
A Modality can be described as "a tendency to conform to a general pattern or belong to a particular group or category." Likewise, in tonal music, when one groups a collection of notes together that belong to the same scale pattern, it is said to be modal. For example, if one were to play a C major scale starting and ending on D (the second scale degree), this would be considered the Dorian Mode of the key of C Major.
In post-tonal music (ie: music of the 20th Century and beyond), alternative patterns of notes, or scales, have been crafted to create new melodies and harmonies. These modalities include: Whole Tone scales, Octatonic scales, and Hexatonic scales. If a Major Scale consists of a predisposed ordering of whole steps and half steps (W,W,H,W,W,W,H = ie: C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C), which produces primarily "happy" sounds, dominated by major chords, then a Whole Tonic scale consists of an ordered series of entirely whole steps (W,W,W,W,W,W = ie: C,D,E,F#,G#,A#,C), and would be a distinctly different sound altogether - a highly "suspenseful" sound, dominated by augmented quality chords.
By contrast, an Octatonic scale consists of alternating whole and half steps (W,H,W,H,W,H,W,H = C,D,Eb,F,Gb,Ab,A,B,C; or H,W,H,W,H,W,H,W = C,Db,Eb,Fb,G,Ab,Bb,C), and would create a highly "tense" or "unstable" sound, dominated by dominant quality chords. And, whereas Major, Minor, Whole Tone and Octatonic scales consist of whole steps and half steps, a Hexatonic scale consists of alternating half steps and minor thirds (H,M3,H,M3,H,M3 = ie: C,Db,E,F,G#,A,C), which produces ominous and foreboding sounds. Sampson readily employs all of the above modalities throughout Morning Music to achieve his expressive ends. For example, the opening collection of pitches in the piece represent Hexatonic modalities, again producing a sound of ominous foreboding.
"Pitch Class Sets are the basic building blocks of much of post-tonal music. A pitch class set is an unordered collection of [pitches]." (5) Unlike scale collections, which are ordered and sequential, Pitch Class Sets are not necessarily sequential, can come in any order, and can vary in the number of pitches in a set. However, they often take the place of a scale, and subsequently lend a similarly unifying or grounding feel to post-tonal music. One example of a Pitch Class Set employed by Sampson in Morning Music occurs int he calming middle section of piece, in what has been called by others as "the Minimalist Section." The particular Pitch Class Set consists of the pitches C,Eb,F,G,Ab, and is otherwise known as Pitch Class Set (01358). (5)
Tonal Centricity - "All tonal music is centric... but not all centric music is tonal." (5) In tonal music, the tones center themselves around a key area, via scales (or ordered collections of pitches) and harmonic cadences. For example, in the Key of C Major, all notes and harmonies are centered around C. Because of harmonic cadences and the like, C becomes the tonic. However, in post-tonal, there are no established harmonic cadences that promote a gravitational pull towards a tonic, but that does not mean that there is no sense of tonic, or tonal centricity. "In the most general sense, notes that are stated frequently, sustained at length, placed in a registral extreme, played loudly, and rhythmically, or metrically stressed tend to have priority over notes that don't have those attributes"; (5) hereby promoting a sense of tonal centricity, or Key Area. Given these qualifications, C becomes the perceived Tonal Center of Morning Music.
Hockets and Minimalism -
A Hocket (Latin for "hiccup") is a compositional technique in which individual notes are quickly traded back and forth among or between voices, usually in a highly rhythmic and imitative manner. Although this technique was popular in Renaissance Motets, it is common throughout musical cultures, and throughout history, as well. It is certainly still extremely popular in various Contemporary Popular Music styles such as Funk or even Jazz. (6) This is one of the most salient compositional features utilized throughout all of Sampson's compositions, and can be heard throughout the entirety of Morning Music. About the use of hockets, Sampson writes:
Hockets or any form of close imitation have the advantage of coherency, tension, and rhythmic complexity all at the same time. I simply wrote down what I heard at the moment and those appeared. The figure in the trombone and horn beginning at ms. 156 [another hocket] is the melody used at the end of the first work I wrote about Greensboro in 1981 titled In Memoriam: W.E.S for wind quintet. (3)
Common among brass players performing Sampson's, Morning Music is the classification of the calming middle section as "Minimalist." Minimalism refers to a type of music that is often composed with very short musical phrases with minimal variation for extended periods of time. In addition, the harmonic shifts are typically static, and the pulse is extremely steady and unwavering. The perceived effect is often described as hypnotic. While this middle section in Morning Music generally fits those requirements, Sampson would contend that it is just an ostinato. Below he explains why:
Figure H is heard sometimes by others as minimalist but I hear it as just an ostinato. I don't believe that it goes on long enough and has enough change to qualify it as minimalism. If you listen to another brass quintet of mine titled Strata, I believe all three movements qualify as variations on minimalism. Figure H is just a beautiful accompaniment with a beautiful solo line [trumpet]. It contrasts well with what has come up to that point and what follows it. (3)
... David Sampson...
... The Greensboro Massacre ...
See link (2): http://www.gif.org/
... woodwind quintet, In Memoriam: W.E.S. ...
To hear a sample, see link (1): http://www.davidsampsoncomposer.com/compositions.html
... Sampson's mother, Betty, to whom the piece is dedicated ...
Some comments from Sampson: "... just to fill out your knowledge of my family: my oldest brother Jim died of cancer in July, 1979 and my father died of cancer in June, 1983. The reason I dedicated the work to my mother is because I couldn't imagine how anyone could survive seeing half of her family die in such a short time. She is turning 86 on Friday and is the definition of resilience." (3)