Temperaments

[Les Smith]

On Wed, 28 Jan 1998, ralph m martin wrote:

> Les
> Schillinger called these non-harmonic notes "tension" notes. He even
> developed formulae to control or pre-determine the amount of tension in a
> given composition. 
> 
> Henry Mancini was clever with the use of these notes. He would write a
> tension note in the melody against a very simple structure. Witness the
> b5 (or raised 11th if you choose to identify it thusly) (B natural) over
> a simple F chord in the third bar or "Moon River" . Normally we were
> taught that the given melody note, when accompanied by one chord, could
> be the 1,3,5,7,9,11, or 13th of that chord and the degree of tension is
> predetermined
> by the arranger. In other words, if you choose to limit your range of
> tension to the ninth then your melody would be accompanied by a chord
> whereby that specific melody could be the 1,3,5,7or 9th of  the chord you
> chose (any one of the five).

Hi, again, Ralph.

I thoroughly enjoyed both Henry's music and his playing. His ability to
combine the best of what was old and what was new is what gave his music
such great appeal. As for the B in Moon River being considered the 11th
of the underlying harmony F, that would make it, in effect, a harmonic
tone (part of the underlying harmony F11). Romantic era music would prob-
ably prefer to consider ita "tension", or non-harmonic, or color-tone
which resolves itself into the following A. Which is what it does in MR.

It's easier to listen to Chopin's music and hear what he was doing, than
trying to describe it, but I'll give it a brief shot. First of all, he 
wrote specifically for the piano and his music does not translate well
to other instruments, because it depends so much on the use of the sus-
taing pedal to produce its effects. Take a C7 chord-- C,E,G,Bb. Those are
the harmonic tones of the chord. There are eight more non-harmonic, or
"color-tones associated with that chord--specifically EVERY note that is
NOT a part of the chord, itself. Chopin would use all of these color tones
to embellish the chord. If you've ever looked at white light through a
prism, you see all colors of the spectrum. That's what Chopin did with
harmony. He would take an old, plain-jane chord and by the skillful use 
of all the non-harmonic tones associated with chord, would shatter it
into countless, tiny, colored shards of sound all blended together by the
use of the sustaining pedal. In so doing, he didn't use any notes that
weren't on Beethoven's, or Schubert's, or Mozart's, or Mendelssohn's
pianos, he just put them all together in a way no one had ever thought 
of before and changed the world of harmony--specifically PIANO harmony--
forever. Chopin is so fundamentally important to all this discussion
about "tone-color" we've been hearing lately, that I would like to give
you one example which you can use to hear for yourself what he did. 

I'm going to let you compare for yourself pre-Chopin harmony with
Chopinesque harmony. Beethoven's and Chopin's lives overlapped. When
Beethoven died, Chopin was in his late teens. Since the tonality of
Beethoven's famous "Moonlight Sonata" is C# minor, we'll compare it
with a piece written in the same key by Chopin: The Waltz in C# minor,
opus 64, #2. If you don't play these two pieces yourself, or know
someone who does, it might be worth your while to find a recording
of each piece so that you can make an aural comparision of the two.
Also, no HT's in making this comparison, which will only serve to
cloud the issue. ET here, nothing else.

First listen to the Beethoven. You probably only have to listen as far
as the modulation into F# minor. I've already discussed what's going on
here in terms of harmonic and non-harmonic tones in mu first post. Suf-
fice it to say that there are really only 2 "color" tones in the whole
piece. Before you doze off and lapse into unconsciousness, switch to
the C# minor waltz. LISTEN to the difference!

There ae no fewer than twelve modulations on the first page alone. As
a matter of fact, the first chord is C# minor, the second is D#7 and
you're already modulating to G#! Whoa, dude! Also on the first page,
you'll hear two example of sequential modulation combined with sus-
pended 9th chords; there's a suspended E7 chord unexpectedly moving to
F# minor instead of A, and so on, and so on. THEN we get to the SECOND
PAGE. As you listen to the mixture of harmonic and non-harmonic tones    
in the right hand eight notes, listen to the bass line in the LH. Chopin
uses a device here called linear-counterpoint whereby the bass notes
(which are slightly accented) form a harmonic "melody", or counter-
point, all their own. You'll also hear a variety of chord substitutions--
A major, instead of C#m; D instead of F#m, etc. 

Once again, I could go on and on, but in the end, it's better if I let
Chopin speak for himself. The C# minor waltz is a masterpiece. There is
no other word for it, because all this harmonic razzle-dazzle goes on
without the listener being aware of it at all. It never intrudes on the
important thing--the music itself and what it says. There's no answer
to that one, each of us has to discover that for himself. After listening
to the C# minor waltz, after taking the music and analyzing what's going
on harmonically, you may come to see that while Chopin's life overlapped
Beethoven's, their harmonic universes were light years apart. 

Make no mistake about it, Beethoven wrote great piano music and he also
wrote orchestral music and other forms, which Chopin did not. But
as that sage philosopher, Orville Reddenbocker, once said:"Do one thing
and do it better than anyone else." Chopin's one thing was the piano--
specifically piano harmony, in which he moved tone-color out of the
temperament and into the music, itself and--closely-related to those
new harmonies--he completely revolutioned piano-technique, too. He
combined both--the new harmonies and the technique required to play
them--in his etudes, Opus 10 and Opus 25, (and three supplemental ones
written later), but that's a whole other post. :) In the meantime, if
you have a chance, listening to the "Moonlight Sonata" and the C#m
watlz back to back, might prove to be interesting. I certainly hope
so.

BTW, Ralph, I thoroughly enjoy reading your posts to pianotech. You
wrote one a while back that I've been meaning to comment on, but I'll
do that separately, because this one is already too long.

All the best,

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net