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Friday, May 17, 2019

221. UNLOCKING THE MELODIC AND HARMONIC IMPROVISATION BY UTILIZING TRIADS OF NOTES , INTERVALS , CHORDS AND 3-LEVELS STRUCTURE OF A MELODY

See also posts 217, 216, 214, 208 etc

We enlarge more on it below. It is a generalization of the concept of scale, as a diatonic scale can also be defined by a triad of major (or minor) chords consecutive on the wheel by 4ths.

The triads is the golden middle ground between the extreme simplicity of the one  note ,interval or chord and the more complex combinations of 5 or more notes , intervals or chords.

The simplicity of triad of factors for the melodic action is  mainly the next three factors

1) The triad of polarity (qualitative) of a melodic move (ascending, descending, rotating stationarily or isocratic)

2) The  quantitative  triad of the character of the move :Chromatic, Melodic ,Harmonic

3) The rhythmic pattern of repetitions (e.g. A1 A2 A3 B1)


We remind the reader that in posts 203 and 214 we described a 3-levels structure of melodies which we refresh here:


THE MELODIC IMPROVISATION IS A SEQUENCE OF "ROTATIONS". EACH "ROTATION" HAS THE NEXT 3-LEVEL  RHYTHMIC OR MORPHOLOGICAL STRUCTURE

THE 4 PARTS A1 A2 A3 BI STRUCTURE 
This structure is rhythmic morphological and comes as a pattern from the 15-syllable poetry.
2 lines in a 15-syllables poetry are divided to 4 parts A1 A2 A3 B1, each of the Ai having 4 syllables and the B1 3 syllables. Similarly here in the melody the A1 A2 A3 , B1 are of 2 measures.  Each of the A1 A2 A3 B1 contain at least one melodic theme. If we put the restriction that both the melodic theme and its variations are consisting from intervals that are 2nds in less that 1/3 (=33%) of the cases, then we get an "Irish" but also "south american", melodic/harmonic sound in the melody. The melodic theme of A1 is translated or inverted to that of the A2 and that of the A2 to that of A2. Finally the melodic theme of A3 is mutated to that of B1. The simplicial sub-melody has one note in each measure therefore two notes in each of the A1 A2 A3 B. These two notes signify a MELODIC MOVEMENT (VECTOR) which is the basis of an emotion.  If we superimpose the melody at the first two levels, the detailed improvisational notes of the melodic theme (1st level) and the melodic move or vector of the simplicial submelody (2nd level) we get a new musical entity and concept that we may call WAVING MELODIC VECTOR. The wavings are as in the 7 melodic themes patterns asin post 231. Another classification of them is that they are of 3 classes a) Chromatic (of length an interval of 2nd) b) Melodic (of length an interval of 3rd) c) Harmonic (of length an interval of 5th). The choice in the improvisation of one of these 3 classes is similar to the choice in a chord progression if the chord-transition will me chromatic , melodic or harmonic. Very often the wavings are of diminishing amplitude as we reach the melodic center-end note of it. This is very convenient to have in mind when we improvise because we think that we will move from a persisting note a (melodic center) to a persisting note b (melodic center ) in a scale but with improvisational waving way that we may change each time at willAll the melodic movements of the A1 A2 A3 B make a DOLPHIN WORD (as defined also in post 101, 114 ). Each part A (thus melodic move too) has an underlying chord. The chords of two parts like A1 A2 may be the same or different chords. The melodic move can be also a melodic triad (alternating major minor vector interval of 3rd as in post 208) . The Dolphin word of the "rotation" may be a closed polygon (e.g, triangle) of waving melodic vectors , so that the length of the melodic vector indicates also the length-interval of the waving melodic vector, which may also be the distance as musical interval of the middle notes of the underlying chords, of the melodic move.
This melodic polygone allows for simple and very concise, simple and visually beautiful  methods of writing the improvisation with not less information than the necessary but no more than a minimum too, so that each time we see the written paper and play the melody a different melody will emerge (mainly at the first layer/level of it) while still it will be "the same" song. 
When playing again such an improvisation the simplicial sub melody is repeated (thus the "rotation" A1 A2 A3 B or Dolphin word of it), but the other notes inside the measures that are embellishments may change. All together the "rotations" or Dolphin words make the total melodic phrases of the song. Therefore we have here at least a 3-level structures of the melody a) notes b) melodic moves c) "rotations" or Dolphin words,and in time it is 1, 2^3=8 (2 measures)  and 2^5=32 (A1A2A3B parts).