Friends and associates, I have two important occasions coming up THIS SATURDAY that YOU can be a part of as well!
1. On October 19th, I'm planning to run a 5k to combat the evils
of human slave trafficking and the sex slave trade. If I get just 10 sponsors to pledge $10,
that will make a huge difference! All I need is 10 people to say, "Hey, I
can spare $10 in my budget if it makes a difference for one of these
poor girls (and young boys) who are facing an unthinkable, daily
reality!" Your $10 could have an
incalculable effect on the life of someone who desperately needs help.
And if you can't spare $10, please keep praying with me for these dear
souls whose pain we may never know, but whose Father is one and the
same. http://www.stepstofreedom5k.com/
2. Also by October 19th, I need to reach my goal of $300 to secure my
spot for a trip to Israel next year. If you are moved to donate towards
that goal, I cannot tell you what your gift would mean to me. However, I
am also eager to earn the blessing of your funding. For very reasonable
prices, I can offer a handful of well-being opportunities. That list of
opportunities includes: near-professional massages and hot stone
therapy, hairstyling and cuts, editorial advice, voice lessons,
makeovers, yard-work, house cleaning, tutoring, childcare, and various
art projects (note: I currently have a minimum of a four month wait
on all art projects, so choosing this option would require patience). If
there is something you think I might be able to offer my services for, I
would likely love to do so! I have until this Saturday to make it
happen. Again, your prayer and encouragement is greatly appreciated,
even if you can't financially contribute.
Please contact me via any form of communication you prefer, including this blog.
Email: kadellis@gmail.com
Twitter: @kadellis
Facebook: Kala Alaeya Danäe Ellis
Thank you for your time! Commercial over.
13 October 2013
15 May 2013
What Does It Take To Be A True Artist?
Let's begin to answer that question by watching the video below:
After seeing this video, many of us may feel inspired. We're left with these ideas that we can impact the lives of others. Then we also are likely to have noticed the power of this presentation. Hopefully in Music Club, we are analyzing her amazing capability as a singer. She sings with power and emotion. And oh, doesn't she just look beautiful--all dressed in white. The performance and media presentation were both spectacular.
But the amazing truth about modernity's notion of helping others presents us with some notions about legacy that we need to face. Throughout the entire song and presentation--made to show the hurting and the needs of others--the song continues to drive home the idea that "I Was Here." In the context of helping others, how could there be anything wrong with that? We should want the world to know us for our love and generosity. We should leave a mark on time that tells the world we loved, we gave, we lived. However, the most amazing difference, that we may miss if we aren't careful, between the view presented here and the view of truth that we ascribe to as Christians is this: Let the world know that God was here. Let the world see that God worked in your life and in the lives of others. If by chance the world remembers any of my efforts in this life, let it be to bring them closer to the God of gods, King of kings, and Lord of lords.
The modern concept of legacy and generosity leaves us sorely lacking. It asks you to give and share and love because it raises you up. It allows you to be honored and revered. It exalts your name. It makes you look good and comes back to benefit you. It doesn't ask you to give or love or share simply because it is right. It doesn't recognize the self-sacrifice behind what real creativity means. Instead it renders the great beauty of our calling to love as a mere form of self-promotion.
At the very end it presents the question "What will you do?" That is a great question to ask! We should daily ask ourselves, "how should we then live?" Yet let's examine this question in the context of this song. The song is asking you to remember that "I was here," that "I made a difference," that the good you see in this world came as a result of my own personal goodness. It isn't asking you to love the broken or help the hurting simply because it is good to do so. The reason for that is because the concept of "goodness" comes from within the self. I find it interesting that the mantra we are left with is "What Will You Do?" Do you remember the question stamped across bracelets and t-shirts that was widespread throughout the 90s? WWJD? What Would Jesus Do? Perhaps it became an overused slogan that watered down an important truth. But in reality it is the most simple form to reign in our base desires and pull us under the hedge of our calling to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. I do not think it is a coincidence that Jesus is replaced with you in this video. Modernity would have us deny the necessarily humble mindset altogether. No. In this age, we aren't to look up to anyone being or person. We are to look within ourselves. Save ourselves. Be our own gods. And be proud of this honorary status at that. Be proud that we are known, that we are salvation, that we are gods. This viewpoint couldn't made any clearer than in the Kanye West music video, Power (viewer discretion strongly advised for language and depictions of promiscuity), in which you see the artist stylize like a Greek god, surrounded by basic carnality, music swelling to reinforce the message of power and might within humanity. (According to West's lyrics, it appears he is specifically refering to the black race within humanity, personified by West in the video. A viewpoint formed due to the cultural twists from the abuses and evils of slavery to the modern day adoration and stereotyping of so-called black culture in large portions of the music business. This mindset is better explained by other artists such as Lupe Fiasco in songs such as Dumb It Down and B**** Bad, in which he uses the irony of his own success in the music business, derogatory curse words, and specific persona depictions in an attempt to defeat some of the stereotypes existing in modern, popular music. Again, viewer discretion strongly advised for language and depictions of promiscuity.)
In the context of modern standards for deriving truth and goodness, by looking inwards, we see that helping others is a way, not to be God-like rather, to be like a god. J.F. Baldwin says it best in his book The Deadliest Monster:
"And
so we arrive at last at the biggest paradox: Christians, the very
people who claim that man can do nothing to save himself, expect more
goodness of themselves than any other adherent of any other worldview.
'Christianity is strange,' writes Blaise Pascal. 'It bids man to
recognize that he is vile, and even abominable, and bids him to want to
be like God.' [...] The irony is profound: men who deny their
sinfulness and posture as gods-in-the-making stay 'mere men,' while men
who acknowledge their sinfulness become, by Christ's power, sons of God!
'For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses
his life for me will save it' (Luke 9:24). Broken vessels can only be
used when they recognize that they can accomplish nothing on their
own--then suddenly these broken vessels find that they are expected not
only to live well, but to be holy. 'Man,' as Chesterton says, 'is not
merely an evolution but rather a revolution'--a being called from death
to life, from blindness to sight, and from sin to heroism [...] Every other worldview says we should help others because in the
long run it will help us. Only Christ provides salvation first, and
then demands that we die to ourselves every day."
I do not share this point of view because I believe these artists are only evil and their music is without redeeming qualities. I share this perspective because there are notions of truth and deception that need to be called out. I share, not because Beyoncé ought to be demonized, but rather because her music requires the same levels of scrutiny that we apply to everything we see and hear. Of course, based on the scriptural notion that light should not hold company with the dark (2 Corinthian 6), I know that all music is capable of bearing evil. Whether the music is mellow like Jack Johnson, dramatic like Béla Bartók, or dark like Marilyn Manson, lies and truths are in wait of our reaping. It takes a discerning ear to recognize that even Christian music is capable of spreading a lie or misconception of God. For more on the matter of discerning what we are listening to, refer back to How We Listen.
The "I Was Here" video has lies twisted up in its facade of truths. My job as a Christian is to discern what those lies are and find the truth that entices us to the facade in the first place. This video is the perfect display for the modern view of legacy. But the biblical view of legacy leaves you with something much more frightening, enduring, and powerful than anything found in the performance above. At the end of my life, I will not be bothered in the least if no one knows my name. If my name be remembered, I hope it will be for the students I have come into contact over the years. Let the world see my life and your life and say "Yes. Truly, God was here."
As an artist, this notion has certain implications that we need to recognize. Please take these quotes and lists into account. Apply for yourself what the idea of legacy really means as it pours out of your artwork.
“Truth in art does not mean doing accurate copies, but that the artist’s insight is rich and full, that he really has a good view of reality, that he does justice to the different elements of the aspect of reality he is representing. Truth has to do with the fullness of reality, its scope and meaning […] It is artistic truth!” ~ H.R. Rookmaaker
Rookmaaker, author of Modernity
and the Death of Culture, defines creativity with these parameters: “Realizing
one’s possibility, acting in love and freedom within given structures, fighting
against sin and its results, all this is also what creativity means […] We are
called to be creative in this sense. And we are called to bear the cross that
often goes with it, for mankind often prefers darkness to light.”
“We must not love in word or speech, but in deed and truth;
that is how we will know we are of the truth.” ~ I John 3:18, 19
Six Concepts that make way for True Art:
1. Understanding Truth: Adherence to the
Spirit of God. Only the Spirit of God convicts. Only God saves. By
understanding what God requires of you (Micah 6:8) and living out the specific
calling God places on your life and worldview, you allow yourself the room to
live in an understanding of the truth. By understanding that only God provides your calling, it cannot be baptized over others with force, you can rest in His specific calling for your life and His revelation of truth as it applies to what He whats you to share with the world.
2. Ability: Not
necessarily a talent you’re born with but a discipline. “Genius is seldom
recognized for what it is: a great capacity for hard work.” ~ Henry Ford
My dear friend, who is an aviator and Army lieutenant, has her masters degree, and has a flourishing career all at the age of 25, has said for years that her sisters are smarter than she. School has been an effort for us both for years. And yet she succeeds wildly, always at the top of her class. Her peers and leaders ask her if this just comes naturally to her, and she answers them emphatically, "No!" It takes so much work. In school, we worked hard together to get good grades. It didn't come to us naturally. But she is the perfect example of why genius is really just a capacity for great work.
My dear friend, who is an aviator and Army lieutenant, has her masters degree, and has a flourishing career all at the age of 25, has said for years that her sisters are smarter than she. School has been an effort for us both for years. And yet she succeeds wildly, always at the top of her class. Her peers and leaders ask her if this just comes naturally to her, and she answers them emphatically, "No!" It takes so much work. In school, we worked hard together to get good grades. It didn't come to us naturally. But she is the perfect example of why genius is really just a capacity for great work.
3. Intelligence: a backbone to deny
irrationality. Art consists of law and limitation. “The most beautiful part of every
picture is the frame.” ~ G.K. Chesterton. The ability to be creative in such a
way that the artist invents progress without resorting to the ease of creating
without limits. Creativity without guidelines is not nearly as masterful as
creativity with.
When you remove all limits and begin to create, the result is something like Duchamp's toilet, which is featured as art and is hailed as such to this day. It takes intelligence to recognize the power of a boundary. This is where the two ironic ideas of creativity as both freedom and structure come together through grace.
When you remove all limits and begin to create, the result is something like Duchamp's toilet, which is featured as art and is hailed as such to this day. It takes intelligence to recognize the power of a boundary. This is where the two ironic ideas of creativity as both freedom and structure come together through grace.
4. Knowledge:
“pursuit of knowledge” is the “mandate for the artist.” ~ Greg Wilber
“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without
integrity is dangerous and dreadful.” ~The Astronomer, Rasselas, by Paul Johnson
Here we pointed out in class the first of which, integrity without knowledge, is much like what we see in the video above. It shows a desire to help and seemingly good character, but without the knowledge of truth as foundation, it is rendered weak and useless overall. The second of which, knowledge without integrity, is akin to examples of Malthusianism, Darwinism, Communism, or Socialism. It shows an understanding of figures and data, but transfers it in so deadly and dangerous ways that mercy is little more than genocide, infanticide, and euthanasia.
Here we pointed out in class the first of which, integrity without knowledge, is much like what we see in the video above. It shows a desire to help and seemingly good character, but without the knowledge of truth as foundation, it is rendered weak and useless overall. The second of which, knowledge without integrity, is akin to examples of Malthusianism, Darwinism, Communism, or Socialism. It shows an understanding of figures and data, but transfers it in so deadly and dangerous ways that mercy is little more than genocide, infanticide, and euthanasia.
5. Craftsmanship:
An artist has dominion over the craft. This requires submission to the truth
“in order to subdue the media.” ~ Wilber. Understanding your craft and medium
gives you the ability to create in beauty and truth. You take ownership and
responsibility over your tools and your trade to communicate and express
creatively the scope of reality.
Just know your medium, know it well, and use it to tell the story God calls you to.
Just know your medium, know it well, and use it to tell the story God calls you to.
6. Teaching: A
true artist is a teacher. Passing on the baton divorces art and ego. The true
artist exhibits a “desire to prepare the rising generation […] A true teacher
desires his students to surpass his works.” ~ Wilber. A teacher comes to the
understanding that a real legacy isn’t about having the world know your name,
rather true legacy let’s the Lord use you to better understand God’s name. It’s
God-confidence, not self-confidence.
Sharing yourself with your students and imparting the specific calling God placed over your life with them is how we leave a lasting legacy.
Sharing yourself with your students and imparting the specific calling God placed over your life with them is how we leave a lasting legacy.
*This list was developed by Gregory Wilber of New College Franklin. The notes were derived from a lecture shared with the Humanities students of Franklin Classical School in 2005.
29 April 2013
Tone Color
While end-of-the-year schedules have had an effect on our Music Club, we continue to truck right along. We've enjoyed some discussion of melody and harmony but, considering our school year is hastily coming to its final weeks, we've jumped around quite a bit. We are currently enjoying a focus on the topic of Tone Color.
Some of our Music Club members in consistent attendance are singers themselves, so I like to look at artists that directly use their voices as an instrument.
Let us look at an amazing musician who literally embodies music. Take note of his use of dynamics and tone colors. Learn to appreciate the timbre that he brings forth vocally and calls out of the orchestra.
Also, he is hilarious.
Enjoy!
(The first half of the performance in particular deals specifically with the topic of viewing your voice as an instrument. The last half allows the different sections of the orchestra to shine in the classic musical ensemble from West Side Story.)
This ability to embody music gives an individual the unique capacity to see music in a fascinating and all encompassing way. When you understand music fundamentally, you see it beyond the sheet music and the theories. Of course, without understanding scales and key signatures, note types and time signatures, you will be sorely lacking in your ability to communicate and translate music. But I cannot over-exaggerate the importance of seeing music beyond its most basic forms of explanation and notation. In addition to appreciating the science and notation of music, we have to see the unique history of music.
At this stage, in examining the element of Tone Color, we will unravel another side to the power of music as it applies to the context of its place in history.
We will look at different instruments, along with their orchestral groupings. While doing so, we'll examine the message communicated by the instrument in regards to the intent of the composer and time period. This outline will give us a context for the musical expression at hand while simultaneously allowing us to grasp the unique tone color of each instrument.
In context of our elemental overview of music:
Rhythm is the how of music.
Melody is the what of music.
Harmony is the why of music. (Relationships/ Community)
and
TONE COLOR is the WHO of music. (Individuality/ Storytelling)
Here are some of the videos we have already begun to examine:
Tone Color Playlist
To prepare for upcoming sessions, you are welcome to preview an overview of the influence of the Psalms in the history of Western music: In The Key Of: "Setting the Psalms"
05 March 2013
Melody, Part 1
Now that we have opened the door to the world of music, starting with rhythm, we can discuss the topic that the majority of music teachers and students tend to lean on the most. While music is an enormous entity, or "organism" as Clara termed in our last session together, we tend to break it down to just "notes" or the melody as it were. We think of theory as discussions on notes. We think of rhythm solely as the terms by which those notes are executed. We think of harmony as notes coming together. Even tone color is reduced to a discussion of notes in relation to how different instruments present those notes.
Well to widen our perception, we've stepped into the beautiful world of music that Victor Wooten lives in. In his book The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music, he has described music as a being. He offers us some of the most profound yet simple truths concerning music. But before I share those truths, let's understand him musically first. Listen to the link here: "Isn't She Lovely," Victor Wooten covering Stevie Wonder.
In this piece, we can hear him identifying a Stevie Wonder classic and translating it to communicate his own musical message. I specifically chose this piece because of the genre of this specific song. Not only does it show his fluency and talent on the bass guitar, but it also shows a very important side of Wooten musically that I will come back to later.
For now, we can enjoy some of the technique he is using in playing the bass. Slapping is a technique often used on the bass guitar that has been perfected by artists like Jaco Pastorius and Marcus Miller. In comparatively recent years, we've seen this style of play passed on to other instruments. Justin King and Raul Midón are two artists I particularly enjoy who have developed a similar style for the guitar. It's a technique that utilizes variations of hammer ons and pull offs to varying degrees. As Sam commented in our last club session, it tends to sound like another bass is being played simultaneously.
In the video above, we can hear Wooten returning to the main melody of "Isn't She Lovely" while alternately taking us through a musical conversation chromatically. This rendition is a fun way to introduce some notions behind Note Theory.
In Occidental culture, we rely on the special relationships that exist in these scales. The note theories we will examine will center on these scales as well. Although, we will spend time looking also at the step patterns for minor scales, the pentatonic scale, and music modes. But the amazing reality is that the world of music stretches out much further than these theories. As noted by Leonard Bernstein in his lecture series The Unanswered Question, "if the piano encompassed only natural untempered tones, it would encompass 77 different keys in one octave."
To give us some perspective, remember that the scale was not tempered until 1700 by Andreas Werckmeister. Until that point, every time an orchestra wanted to play a song in a new key they had to re-tune each instrument. In 1711, Cristofori invented the piano. And in 1722, Bach was so thrilled with this new standard that he composed The Well Tempered Clavier which at some point utilizes each of the 12 keys.
By looking at the some of the science behind sound waves, we see how different levels of vibrations per second communicate different pitches. Each note is simply a type of vibration. What a spectacular notion that the vibrations set into the air by vocal cords, strings, and assortments of materials actually communicate something meaningful.
Wooten describes rhythm as melody slowed down. What does that mean? Rhythm is melody slowed down. Okay, well let's think about some of the concepts we've discussed concerning the science of melody. A sound wave is measured in vibrations per second. It's a form of energy that oscillates. The number of times this vibration oscillates per second is called a frequency, which we measure in Hertz (Hz). We distinguish assorted sounds from musical pitches based on the consistency of the sound wave or Hz. For example, the A4 (or middle A) resounds at an even 440 Hz. If you double that number, you get the next octave up: A5, 880 Hz. And if you reduced that 440 number by exactly half, you get the octave below: A3, 220 Hz. This discovery of the octave is said to originally have been made by Pythagoras. The story goes, he was walking down the street, heard the tinkers and blacksmiths at work, and realized that the pitch made by one mallet against an anvil would be the exact same tone, only higher, when struck by a mallet that was half the size of the first. Hertz and frequencies were discovered much later of course. But the idea of an octave began with Pythagoras in ancient Greece. Wooten played a harmonic by lightly placing the length of his finger across a fret, striking across each string, and quickly (almost simultaneously) releasing his finger from its placement over the fret. You can listen to a very clear and lasting harmonic right at the end, at minute 7:23 of the "Isn't She Lovely" cover at the top of the page. Much like a whistle tone performed by singers or perhaps similar to the job of a capo, the frequency of the sound wave is raised by powers of 2 and 4 to create that bright, silvery tone.
With this in mind, let's look at Wooten's idea that rhythm is melody slowed down:
"A-440 means that a note vibrates four hundred and forty times per second right? [...] If you keep cutting that number in half, 440, 220, 110, 55, etc., you will eventually get beats per minute. At that point, it's called rhythm" (38).
So inversely, melody is rhythm sped up. I find this truly amazing. For rhythm and melody and harmony are all tightly related. Musical elements are essentially an expression of math and science.
We can even see a visual representation of the sound wave through the experiment called Ruben's Tube.
It's amazing to see the fire respond to the oscillating vibrations of air that is moved by the resounding pitch. The sound wave, when constant, should look like a perfect sine wave. Musical pitches show that consistency in the formation of their wave.
And these vibrations are the same vibrations that cause our hearts to sing upon hearing Bach for example:
Wooten looks at each element of music as an equal partner in forming music. He points out that whether or not we are playing any particular notes, the music is always going. "Most musicians think that Music is made up of notes. They forget that notes are just a part of Music, and a small part at that. If you stop playing them, Music would still exist" (42). Tied into that idea, he claims, "You should never lose the groove in order to find a note" (33). As we examine melody, I would like to highlight this perspective. Melody and harmony are executed through notes, but they do not originate from notes. We use music theory to discuss certain relationships between these notes. But those are terms by which we can make music a tangible idea, those terms are not music in it of themselves. This idea is similarly seen in math and science. Science is not test tubes, pH balances, or E = mc2. Science is the tree that sprouts from a seed. Math is not 1+1=2, y=mx+b, or quadratic equations. Math is meaningful patterns that exact real world realities. Music is not notes on a page but rather a language that communicates emotions, cultures, and stories.
This perspective is the truest way to examine melody. We cannot talk about note theories until we apply that understanding of music to our undertakings.
Wooten claimed to hate the genre of Bluegrass music. In his mind, Country music and Bluegrass were the same simple musical formulas of 1, 4, 5 (notated in Roman Numerals when speaking of chords, as I, IV, V ). The I, IV, V pattern in music is the idea that the diatonic scale can coincide with numbers to more clearly identify harmonic and melodic relationships.
To better understand the I, IV, V relationships, first let's look at how we form different types of chords based off of the diatonic scale. For example the C major scale could be represented as such:
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
We call the 1st degree, tone 1 or C, the tonic because it is the tonal foundation. Or when referring to a chord, we call it the root since it is the base of a chord. Next we go to the 5th degree, or dominant, because of its relative power connected with the tonic. Directly after is the 4th tone, or subdominant. The relationship here is strong. You can hear the 1, 4, 5 expressed to some degree in most music. In fact if I were to hum the 1 and 4, you would instinctively long to hear the 5. You can even find this relationship in a lot of music outside of Western culture as well. Another valuable tone quality is the 7th, or the leading tone, named for often leading back to the tonic. So to create a chord, there are certain stable formations of notes that achieve a beautiful sound.
Since about the sixteenth century, music has relied on the triad chord formation. The triad creates a harmonic relationship taking the 1, 3, and 5 from a scale to form a full sound that either leaves you feeling resolved, leads you into the next chord, or altogether leaves you longing. It's a responsive relationship. So the C major chord would consist of a C, E, and G.
To change from a major chord to express something different you can change the quality of the 3rd and 5th notes. By making the 3rd go down half a step (making it flat) you create a minor chord. In the key of C that would be a C, E♭(a.k.a. F♯), and the G. If you raise the 5th half a step, you created an augmented chord. So an augmented C or C aug would be C, E, G♯. One of the last primary chord formations is a diminished chord. For a diminished chord, you flat both the 3rd and 5th. So a diminished C, or C dim, would be a C, E♭(D♯), G♭(F♯).
Another way you can alter the triad is by adding a note onto the triad formation-- perhaps a 7, 9, or 13 (9 and 13 would correspond with the same notes as if you kept counting up into the next octave above, so 9 would correspond with 2, a D in the key of C, and 13 would correspond with 6, an A in the key of C).
Using that same idea, let's look at the C major chord scale:
M m m M M m Dim M M: Major
C Dm Em F G Am Bdim C m: Minor
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 Dim: Diminished
The same scale pattern that allows you to find the relationship between notes to create a triad chord then can be used to find a new relationship between those chords. We see tone 1 (or I in proper Roman Numeral notation), is a Cmaj chord, which if we wrote the notes out individually, would look like C, E, G. To find the chord of tone 2 or II, we look at the D scale and locate the 1, 3, 5 again and then flat the 3rd to create the minor chord. I'll create a second post entry to examine closer the chord relationships of the I, IV, V because, although melody and harmony are strongly related, I will draw the line of distinction between melody and harmony here for the purpose of clarity. I am already giving you quite a lot to digest, so we'll save the topic of chord progression for the next entry and relate it to the topic of harmony. Just note that Country and Bluegrass is known for falling into the I, IV, V pattern. Which for many musicians, Wooten included, this pattern is often considered simplistic and perhaps even base.
(In the following club session, we will enjoy this TedTalk by Benjamin Zander, titled "The Transformative Power Of Classical Music." What a beautiful look into the musical world he offers here. However we will come back to his perspective, Wooten has more to say on the matter of musical expression that we must return to.)
So Wooten HATES country music. Upon hearing the genre, he shouted out, "I hate bluegrass music!" (55). He just felt it was too basic. It wasn't something he enjoyed. It doesn't groove like Stevie! It doesn't require technicality or musical prowess. It's easy to play. Of that he was sure.
And yet,
here he is finding the groove in this rendition of "Hoedown" originally by Aaron Copland performed with his fellow band members, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. It's truly spectacular.
As he tells it, Wooten was met by a mysterious, profound man who changed his whole view of music. Wooten has come to see music as a language and each piece of music or genre is a different conversation. He found that when he disliked a particular genre or style, the fault wasn't in the music but rather in him. While I do not think that every musical conversation is necessarily equal in value of what each genre may have to offer, I do think that understanding each conversation is invaluable to our witness as Christians and vastly important to our ability to express truth. As we discussed earlier on, since the devil has no stories, he can only pervert and twist the truths that already exist. It is our job to discern where the truths and the lies come into play. And performing that duty musically is an exciting and beautiful challenge--one in which will grow and further you as long as you continue to practice your discernment. If you lackadaisically attempt this goal, you will find your values and morals put at risk. So one of my goals in Music Club is to attack this challenge together, so we can ensure the fight for truth is at the forefront of our minds.
One last insight into melody and music in general can be seen in the following performance by Wooten's fellow band member and leader, Bela Fleck. He is known as probably the world's best banjoist. We saw him above playing with the Flecktones, making the Bluegrass genre come to life. Now we are going to look at another expression of music that lives within his banjo. Many musicians struggle to play varying musical conversations. They learn one style of play and never see the world of music beyond that genre. However, part of the reason Wooten plays so well alongside the Flecktones is because Bela Fleck knows the capacity of music outside of genre classifications. Despite Wooten's divergent background in music, he is easily able to groove along with these different artists because they each see the conversations of music beyond the barriers of style. Here we see the banjo express a whole new tone color than what is usually demanding of it. Please enjoy Bela Fleck performing the Prelude from Bach's Violin Partita No. 3:
Well to widen our perception, we've stepped into the beautiful world of music that Victor Wooten lives in. In his book The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music, he has described music as a being. He offers us some of the most profound yet simple truths concerning music. But before I share those truths, let's understand him musically first. Listen to the link here: "Isn't She Lovely," Victor Wooten covering Stevie Wonder.
In this piece, we can hear him identifying a Stevie Wonder classic and translating it to communicate his own musical message. I specifically chose this piece because of the genre of this specific song. Not only does it show his fluency and talent on the bass guitar, but it also shows a very important side of Wooten musically that I will come back to later.
For now, we can enjoy some of the technique he is using in playing the bass. Slapping is a technique often used on the bass guitar that has been perfected by artists like Jaco Pastorius and Marcus Miller. In comparatively recent years, we've seen this style of play passed on to other instruments. Justin King and Raul Midón are two artists I particularly enjoy who have developed a similar style for the guitar. It's a technique that utilizes variations of hammer ons and pull offs to varying degrees. As Sam commented in our last club session, it tends to sound like another bass is being played simultaneously.
In the video above, we can hear Wooten returning to the main melody of "Isn't She Lovely" while alternately taking us through a musical conversation chromatically. This rendition is a fun way to introduce some notions behind Note Theory.
The chromatic scale utilizes all 12 notes within an octave.
While it is used in Occidental music, we primarily see the use of the diatonic scale--seven notes.
Diagram from What To Listen For In Music, page 43
The chromatic scale is evenly spaced out in intervals of half steps.
The diatonic scale pattern follows the interval steps of whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. (Sing do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti do).
In Occidental culture, we rely on the special relationships that exist in these scales. The note theories we will examine will center on these scales as well. Although, we will spend time looking also at the step patterns for minor scales, the pentatonic scale, and music modes. But the amazing reality is that the world of music stretches out much further than these theories. As noted by Leonard Bernstein in his lecture series The Unanswered Question, "if the piano encompassed only natural untempered tones, it would encompass 77 different keys in one octave."
To give us some perspective, remember that the scale was not tempered until 1700 by Andreas Werckmeister. Until that point, every time an orchestra wanted to play a song in a new key they had to re-tune each instrument. In 1711, Cristofori invented the piano. And in 1722, Bach was so thrilled with this new standard that he composed The Well Tempered Clavier which at some point utilizes each of the 12 keys.
By looking at the some of the science behind sound waves, we see how different levels of vibrations per second communicate different pitches. Each note is simply a type of vibration. What a spectacular notion that the vibrations set into the air by vocal cords, strings, and assortments of materials actually communicate something meaningful.
Wooten describes rhythm as melody slowed down. What does that mean? Rhythm is melody slowed down. Okay, well let's think about some of the concepts we've discussed concerning the science of melody. A sound wave is measured in vibrations per second. It's a form of energy that oscillates. The number of times this vibration oscillates per second is called a frequency, which we measure in Hertz (Hz). We distinguish assorted sounds from musical pitches based on the consistency of the sound wave or Hz. For example, the A4 (or middle A) resounds at an even 440 Hz. If you double that number, you get the next octave up: A5, 880 Hz. And if you reduced that 440 number by exactly half, you get the octave below: A3, 220 Hz. This discovery of the octave is said to originally have been made by Pythagoras. The story goes, he was walking down the street, heard the tinkers and blacksmiths at work, and realized that the pitch made by one mallet against an anvil would be the exact same tone, only higher, when struck by a mallet that was half the size of the first. Hertz and frequencies were discovered much later of course. But the idea of an octave began with Pythagoras in ancient Greece. Wooten played a harmonic by lightly placing the length of his finger across a fret, striking across each string, and quickly (almost simultaneously) releasing his finger from its placement over the fret. You can listen to a very clear and lasting harmonic right at the end, at minute 7:23 of the "Isn't She Lovely" cover at the top of the page. Much like a whistle tone performed by singers or perhaps similar to the job of a capo, the frequency of the sound wave is raised by powers of 2 and 4 to create that bright, silvery tone.
Figure by Jack H. David Jr. from "The Mathematics of Music"
With this in mind, let's look at Wooten's idea that rhythm is melody slowed down:
"A-440 means that a note vibrates four hundred and forty times per second right? [...] If you keep cutting that number in half, 440, 220, 110, 55, etc., you will eventually get beats per minute. At that point, it's called rhythm" (38).
So inversely, melody is rhythm sped up. I find this truly amazing. For rhythm and melody and harmony are all tightly related. Musical elements are essentially an expression of math and science.
We can even see a visual representation of the sound wave through the experiment called Ruben's Tube.
It's amazing to see the fire respond to the oscillating vibrations of air that is moved by the resounding pitch. The sound wave, when constant, should look like a perfect sine wave. Musical pitches show that consistency in the formation of their wave.
Figure by Jack H. David Jr. from "The Mathematics of Music"
And these vibrations are the same vibrations that cause our hearts to sing upon hearing Bach for example:
Wooten looks at each element of music as an equal partner in forming music. He points out that whether or not we are playing any particular notes, the music is always going. "Most musicians think that Music is made up of notes. They forget that notes are just a part of Music, and a small part at that. If you stop playing them, Music would still exist" (42). Tied into that idea, he claims, "You should never lose the groove in order to find a note" (33). As we examine melody, I would like to highlight this perspective. Melody and harmony are executed through notes, but they do not originate from notes. We use music theory to discuss certain relationships between these notes. But those are terms by which we can make music a tangible idea, those terms are not music in it of themselves. This idea is similarly seen in math and science. Science is not test tubes, pH balances, or E = mc2. Science is the tree that sprouts from a seed. Math is not 1+1=2, y=mx+b, or quadratic equations. Math is meaningful patterns that exact real world realities. Music is not notes on a page but rather a language that communicates emotions, cultures, and stories.
This perspective is the truest way to examine melody. We cannot talk about note theories until we apply that understanding of music to our undertakings.
Wooten claimed to hate the genre of Bluegrass music. In his mind, Country music and Bluegrass were the same simple musical formulas of 1, 4, 5 (notated in Roman Numerals when speaking of chords, as I, IV, V ). The I, IV, V pattern in music is the idea that the diatonic scale can coincide with numbers to more clearly identify harmonic and melodic relationships.
To better understand the I, IV, V relationships, first let's look at how we form different types of chords based off of the diatonic scale. For example the C major scale could be represented as such:
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
We call the 1st degree, tone 1 or C, the tonic because it is the tonal foundation. Or when referring to a chord, we call it the root since it is the base of a chord. Next we go to the 5th degree, or dominant, because of its relative power connected with the tonic. Directly after is the 4th tone, or subdominant. The relationship here is strong. You can hear the 1, 4, 5 expressed to some degree in most music. In fact if I were to hum the 1 and 4, you would instinctively long to hear the 5. You can even find this relationship in a lot of music outside of Western culture as well. Another valuable tone quality is the 7th, or the leading tone, named for often leading back to the tonic. So to create a chord, there are certain stable formations of notes that achieve a beautiful sound.
Since about the sixteenth century, music has relied on the triad chord formation. The triad creates a harmonic relationship taking the 1, 3, and 5 from a scale to form a full sound that either leaves you feeling resolved, leads you into the next chord, or altogether leaves you longing. It's a responsive relationship. So the C major chord would consist of a C, E, and G.
To change from a major chord to express something different you can change the quality of the 3rd and 5th notes. By making the 3rd go down half a step (making it flat) you create a minor chord. In the key of C that would be a C, E♭(a.k.a. F♯), and the G. If you raise the 5th half a step, you created an augmented chord. So an augmented C or C aug would be C, E, G♯. One of the last primary chord formations is a diminished chord. For a diminished chord, you flat both the 3rd and 5th. So a diminished C, or C dim, would be a C, E♭(D♯), G♭(F♯).
Another way you can alter the triad is by adding a note onto the triad formation-- perhaps a 7, 9, or 13 (9 and 13 would correspond with the same notes as if you kept counting up into the next octave above, so 9 would correspond with 2, a D in the key of C, and 13 would correspond with 6, an A in the key of C).
Using that same idea, let's look at the C major chord scale:
M m m M M m Dim M M: Major
C Dm Em F G Am Bdim C m: Minor
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 Dim: Diminished
The same scale pattern that allows you to find the relationship between notes to create a triad chord then can be used to find a new relationship between those chords. We see tone 1 (or I in proper Roman Numeral notation), is a Cmaj chord, which if we wrote the notes out individually, would look like C, E, G. To find the chord of tone 2 or II, we look at the D scale and locate the 1, 3, 5 again and then flat the 3rd to create the minor chord. I'll create a second post entry to examine closer the chord relationships of the I, IV, V because, although melody and harmony are strongly related, I will draw the line of distinction between melody and harmony here for the purpose of clarity. I am already giving you quite a lot to digest, so we'll save the topic of chord progression for the next entry and relate it to the topic of harmony. Just note that Country and Bluegrass is known for falling into the I, IV, V pattern. Which for many musicians, Wooten included, this pattern is often considered simplistic and perhaps even base.
(In the following club session, we will enjoy this TedTalk by Benjamin Zander, titled "The Transformative Power Of Classical Music." What a beautiful look into the musical world he offers here. However we will come back to his perspective, Wooten has more to say on the matter of musical expression that we must return to.)
So Wooten HATES country music. Upon hearing the genre, he shouted out, "I hate bluegrass music!" (55). He just felt it was too basic. It wasn't something he enjoyed. It doesn't groove like Stevie! It doesn't require technicality or musical prowess. It's easy to play. Of that he was sure.
And yet,
here he is finding the groove in this rendition of "Hoedown" originally by Aaron Copland performed with his fellow band members, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. It's truly spectacular.
As he tells it, Wooten was met by a mysterious, profound man who changed his whole view of music. Wooten has come to see music as a language and each piece of music or genre is a different conversation. He found that when he disliked a particular genre or style, the fault wasn't in the music but rather in him. While I do not think that every musical conversation is necessarily equal in value of what each genre may have to offer, I do think that understanding each conversation is invaluable to our witness as Christians and vastly important to our ability to express truth. As we discussed earlier on, since the devil has no stories, he can only pervert and twist the truths that already exist. It is our job to discern where the truths and the lies come into play. And performing that duty musically is an exciting and beautiful challenge--one in which will grow and further you as long as you continue to practice your discernment. If you lackadaisically attempt this goal, you will find your values and morals put at risk. So one of my goals in Music Club is to attack this challenge together, so we can ensure the fight for truth is at the forefront of our minds.
One last insight into melody and music in general can be seen in the following performance by Wooten's fellow band member and leader, Bela Fleck. He is known as probably the world's best banjoist. We saw him above playing with the Flecktones, making the Bluegrass genre come to life. Now we are going to look at another expression of music that lives within his banjo. Many musicians struggle to play varying musical conversations. They learn one style of play and never see the world of music beyond that genre. However, part of the reason Wooten plays so well alongside the Flecktones is because Bela Fleck knows the capacity of music outside of genre classifications. Despite Wooten's divergent background in music, he is easily able to groove along with these different artists because they each see the conversations of music beyond the barriers of style. Here we see the banjo express a whole new tone color than what is usually demanding of it. Please enjoy Bela Fleck performing the Prelude from Bach's Violin Partita No. 3:
03 February 2013
MC Cancelled Tuesday, Resumes Wednesday
No Music Club this Tuesday. Our Lady Knights have a basketball game this Tuesday that I thought had been taken off the schedule. We will resume Wednesday. But please use this post to get a head start on any questions or ideas you had hoped to discuss!
We are going to continue our discussions on melody.
Our topics in this portion of discussion so far have included (but are not limited to):
Sound waves,
Pythagorous,
The Circle of Fourths and Fifths,
Semi-logarithmic graphs,
Staffs,
How pitches are determined,
Octave,
Key Signature,
Note System,
Diatonic Scale,
Chromatic Scale,
Whistle Tones,
Tessitura
I will be preparing more information on this site from what we've already been touching on in class, so leave comments and questions here as well!! Keep the discussion going.
02 February 2013
30 January 2013
Concepts Behind Rhythm, Part 2
Now that we have discussed some of the primary values of rhythm as the infrastructure of music and the immediate pros/cons of the notation of "measured music," we can delve into deeper layers of rhythm.
Rhythm exists in every facet of life. It is found in the cycles of the moon and the tides. It is built into the pace of our strides and the cadence of our speech. Our very life source pumps regulated beats through our veins. And therefore, just as rhythm is found in the core of life, we can identify rhythm as the core of music.
Syllabic meter and the flow of punctuation within any poem, prose, or musical piece create the foundation by which any piece derives meaning. With any given rhythm, you can create a pattern that tells a story. Rhythm is the beginning of communication in any piece of music. Establishing a pace and flow within a song gives the listener the ability to anticipate the resulting highs and lows built into the structure of a song.
Feeling the rhythm (movement through time) connects directly to dance (movement through space). And any good dancer, regardless of style, must have this key grasp of rhythm and communication that many artists refer to as musicality.
Here we can examine a few styles of dance that exemplify good musicality:
Eleanor Powell and more, Fascinatin' Rhythm
This amazing choreography gives a great depiction of the story told by the Gershwins in their folksy and timely piece Fascintin' Rhythm. On many levels, the choreography epitomizes the song and the period in which it was made. The driving rhythm in this song is well demonstrated in each tap of the foot, the different tapping styles of the artists, and the dedication to the ongoing patterns invigoratingly repeated. Most of all, the great musicality of these artists fulfills the story created in the song.
Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, The Kirov Ballet
I believe that the story created in ballet is best appreciated in its full form, not in excerpts. This particular performance of Swan Lake is extremely well done and worth the time watching the full video. You can see clearly in this style how a dancer, as an artist, can manipulate every slight motion--flitting across the beat or carrying long motions over the pace--of each musical movement to tell a story. Especially in the theatrical use of ballet, the story is evermore apparent through the perfected musicality of each dancer.
Dawn Richard, Bombs Choreography
I included this style because of its distinct attention to detail in defining the story of the song. You can tell, without even looking deeply into the lyrics, that this piece is intended as a feministic and empowering story. It may have the wrong idea about how women can portray and embody true power in the sense that God intends, but the choreography very well tells their version of what it means to be a powerful woman. Their dedication to the rhythm in this song is spectacular. They utilize different hip hop styles including isolations, some threading, and tutting. They also utilize some strong influences from African dance forms. While they are using this style for personal glorification, I still believe understanding this style is important and can be redeeming for God's glory. Just watch as each step and isolated move carries out the driving pulse of the song.
While we have stuck to some basic beats for grasping rhythm, there is a bigger picture that rhythm can deliver in some of its more complex patterns. Let's take into account the late, great Dave Brubeck. We will return to him in the future because of his impact on music history and also because of his personal testimony in the face of a changing world--a world into which American music fully collides. In his travels in Turkey, he discovered a 9/8 rhythm pattern that he adopted and completely re-purposed for a new musical conversation.
Here is a bit of his story:
You can hear how the pattern of his rhythm was the perfect home for the light, yet substantive style of his alto-saxophonist, Paul Desmond.
Hopefully, through these few examples, we have opened the door to seeing rhythm as the infrastructure of music. There is always more to see and hear. So from this point, listen for the rhythms, and the patterns structured around them, in every future piece you come across. With this perspective, you can zero in on the rhythm and begin making analytical deductions concerning the worldview and message of the piece you are hearing.
By remembering that "rhythm is the how," telling us how each note is to be delivered, offering us a the weight of importance placed on each musical point, we can follow the flow and plot of any song's story line. We begin to discover the intentions of the artist and the values they want to impart with their audience. And as artists, we ourselves learn more about our ability to create and share our stories with the world.
By remembering that "rhythm is the how," telling us how each note is to be delivered, offering us a the weight of importance placed on each musical point, we can follow the flow and plot of any song's story line. We begin to discover the intentions of the artist and the values they want to impart with their audience. And as artists, we ourselves learn more about our ability to create and share our stories with the world.
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