Saturday 17 February 2007

Maurice Ravel, Diatonic Scales and Chromatics of the Leitmotif


Cardinality equals variety and structure implies multiplicity, are true of all collections with Myhill's property or maximal evenness.

So here's a riddle: What do Michael McDonald, Gabriel Faure' and Proust all have in common?

If you guessed inverted diatonic scales, with a slow arc toward the final cadence -- Bingo! Just don't forget to diminish the fifth in C major, okay you guys?

And for those of you who guessed that 'relationship between gigues and compound metre' -- you also got it right!

Sorry if we lost a few of you. Just remember, in duple meter, the dotted quarter note creates the constant tension (deliliously done, when the harmonica does that jumpy staccato jabbing thing, often abused as a screechy descant above lilting blues tunes).

1 comment:

Dr. Mark L. Woods said...

It's that Proustian reference (or allusion) to the Circle of Life, with Sophia at the center, that I had in mind. Always, the still point at the musical centre . . . .