Melody and memory
As music moves through time the listener has to process and
retain chunks of information while being receptive to new material. One of the
most elegant solutions by composers in assisting the listener is the creation
of melody. There are various ways of thinking about melody, I like the notion
of it being a pathway through a harmonic scheme. Melody is a line, and the best
examples have an elegance which assist our memory. While it is a line it is
also a chunk (less elegant word) of information in that it is linked with
register, rhythm, articulation through dynamics and accents. In terms of human
interaction it is what we sing (or whistle) from a composition to show
affiliation with the composer. The elegant linear design may be subjected to
reduction, expansion (Part’s Frates discussed recently forms an excellent
example of the latter), or gradual transformation, but whatever the process the
function of aiding memory is paramount.
Let us examine a segment of Scarlatti’s sonata in B minor Kp
377 to see the relationship of melody, harmony and character. The opening is in
essence a B minor triad with an auxiliary note A’ leading back to B. The B, A’,
B figure becomes a driving 16th note entity several times in the
music. The A’/B pair also become a character of the melody by being placed in
the upper register (twice with the repeated phrase). Underneath the melody we
have a scale falling a sixth from B to G repeated four times, (recall that the
opening melody outlines F’ down to A’ then rising to B). At the second part of
bar 7 the bass figure is transferred to the upper where we have a run from G to
B followed by the driving A’/B 16th notes.
The next section takes the rhythmic chunk of 2 x 16th
notes followed by 4 x 8th notes and plays with it over a harmonic
sequence, adding trills to make a fall of a fifth as in the opening bar, at the
end of the sequence we repeat the driving A’/B figure which itself leads to a
long sequence of 2 x 2 bars which is the transition to D major in the sonata design.
From this segment alone we can hear the witty interplay of
figures, the chunking of scale and chord with repetitive rhythms and
decorations over a static bass figure, preparing us for greater momentum in the
second half of the sonata. It is delightful and elegant in forming a pathway
through the work by repeated figures, (these as you would expect continue
throughout). This seemingly simple two part work is rich in detail, just as
required to assist our recall to hear the progression from start to close.
As music extended its scope in time scale and changing key
and harmony these melodic chunks became longer and more complex, complex in the
sense that the internal structure of the ‘string’ extends and alters, as it
does e.g. in the opening movement of Mahler’s 8th symphony.
Bartók,
who incidentally studied and admired Scarlatti, made dramatic and fascinating
use of melody in his last string quartet. The opening melody introduces each of
the movements, gradually extending its length on each hearing, transposed
on G sharp, E flat, B flat and back to G sharp. Even in the first movement the
theme is long, to my ears it has a basic outline of a rising passage and
descending passage followed by a cadence section. Within this general shape there are a
number of cells several of which are repeated, especially at the close where we
have 01478 x 2 and 0147 sets. The sets have the characteristic of imbrication or if you prefer, overlapping, as may be seen from the second diagram’s opening line.
The building of longer passages from fragments of the melody
(particularly through his contrapuntal skills) can be heard as Bartók moves towards the
Vivace section, where successive 015 figures lead us into the faster tempo (recall
that 0135 is the second of the sets at the opening). The two dotted 8th
notes add to the character and forms the chunk that enables recall despite set
/ harmonic alterations. Between repeated sets, the ascending and descending
character (see bar 197 in particular) and the dotted quavers Bartók ensures a
clear pathway through the music, music which changes character in such a way
that we have little doubt that the work is autobiographic in nature.
Completed in 1939 this music may be heard as backward
looking, it has tonal / modal references, the use of folk elements is
particularly clear towards the end of the movement, the autobiographic quality
makes connections with romantic music (is it me or is there a brief R. Strauss
reference in the movement)? Yet for all that the continual changes is like a
Picasso portrait where we see an image from several different viewpoints, and
as such far more modern than the immediate impression suggests.
portrait of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler Picasso
By 1939 12 note compositions were well known, and according
to my suggestion of melody being a significant aspect of retention, these should have
been easy to recall because they demonstrate powerful interval structures. Despite the internal repetition of material many of the
works require time and effort to recollect after hearing and anecdotal evidence
suggests that even a century on there is still difficulty in engaging with this
music. As we have seen pitch on its own is insufficient to chunk the material.
There has to be character within the information given (as in the leap to A’/B in the
opening of the Scarlatti), elegance in the outline, a fusion of
parameters to form a chunk and articulation to direct the ear. This can be
achieved in serial music or in in any style which creates design with fixed
intervals and rhythm. Order alone is no guarantee of memorability.
I would like to finish with the point that melody has
evolved as we become used to different long-term patterns of harmony, stepwise
motion may give way to wider intervals, tonality altered by different tunings
and micro tonality, clusters of events and so on. This third extract is rather
beautiful, the opening of Sollazzi’s Evoked Potential Hour- Sea, it seems to
move freely but in reality is based around D. It is lyrical, modern and old at
the same time, and in that we have another function of chunking and memory, the
relationship between our cultural experiences and the new.
No comments:
Post a Comment