'Epistrophe' - Thelonius Monk & Kenny Clarke Flashcards
1
Q
Background:
A
This piece was performed by the Thelonious Monk Jazz Septet on the album “Monk’s Music”, recorded New York City in 1957 for Riverside Records.
2
Q
Personnel:
A
Thelnious Monk (piano), Ray Copeland (trumpet), Gigi Gryce (alto saxophone), Coleman Hawkins (tenor saxophone), John Coltrane (tenor saxophone), Wilbur Ware (double bass), Art Blakey (drums).
3
Q
Timeline/Context
A
- Thelonious Monk is an enigmatic figure of Jazz. His piano playing was a mixture of Stride, non-conventional harmonies and an idiosyncratic, punchy rhythmic improvisatorial style. He was born in North Carolina in 1917, but his family moved to New York when he was four.
- He was involved as house pianist at Minton’s Playhouse, a Manhattan nightclub where jam sessions proved to be a defining moment in the dawning of Bebop.
- Contributed many pieces that are now a seminal part of the Jazz canon, including ‘Straight No Chaser’, ‘Ruby My Dear’, ‘Let’s Cool One’, and ‘In Walked Bud’.
- “Working with Monk brought me close to a musical architect of the highest order” - John Coltrane.
- Monk was a contemporary of many of the Bebop pioneers such as Charlie Parker, Bud Powell and Dizzy Gillespie, but he did not sound like them.
4
Q
‘Epistrophy’
A
- One of the first modern tunes to be written. Listeners in 1941 would have found it very angular and different to other music of the time. It was originally entitled ‘Fly Right’ and was first recorded by Cootie Williams in 1941.
- It later became one of Monk’s signature tunes and reportedly often opened and closed his set at Minton’s.
- He first recorded the tune for Blue Note records in 1948. The tile is most probably a play on the word ‘epistrophe’, which means the regular returning of a word at the end of a sentence or phrase. This seems in keeping with Monk’s composition - its ‘main motive’ is prevalent throughout the entire tune and always revisited.
- Giacomo Gates composed lyrics to the song later under the title ‘Fly Rite’.
Monk’s Music, the alum on which this version of ‘Epistrophy’ appears, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.
5
Q
Main Characteristics
A
The specific genre is really ‘Thelonious Monk’, as he and his music are considered idiosyncratic; it would be almost misleading to label it ‘Bop’ or ‘Swing’. Monk’s writing includes;
- Collections of pitches that clash strongly with each other.
- An uneven rhythmic style
- High importance on silence within accompaniment and solos.
- Very considered improvised phrases, ‘in-the-moment’ delivery.
- Repeated notes and ideas, as if ‘knocking on a door’
- Extensive use of whole-tone scales.
6
Q
Analysis of the work
A
Key: C# major
Form: AABA (32 bar song form)
Tempo: medium-up swing (around 160bpm).
The main feature of the A sections is two ascending Dominant 7th chords (C#7 to D7) a semitone apart, repeating over 4 bar sections. This figure is then transposed a tone higher, and eventually returns. The bridge or B section is somewhat more traditional in terms of harmonic motion, and includes common root progressions.
7
Q
Harmony
A
A Section:
I-bII – I-bII – I-bII –I-bII – II-bIII – II-bIII - II-bIII - II-bIII - II-bIII - II-bIII – II-bIII – II-bIII – I-bII – I-bII – I-bII – I-bII
B Section:
iv – iv – iv – iv – bVII – bVII – I – bII
A Section:
II-bIII – II-bIII – II-bIII – II-bIII – I-bII – I-bII – I-bII – I-bII
8
Q
Harmony Explanation
A
- Given Monk’s ingenuity and the scarcity of chords, this progression could be taken as simple. The result of this particular set of harmonies in motion is a feeling of three key centres or main harmonic destinations: C#7, D#7 and F#minor. These are presented in a repetitive, yet rhythmically simple and groovy form.
- It would be accurate to say that the bII dominant chords stated throughout the piece are V7 chords in disguise - via Tritone Substitution. This in essence means that the A sections move between I and V each bar, a very secure progression.
- IIB7 or a new I? There is a strong sense that the IIdom7 at bars 5-12 could be perceived as a new key, or a new I - the bIII functions as a V7 in disguise again, and Monk repeats the same four bars for twice as long as the first 4 bars, which seems to reinforce the new tonic key. However the ear is again drawn to the ‘home key’ in bars 16-19 and the relationship between C# and D# is also established.
- The iv to bVII in the bridge is a ‘false ii-V’, as it does not resolve to its predictable key, that a fourth higher (E Major).
- Monk chooses to keep the semitone steps moving upward after the bridge in bar 24, and the last A section begins on the II chord. This helps the monk keep momentum and tension, since it is more common to find repeated measures from the beginning of the song at this point. However, Monk Holds us in II (bar 35) before finally resolving to the home key for the final four bars. This is, essentially, a reversal of the initial A section.
9
Q
Epistrophy Melody
A
- The melody is very riff driven and relies on repetition as well as new material by way of a bridge to maintain interest. The first motive spanning four bars is the main theme and is sequenced throughout the A sections of the composition.
- Rhythmically, the motive uses rhythmic displacement to shift the same number of pulses into a new location, with the emphasis shifting from ending on ‘3 and’ in the first bar to ‘2 and’ in the second. This rhythm is consistent for all the A sections.
- At first glance, the melody appears quite angular and dissonant. However, there is really only one ‘dissonant’ note, the D natural on C#7 in the first and third bars and similar occurrences throughout the song. Harmonically, the motive uses a chromatic approach to the b9 (D) on its way to the #5 on D7 (A#) which is really a chromatic approach to the more stable tone of 13th on D7 (B).
- In the 3rd and 4th bars of the motive, the last two notes have a reversed direction for contrast, yet the idea remains rhythmically consistent. Harmonically, the Bb over D7 again utilises #5, and the stability now comes from the next note, the 9th of D7 (E).
- It could be said that the opening four bars are melodically and harmonically about emphasising dominant 7th extensions of the 13th and 9th degrees.
- There is a further component to bars 3 and 4 and where this figure repeats, that of the tritone interval between Bb and the E. Monk frequently employs this as an expressive device. It also suggests the C# blues scale, which further supports C# as the tonic.
- The bridge melody is emphasised by the ‘stop time’ figures played in the rhythm section in bars 17, 19 and 21. The melody in bars 17-18 outline colourful tones over F#min7 - that of the 6th (D#) and the 9th (G#) , and is slightly syncopated in bar 20. This almost same melody is then harmonised with a bVII chord.
- The final two bars of the bridge create a brilliant displacement of the rhythm at bar 20. Melodiclaly, they are based on arpeggios, spelling out Dominant 9th chords.
10
Q
Monk’s Piano Solo
A
- An approach of constantly referring to the melody and embellishing it.
- The opening of the solo begins with the use of space (rests), until Monk quotes the melody in the 3rd bar (page 51, bar 9).
- The next two phrases (page 51, bar 11-14 then 15-18) display Monk’s lack of interest in playing ‘correct’ notes on each chord; instead the interest is in a strong gesture or rhythmic idea. However, the phrases are very well rhythmically balanced. Monk uses achromatic run from bar 15 that more or less works with the chord symbols, and emphasises the 13th on E7 in bar 16 via repeated notes.
- In bar 17, Monk plays the major 7th on E7 (D#) where it would normally be b7 (D); although his choice sounds quirky, it remains melodic and uncomplicated.
- More chromatic runs appear in the melodic material for the phrase beginning in bar 19.
- The solo phrases in the bridge section of the tune (beginning on the last bar of page 51) are based on melodic fragments of the melody. From the start of page 52, they create a repeating 3/4 hemiola or 3/4 ‘implied time’ - i.e. four quavers and a crotchet, which equates to 3 beats.
- Monk again employs repeated notes in bar 5 of page 52, and also bar 6 and 7 (with straight quavers as opposed to swung).
- Monk is renowned for employing brash ‘cluster’ chords. He does this here in bars 6 to 14. They often contain notes both consistent and inconsistent with the chord in question. They provide rhythmic emphasis and harmonic/chromatic density.
11
Q
Playing techniques
A
- This arrangement of Epistrophy begins with a four-bar drum introduction by Blakey, and he also employs crotchet triplets to a great degree during the melody.
- Crotchet based chromatic swelling backing figures can be heard in the saxophones during the melody.
- Coltrane (tenor saxophone) takes the first solo, followed by Copeland (trumpet), Gryce (alto saxophone), Ware (double bass), Blakey (drums), Hawkins (tenor saxophone) and finally Monk (piano).
- Coltrane’s solo is fluid, and outlines each chord change with a high degree of instrumental proficiency, accuracy and melodicism, employing relevant Jazz scales embellished with chromaticism.
- Monk contributes only very sparse ‘comping’ during the trumpet solo at one point (3:03).
- Gryce (alto saxophone) quotes fragments and the ending of the Jazz tune Four by Miles Davis during the first chorus of his solo (4:14). Monk again chooses not to ‘comp’.
- Ware (double bass) begins his solo with straight rhythms tat sound more Afro-Cuban (5:26). He shows good awareness of the harmonic changes, employs chord tones, double stops (5:47), and Blakey accompanies primarily only with the hi-hat on beats two and four.
- Monk trades phrases with Blakey on the drums (6:33) beginning in the bridge. Blakey’s solo then takes over where he employs very rapid 32nd notes, rolls and loud dynamics throughout.
- Hawkins begins his solo (7:50) by playing the melody, then moves towards his own ideas at the beginning of the bridge (8:12). He has a markedly different tone from Coltrane and Gyce: a deeper, husky sound. He employs a more Swing era sensibility in his phrasing - more ‘riff’-life ideas when contrasted with Coltrane’s longer eighth-note lines.
- Monk joins Blakey in the accenting the syncopations from the ‘main motive’ (described earlier) during the head out via accented cluster chords (9:56).
12
Q
Define stop time
A
Stop time refers to interrupting of normal time feel by ‘stopping’ it through featuring accents or figures (often on the first brat) that the band or rhythm sections plays together. This creates a space whereby a soloist can fill, or there can be silence or space.
13
Q
Define hemiola/cross rhythms
A
Hemiolas and cross rhythms/implied time terminology is rather varied, but generally falls under the heading of “polyrhythm” and means the superimposition of different rhythms or metres on an existing framework. This creates a dissonance and rhythmic drive.
14
Q
Tri tone Substitution
A
The substitution of the V chord (typically within a ii, V, 1 progression) for the tri-tone of the V. Making the chord progression ii, bit, 1
