Musc 1236 Final Notecards Flashcards
Define composition
Before the advent of records, formal composition was something committed to a written score; A composition is a musical work that may be played by any number of musicians and bands while remaning basically unchanged
Define improvisation
An improvisation, though it may prove as durable and adaptable as a composition, exists first and foremost as a particular performance.
How has composition played a roll in jazz?
In the wake of bebop, the nature of jazz composition changed. In addition to bottowing from classical music, popular music, and their contemporaries in jazz, composers began reinvestigating the jazz past
Who composed Round Midnight?
Thelonius Monk
Review the use of AABA form
The most common 32-bar popular song form, referring to melody and harmonic progression (but not text). Each portion is eight bars long, with B, the bridge, serving as the point of contrast. A=statement, A=repetition, B=bridge, A=return
What form did Monk most often use for his compositions?
AABA form
How was Mingus associated to the Jazz Composers’ Workshop?
It is an album featuring jazz bassist Charles Mingus. It combines the earlier album Moods of Mingus and a Wally Cirillo session released earlier on the album Wally Cirillo & Bobby Scott.
How did Mingus feel about the older jazz players like Ellington and Parker?
hero, they were uncontested models for the jazz bandleader as composer
Where did Miles Davis grow up?
Born in Alton, Illinois, moved to St. Louis when he was 1 years old.
Where did Miles Davis study?
studied trumpet at school, studied at Julliard, and finally with Carlie Parker
Who first hired Miles Davis?
Charlie Parker
What were Miles Davis influences?
Gillespie and Parker
How is the Harmon mute different from other mutes in the 1920s?
Unlike other metal mutes, it is help in place by a cork ring, forcing the musician’s entire air column into the appliance to produce a thin, vulnerable humming sound. The mute only augmented the brooding intnsity of Davis’s music.
What was Miles association with Gil Evans?
Had a deep and long lasting partnership, Gil was a composer for miles, Miles Ahead album where Gil crafted a series of trumpet concertos that emphasized the power and expressiveness of Davis’s playing
How did Miles Davis use modal jazz?
It allowed him to play scales that overrode harmonies and freed his improvisations to be more expressive. It allowed him to play scales that overrode harmonies and freed his improvisations to be more expressive. (reaction to the busyness of bop harmony), it offered a solution to the problem of revitalizing the relationship between improvised melodies and the foundations on which those improvisations are based. ; the modal arragnements and moderate tempos underscored Davis’s strengths and not his weaknesses, encouraging his predilection for the middle range, his measured lyricism, his reserved disposition. It also provided an ideal middle ground between his laid-back “waling on eggshells” style and the exuberance of the saxophonists, expecially Coltrane, who even in the absence of chord changes filled every scale and spacw tih an almost garrulous intensity.
Who was Bill Evans?
Miles Davis pianist;
What are quartal harmonies?
harmonies/chords built on fourths rather than thirds
What does a fourth refer to?
A fourth refers to the interval of four notes apart.
What was John Coltranes association with Miles Davis?
John Coltrane was in Miles Davis original quintet, fired for drugs, but he eventually joined his sextet later
How did Coltrane feel about modal jazz?
Incorporated it extensively. Coltrane, even in the absence of chord changes, filled every scale and space with almost garrulous intensity.
How did drugs influence both Miles Davis and John Coltrane?
Miles Davis was addicited for a few years, had to quit, but fours years later he got back together. Coltrane, same thing, only he got fired from Miles Davis for drugs.
What are multi-phonics?
complicated sounds created on a wind instrument (through intense blowing) that contain more than one pitch at the same time; used often in avant-garde jazz.
What was Coltrane most known for?
Tenor saxophone player, became the most intrepid explorer of modal jazz. He embraded the expressionisit chaos of the avant-garde.; took large steps beyond the rudiments of conventional jazz, challenging the validty of everything he had mastered, and taking another unexpected detour with a series of romantic recordings (including ballads).
Were Coltranes improvisations short or long?
extremely long
Who was in the Coltrane’s quartet?
John Coltrane (saxophone), McCoy Tyner (pianist), Elvin Jones (drummer), Jimmy Garrison (bass)
What is interesting about the song Acknowledgmentt?
(With respect to climaxes) sung on the tenor saxophone, culmination of Coltrane’s music thus far, involving scales, pedal points, multiphonics, free improvisation, and shifting rhythms. Toward the ends of the movement, a vocal chant signals a harmonic change from one key to another.
What is interesting about the song E.S.P.?
With respect to the rhythm section: rhythmic freedom, audacious, fast, free, the bass playing is startlingly autonomous, and the drummer’s use of cymbals has its own narrative logic.
Who played in Miles Davis’ Quintet when they recorded ESP?
Miles Davis (trumpet), Wayne Shorter (tenor saxophone), Herbie Hancock (piano), Ron Carter (bass), Tony Williams (drums)
What does “fusion” mean?
The joining of two types of music, especially the maxing of jazz and rock in the 1970s.; all music situated on the boundary line between jazz and pop.
