Making Music More Interesting

One Foot in the Gravy

Making Music Interesting

There are many ways to make music more interesting

Most music is written in either two (or multiples thereof) or three beats per measure. The main theme in this piece emerges around the 1:30 mark, and is written in seven. It always brings a smile to my face as I recall the only wedding for which I played the organ. At the wedding rehearsal things fell apart quickly. First the bride and groom got in a fight. Then the families got in a fight. Then the guests started taking sides. I let it go on for a minute then shouted from the choir loft: “Everybody shut the f*** up, sit down and let the couple march.” They did.

I began playing the Wedding March, but in three rather than four. I’m not aware of any animal that can march in three; an octopus might have a shot. They stumbled down the aisle to universal laughter, and finally stopped. “We got the message.” The wedding was lovely, I suppose.

This uses rhythm differently to make itself more interesting. It alternates two and three beats per measure without changing the meter (often incorrectly called Time Signature).

This uses dramatic changes in volume and sudden discord for effect.

This uses renaissance instruments to stand apart. The crumhorn is not easy to play. I performed for a while in Europe in a traveling group using crumhorns, straight flutes, and viols.

This uses ages-old ways of expressing emotion. Today we primarily write in major or minor scales. Modes were used for many years starting at least 300 BCE and lasting until the Enlightenment to write all sorts of music. They came in particularly useful during a brief period when the Pope declared certain intervals (distance between notes) unholy, which led to something called The Secret Arts of the Netherlands composers in which, if the music was played both forward and backward simultaneously made effective use of the sinful sounds.

This is, at least as of now, the most “different” music of the last millennium. It’s called serial, or atonal, music. The 3 “A”s of the New Viennese School of Music – Alben Berg, Arnold Schoeneberg and Anton von Webern – pioneered its use. Ultimately, von Webern developed the art the most, serializing everything about the music. The notes, the dynamics, the instrumentation, the tempo, the meter.

I wrote my undergraduate thesis on one of von Webern’s string quartets (I cannot recall which), and presented it to the jury. My Theory and Composition instructor posed a question about where the elements of serialism continued at a particular point in the score and I had to admit I didn’t know. I expected an explosion – he had all the empathy of Kamala Harris – but he just sat back. Afterwards, I asked him why he hadn’t excoriated me. He confessed that he was writing his doctoral dissertation on the same piece and didn’t know, either.

Scott Joplin was a pioneer of Ragtime, which used unexpected emphasis placement – syncopation – to set itself apart. I could listen all day to Ragtime and never get tired of it. Joplin was The Man.

This is an example of a jazz ensemble. The heart of jazz is improvisation, making it up on the fly. Cannonball Adderly came to my university my senior year, and he was inducted into our fraternity during the visit. Later that evening I was walking with a date through main street downtown (the only street longer than five blocks) and saw Adderly sitting alone in a diner, eating. We went in and started talking to him; it seemed they had the night off. I invited him back to our apartment (three of us living there) after dinner and he called the whole group to join us for a jam session.

I was a voice major and played the piano inadequately. One roommate played trombone, but knew immediately his job was to listen. The third guy was a history major who sang with the college choir and had no role. I got out the electronic keyboard (very low-tech) and started playing. Finally, Joe Zawinul came over to me and said, “You’re right. You aren’t very good.”

Finally, the flamenco. Classic flamenco involves three instruments: a guitar, a cajon (box used as a drum) and a dancer. Yes, the dancer is one of the instruments. It’s the only form of music I know that uses a dancer as an instrument. If anyone knows of any other music genres that use a dancer as an instrument, please let me know.