Method. I'm sick of that word. Anytime someone tells you they have a method for something brace yourself for the horseshit that follows.

Tritone

So the grand staff doesnt recognize a chord in the bass clef and a scale line in the treble....

He capitalized Grand Staff because it's grand.

Hilarious

Good stuff Randy.

Tritone

Hi Randy,

I think you're right, but I'd say its not quite so cut-and-dried. There are quite a few players (Larry Tuttle comes to mind) who play melodic lines in the left hand as well. And you could argue that when a bass line is being played that is not an arpeggiated chord, that's a rock or jazz equivalent of what you're talking about. It's not usually expressed in written form, more of an "aural tradition" . I'm thinking of Paul McCartney's bass lines on songs like "A Day in the Life". He was a great composer. Tony is a great composer as well. His basslines really stand up.

I could be stretching the point, though. Comparing classical music with jazz and rock feels like it will only get me so far. But then I recall Cides's music, or Glenn Poorman's, or Mattias Betti's or any number of proggy Stick players. The left hand is often sketching out melodic lines, not playing chords.

Your use of the term "polyphonic music" is very specific. so maybe you could elaborate a bit on what you mean. There's a generic understanding of "polyphonic" that's come from synthesizer technology that simply means "more than one note", so that could be confusing to people in this context.

And to your comment, TT#2, about the word method, I have no trouble believing that you have no use for methods of any kind, "rhythm" or otherwise.

In the context of music theory, the word "polyphonic" describes a musical texture created by multiple simultaneous and independent melodies. There is another term, homophony, which describes voices moving together in chords. This is basically the texture of rock and pop, but lots of music has both textures. (For an example of strict polyphony in rock music, listen to "On Reflection" by Gentle Giant).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro3eVIFzN5g

The Stick can play counterpoint like the Bach inventions (polyphony); it can play 4-part harmony like the Bach chorales (homophony); and it can play chords with a dominant melody, Stick-style (homophony).

To make things more confusing, music such as the chorales and other keyboard music is sometimes loosely referred to as "polyphonic", like I did in the post above....


Mad Monk.

mad_monk - is 'On refllection' a fugue, or not quite? What a band Gentle Giant was (is?). One of their sleeve notes includes 'It is our goal to expand the frontiers of contemporary music at the risk of being very unpopular'. Some genius of a promoter put them on a US tour with Black Sabbath...

Max

I'd say it's a canon rather than a fugue.

I saw them on every tour between '75-'80 including a show at Anaheim Stadium where they played for 70,000...and were ignored by 65,000...people were playing frisbee. They'd been booked to open for Ted Nugent and Peter Frampton(!)

They were incredible live, and yes, the band is now defunct.


Mad Monk.