Thursday, March 30, 2017

On reflection

I put up a short post about Chinese music and hinted at the difficulty I was having with understanding it. If you followed the link, you probably noticed this:
A melody may be developed in several ways, through
  • repetition
    • the repetition of a melodic phrase or
    • of a rhythmic pattern
  • changing the beginning of the phrase

  • changing the ending of a phrase

  • repeating a snatch of a motif

  • ornamentation

  • piling on “jia duo”

  • “jia sui”

  • continuation/passing on
    • “jie zi” beginning of second phrase uses the ending note of the first phrase
    • “jie yin” using material from first phrase to develop second phrase
  • having certain motif that repeats throughout “guan chuan”

  • sequence

  • others

A couple of days later when I turned on the car radio, a complicated jazz piece came on, and it occurred to me that jazz uses some of those same techniques. And lo and behold: Shidaiqu.

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