MLI Exemplar Rameau & Evans

Musical Links Investigation Music HL

Culture 1:

Baroque (French) Les Indes Galantes – J.P. Rameau

Culture 2:

Jazz (Swing) In Your Own Sweet Way – Bill Evans

Link 1:

Structure: loose Rondo-form with 8th note characteristics

Link 2:

Harmony: cadential phrasing

Wordcount:

1982

Table of Contents Introduction

2

Structure

3

PointĂŠ

4

Cadential Phrasing

6

Conclusion

8

Bibliography

9

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Introduction The Baroque era and the Jazz culture have several commonalities, despite their large time gap. For example in structure, a loose Rondo form and their treatment of eighth notes connects the two cultures and specifically the two pieces for this investigation. In the Baroque era, this loose Rondo form was called Ritornello, which was a recurring passage, often with harmonic or melodic variation.1 Jazz pieces often have a main chorus passage that reoccurs, reminding the listener of a loose Rondo form. The performance of the eighth notes in French baroque music and the Jazz sub-genre Swing are traditionally dotted, which is named pointé2 and Swing3 respectively. The strongest link between the two pieces is, however, the harmony or more specifically the cadential phrasing. This includes how both pieces address harmonic movement and chord progressions such as ii-V-I or the cycle of fourths/fifths. These links show how the chosen works of Baroque and Jazz are connected despite their contrast in origin.

The piece for the Baroque era in this investigation is from Jean-Philippe Rameau’s opera-ballet Les Indes Galantes, more specifically pieces from the Prologue and Le Turc genereux. Les Indes Galantes was published and also performed for the first time in 1735.4 The orchestral parts could, however, be considered a Suite, due to the amount of short pieces within the entire work and the structural components. A baroque Suite is typically a collection of short dances, and sometimes also called a Partita.5 Figure 16 and 27 display the main melodies of the dances chosen (circled).

Figure 1: main theme of Ouverture (from Prologue)

Figure 2: main theme of Musette (from Prologue)

1

Britannica. 2014. “Ritornello.” Enyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Encyclopaedia Britannica, inc. https:// www.britannica.com/art/ritornello.

2 Sandner, Michael. 2003. “Historische Aufführungspraxis 1 Prof. Michael Sandner VL Musikübertragung WS 2003,” 7. http://www.m-sandner.de/lehre/VL_pdf/Historische_Auff-praxis.pdf.

3 Verity, Michael. 2017. “Swing Music: A Jazz Era of Big Bands and Dancehalls.” ThoughtCo. https:// www.thoughtco.com/what-is-swing-2039581.

4 Rameau, Jean-Philippe. 2014. Les Indes Galantes. Score. Nicolas Sceaux.

5 Alvira, José Rodríguez. n.d. “Forms: Baroque Suite.” Teoría. http://www.teoria.com/en/tutorials/forms/suite/ index.php.

6 Rameau, Jean-Philippe. 2014. Les Indes Galantes. Score. Nicolas Sceaux. p.5 7 ibid. p.17

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The Jazz piece is In Your Own Sweet Way originally by Dave Brubeck, but the trio version of Bill Evans is analysed and compared in this investigation. This piece is in the Jazz sub-genre called Swing, which has its special dotted rhythm.8 The performance of Bill Evan’s trio was recorded in 1962.9 The trio contains a piano, a string bass and a drum set, which play together in tutti but then also let each of the instruments improvise on top of the basic chord progression (e.g. at 0:48, the piano improvisation starts, then at 1:37 the double bass takes over).10 The cycle of improvisation is also one of the key characteristics in Jazz music. The main melody from section A, introduced by the piano in the beginning, is shown in Figure 3.11 Figure 3: main melody of In Your Own Sweet Way, bars 1-8

The orange rectangles indicate suspensions, for which the chords are played with the melody, or earlier as they are notated.

Structure The Jazz trio In Your Own Sweet Way follows the strict structure AABA, where A and B are two distinct themes. The general AABA structure and the chord progressions stay the same and repeat throughout the entire piece. After one cycle, where the main melody has been introduced (0:48), the instruments start improvising one after another for another three AABA phrases.12 For the ending, AABA is repeated one more time but again with the main melody.13 As A is the main theme and occurs so often, it reminds the listener of a loose Rondo form. The reoccurrence is structurally strict, but the parts are not the same because every time there is different melodic component on top of the harmony due to the improvisation. In fact, at 2:25, the drum has an improvisational solo, which does not

8

Verity, Michael. 2017. “Swing Music: A Jazz Era of Big Bands and Dancehalls.” ThoughtCo. https:// www.thoughtco.com/what-is-swing-2039581.

9 Evans684. 2010. “Bill Evans 1962 - In Your Own Sweet Way.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=6Gm4tmltjwQ. 10 ibid.

11 Brubeck, Dave. 2011. In Your Own Sweet Way. petermartinmusic.com.

12 Evans684. 2010. “Bill Evans 1962 - In Your Own Sweet Way.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=6Gm4tmltjwQ. 13 ibid.

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even include harmony. However, during this section, the cycle of AABA continues silently and the recurrence of theme A is what matters.14 The continues cycle of AABA throughout the entire piece thus reminds loosely of a Rondo Form.

In Les Indes Galantes, Rondo structures can also be found. In Musette en rondeau, the title of the piece already suggests the Rondo form. Here, the exact structure is AABACA. Although there is no theme C in In Your Own Sweet Way, the frequent return to theme A marks a form that strongly reminds of a Rondo form. The link is even more evident in the piece Tambourins, which is found in the section Le Turc genereux of the Suite. This piece is split into two parts that follow the same structure. Part 1 contains a theme A and a theme B and is structured AABA. Part 2 follows the same pattern with theme C and D, resulting in CCDC. At the end, part 1 is repeated one more time. This gives us the full structure of AABA CCDC AABA.15 Since Evan’s Jazz piece contains an improvisation between the initial and final AABA, the cycling structure in between can be marked A’A’B’A’ or even CCDC, giving the final structure of AABA CCDC (repeated) AABA. Clearly, this is the same structure as Rameau’s Tambourins. Looking at the big picture, the structures and more precisely the forms of these two pieces are linked together very closely, suggesting a loose Rondo form.

Pointé Rameau was a French composer and this brings some cultural aspects into his

Figure 4: rhythm of eighth notes in Swing

work. For instance, most of the French Baroque performance practises had a specific rhythm for notated eighth notes. In France it was called pointé, later it was adapted by the Germans with the name inegal.16 The technique is very similar to the performance practise of Swing,17 which is playing two eighth notes as if they were in triplets (figure 4):18 Both in French Baroque music and Jazz Swing, the eighth notes are played in this style. While in Swing, the eighth notes translate to triplets, in French Baroque music, 14

ibid.

Rameau, Jean-Philippe. 2014. Les Indes Galantes. Score. Nicolas Sceaux. p.112 16 Sandner, Michael. 2003. “Historische Aufführungspraxis 1 Prof. Michael Sandner VL Musikübertragung WS 2003,” 7. http://www.m-sandner.de/lehre/VL_pdf/Historische_Auff-praxis.pdf.

17 Verity, Michael. 2017. “Swing Music: A Jazz Era of Big Bands and Dancehalls.” ThoughtCo. https:// www.thoughtco.com/what-is-swing-2039581.

18 BobF. 2014. “Indicating Swing Feel.” PreSonus Forums. https://forums.presonus.com/viewtopic.php? f=167&t=1927&sid=46592539afc233c5e6aca1bccaf4cd2c.

15

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pointé is strongly dotted in performance. This is a clear link between the two cultures, which both use the modification of the performance of eighth notes as a technique throughout the entire piece, binding the structure together.

An example for Rameau’s work can be found in the piece Musette en rondeau from the Section Prologue. The oboe (Hautbois) in combination with violins (Violons) symbolise Figure 5: Musette en rondeau, notation and performance, bars 1-2

Notation

Performance

the musette, which is a soft French bagpipe.19 They start the melody with a phrase of eighth notes, which are separated each with a slur over every two notes. This not only gives the oboists and violinists the phrasing for playing, but also suggests the pointé rhythm in the performance practise.

Figure 6: In Your Own Sweet Way, notation and performance, bars 1-4

Notation (as seen in Fig. 3)

Performance

Figure 520 shows the difference in notation and performance of the main theme in Musette en rondeau. Although it is notated in regular eighth notes, it is performed with a dotted rhythm (Audio attachment 1).21 The same happens for the main melody of In Your Own Sweet Way, only there it is in triplets as Figure 6 shows (Audio attachment 2):22 In Figure 5, the slurs indicate small phrasings of two eighth notes, where intuitively the first one receives more stress than the second ones. The semi-tone steps suggest that the melody consists of diatonic notes which are connected with passing notes (indicated by orange rectangles in Figure 5). As the passing notes are not in the key of the piece, they will automatically be played with less stress. Adding towards this phrasing, the pointé 19

Bayley, Christopher. 2018. “France.” The World of Bagpipes. http://www.bagpipeworld.co.uk/country/ france.html#musette.

20 Rameau, Jean-Philippe. 2014. Les Indes Galantes. Score. Nicolas Sceaux. p.17 21 olla-vogala. 2015. “Jean-Philippe Rameau - Les Indes Galantes (Orchestral Suite).” YouTube. https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnC9bVczc0E&t=149s.

22 Evans684. 2010. “Bill Evans 1962 - In Your Own Sweet Way.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=6Gm4tmltjwQ.

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lengthens the note value of the diatonic note and shortens the length of the passing note.

In Swing, however, the stress typically lies on the shorter part of the triplet, indicated by purple rectangles in Figure 6. Despite the difference in stress, both pointĂŠ and Swing in the two works chosen show similarities in the rhythmical structure, both in notation and performance.

Cadential Phrasing A typical cadence for Jazz pieces is ii-V-I. This cadence is also often repeated one after another in cycling keys. Although In Your Own Sweet Way is in the home key of Bb, the first cadence in bars 1-2 is a ii-V-i cadence in G-minor. It starts with a half diminished Figure 7: ii-V-I chord progression in In Your Own Sweet Way, bars 1-4

In Gm:

ii

V

i

in Bb: ii

V

I

A(m)7 chord, followed by a D7 and ending on Gm7. In the scale of G-minor, these correspond to ii, V and I, clearly a typical Jazz progression. It is then followed by a ii-V-I cadence in the home key Bb-major: Cm7 (ii), F7 (V), Bbmaj7 (see Figure 7).23

Figure 8: ii-V-I chord progression in Ouverture (Les Indes Galantes), bars 5-6

In D:

23

Em

A

ii

V

D/F#

I

Brubeck, Dave. 2011. In Your Own Sweet Way. petermartinmusic.com.

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This progression links it smoothly with the first cadence in the Ouverture of Rameau’s Prologue. This piece is in G-major, and in bars 5-6 there is a ii-V-I cadence in the dominant key D: Em, A and D on the first inversion (see Figure 8).

Both pieces already display ii-V-I (or ii-V-i) cadences at the beginning of the piece.

In Rameau’s Ouverture, the purpose of the cadence into D-major, the Dominant, is in order to get to A-major in bar 9. A-major is at the same time the Secondary Dominant, or more specifically the Double Dominant, of the original key G-major.24 The chord progression in In Your Own Sweet Way indicates the cycle through multiple keys with the same cadence, which is harmonic sequencing. The cadential phrasing in both works are very similar and therefore the reasoning can be drawn that this cadence ii-V-I is universal, used in multiple musical eras despite the difference in time.

In bars 4-6 of In Your Own Sweet Way, the chord progression follows the circle of fourths: Bbmaj7 – Ebmaj7 – Abm7 – Db7 – Gbmaj7.25 The circle in fourths can be seen as a reversed circle of fifths or as continuous cadential phrasing of V-I, where I is at the same time the Dominant of the next key (see Figure 3). Although the movement along the circle of fourths is typical in Jazz music, it has already been used in the Baroque era, as can be seen in Rameau’s Ouverture.

Figure 9 shows the chord progression from bars 6-11. The chords that are marked red are the ones that indicate a movement in the circle of fourths. Despite the G-major (bar 7) in between the Bm (bar 6) and the E (bar 8), a cadential phrasing in the circle of fourths can be identified: Bm – E – A – D – G.26 The circled notes indicate leading tones for the

Figure 9: cadential phrasing along the circle of fourths in Ouverture, bars 6-11

Bm

G

E

A

D

G

next chord; their purpose is to be smoother transition from one chord to another. Clearly, the two works both show cadential phrasing along the circle of fourths, despite the difference in time.

24

Flandreau, Tara. 2010. “Secondary Chords I – Secondary V and V7.” Music Theory Teacher. http:// www.musictheoryteacher.com/pb/wp_0b3afc96/wp_0b3afc96.html.

25 Brubeck, Dave. 2011. In Your Own Sweet Way. petermartinmusic.com.

26 Rameau, Jean-Philippe. 2014. Les Indes Galantes. Score. Nicolas Sceaux.

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Conclusion The links in this investigation clearly show that Jazz music has several commonalities with music from the Baroque era. Not only is a loose Rondo-form structure evident in both genres, but also structural performance techniques such as dotted eighth notes. PointĂŠ in French Baroque and Swing in Jazz are very similar to each other not only in notation, but also in performance. Both of these techniques make evenly notated eighth notes sound dotted. The loose Rondo-form is effective in both works as the audience is constantly reminded of the same main theme. The repetition makes the theme more easily approachable for the listener and is therefore very useful in the structure of both pieces.

Alongside these structural compounds, the harmonic phrasing, especially the cadential phrasing, is very similar in both works of this investigation. Both works include ii-V-I (or ii-Vi) as part of their cadential phrasing, as well as a cycle through the circle of fourths, or the reversed circle of fifths. Evans and Rameau display these kinds of cadential phrasings, indicating how musical elements such as these are timeless. Their purpose is to structure the piece harmonically, and they are used in both works, for they give continuous flow and coherence to the harmonic structure.

Despite the fact that Jazz music uses many chords and harmonies that are not necessarily near the home key as well as different instrumentation, the links in this investigation clearly indicate that Jazz and Baroque are closely linked in terms of the structure and harmony. Both pieces’ structure reminds of a loose Rondo-form and both pieces’ harmony contain similar cadential phrasing. Ergo, Jazz Swing and French Baroque music display a variety of similarities despite their timely distance.

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Bibliography Alvira, José Rodríguez. n.d. “Forms: Baroque Suite.” Teoría. http://www.teoria.com/en/tutorials/ forms/suite/index.php.

Bayley, Christopher. 2018. “France.” The World of Bagpipes. http://www.bagpipeworld.co.uk/ country/france.html#musette.

BobF. 2014. “Indicating Swing Feel.” PreSonus Forums. https://forums.presonus.com/ viewtopic.php?f=167&t=1927&sid=46592539afc233c5e6aca1bccaf4cd2c.

Britannica. 2014. “Ritornello.” Enyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. Encyclopaedia Britannica, inc. https:// www.britannica.com/art/ritornello.

Brubeck, Dave. 2011. In Your Own Sweet Way. petermartinmusic.com.

Evans684. 2010. “Bill Evans 1962 - In Your Own Sweet Way.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=6Gm4tmltjwQ. Flandreau, Tara. 2010. “Secondary Chords I – Secondary V and V7.” Music Theory Teacher. http:// www.musictheoryteacher.com/pb/wp_0b3afc96/wp_0b3afc96.html. olla-vogala. 2015. “Jean-Philippe Rameau - Les Indes Galantes (Orchestral Suite).” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnC9bVczc0E&t=149s.

Rameau, Jean-Philippe. 2014. Les Indes Galantes. Score. Nicolas Sceaux.

Ramtieger1. 2014. “Jean-Philippe Rameau - Les Indes Galantes: I. Ouverture.” YouTube. https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWcAZgYQH3E. Sandner, Michael. 2003. “Historische Aufführungspraxis 1 Prof. Michael Sandner VL Musikübertragung WS 2003,” 7. http://www.m-sandner.de/lehre/VL_pdf/ Historische_Auff-praxis.pdf.

Sharma, Elizabeth. 2015. Music Worldwide. Edited by Roy Bennett. 17thed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Verity, Michael. 2017. “Swing Music: A Jazz Era of Big Bands and Dancehalls.” ThoughtCo. https:// www.thoughtco.com/what-is-swing-2039581.

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