Jump to content
Why become a member? ×

Anyone partial to ridiculous music theory? Debussy? The underlying laws of music?..


Oscar South
 Share

Recommended Posts

I'm currently in the early stages of posting a series of articles through my music blog on the process of analysis of the Debussy piece 'Arabesque No. 1'.
I'm looking very specifically at the in depth functionality of the music through a variety of analytic methods.

If anyone feels they would be interested in reading this, please follow the link below!

[url]http://melodictraditions.wordpress.com[/url]

Thanks, and all the best!
Oscar


Ps, If anyone is interested in reading anything in a certain direction or from a specific viewpoint on this topic (or even anything somewhat related), please let me know, and I'll post it up as part of the series!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to be well into all this. I did Contemporary Classical (for want of a better word) as part of my degree. I'll always remember Debussy cos whilst our lecturer was explaining a certain passage in 'The girl with The flaxen hair' and a certain magical chord, a friend and i was discussing it too. She stopped the class and said " Mr Walker would you like to share you conversation with the rest of the class" So i said ok and explained how she was wrong about what a certain chord was and it's functionality. I forget what the chord was now but it was essentially stacked in fourths or something with a 7th at the bottom. My friend and i came from a jazz(ish) background a were complete theory nerds so had a better grasp of large chords, scales modes etc. To say she wasn't impressed is putting it lightly. She never asked me anything again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you so much for the positive response! Big thanks to everyone who checked out the blog, I'm genuinely heart warmed to see an interest and appreciation of such a specific endeavor :D

I remember trying to be a smart arse in music theory classes trying to correct the tutors analysis of Bach chorales.. I must have been such an annoying student! I'm also a big fan of Stravinsky, the idea of polytonality has always fascinated me. I had a brilliant chat with an incredible composer/arranger called Simon Niblock who told me about the idea of 'double diminished chords (or arranging melodic minor harmony in a way which accentuates two independent diminished triads)


Anyway, I'm now typing up a new post which will expand on the previous one in a more 'analytic' manner. It'll be up in abut 30 mins! (after I get a bite to eat and finish the thing off ;))

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote name='Oscar South' timestamp='1375965943' post='2167985']
I remember trying to be a smart arse in music theory classes trying to correct the tutors analysis of Bach chorales.. I must have been such an annoying student!
[/quote]

I wasn't trying to be a smart arse........I was a smart arse! :D B)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Haha, yeah I saw these Schoenberg tomes in the university libraries! I read a book called 'conversations with Stravinsky' not too long ago which was fascinating.

JapanAxe, thank you for your correction, much appreciated :)
I actually type it right the first time and spellchecker told me it was wrong!! Haha


So anyway.. much later than planned the new post is up. I went into real detail with this one and it turned into a proper Opus! Its also the most personally fascinating harmonic analysis I've ever carried out, and really ended up revealing some amazing 'universal musical truths', which music theorists and likely jazzers in particular are going to love!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...