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Diminished Seventh

Diminished seventh

A diminished seventh interval is one of three musical intervals that span seven diatonic scale degrees. The prefix 'diminished' identifies it as being the smallest of the three intervals; the others being the minor seventh and major seventh, which are one and two semitones larger, respectively. Its inversion is the augmented second, and its enharmonic equivalent is the major sixth. The diminished seventh has no 'natural' diatonic occurrence, and only began to make an appearance, during the common practice period of music, as a consequence of composers seeking to strengthen the normally weak seventh degree when composing music in minor modes. This was achieved by chromatically raising the seventh degree (or subtonic) to match that of the more dynamic seventh degree (or leading note) of the major mode (an increasingly widespread practice that led to the creation of a modified version of the minor scale known as the harmonic minor scale). A consequence of this was that the interval between the minor mode's newly raised seventh degree (leading note), and the next higher octave's already lowered sixth degree (submediant) previously an interval of a minor seventh, had now been 'diminished' by a chromatic semitone. This resulted in one of the first diatonic uses of the diminished seventh interval. As music became increasingly chromatic, the diminished seventh was used with correspondingly greater freedom and also became a common component of jazz chords. In an equal tempered tuning, a diminished seventh is equal to nine semitones, a ratio of 1:29/12 (approximately 1.682), or 900 cents. The diminished seventh is a context dependent dissonance. That is, when heard in certain contexts, such as that described above, the interval will sound dissonant. In other contexts, however, the same nine semitone interval will simply be heard (and notated) as its consonant enharmonic equivalent, the major sixth. Diminished Seventh Chord The diminished seventh chord is a chord belonging to the group of seventh chords and consists of a diminished triad plus a note forming the interval of a diminished seventh above the chord's root. Category:Musical terminology

Musical interval

In music theory, an interval is the relationship between two notes or pitches, the lower and higher members of the interval. It often refers to those two notes themselves (otherwise known as a dyad). Larger intervals are described as wide and smaller ones as narrow (for example, a sixth is wider than a third), but these are only relative terms. Intervals may occur two ways:
- vertical (or harmonic) if the two notes sound simultaneously
- linear (or melodic), if the notes sound successively. An interval class is an interval measured by the shortest distance possible between its two pitch classes.

Frequency ratios

In just intonation intervals are commonly labelled according to the ratio of frequencies of the two pitches. Important intervals are those using the lowest integers, such as 1/1, 2/1, 3/2, etc. This system is frequently used to describe intervals in non-Western music. This method is also often used in theoretical explanations of equal-tempered intervals used in European tonal music which explain their use through their approximation of just intervals.

Interval number and quality

In diatonic or tonal theory intervals are labelled according to their diatonic function and according to the number of members or degrees they span in a diatonic scale. diatonic scale The interval number of a note from a given tonic note is the number of staff positions enclosed within the interval, as shown at right. Intervals larger than an octave are called compound intervals; for example, a tenth is known as a compound third. Intervals larger than a thirteenth are rarely spoken of (but see 8va for use of 15ma). The name of any interval is further qualified using the terms perfect, major, minor, augmented, and diminished. This is called its interval quality.
- Unison, fourth, fifth, octave. These intervals may be perfect, augmented, or diminished. A perfect fourth is five semitones, a perfect fifth is seven semitones, a perfect octave is twelve semitones. A perfect unison occurs between notes of the same pitch, so it is zero semitones. In each case, an augmented interval contains one more semitone, a diminished interval one fewer.
- Second, third, sixth, seventh. These intervals may be major, minor, augmented, or diminished.
- Major seconds are two semitones, also called a whole step, minor seconds are one semitone, also called a half step.
- Major thirds are four semitones, minor thirds are three semitones.
- Major sixths are nine semitones, minor sixths are eight semitones.
- Major sevenths are eleven semitones, minor sevenths are ten semitones.
- In each case, the augmented interval contains one semitone more than the major interval, and the diminished interval one semitone fewer than the minor interval. It is possible to have doubly-diminished and doubly-augmented intervals, but these are quite rare.

Shorthand notation

Intervals are often abbreviated with a P for perfect, m for minor, M for major, d for diminished, A for augmented, followed by the diatonic interval number. The indication M and P are often omitted. The octave is P8, and a unison is usually referred to simply as "a unison" but can be labeled P1. The tritone, an augmented fourth or diminished fifth is often π or TT. Examples:
- m2: minor second
- M3: major third
- P5: perfect fifth
- m9: minor ninth For use in describing chords, the sign + is used for augmented and − for diminished. Furthermore the 3 for the third is often omitted, and for the seventh, the plain form stands for the minor interval, while the major is indicate by maj. So for example:
- m: minor third
- 7: minor seventh
- maj7: major seventh
- +5: augmented fifth
- −5: diminished fifth

Enharmonic intervals

Two intervals are considered to be enharmonic if they both contain the same pitches spelled in different ways; that is, if the notes in the two intervals are enharmonic with one another. Enharmonic intervals contain the same number of semitones. For example C#-D#, a major second, and C#-Eb, a diminished third, are enharmonic.

Steps and skips

Linear (melodic) intervals may be described as steps or skips in a diatonic context. Steps are linear intervals between consecutive scale degrees while skips are not, although if one of the notes is chromatically altered so that the resulting interval is three semitones or more (e.g. C to D sharp), that may also be considered a skip. However, the reverse is not true: a diminished third, an interval comprising two semitones, is still considered a skip. The words conjunct and disjunct refer to melodies composed of steps and skips, respectively.

Pitch class intervals

Post-tonal or atonal theory, originally developed for equal tempered European classical music written using the twelve tone technique or serialism, integer notation is often used, most prominently in musical set theory. In this system intervals are named according to the number of half steps, from 0 to 11, the largest interval class being 6.

Ordered and unordered pitch and pitch class intervals

In atonal or musical set theory there are numerous types of intervals, the first being ordered pitch interval, the distance between two pitches upward or downward. For instance, the interval from C to G upward is 7, but the interval from G to C downward is −7. One can also measure the distance between two pitches without taking into account direction with the unordered pitch interval, somewhat similar to the interval of tonal theory. The interval between pitch classes may be measured with ordered and unordered pitch class intervals. The ordered one, also called directed interval, may be considered the measure upwards, which, since we are dealing with pitch classes, depends on whichever pitch is chosen as 0. For unordered pitch class interval see interval class.

Generic and specific intervals

In diatonic set theory, specific and generic intervals are distinguished. Specific intervals are the interval class or number of semitones between scale degrees or collection members, and generic intervals are the number of scale steps between notes of a collection or scale.

Cents

The standard system for comparing intervals of different sizes is with cents. This is a logarithmic scale in which the octave is divided into 1200 equal parts. In equal temperament, each semitone is exactly 100 cents. The value in cents for the interval f₁ to f₂ is 1200×log₂(f₂/f₁).

Comparison of different interval naming systems

It is possible to construct just intervals which are closer to the equal-tempered equivalents, but most of the ones listed above have been used historically in equivalent contexts. In particular the tritone (augmented fourth or diminished fifth), could have other ratios; 17:12 (603 cents) is fairly common. The 7:4 interval (the harmonic seventh) has been a contentious issue throughout the history of music theory; it is 31 cents flatter than an equal-tempered minor seventh. Some assert the 7:4 is one of the blue notes used in jazz. The diatonic intervals, as well, have other enharmonic equivalents, such as augmented second for minor third.

Consonant and dissonant intervals

Consonance and dissonance are relative terms referring to the stability, or state of repose, of particular musical effects. Dissonant intervals would be those which cause tension and desire to be resolved to consonant intervals. These terms are relative to the usage of different compositional styles.
- In atonal music all intervals (or interval classes) are considered equally consonant melodically and harmonically.
- In the middle ages, only the octave and perfect fifth were considered consonant harmonically.
- In 16th-century usage, perfect fifths and octaves, and major and minor thirds and sixths were considered harmonically consonant, and all other intervals dissonant. In the common practice period, it makes more sense to speak of consonant and dissonant chords, and certain intervals previously thought to be dissonant (such as minor sevenths) became acceptable in certain contexts. However, 16th-century practice continued to be taught to beginning musicians throughout this period.
- Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) defined a harmonically consonant interval as one in which the two pitches have an overtone in common (specifically excluding the seventh harmonic). This essentially defines all seconds and sevenths as dissonant, and perfect fourths and fifth, and major and minor thirds and sixths, as consonant.
- Pythagoras defined a hierarchy of consonance based on how small the numbers were which express the ratio. 20th-century composer and theorist Paul Hindemith's system has a hierarchy with the same results as Pythagoras's, but defined by fiat rather than by interval ratios, to better accommodate equal temperament, all of whose intervals (except the octave) would be dissonant using acoustical methods.
- David Cope (1997, p.40-41) suggests the concept of interval strength, in which an interval's strength, consonance, or stability is determined by its approximation to a lower and stronger, or higher and weaker, position in the harmonic series. See also: Lipps-Meyer law. All of the above analyses refer to vertical (simultaneous) intervals.

Inversion

An interval may be inverted, by raising the lower pitch an octave, or lowering the upper pitch an octave (though it is less usual to speak of inverting unisons or octaves). For example, the fourth between a lower C and a higher F may be inverted to make a fifth, with a lower F and a higher C. Here are the ways to identify interval inversions: inverted
- For diatonically-named intervals, here are two rules, applying to all simple (i.e., non-compound) intervals:
- #The number of any interval and the number of its inversion always add up to nine (four + five = nine, in the example just given).
- # The inversion of a major interval is a minor interval (and vice versa); the inversion of a perfect interval is also perfect; the inversion of an augmented interval is a diminished interval (and vice versa); and the inversion of a double augmented interval is a double diminished interval (and vice versa). :A full example: E flat below and C natural above make a major sixth. By the two rules just given, C natural below and E flat above must make a minor third.
- For intervals identified by ratio, the inversion is determined by reversing the ratio and multiplying by 2. For example, the inversion of a 5:4 ratio is an 8:5 ratio.
- Intervals identified by integer can be simply subtracted from 12. However, since an interval class is the lower of the interval integer or its inversion, interval classes cannot be inverted.

Interval roots

Although intervals are usually designated in relation to their lower note, David Cope and Hindemith both suggest the concept of interval root. To determine an interval's root, one locates its nearest approximation in the harmonic series. The root of a perfect fourth, then, is its top note because it is an octave of the fundamental in the hypothetical harmonic series. The bottom note of every odd diatonically numbered intervals are the roots, as are the tops of all even numbered intervals. The root of a collection of intervals or a chord is thus determined by the interval root of its strongest interval. As to its usefulness, Cope provides the example of the final tonic chord of some popular music being traditionally analyzable as a "submediant six-five chord" (added sixth chords by popular terminology), or a first inversion seventh chord (possibly the dominant of the mediant V/iii). According the interval root of the strongest interval of the chord (in first inversion, CEGA), the perfect fifth (C-G), is the bottom C, the tonic.

Interval cycles

Interval cycles, "unfold a single recurrent interval in a series that closes with a return to the initial pitch class", and are notated by George Perle using the letter "C", for cycle, with an interval class integer to distinguish the interval. Thus the diminished seventh chord would be C3 and the augmented triad would be C4. A superscript may be added to distinguish between transpositions, using 0-11 to indicate the lowest pitch class in the cycle. (Perle 1990, p.21)

Other intervals

There are also a number of intervals not found in the chromatic scale or labeled with a diatonic function which have names of their own. Many of these intervals describe small discrepancies between notes tuned according to the tuning systems used. Most of the following intervals may be described as microtones.
- A Pythagorean comma is the difference between twelve justly tuned perfect fifths and seven octaves. It is expressed by the frequency ratio 531441:524288, and is equal to 23.46 cents
- A syntonic comma is the difference between four justly tuned perfect fifths and two octaves plus a major third. It is expressed by the ratio 81:80, and is equal to 21.51 cents
- A Septimal comma is 64/63, and is the difference between the Pythagorean or 3-limit "7th" and the "harmonic 7th".
- Diesis is generally used to mean the difference between three justly tuned major thirds and one octave. It is expressed by the ratio 128:125, and is equal to 41.06 cents. However, it has been used to mean other small intervals: see diesis for details
- A schisma (also skhisma) is the difference between five octaves and eight justly tuned fifths plus one justly tuned major third. It is expressed by the ratio 32805:32768, and is equal to 1.95 cents. It is also the difference between the Pythagorean and syntonic commas.
- A schismic major third is a schisma different than a just major third, eight fifths down and five octaves up, Fb in C.
- A quarter tone is half the width of a semitone, which is half the width of a whole tone.
- A kleisma is six major thirds up, five fifths down and one octave up, or, more commonly, 225:224.
- A limma is the ratio 256:243, which is the semitone in Pythagorean tuning.
- A ditone is the pythagorean ratio 81:64, two 9:8 tones.
- Additionally, some cultures around the world have their own names for intervals found in their music. See: sargam, Bali See List of Musical Intervals for more.

Sources

- Cope, David (1997). Techniques of the Contemporary Composer, p.40-41. New York, New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0028647378.
- Perle, George (1990). The Listening Composer. California: University of California Press. ISBN 0520069919.

External links

- [http://tonalsoft.com/enc/index2.htm?interval.htm Tonalsoft Encyclopaedia of Tuning] Category:Musical terminology ko:음정 ja:音程

Minor seventh

Category:Intervals A minor seventh is the smaller of two commonly occurring musical intervals that span seven diatonic scale degrees. The prefix 'minor' identifies it as being the smaller of the two (by one semitone); its larger counterpart being a major seventh. The minor seventh is abbreviated as m7 and its inversion is the Major second. Its most common occurrence is built on the root of the prevailing key's dominant triad, producing the all-important dominant seventh chord. A minor seventh in just intonation most often corresponds to a pitch ratio of 9:5 or 1:1.8, or various other ratios, while in an equal tempered tuning it is a ratio of 1:2^10/12 (approximately 1.781), or 1000 cents, 17.596 cents shorter. The minor seventh is considered the most dissonant interval after its inversion the Major second, the Major seventh, and the minor second. See also:
- musical tuning

External links

- [http://tonalsoft.com/enc/index2.htm?minor-7th.htm Tonalsoft Encyclopaedia of Tuning]

Semitone

A semitone (also known as a half step) is a musical interval. Since the introduction of the tuning system known as equal temperament, the semitone is defined as being exactly one twelfth of an octave. It is the smallest interval notated and played in diatonic music (i.e., most western music), corresponding to adjacent keys on a piano keyboard (white/black, black/white or white/white where there is no intervening black key) or to adjacent frets on a guitar, for example.

Chromatic and diatonic semitones

If a semitone is notated as two notes based on the same scale degree, with one of the notes being inflected by an accidental (e.g., C and C#), then the semitone is said to be chromatic. If notated as two notes based on adjacent scale degrees, (e.g., C and Db), then the semitone is said to be diatonic. A diatonic semitone can also be called a minor second. All diatonic intervals can be expressed as an equivalent number of semitones, e.g., an octave is as large as twelve semitones, and a perfect fifth equals seven semitones. A tone (also known as a whole tone or whole step) equals two semitones. The terms tone and semitone are often used together, in abbreviated form, to express the pitch difference between the successive notes of diatonic scales. For example, the major scale can be expressed by T-T-S-T-T-T-S. where T equals one tone and S equals one semitone.

Smaller than a semitone

Musical intervals smaller than a semitone are common in Eastern music and also occur, though rarely, in some Western classical music since the beginning of the twentieth century. Such intervals are called microtones and the music containing them, microtonal. This doesn't include small pitch variations often encountered in tonal music, such as vibrato or guitar string bending, etc. For technological, rather than musical, reasons, the semitone can be divided into one hundred cents, with around five cents (one twentieth of a semitone) being the smallest pitch difference discernible by the human ear. Cents are generally of interest only to audio engineers or instrument manufacturers - and are completely irrelevent to most musicians.

Inversion

Inverse typically means the opposite of something. See:
- Antonym - A word with the opposite meaning.
- Inverse multiplexer - Splits a signal into several signals, opposite of a multiplexer.
- Inverse (music) - Oppositional direction of voice movement.
- Inverse perspective - Also Byzantine perspective: the further the objects, the larger they are drawn.
- Inverse-square law - The magnitude of a force is proportional to the inverse square of the distance. See also inverse (mathematics) Inversion has different meanings in different fields of knowledge:
- Something that is inverted or the process by which an inverse is obtained.
- In music, see Inversion (music).
- In amusement rides, see Roller coaster inversions.
- In geophysical sciences, see inverse problem.
- In meteorology, see temperature inversion.
- In genetics, see chromosomal inversion
- In electrical systems, inversion is the process of converting direct current to alternating current, see inverter (electrical)
- In computer science, see priority inversion.
- In chemistry, see Nitrogen inversion.
- In computer graphics and digital image processing, see reverse video.
- In anatomy, see Anatomical terms of location Something that is inverted is something that is flipped over, around or otherwise appearing in an opposite manner than is normal, customary, or common. Examples:
- An inverted river delta is a river delta that has an mirror-imaged geometry compared to normal river deltas.
- Antimatter is sometimes called inverted matter.
- Inverting an object is often referred to flipping it upside down.
- Negative numbers are sometimes referred to as inverted numbers.
- Mirror images are called inverted.
- Inverting the colors of a photograph results in a negative. To invert means:
- to use an inverter
- to make something inverted
- the process of inversion In Freudian psychology, an invert is a homosexual. Invert is also the common name for a mixture of oil (petroleum) and diesel fuel. A by-product of oil well drilling, it is corrosive on clothing and skin, and highly flammable.

Augmented second

A minor third is the smaller of two commonly occurring musical intervals that span three diatonic scale degrees. The prefix 'minor' identifies it as being the smaller of the two (by one semitone); its larger counterpart being a major third. The minor third is abbreviated as m3 and its inversion is the major sixth. The minor scale is so named because of the presence of this interval between its tonic and mediant (1st and 3rd) scale degrees. Minor chords too, take their name from the presence of this interval built on the chord's root (provided that the interval of a perfect fifth from the root is also present or implied). A minor third in just intonation most often corresponds to a pitch ratio of 6:5 (or 1:1.2), or various other ratios. while in an equal tempered tuning, a minor third is equal to three semitones, a ratio of 1:2^3/12 (approximately 1:1.189), or 300 cents, 15.641 cents smaller. The minor third is classed as an imperfect consonance and is considered the most consonant interval after the unison, octave, perfect fifth, perfect fourth, major third, and minor sixth.

Augmented second

An augmented second is a musical interval larger than a major second. It is thus either a quarter tone sharp from the major as is found in the quarter tone scale and Arab music and tuning, or a minor second larger, as found in twelve tone equal temperament, and thus enharmonically equivalent to a minor third. Augmented seconds occur in many scales, most importantly the harmonic minor and its various modes. They also occur in the various "gypsy minor" scales (which consist almost entirely of augmented and minor seconds). An example of the augmented second is in the A harmonic minor scale between F and G#, where it serves to allow chords in a minor key to follow the same rules of cadence observed in major keys where the V chord is "dominant" (that is, contains a major triad plus a minor seventh).

External links

- [http://tonalsoft.com/enc/index2.htm?minor-3rd.htm Tonalsoft Encyclopaedia of Tuning] Category:Intervals

Enharmonic

In music, an enharmonic is a note which is the equivalent of some other note, but spelled differently. For example, in twelve-tone equal temperament (the modern system of musical tuning in the west), the notes C sharp and D flat are enharmonically equivalent - that is, they are represented by the same key (on a musical keyboard, for example), and thus are identical in pitch, although they have different names and diatonic functionality.

Tuning enharmonics

This is in contrast to meantone intonation—in which the enharmonic equivalents actually do differ slightly in pitch. For example, consider G sharp and A flat. Call middle C's frequency

x

. Then high C has a frequency of

2x

. The classic 1/4 comma meantone tuning has perfect major thirds, which means major thirds with a frequency ratio of exactly 4 to 5. In order to form a perfect major third with the C above it, A flat and high C need to be in the ratio 4 to 5, so A flat needs to have the frequency :

\frac  = 1.6 x. \!

In order to form a perfect major third above E, however, G sharp needs to form the ratio 5 to 4 with E, which, in turn, needs to form the ratio 5 to 4 with C. Thus the frequency of G sharp is :

\left(\frac\right)\left(\frac\right)x = \left(\frac\right)x = 1.5625 x

Thus, G sharp and A flat are not the same note; G sharp is, in fact 41 "cents" lower in pitch (41% of a semitone, not quite a quarter of a tone). The difference is the interval called the enharmonic diesis, or

\frac

. On a piano, both would be played by striking the same key, with a frequency

2^\fracx = 2^\frac \approx 1.5874 x

Such small differences in pitch can escape notice when presented as melodic intervals. However, when they are sounded as chords, the difference between meantone intonation and equal-tempered intonation is quite noticeable, even to untrained ears. The reason that — despite the fact that in recent western music, Ab is exactly the same pitch as G# — we label them differently is that in tonal music notes are named for their harmonic function, and retain the names they had in the meantone tuning era. This is called diatonic functionality. One can however label enharmonically equivalent pitches with one and only one name, sometimes called integer notation, often used in serialism and musical set theory and employed by the Midi interface.

Enharmonic genus

An enharmonic is also one of the three Greek genera in music, in which the tetrachords are divided (descending) as a ditone plus two microtones. The ditone can be anywhere from 16/13 to 9/7 (3.55 to 4.35 semitones) and the microtones can be anything smaller than 1 semitone. Some examples of enharmonic genera are :1. 1/1 36/35 16/15 4/3 :2. 1/1 28/27 16/15 4/3 :3. 1/1 64/63 28/27 4/3 :4. 1/1 49/48 28/27 4/3 :5. 1/1 25/24 13/12 4/3

Enharmonic tetrachords in Byzantine music

In Byzantine music, enharmonic describes a kind of tetrachord and the echoi that contain them. As in the Greek system, enharmonic tetrachords are distinct from diatonic and chromatic. However Byzantine enharmonic tetrachords bear no resemblance to Greek enharmonic tetrachords. Their largest division is between a whole-tone and a tone-and-a-quarter in size, and their smallest is between a quarter-tone and a semitone. These are called "improper diatonic" tetrachords in modern western usage.

External links

- [http://tonalsoft.com/enc/index2.htm?enharmonic.htm Tonalsoft Encyclopaedia of Tuning] ja:異名同音 Category:Tuning Category:Musical genera

Major sixth

A major sixth is the larger of two commonly occurring musical intervals that span six diatonic scale degrees. The prefix 'major' identifies it as being the larger of the two (by one semitone); its smaller counterpart being, a minor sixth. The major 6th is abbreviated as M6, and its inversion is the minor third. Its most common occurrence is between the third and (upper) root of minor chords. A major sixth in just intonation most often corresponds to a pitch ratio of 5:3 or 1.6666, or various other ratios, while in an equal tempered tuning, a major sixth is equal to nine semitones, a ratio of 1:2^9/12 (approximately 1.682), or 900 cents, 15.641 cents wider. The ratios of both major and minor sixths are the ratios of pairs of consecutive numbers of the Fibonacci sequence: 5 and 8 for a minor third and 3 and 5 for a major third, the golden ratio lying between the minor sixth and the major sixth. In the common practice period, the sixths, along with their inverse, the thirds, are considered the most interesting and dynamic consonances. The major sixth is considered the most consonant interval after the unison, octave, perfect fifth, perfect fourth, and the major third.

Common practice period

In music the common practice period is a long period in western musical history spanning from before the classical era proper to today, dated, on the outside, as 1600-1900. It is most commonly contrasted with contemporary music. Common practice music shares many traits and is tonal as opposed to modal or atonal and includes most of classical and popular music. Despite the emergence of many new styles and techniques common practice music may still be the most common European influenced music. Walter Piston, among others, uses the term in his book Harmony (ISBN 0393954803) to refer to the bulk of the material contained within it. Rhythmically, common practice music metric structures generally include: #Clearly enunciated or implied pulse at all levels, with the fastest levels rarely approaching extremes. #Meters, or pulse groups, in two-pulse or three-pulse groups, most often two. #Once established the meter and pulse groups rarely changes throughout a section or composition. #Synchronous pulse groups on all levels, all pulses on slower levels coincide with strong pulses on faster levels. #Consistent tempo throughout a composition or section. #Tempo/beat length and measure length chosen to allow one time signature throughout piece. :(DeLone et. al. (Eds.), 1975, chap. 3) Durational patterns typically include: #Small or moderate duration complement and range, with one duration (or pulse) predominating the duration hierarchy, being heard as the basic unit throughout a composition. Exceptions are most frequently extremely long, such as pedal tones, or if short generally trills, tremolos, or other ornaments. #Rhythmic units based on metric or intrametric patterns, though specific contrametric or extrametric patterns are signatures of certain styles or composers. Triplets and other extrametric patterns are usually heard on levels higher than the basic durational unit or pulse. #Rhythmic gestures of a limited number of rhythmic units, sometimes based on a single or alternating pair. #Thetic, anacrustic, and initial rest rhythmic gestures are used, with anacrustic beginnings and strong endings possibly most frequent and upbeat endings most rare. #Rhythmic gestures repeated exactly or in variation after contrasting gestures. Use of one rhythmic gesture almost exclusively throughout an entire composition may be done but complete avoidance of repetition is rare. #Produce composite rhythms which confirm the meter, often in metric or even note patterns identical to the pulse on specific metric level. :(DeLone et. al. (Eds.), 1975, chap. 3) Patterns of pitch and duration are of primary importance in common practice melody while quality is of secondary importance. Durations recur and are often periodic; pitches are generally diatonic. (DeLone et. al. (Eds.), 1975, chap. 4) Many people have proposed that a "new" common practice period is now discernible in 20th century classical music. George Perle (1990) has labeled this "Tradition in 20th Century Music", the most significant of which he considers the, "shared premise of the harmonic equivalence of inversionally symmetrical pitch-class relations," among composers such as Edgard Varèse, Alban Berg, Béla Bartók, Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander Scriabin, Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern, and himself. John Harbison refers to symmetry as the "'new tonality'."

References

- DeLone et. al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0130493465.
- Perle, George (1990). The Listening Composer, p. 46-47. California: University of California Press. ISBN 0520069919.
- Harbison, John (1992). Symmetries and the "New Tonality". Contemporary Music Review 6 (2), 71-80

External links

- [http://www.newmusicbox.org/page.nmbx?id=58tp00 No Common Practice: The New Common Practice and its Historical Antecedents]
- [http://www.newmusicbox.org/page.nmbx?id=58tp01 Was There Ever an Actual Common Practice?]
- [http://www.newmusicbox.org/page.nmbx?id=58tp02 Academic Serialism as Institutionalized Common Practice?]
- [http://www.newmusicbox.org/page.nmbx?id=58tp03 Totalism as The New World Order?]
- [http://www.newmusicbox.org/page.nmbx?id=58tp04 No Common Practice, Please...] Category:Common practice period

Degree (music)

:For other types of degree, see Degree (disambiguation) In music theory, a scale degree is the name of a particular note of a scale in relation to the tonic (the first note in the scale). In tonal scales, the degrees may be identified several ways:
- the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh degrees of the scale;
- by arabic numerals (1,2,3...), sometimes with carets above them (

\hat 1, \hat 2, \hat 3...

); and
- in English, by the names tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, (subtonic or leading tone). Subtonic is used when the interval between it and the tonic in the upper octave is a whole step; leading tone when that interval is a half step. Category:Musical terminology

Minor mode

A minor scale in musical theory is a diatonic scale whose third scale degree is an interval of a minor third above the tonic. While some definitions of minor scale encompass modes with the minor third, such as Dorian mode, most musicians use the term to refer to the natural minor, harmonic minor, and melodic minor scales described below. Also, compare major and minor.

Types of minor scales

A natural minor scale has the following interval pattern: whole-step half-step whole-step whole-step half-step whole-step whole-step or tone semitone tone tone semitone tone tone If the scale is used with the corresponding key signature, the natural minor scale is written with no accidentals. For example, in the key of A minor, the natural minor scale is: A B C D E F G A' accidental Sometimes the natural minor scale is equated with the Aeolian mode, but a key characteristic of music in the minor mode in the common practice period of Western music is the use of the leading tone, a half step below the tonic. Music using the natural seventh degree, called the subtonic, sounds modal to Western ears; this music is commonly used in Peruvian and other ethnic music, and by modern Western composers such as Vaughan Williams who prefer this sound. But in music written from the 16th to 19th centuries, the chord built on the dominant (fifth scale degree) is always a major triad, at least at cadence points; consequently, the seventh degree of the scale must be raised with an accidental to make this possible. The next most important chord, the subdominant, is typically a minor triad. These considerations of harmony lead to the harmonic minor scale, the same as the natural minor but with a chromatically raised seventh degree. For example, in the key of A minor, the harmonic minor scale is: A B C D E F G# A' harmony The interval between the sixth and seventh degrees of this scale (in this case F and G sharp) is an augmented second. While some composers, notably Mozart, have used this interval to advantage in melodic composition, other composers felt it to be an awkward leap. Thus, for purposes of melody, either the subtonic is used, or the sixth scale degree is raised; either way, there is a whole step between these two scale degrees, considered more conducive to smooth melody writing. Traditionally, music theorists have called these two options the ascending melodic (also known as heptatonia seconda, set form 7-34) and descending melodic minor scales: set form set form but historically, composers have not been consistent about using them in ascending and descending melodies. Just as often, composers choose one form or the other based on whether one of the two notes is part of the most recent chord (the prevailing harmony). Another reason might be the use of the mediant chord, based on the third degree of the scale, which is an augmented triad if the raised seventh degree is used; some composers prefer the use of the major triad and thus use the lowered seventh degree.

Finding key signatures

Minor modes use the same set of key signatures as major modes; whichever signature corresponds to the step pattern of the natural minor scale is considered the key signature for that minor mode. The major and minor keys which share the same signature are called relative; so C major is the relative major of A minor, and C minor is the relative minor of E-flat major. The relative major is found by raising the minor tonic note by 3 semitones (an interval of a minor third). If you know that the key signature of G major has one sharp (see major scales for how to find this), then its relative minor, E minor, also has one sharp in its key signature. This table illustrates the relative major key signatures for minor scales. Additional note: it is possible to construct minor scales which do not correspond to a key signature, such as D-flat minor. On rare occasions short passages of music will be in such keys, so these additional scales have some use; but for purposes of practice, an enharmonic scale (in this case, C-sharp minor) can be used.

Reference

- Gjerdingen, Robert O. (1990). "A Guide to the Terminology of German Harmony", Studies in the Origin of Harmonic Tonality by Dahlhaus, Carl, trans. Gjerdingen (1990). Category:Musical scales category:Modes ko:단음계 ms:Skala minor ja:短音階

Chromatic

- In music, chromatic indicates the inclusion of notes not in the prevailing scale and is also used for those notes themselves (Shir-Cliff et al 1965, p.17). See chromatic scale, total chromatic, twelve tone technique, serialism, twelve tone equal temperament, chromatic sequence.
- In ancient greek and near-eastern music chromatic is one of the three main genera or kinds of tunings, which are manifest in the tuning of tetrachords, the other two being the diatonic and the enharmonic. Thus a "chromatic" scale in byzantine music or its equivalents in classical turkish or persian theory is not the same as a modern western chromatic scale. Rather, it is associated with the arabo-turkish maqam hicaz or the byzantin echos and/or phthora of nenano. Simply speaking, a near eastern "chromatic" mode usually contains an augmented second between two minor seconds - although the same structures and modes have been claimed by theorists such as Simon Karas as belonging to the enharmonic mode.
- In optics, see Chromatic aberration
- For chroma, see color
- Chromatic is the title of a CD by Swiss hip hop group Sens Unik

Source

- Shir-Cliff et al (1965). Chromatic Harmony. New York, The Free Press. Category: Music theory

Subtonic

In music, the subtonic is the lowered seventh degree of the scale, as opposed to the leading tone. For example, in the A minor scale (white keys on a piano), the subtonic is the note G (in C this would be Bb); and the subtonic chord uses the notes G, B, and D (in C: BbDF). In music theory, the subtonic chord is symbolized with the Roman numeral bVII if major or bvii if minor. "Subtonic" also refers to a relationship of musical keys. For example, relative to the key of C major, the key of Bb major is the subtonic. Modulation (changes of key) to the subtonic are relatively rare, compared with, say, modulation into the dominant. Category:Diatonic functions Category:Scale degrees

Leading note

Category:Diatonic functions Category:Scale degrees In music theory, a leading-tone (called the leading-note outside the US) is a note or pitch which resolves or "leads" to a note one semitone higher or lower, being a lower and upper leading-tone, respectively. According to Ernst Kurth (1913) the major and minor thirds contain "latent" tendencies towards the perfect fourth and whole-tone, respectively, and thus establish tonality. However, Carl Dahlhaus (1990) shows that this drive is in fact created through or with harmonic function, a root progression in another voice by a whole-tone or fifth, or melodically (monophonically) by the context of the scale. For example, the leading tone of alternating C chord and F minor chords is either the note E leading to F, if f is tonic, or Ab leading to G, if C is tonic. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the leading-tone is created by the progression from imperfect to perfect consonances, such as a major third to a perfect fifth or minor third to a unison. The same pitch outside of the imperfect consonance is not a leading tone. As a diatonic function the leading-tone is the seventh scale degree of any diatonic scale when the distance between it and the tonic is a single semitone. In diatonic scales where there is a whole tone between the seventh scale degree and the tonic, such as the Mixolydian mode, the degree is the subtonic.

Sources

- Dahlhaus, Carl. Gjerdingen, Robert O. trans. (1990). Studies in the Origin of Harmonic Tonality, p.184-5. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691091358.
- Kurth, Ernst (1913). Die Voraussetzungen der theoretischen Harmonik und der tonalen Darstellungssysteme, p.119ff. Bern.

Minor scale

Types of minor scales

Finding key signatures

Reference

Jazz

Jazz is a musical art form originally developed by African Americans from around the turn of the 20th century. It is characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms, and improvisation sometimes in jam sessions. As the first original art form to emerge from the United States of America, jazz has been described as "America's Classical Music".

History

Roots of jazz

Jazz has roots in African American music traditions, including spirituals, blues and ragtime, stemming ultimately from West Africa, western Sahel, and New England's religious hymns and hillbilly music, as well as in European military band music. After originating in African American communities near the beginning of the 20th century, jazz gained international popularity by the 1920s. Since then, jazz has had a profoundly pervasive influence on other musical styles worldwide. Today, various jazz styles continue to evolve. The word jazz itself is rooted in American slang, probably of sexual origin, although various alternative derivations have been suggested. According to University of Southern California critical studies professor Todd Boyd, the term originated from slang for sexual intercourse because its earliest musicians found employment in New Orleans brothel parlors. Lacking an attentive audience, the musicians began to play for each other and their performances achieved esthetic complexity not evident in ragtime. At the root of jazz is the blues, the folk music of former enslaved Africans in the U.S. South and their descendants, heavily influenced by West African cultural and musical traditions, that evolved as black musicians migrated to the cities. According to Pulitzer Prize-winning African American composer and classical and jazz trumpet virtuoso Wynton Marsalis: Jazz is something Negroes invented, and it said the most profound things -- not only about us and the way we look at things, but about what modern democratic life is really about. It is the nobility of the race put into sound ... jazz has all the elements, from the spare and penetrating to the complex and enveloping. It is the hardest music to play that I know of, and it is the highest rendition of individual emotion in the history of Western music.
Early jazz influences found their first mainstream expression in the marching band and dance band music of the day, which was the standard form of popular concert music at the turn of century. The instruments of these groups became the basic instruments of jazz: brass, reeds, and drums. Black musicians frequently used the melody, structure, and beat of marches as points of departure; but says "North by South, from Charleston to Harlem," a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities: "...a black musical spirit (involving rhythm and melody) was bursting out of the confines of European musical tradition, even though the performers were using European styled instruments. This African-American feel for rephrasing melodies and reshaping rhythm created the embryo from which many great black jazz musicians were to emerge." Many black musicians also made a living playing in small bands hired to lead funeral processions in the New Orleans African-American tradition. These Africanized bands played a seminal role in the articulation and dissemination of early jazz. Traveling throughout black communities in the Deep South and to northern big cities, these musician-pioneers were the Hand helping to fashion the music's howling, raucous, then free-wheeling, "raggedy," ragtime spirit, quickening it to a more eloquent, sophisticated, swing incarnation. For all its genius, early jazz, with its humble, folk roots, was the product of primarily self-taught musicians. But an impressive postbellum network of black-established and -operated institutions, schools, and civic societies in both the North and the South, plus widening mainstream opportunities for education, produced ever-increasing numbers of young, formally trained African-American musicians, some of them schooled in classical European musical forms. Lorenzo Tio and Scott Joplin were among this new wave of musically literate jazz artists. Joplin, the son of a former slave and a free-born woman of color, was largely self-taught until age 11, when he received lessons in the fundamentals of music theory from a classically trained German immigrant in Texarkana, Texas. Also contributing to this trend was a tightening of Jim Crow laws in Louisiana in the 1890s, which caused the expulsion from integrated bands of numbers of talented, formally trained African-American musicians. The ability of these musically literate, black jazzmen to transpose and then read what was in great part an improvisational art form became an invaluable element in the preservation and dissemination of musical innovations that took on added importance in the approaching big-band era.

The United States music scene at the start of the 20th century

By the turn of the century, American society had begun to shed the heavy-handed, straitlaced formality that had characterized the Victorian era. Strong influence of African American music traditions had already been a part of mainstream popular music in the United States for generations, going back to the 19th century minstrel show tunes and the melodies of Stephen Foster. Public dance halls, clubs, and tea rooms opened in the cities. Curiously named black dances inspired by African dance moves, like the shimmy, turkey trot, buzzard lope, chicken scratch, monkey glide, and the bunny hug eventually were adopted by a white public. The cake walk, developed by slaves as a send-up of their masters' formal dress balls, became the rage. White audiences saw these dances first in vaudeville shows, then performed by exhibition dancers in the clubs. The popular dance music of the time was not jazz, but there were precursor forms along the blues-ragtime continuum of musical experimentation and innovation that soon would blossom into jazz. Popular Tin Pan Alley composers like Irving Berlin incorporated ragtime influence into their compositions, though they seldom used the specific musical devices that were second nature to jazz players—the rhythms, the blue notes. Few things did more to popularize the idea of hot music than Berlin's hit song of 1911,"Alexander's Ragtime Band," which became a craze as far from home as Vienna. Although the song wasn't written in rag time, the lyrics describe a jazz band, right up to jazzing up popular songs, as in the line, "If you want to hear the Swanee River played in ragtime...."

The early New Orleans "jass" style

A number of regional styles contributed to the early development of jazz. Arguably the single most important was that of the New Orleans, Louisiana area, which was the first to be commonly given the name "jazz" (early on often spelled "jass"). The city of New Orleans and the surrounding area had long been a regional music center. People from many different nations of Africa, Europe, and Latin America contributed to New Orleans' rich musical heritage. In the French and Spanish colonial era, slaves had more freedom of cultural expression than in the English colonies of what would become the United States. In the Protestant colonies African music was looked on as inherently "pagan" and was commonly suppressed, while in Louisiana it was allowed. African musical celebrations held at least as late as the 1830s in New Orleans' "Congo Square" were attended by interested whites as well, and some of their melodies and rhythms found their way into the compositions of white Creole composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk. In addition to the slave population, New Orleans also had North America's largest community of free people of color, some of whom prided themselves on their education and used European instruments to play both European music and their own folk tunes. According to many New Orleans musicians who remembered the era, the key figures in the development of the new style were flamboyant trumpeter Buddy Bolden and the members of his band. Bolden is remembered as the first to take the blues — hitherto a folk music sung and self-accompanied on string instruments or blues harp (harmonica) — and arrange it for brass instruments. Bolden's band played blues and other tunes, constantly "variating the melody" (improvising) for both dance and brass band settings, creating a sensation in the city and quickly being imitated by many other musicians. By the early years of the 20th century, travelers visiting New Orleans remarked on the local bands' ability to play ragtime with a "pep" not heard elsewhere. Characteristics which set the early New Orleans style apart from the ragtime music played elsewhere included freer rhythmic improvisation. Ragtime musicians elsewhere would "rag" a tune by giving a syncopated rhythm and playing a note twice (at half the time value), while the New Orleans style used more intricate rhythmic improvisation often placing notes far from the implied beat (compare, for example, the piano rolls of Jelly Roll Morton with those of Scott Joplin). The New Orleans style players also adopted much of the vocabulary of the blues, including bent and blue notes and instrumental "growls" and smears otherwise not used on European instruments. Key figures in the early development of the new style were Freddie Keppard, a dark Creole of color who mastered Bolden's style; Joe Oliver, whose style was even more deeply soaked in the blues than Bolden's; and Kid Ory, a trombonist who helped crystallize the style with his band hiring many of the city's best musicians. The new style also spoke to young whites as well, especially the working-class children of immigrants, who took up the style with enthusiasm. Papa Jack Laine led a multi-ethnic band through which passed almost all of two generations of early New Orleans white jazz musicians (and a number of non-whites as well).

Other regional styles

Meanwhile, other regional styles were developing which would influence the development of jazz.
- African-American minister Rev. Daniel J. Jenkins of Charleston, South Carolina, was an unlikely figure of far-reaching importance in the early development of jazz. In 1891, Jenkins established the Jenkins Orphanage for boys and four years later instituted a rigorous music program in which the orphanage's young charges were taught the religious and secular music of the day, including overtures and marches. Precocious orphans and defiant runaways, some of whom had played ragtime in bars and brothels, were delivered to the orphanage for "salvation" and rehabilitation and made their musical contributions, as well. In the fashion of the Fisk Jubilee Singers and Fisk University, the Jenkins Orphanage Bands traveled widely, earning money to keep the orphanage afloat. It was an expensive enterprise. Jenkins typically took in approximately 125 – 150 "black lambs" yearly, and many of them received formal musical training. Less than 30 years later, five bands operated nationally, with one traveling to England — again in the Fisk tradition. It would be hard to overstate the influence of the Jenkins Orphanage Bands on early jazz, scores of whose members went on to play with jazz legends like Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton and Count Basie. Among them were the likes of trumpet virtuosos Cladys "Cat" Anderson, Gus Aitken and Jabbo Smith.
- In the northeastern United States, a "hot" style of playing ragtime developed. While centered in New York City, it could be found in African-American communities from Baltimore to Boston. Some later commentators have categorized it after the fact as an early form of jazz, while others disagree. It was characterized by rollicking rhythms, but lacked the distinctly bluesy influence of the southern styles. The solo piano version of the northeast style was typified by such players as noted composer Eubie Blake, the son of slaves, whose musical career spanned an impressive eight decades. James P. Johnson took the northeast style and around 1919 developed a style of playing that came to be known as "stride." In stride piano, the right hand plays the melody, while the active left hand "walks" or "strides" from upbeat to downbeat, maintaining the rhythm. Johnson influenced later pianists like Fats Waller and Willie Smith. : The top orchestral leader of the style was James Reese Europe, and his 1913 and 1914 recordings preserve a rare glimpse of this style at its peak. It was during this time that Europe's music profoundly influenced a young George Gershwin, who would go on to compose the jazz-inspired classic "Rhapsody in Blue." By the time Europe recorded again in 1919, he was in the process of incorporating the influence of the New Orleans style into his playing. The recordings of Tim Brymn give later generations another look at the northeastern hot style with little of the New Orleans influence yet evident.
- In Chicago at the start of the 1910s, a popular type of dance band consisted of a saxophone vigorously ragging a melody over a 4-square rhythm section. The city soon fell heavily under the influence of waves of New Orleans musicians, and the older style blended with the New Orleans style to form what would be called "Chicago Jazz" starting in the late 1910s.
- Along the banks of the Mississippi around Memphis, Tennessee to Saint Louis, Missouri, another band style developed incorporating the blues. The most famous composer and bandleader of the style was the "Father of the Blues," W.C. Handy. While in some ways similar to the New Orleans style (Bolden's influence may have spread upriver), it lacked the freewheeling improvisation found further south. Handy, indeed, for many years denounced jazz as needlessly chaotic, and in his style improvisation was limited to short fills between phrases and considered inappropriate for the main melody.

The national spread of ‘jass’ music

A number of educated "colored" New Orleanians left the South due to increasingly restrictive Jim Crow laws, at first heading mostly to California. One of these was musician Bill Johnson, who thought a good New Orleans-style band would have commercial possibilities out West. Johnson sent for some of the city's best hot musicians, including Freddie Keppard, to join him at the start of the 1910s, forming the Original Creole Orchestra. A vaudeville promoter caught the band playing to enthusiastic crowds in between rounds at a boxing match and booked the band to tour the nation on the Pantages Circuit. The members of the Creole Orchestra wrote their colleagues back home that hot New Orleans musicians could make much better money playing their style up North and out West than they could at home, encouraging many to start spreading the style around the nation. Chicago was one of the first cities to embrace the new style, and from some accounts it was here that the New Orleans style was first popularly christened "jass." Back in New Orleans, it was called by such names as "ratty music", "hot music," or simply "ragtime" (Sidney Bechet often continued to call his music "ragtime" as late as the 1950s). The style was so different from the ragtime and dance music of the rest of the nation, that a new name was needed to distinguish it. Apparently, the first band billed as playing "jass" was that of trombonist Tom Brown. The term "jass" was rude sexual slang, related either to the term "jism" or to the jasmine perfume popular among urban prostitutes. One group that followed the Original Creoles and Tom Brown to Chicago went North in 1916 as "Stein's Dixie Jass Band." These veterans of the Papa Jack Laine bands made their way to New York City the following year, calling themselves "The Original Dixieland Jass Band." In New York, they had an opportunity to record phonograph records. The discs, recorded as a novelty, were a surprise national hit, and "jass" quickly became a national craze. It was in New York where "jass" became "jazz" in the late 1910s, purportedly because mischievous people were making a habit of scratching out the "J"s on posters, which then, unfortunately, advertised "ass band"s.

Jazz in the 1920's

phonograph records Two disparate, but important, inventions of the second half of the nineteenth century quietly had set the stage for jazz to capture the spotlight in American popular music by the 1920s. George Pullman's invention of the sleeping car in 1864 brought a new level of luxury and comfort to the nation's railways; and Thomas Edison's invention, in 1877, of the phonograph record made quality music accessible to virtually everyone. Pullman's ingenious, rolling sleeping quarters provided employment to legions of African-American men, who criss-crossed the nation as sleeping car porters; and by the second decade of the twentieth century, the Pullman Company employed more African-Americans than any single business concern in the United States. But Pullman porters were more than solicitous, smiling faces in smart, navy blue uniforms. The most dapper and sophisticated of them were culture bearers, spreading the card game of bid whist, the latest dance crazes, regional news, and a heightened sense of black pride to cities and towns wherever the railways reached. Many porters also shared, traded and even sold "race records" to augment their income, speeding artistic innovations to musicians eager to hear the latest; spreading among the general public an awareness of and appreciation for this rapidly evolving musical form; and, in the process, putting jazz on the fast track to first U.S., then worldwide, acclaim. With Prohibition, the constitutional amendment that forbade the sale of alcoholic beverages, the legal saloons and cabarets were closed; but in their place hundreds of speakeasies appeared, where patrons drank and musicians entertained. The presence of dance venues and the subsequent increased demand for accomplished musicians meant more artists were able to support themselves by playing professionally. As a result, the numbers of professional musicians increased, and jazz—like all the popular music of the 1920s—adopted the 4/4 beat of dance music. Another nineteenth-century invention, radio, came into its own in the 1920s, after the first commercial radio station in the U.S. began broadcasting in Pittsburgh in 1922. Radio stations proliferated at a remarkable rate, and with them, the popularity of jazz. Jazz became associated with things modern, sophisticated, and decadent. The third decade of the new century, a time of technological marvels, flappers, flashy automobiles, organized crime, bootleg whiskey, and bathtub gin, would come to be known as the Jazz Age.

Key figures of the decade

flappers King Oliver was "jazz king" of Chicago in the early 1920s, when Chicago was the national hub of jazz. His band was the epitome of the New Orleans hot ensemble jazz style. Unfortunately, his band's recordings were little heard outside of Chicago and New Orleans, but the ensemble was a powerful influence on younger musicians, both black and white. Sidney Bechet was the first master jazz musician to take up what previously often had been dismissed as a novelty instrument, the saxophone. Bechet helped propel jazz in more individualistic personality- and solo-driven directions. In this last point, Bechet was joined by a young protege of King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, who was to become one of the major forces in the development of jazz. Armstrong was an extraordinary improviser, capable of creating endless variations on a single melody. Armstrong also popularized scat singing, an improvisational vocal technique in which nonsensical syllables or words are sung or otherwise vocalized, often as part of a call-and-response interaction with other musicians onstage. His unique, gravely voice and innate sense of swing made scat an instant hit. Arguably, Bix Beiderbecke was both the first white and the first non-New Orleanian to make major original contributions to the development of jazz with his legato phrasing, bringing the influence of classical romanticism to jazz. Paul Whiteman was the most commercially successful bandleader of the 1920s, billing himself as "The King of Jazz." Sacrificing spontaneous improvisation for the sake of elaborate written arrangements, Whiteman claimed to be "making a lady out of jazz." Despite his hiring Bix and many of the other best white jazz musicians of the era, later generations of jazz lovers have often judged Whiteman's music to have little to do with real jazz. Nonetheless, his notion of combining jazz with elaborate orchestrations has been returned to repeatedly by composers and arrangers of later decades. It was Whiteman who commissioned Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue," which was debuted by Whiteman's Orchestra. Fletcher Henderson led the top African American band in New York City. At first he wished to follow the lead of Paul Whiteman, but after hiring Louis Armstrong to play in his band, Henderson realized the importance of the improvising soloist in developing jazz bands. Henderson's arrangements would play a significant role in the development of the Big Band era in the following decade. Young pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington first came to national attention in the late 1920s with his tight band making many recordings and radio broadcasts. Ellington's importance would grow in the coming decades.

1930s to 1950s

While the solo became more important in jazz, popular bands became larger in size. The Big band became the popular provider of music for the era. Big bands varied in their jazz content; some (such as Benny Goodman's Orchestra) were highly jazz oriented, while others (such as Glenn Miller's) left little space for improvisation. Most were somewhere inbetween, having some musicians adept at jazz solos playing with section men who kept the rhythm and arrangements going. However even bands without jazz soloists adopted a sound owing much to the jazz vocabularity, for example sax sections playing what sounded like an improvised variation on a melody (and may have originated as a transcription of one). Key figures in developing the big jazz band were arrangers and bandleaders Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman and the man sometimes deemed the most prolific composer in American history, Duke Ellington. The influence of Louis Armstrong continued to grow. Musicians and bandleaders like Cab Calloway — and, later, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald, jumped on the scat bandwagon. Pop vocalists like Bing Crosby embraced Armstrong's style of improvising on the melody, and U.S. pop singers seldom since have rendered a tune "straight," in the pre-jazz style. In the early 1920s, popular music was still a mixture of things—current dance numbers, novelty songs, show tunes. "Businessman's bounce music," as one horn player put it. But musicians with steady jobs, playing with the same companions, were able to go far beyond that. The Ellington band at the Cotton Club and the various Kansas City groups that became the Count Basie band date from this period. Over time, social strictures regarding racial segregation began to relax in entertainment. White bandleaders, who tended to mold the music more to orthodox rhythms and harmony, began to recruit black musicians. In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman hired pianist Teddy Wilson, vibraharpist Lionel Hampton, and guitarist Charlie Christian to join small groups. During this period, the popularity of swing (genre) and big band music was at its height, making stars of such men as Glenn Miller and Duke Ellington. Swing, the popular music of its time, covered a broad spectrum from "sweet" to "hot" bands, with the jazz content varying across the range. A development of swing in the early 1940s known as "jumping the blues" or jump music anticipated rhythm and blues and rock and roll in some respects. It involved the use of small combos instead of big bands and a concentration on up-tempo music using the familiar blues chord progressions. Drawing largely upon the evolution of boogie-woogie in the 1930s, it used a doubled rhythm—that is, the rhythm section played "eight to the bar," eight beats per measure instead of four. Big Joe Turner, a Kansas City singer who worked in the 1930s with Swing bands like Count Basie's, became a boogie-woogie star in the 1940s and then in the 1950s was one of the first innovators of rock and roll, notably with his song "Shake, Rattle and Roll". Another jazz founder of rock and roll was saxophonist Louis Jordan.

Development of bebop

The next major stylistic turn came in the 1940s with bebop, led by such distinctive stylists as the saxophonist Charlie Parker (known as "Yardbird" or "Bird"), Bud Powell and Dizzy Gillespie. This marked a major shift of jazz from pop music for dancing to a high-art, less-accessible, cerebral "musician's music." Thelonious Monk, while too individual to be strictly a bebop musician, was also associated with this movement. Bop musicians valued complex improvisations based on chord progressions rather than melody. Hard bop moved away from cool jazz, incorporating influences from soul music, gospel music, and the blues. Hard bop was at the peak of its popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, and was associated with such figures as Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Art Blakey and Charles Mingus. Later, bebop and hard bop musicians, such as trumpeter Miles Davis, made more stylistic advances with modal jazz, where the harmonic structure of pieces was much more free than previously, and was frequently only implied -- by skeletal piano chords and bass parts. The instrumentalists then would improvise around a given mode of the scale.

Latin jazz

Main article: Latin jazz Latin jazz has two varieties: Afro-Cuban and Brazilian. Afro-Cuban jazz was played in the U.S. directly after the bebop period, while Brazilian jazz became more popular in the 1960s and 1970s. Afro-Cuban jazz began as a movement after the death of Charlie Parker. Notable bebop musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Billy Taylor started Afro-Cuban bands at that time. Gillespie's work was mostly with big bands of this genre. While the music was influenced by such Cuban and Puerto Rican musicians as Tito Puente and, much later, Arturo Sandoval, there were many Americans who were drawing upon Cuban rhythms for their work. Brazilian jazz is, in North America at least, nearly synonymous with bossa nova, a Brazilian popular style which is derived from samba with influences from jazz as well as other 20th-century classical and popular music. Bossa is generally slow, played around 80 beats per minute or so. The music uses straight eighths, rather than swing eighths, and also uses difficult polyrhythms. The best-known bossa nova compositions are considered to be jazz standards in their own right. The related term jazz-samba essentially describes an adaptation of bossa nova compositions to the jazz idiom by American performers such as Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd, and usually played at 120 beats per minute or faster. Samba itself is actually not jazz but, being derived from older Afro-Brazilian music, it shares some common characteristics.

Free jazz

Main article: Free jazz Free jazz, or avant-garde jazz, is a subgenre that, while rooted in bebop, typically uses less compositional material and allows performers more latitude in what they choose to play. Free jazz's greatest departure from other styles is in the use of harmony and a regular, swinging tempo: Both are often implied, utilized loosely, or abandoned altogether. These approaches were rather controversial when first advanced, but have generally found acceptance — though sometimes grudgingly — and have been utilized in part by other jazz performers. There were earlier precedents, but free jazz crystalized in the late 1950's, especially via Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor, and probably found its greatest exposure in the late 1960s with John Coltrane, Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, Sam Rivers, Leroy Jenkins, Don Pullen and others. While perhaps less popular than other styles, free jazz has exerted an influence to the present. Peter Brötzmann, Michael Schulz, Ken Vandermark, William Parker, Derek Bailey and Evan Parker are leading contemporary free jazz musicians, and musicians such as Coleman, Taylor and Sanders continue to play in this style. Keith Jarrett has been prominent in defending free jazz from criticism by traditionalists in recent years.

Jazz and rock music: jazz fusion

Main article: Jazz fusion Jazz fusion With the growth of rock and roll in the 1960s, came the hybrid form jazz-rock fusion, again involving Davis, who recorded the fusion albums In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew in 1968 and 1969 respectively. Jazz was by this time no longer center stage in popular music, but was still breaking new ground and combining and recombining in different forms. Notable artists of the 1960s and 1970s jazz and fusion scene include: Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and his Headhunters band, John McLaughlin and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Al Di Meola, Jean-Luc Ponty, Sun Ra, Soft Machine, Narada Michael Walden (who would later enjoy huge success as a music producer), Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius, the Pat Metheny Group and Weather Report. Some of these have continued to develop the genre into the 2000s.

Recent developments

The stylistic diversity of jazz has shown no sign of diminishing, absorbing influences from such disparate sources as world music and avant garde classical music, including African rhythm and traditional structure, serialism, and the extensive use of chromatic scale, by such musicians as Ornette Coleman and John Zorn. Beginning in the 1970s with such artists as Keith Jarrett, Paul Bley, the Pat Metheny Group, Jan Garbarek, Ralph Towner, and Eberhard Weber, the ECM record label established a new chamber-music aesthetic, featuring mainly acoustic instruments, and incorporating elements of world music and folk music. This is sometimes referred to as "European" or "Nordic" jazz, despite some of the leading players being American. However, the jazz community has shrunk dramatically and split, with a mainly older audience retaining an interest in traditional and "straight-ahead" jazz styles, a small core of practitioners and fans interested in highly experimental modern jazz, and a constantly changing group of musicians fusing jazz idioms with contemporary popular music genres. The latter have formed such styles as acid jazz which contains elements of 1970s disco, acid swing which combines 1940s style big-band sounds with faster, more aggressive rock-influenced drums and electric guitar, and nu jazz which combines elements of jazz and modern forms of electronic dance music. Exponents of the "acid jazz" style which was initially UK-based included the Brand New Heavies, James Taylor Quartet, Young Disciples, and Corduroy. In the United States, acid jazz groups included the Groove Collective, Soulive, and Solsonics. In a more pop or smooth jazz context, jazz enjoyed a resurgence in the 1980s with such bands as Pigbag and Curiosity Killed the Cat achieving chart hits in Britain. Sade Adu became the definitive voice of smooth jazz. There have been other developments in the 1980s and 1990s that were less commercially oriented. Many of these artists, notably Wynton Marsalis, called what they were doing jazz and in fact strove to define what the term actually meant. They sought to create within what they felt was the tradition, creating extensions of small and large forms initially