GRGR (20) Part 3, Episode 12: Notes, Part 1 of 2

[Michael Perez]

434.31-33   “all white, an octave on B to be exact—or H, in the
German nomenclature”  The only difference between English
and German ways of naming diatonic pitches.  For Germans,
the white key before C is called H, and an English B flat (a
black piano key) is a German B.

434.33-34  “the notes of the rejected Locrian mode”  This
refers to the church modes, which was a medieval system of
scales using only pitches that are represented by the white keys
of the piano.  The intervals between the pitches on these scales
depended upon the first note of the scale.  There were
originally eight modes based on four pitches - D, E, F, and G -
in two forms, authentic and plagal.  Four more were added in
the mid-16th century, two based on A (which became,
according to the intervals between pitches, the basis for the
natural minor scale in tonal music) and the others on C (which
became the major scale in tonal music).  The authentic mode
based on B, what modern theorists call the Locrian mode, was
never used because the interval between the tonic and
dominant pitches (B to F) is a diminished fifth, also called the
tritone, because it spanned three whole tones, or *diabolus in
musica* (Latin for “the devil in music”).  Seeing the isolated
group of piano keys that form this mode may make this a
signpost for the devil’s territory.  NOTE:  Weisenburger’s
description of this bit of musical trivia is a bit inaccurate. 
First, he mentions “Hyperphrygian”[sic] as an alternate name
for the Locrian mode.  The plagal form of the Locrian mode
would be the Hypolydian and for it to be referenced here the
note span on the piano keys found would have to be an octave
on F, since the scale in the plagal forms went from the tonic to
the fifth above then down to the fourth below the tonic.  The
Hypophrygian mode is the plagal form of the Phrygian mode,
which is based on E.  Second, he states that these modes were
“handed down from Hellenic culture.”  This is only partially
true.  The names for the church modes are some of the same
used for the earlier Greek octave species, but these groups of
eight notes (always descending in pitch in the Greek system)
were based on different pitches from the church modes.  The
octave species based on B in Greek music was called
Mixolydian, which is not a name given to a church mode.  [All
this according to _The Harvard Brief Dictionary of Music_]

436.16  “‘As B/4’ was John Dillinger’s old signoff”  Dillinger
was still somewhat of a legend and had many admirers
including many in the Zone, the narrator tells us.  His status as
folk hero greatly angered J. Edgar Hoover.  Dillinger even
managed to charm law enforcement officials - there is a
famous picture of him at the Crown Point County Jail with
Indiana prosecutor Robert Estill after yet another arrest [view
this hysterical photo at: 
http://crimelibrary.com/americana/dillinger/dillingernew.htm ],
looking very chummy.  In attendance at the photo op were
senators, judges, and the governor.  It’s easy to see how
Pynchon’s delight in blurring the boundaries of good and evil
could have led him to notice the strange saga of Johnnie D. 
The abovementioned incarceration was temporary - Dillinger
escaped using a “gun” crudely carved from a piece of wood.

439.20-21  “it’s an open house here, no favored senses or
organs, all are equally at play”  This may be meant to presage
Gustav’s point about “dodecaphonic democracy, where all
notes get equal hearing” [440.7-8].

440.31  “Anton Webern is dead”  Weisenburger correctly
points out Pynchon’s anachronism, Webern was shot on
September 15,1945, by cook Raymond Bell.  He was working
undercover to trap Benno Mattel, who was married to
Webern’s daughter, Christine.  The “contingent of Allied
soldiers” Weisenburger says “approached the house” consisted
of Bell and only one other man, both Americans, according to
Webern biographer, Malcolm Hayes.  The two Americans had
three drinks each while pretending to be conducting a black
market transaction of some sort.  The cigar Webern was
stepping outside to smoke was windfall from Benno’s
operations.  Webern contracted dysentery in May and
recovered through the summer.  The cigar was to be his first in
some months, so he was quite looking forward to it and
stepped outside to light up in order that he not bother the
women and the sleeping children in the house.  In the
meantime, the two Americans were drawing their revolvers
and placing Benno under arrest.  Bell was on his way outside to
get back-up when he came across Webern.  Bell fired three
shots and ran.  Webern made his way inside the house,
announcing he had been shot.  As his wife and daughter eased
him onto a mattress, he is reported to have said:  “Es ist aus.”
[“It is over.”]  He died before help could arrive.

440.39  “going on since Bach”  The precise progression from
Bach to Webern, even if one only includes German speaking
composers, is an arguable one.  It is similar to the
anthropological battles over hominid lineages.  Brahms is
usually considered to be the Neanderthal to Wagner’s
Cro-Magnon, but Schönberg himself wrote his longest essay on
music about “Brahms the Progressive.”  Berlioz and Liszt
hardly ever get mentioned as contributors and later French and
Slavic composers are sometimes mentioned only as unruly
iconoclasts rather than representing a progression from
compositional traditions.  Schönberg would also probably
argue that Webern did not necessarily represent a progression
from the music and musical system that Schönberg invented. 
In fact, he took to task anyone who claimed that Webern
invented the *klangfarbenmelodie* technique, in which the
composer uses different instruments to play sections of a
melody - depending upon the sonority, range, etc. of the
individual instruments - rather than assigning the complete line
to any one instrument.

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