re Pynchon's music

[Doug Millison]

Cyrus,  thanks for the reminder that the song P refers to in that M&D 
passage is the American National Anthem, not a rap.  Singers will 
tell you how difficult the American National Anthem is to sing, 
precisely because the melody jumps around intervals that aren't 
usually part of the I-IV-V chord (another V) structure found in roots 
music around the world and especially in the gospel/blues/R&B/R 'n' R 
songs that so heavily influence the "standard three minute pop song"; 
you find similar structure in the Tin Pan Alley and other songs of 
the early decades in the 20th century that P celebrates in GR.   (The 
difficulty is especially obvious when you hear some singers from pop, 
rock, C&W, R&B traditions simplify the melody and smooth out the 
difficult intervals when they sing the Anthem before sporting 
events.)  Pynchon returns to this chord progression as a metaphor 
several times in his novels, if I remember correctly.

For an understanding of an equally important, basic structure in 
classical music, see Charles Rosen's book, Sonata Forms.

"In jazz, a blues sequence extends over 12 bars, containing three
harmonic crisis points, and only these give the improviser hints as to
where his melodic variations should go and what kind of musical mood
they should imply. The paradox is that, sparse though these are, they
have a vast emotional potential for the gifted player to discover, so that,
ever since the beginnings of instrumental jazz, a player's ability with a
blues sequence has been a guide to his true talent. Perhaps the most
extraordinary thing about the blues has been its durability; it has
retained its attraction for soloists of all eras and schools, changing with
new approaches and movements but remaining intrinsically itself."
from: "jazz" Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
<http://www.members.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=118791&sctn=3>
[Accessed July 8 2001].

"As a musical style the blues are characterized by expressive pitch
inflections (blue notes), a three-line textual stanza of the form AAB, and
a 12-measure form. Typically the first two and a half measures of each
line are devoted to singing, the last measure and a half consisting of an
instrumental "break" that repeats, answers, or complements the vocal
line. In terms of functional (i.e., traditional European) harmony, the
simplest blues harmonic progression is described as follows (I, IV, and V
refer respectively to the first or tonic, fourth or subdominant, and fifth or
dominant notes of the scale):

Phrase 1 (measures 1-4) I-I-I-I

Phrase 2 (measures 5-8) IV-IV-I-I

Phrase 3 (measures 9-12) V-V-I-I.

African influences are apparent in the blues tonality; the call and
response pattern of the repeated refrain structure of the blues stanza;
the falsetto break in the vocal style; and the imitation of vocal idioms by
instruments, especially the guitar and harmonica. "
from: "blues" Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
<http://www.members.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=15992&sctn=1>
[Accessed July 8 2001]


...Speaking of binaries and excluded middles, and fundamental musical form:


"The basic elements of sonata form are three: exposition, development,
and recapitulation, in which the musical subject matter is stated,
explored or expanded, and restated. There may also be an introduction,
usually in slow tempo, and a coda, or tailpiece, but these optional
sections do not affect the basic structure. ... the three
parts of sonata form developed out of the binary, or two-part, form
prominent in the music of the 17th and early 18th centuries. In binary
form the structure depends on the interrelationship not only of themes
but also of tonalities, or keys, the particular sets of notes and chords
used in each part. Thus, the initial part, which is repeated, leads directly
into the second part by ending in the new key in which the second part
begins. The second, also repeated, moves from the new key back to the
original key, in which it ends. The second part thus completes the first.
In sonata form the exposition corresponds to the first part of binary
form, the development and recapitulation to the second. The exposition
moves from the original key to a new key; the development passes
through several keys and the recapitulation returns to the original key.
This echoes the motion, in binary form, away from and back to the
original key. In relation to binary form, sonata form is complex. It
offers, in the exposition, contrasting musical statements. In the
development these are treated dialectically; that is, they are combined,
broken up, recombined, and otherwise brought into change and conflict.
In the recapitulation they are restated in a new light. This organic
relationship between parts marks the sonata form as a higher, more
complex, type than the ternary form. The occasional designation of
sonata form as compound binary form is useful in that it stresses its
origins in the earlier form, but notes its added complexity. "
from: "sonata" Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
<http://www.members.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=118783&sctn=2>
[Accessed July 8 2001].


"Corporate rock
The 1970s began as the decade of the rock superstar. Excess became
the norm for bands such as the Rolling Stones, not just in terms of their
private wealth and well-publicized decadence but also in terms of stage
and studio effects and costs. The sheer scale of rock album sales gave
musicians--and their ever-growing entourage of managers, lawyers, and
accountants--the upper hand in negotiations with record companies, and
for a moment it seemed that the greater the artistic self-indulgence the
bigger the financial return. By the end of the decade, though, the
25-year growth in record sales had come to a halt, and a combination of
economic recession and increasing competition for young people's
leisure spending (notably from the makers of video games) brought the
music industry, by this point based on rock, its first real crisis. The
Anglo-American music market was consolidated into a shape that has
not changed much since, while new sales opportunities beyond the
established transatlantic route began to be pursued more intently. 
... Rock, in other words, was routinized, as both a moneymaking and a
music-making practice."
from:



CyrusGeo:
As Pynchon mentions a few lines above in the same page (M&D, 262), the
name of the air is "To Anacreon in Heaven". It was written in c.1780,
probably by the British composer John Stafford Smith. The melody is well
known, since it was later used for the American National Anthem, with
different words, of course. For more, quite interesting, info, go to:
http://www.contemplator.com/america/anacreon.html



jbor::
>  My knowledge of music isn't good enough to visualise (auralise?) what
the
>  toe-tapping "Air" which Ethelmer plays for them as an example might
equate
>  to -- the tempo of a minuet, 32 measures, four stanza, eight bars,
sandwich
>  and filling etc (262) -- I wonder if it is the classic
verse-chorus-verse
>  structure of the standard three minute pop song?

-- 
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