From: jmf@endor.harvard.edu ( ghost )
Newsgroups: rec.music.folk,rec.music.misc
Subject: Re: Modes; was: Re: Reading music - book sought.
Date: 22 Dec 92 19:09:44 GMT
Article-I.D.: das.1992Dec22.190944.15593
Organization: DAS Purchasing, Harvard University


In article <BzMF2r.B1n@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk> jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin) writes:

>jmf@endor.harvard.edu ( ghost ) wrote:
>> Aside on Sacred Harp stuff:  its a hybrid between the very stark & the
>> incredibly ornate, which its what makes it so neat.
>> I've always thought the stark aspect came from the predominantly
>> "modal" structure (whatever that really means) & the ornate came from
>> the overlay of "classical" ornamentation.  
>

>Not really.  Sacred Harp music uses much simpler harmony than most Western
>art music of the last 400 years or so - lots of bare fourths and fifths,
>and quite a few "parallel fifths" where the melodic lines of different
>parts are simple transpositions of each other by a fifth.  Modal music tends
>to imply simple harmony, but it doesn't have to - listen to some mid-16th-

Miscommunication on my part:  although what we've been discussing has
included harmony, what I meant here was
"the tenor & treble parts, each considered seperately as stand-alone melody
lines, often have lots of notes, & gymnastics between them, 
per square whatever, a lot like the flowerier classical stuff...."
that they do stand alone perfectly well is possibly no meaner a feat 
than writing a classical harmony.

I'm blocking on the terminology, but there is a classical word for
"distinct songs which form a harmony when sung together".

Also note:  I'm not including the Sacred Harp "fugueing tunes" (they don't
exactly call them fugues) here...I wouldn't propose
singing those lines alone unless you go for long silences, sudden starts
& can keep perfect time...

I'm not saying the bass wouldn't sound good alone, but I haven't thought 
about it. 

The alto was added purely for modern consumption & is most likely to be
the part that is made up of pieces of other parts transposed into alto range,
& also the part that assumes least agility on the part of the singer;
its not specifically the womens' part, as women traditionally sing 
treble & tenor parts with the men, each starting in their most
comfortable range.  Nevertheless, the alto part also can stand alone.

The neatest thing, to me, about Sacred Harp is that the melody perceived
to someone listening, or, I'm told, standing at the center, is a completely
seperate 5th melody, not any one of the parts.
The music features a moving focus being bounced around the room 
like some kind of incandescent volleyball, never entirely posessed by one part. 

Comparison from a completely different music:

Ossian (now apparently defunct as group, sadly, though the principals
are all doing good things seperately) had that effect every time I've heard
them play.

The Chieftans, although they don't feature this effect on record,
had it periodically on the one occasion I've heard them live,
at the Stonehill College Irish Festival last summer.
(People on the net had been saying they were completely over the
hill, delivered only lackluster performances for big bucks...not true.)
Newsgroups: rec.music.folk