From: ujwb@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Jeff Beer)
Newsgroups: rec.music.bluenote
Subject: Re: Harmolodics ???
Date: 8 Jan 1993 23:40:47 -0600
Organization: Educational Computing Network
NNTP-Posting-Host: uxa.ecn.bgu.edu

I heard Don Cherry explain the harmolodic theory by asking if when you
tune to A-440, do you hear it as a tonic in the key of A, or the leading tone
in the key of Bb, or the major third in the key of F?   You really could
hear this in many ways, and doing so would open up many different kinds of
modulations that would not be available from standard harmony.
Especially when you're in a musical situation of the bass player and other
horns having specific key areas established.   When I play Ornette's
music, I work this way a lot.  I might establish a pitch, so I can get 
the bass player to center in on that key (increase equilibrium), and as 
soom as he does this, BOOM, I change its function, and there immediately 
is a modulation into some polytonal space.   

Beyond that, I think you can hear different kinds of parallel harmonies
in Ornette's larger ensemble works.  Like what was in the Giddens'
article.  I transcribed What Reason Could I Give.  It is a series
of short melodic phrases in a ballad style, ending on a sustained note
before the next phrase is played.  For the most part, the melody is in C
major, and could be considered modal.  There is a trumpet part always
a perfect 5th away.  If Dewey Redman's part is analysed as modal,
each succeeding phrase is in a different key, but that key is not
always the same interval away from the lead melody.  And 1 phrase has
the qualities of voice leading.  For instances, sometimes Dewey is in a
parallel harmony a perfect 4th away.  Then the next phrase is in a
parallel harmony a minor third away.  Another time he is in the same key 
as the melody, but in a diatonic harmony.  

Gunther Schuller in the book Musings writes of the Harmolodic Theory:

	'It is apparently based on the untransposed performing in varied
clefs and "keys" the same muscial materials (lines, themes, melodies)
ths producing a simplistic organum-like "polyphony", primarily in
parallel unrelieved motion.  It is not clear, however, how this theory
functions in Coleman's own improvisatory style.'

Schuller also calls it "modal", but that is not true.  There are too many
clear modulations (chromatic or diatonic) in his melodies for it to be 
considered purely modal.  He also mixes modal harmonies in a parallel but
changing fashion such as in the example described above. 
Occasionally the chromaticism of Charlie Parker is in the mix.  Since the
elements can change so fast, the "Bird" element will never seem as
refined as the beboppers.  The harmolodic theory is a mix of all these
elements in a fragmented and deliberately ambigious fashion. 

Another factor not related to pitch organization is how the phrase
fits over the time.  Don Cherry used to say that the first note of every
Ornette tune is the 1.  That is not really true, but in general, the
melodies are free to be phrased so that they won't fit in the same place
of the meter.  Schuller has a book of Ornette tunes, and you find all
sorts of wierd time signatures all over the place.  Really what he
should have done was just leave a whole rest between bar lines and say
that it is an indeterminate rest.  The horn players then listen to the
drummer and bass player and decide when to come in on that basis.  You
can come in turned around, and while the rhythm section scrambles to get
back to what the time is, that is IF they do, there is some 
interesting rhythmic conterpoint made.

Some quotes from Ornette:

Ornette:  All I tell them is to play themselves.  When they have a 
          problem that has to do with what key it is or what time
          it is played in, that's when I give them a lesson in 
          harmolodics.

Ornette: I'll tell you what I had done with the classical guy. ( Chris
Rosenberg)   I asked him to come by and I said: "Look, I want you to
play the best piece that you like to play that's classical.  Forget the
composer, the key, don't worry about anything but the fact that you love
to play this piece.  I want you to play this piece for me, and let me
hear it, and I'm going to take my horn and interpet that same piece in
harmolodics with you while you're playing it".  So he did that and I
picked up my horn and played with him,and I asked, "Well, how do you
think I did that?".  The first thing he said was "You must have a
phenomenal ear.".  I said, no, it's not just my ear, it's this thing
that I have found out that all sounds have in common.  For instance, you
tell me one interval of a melody, and I can tell you the next four notes
that you would have to have in your melody.".  He said, "OK, B".  Then I
said, "the notes are going to be probably F, D, B, and E".  He said,
"Well you got three of them right, how did you do that?"  I said,
"Through harmolodics".  Basically, that's how I work with someone who's
going to work with me.

If a person decides to think of his instrument as a chordal instrument
or a rhythm instrument or a melodic instrument, that if someone was
doing somthing that was against the principles of how he could play in
that same environment, that it was going to cause him to have a problem,
I decided to show each one (musician) how to play each other's parts
without getting in each other's way.


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