Dear Fred,
I am a little behind on my digests, but I had to tell you that this is very
well written. I will definitely check out the book by Nicolas Slonimsky. It
has been many a year since I took music theory, but I loved it with all of my
heart. Hearing conversation like this is like being served a fine, satisfying
dinner. I encourage anyone who loves Joni to check out a basic music theory
course. It will enrich your love of Joni's music all the more. Maybe we can
have some basics right here on the list, possibly starting by explaining
modal and non-modal music. Any volunteers? My music theory is a bit rusty,
but I am about to remedy that! Thanks again Fred and also Anne. Sorry, that's
as far as I've read on posts so thank you to those who posts I am about to
read as well.
Sherelle
In a message dated 11/23/2001 12:03:13 AM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
writes:
> Not sure of a web site but you might check out a book by
> composer/musicologist/lexicographer Nicolas Slonimsky: "Thesaurus of
> Musical
> Scales." (By the way, Slonimsky also collected pejorative reviews of famous
>
> musical masterpieces in "Lexicon of Musical Invective," an entertaining
> read
> as well as a wonderful tonic for anyone who has ever been the subject of
> critical slagging.)
>
> Joni's earlier music (the first 8 studio albums, her major achievement, in
> my
> view) is distinctly non-modal, references to "Japanese kyoto (sic) scales"
> notwithstanding (and that should probably be "koto," the stringed Japanese
> zither, cousin of the dulcimer, not the city "Kyoto").
>
> In fact, her music is intriguingly and exceedingly chromatic ("Songs to
> Aging
> Children"). Truly modal music is, by definition, harmonically static. Some
> of
> Joni's tunes are somewhat modal, especially later work ("Sire of Sorrow")
> but
> a big part of what thrills me about her earlier music (and the lack of
> which
> disappoints in later stuff) is the wildly rich harmonic language of her own
>
> invention, which has an intuitive logic apart from traditional harmonic
> motion, and which boldly, almost capriciously (but never incoherently),
> moves
> to unrelated tonal areas ("Banquet").
>
> As her music shifted from song-like structures to later rectitative/linear
> forms (especially from "Hejira" on) her harmonic range has narrowed and
> flattened out, becoming, in effect, more modal. I sometimes wonder if this
> development has left her unsatisfied and is partly the source of her
> diminishing output, contrasting so starkly, as it does, with the riotously
> colorful harmonic language of the American Songbook standards on the
> orchestral "Both Sides Now" and the return to her own earlier songs.
>
> - -Fred
