Cyclic Patterns In John Coltrane’s Melodic Vocabulary As .
CYCLIC PATTERNS IN JOHN COLTRANE’S MELODIC VOCABULARY ASINFLUENCED BY NICOLAS SLONIMSKY’S THESAURUS OF SCALES ANDMELODIC PATTERNS: AN ANALYSIS OF SELECTED IMPROVISATIONSJeff Bair, B.M.E., M.M.Dissertation Prepared For the Degree ofDOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTSUNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXASAugust 2003APPROVED:James Riggs, Major ProfessorGraham Phipps, Minor ProfessorDeanna Bush, Committee MemberJohn Murphy, Committee MemberJames C. Scott, Dean of the College of MusicC. Neal Tate, Dean of the Robert B. ToulouseSchool of Graduate Studies
Bair, Jeff, Cyclic Patterns in John Coltrane’s Melodic Vocabulary as Influencedby Nicolas Slonimsky’s Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns: An Analysisof Selected Improvisations. Doctor of Musical Arts (Performance), August 2003,112 pp., 76 musical examples, references.This study documents and analyzes cyclic patterns used as melodicvocabulary in John Coltrane's improvisations from compositions of 1965 to 1967.The analysis is categorized in two distinct sections. The first section analyzesmelodic vocabulary that is derived from the cycle of descending major thirdsprogressions found in the compositions of 1959 to 1960. The second sectionanalyzes melodic vocabulary that is derived from Nicolas Slonimsky's Thesaurusof Scales and Melodic Patterns using the theoretical terminology incorporated inthe treatise. Musical examples consist of patterns from the Thesaurus andexcerpts from selected improvisations of John Coltrane as transcribed by AndrewWhite.Important scholarly contributions relevant to the subject by Carl Woideck,Lewis Porter, David Demsey, and Walt Weiskopf are included. Every effort hasbeen made to cite interviews with musicians and commentaries by writerscontemporary to that period of time with special emphasis on the importantinfluence of Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, and Ornette Coleman.
Chapter headings include: Literature Review and Methodology;Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, and Ornette Coleman: Converging Influences;Analysis: Coltrane's Major Thirds Harmonic Cycles Used as Melodic Vocabulary;Interval Cycles in Coltrane's Melodic Vocabulary Based on Patterns fromSlonimsky’s Thesaurus; Summary and Conclusion.
Copyright 2003byJeff Bairii
TABLE OF CONTENTSpageLIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES .ivINTRODUCTION. viiiCHAPTER1. LITERATURE REVIEW AND METHODOLOGY . 12. THELONIOUS MONK, MILES DAVIS AND ORNETTE COLEMAN:CONVERGING INFLUENCES . 233. ANALYSIS: COLTRANE'S MAJOR THIRDS HARMONIC CYCLES USED ASMELODIC VOCABULARY. 344. INTERVAL CYCLES IN COLTRANE'S MELODIC VOCABULARY BASED ONPATTERNS FROM SLONIMSKY’S THESAURUS. 575. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION. 109SELECTED BIBILIOGRAPHY. 113iii
LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLESExamplepage1.John Coltrane, chord progression of Giant Steps, transcribed by Andrew White . 22.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, table from theIntroduction. 73.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns,#286 . 84.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, pattern #372 . 355.John Coltrane, Brasilia, transcribed by Andrew White. 366.John Coltrane, Brasilia, transcribed by Andrew White. 377.John Coltrane, Brasilia, transcribed by Andrew White . 388.John Coltrane, Brasilia, transcribed by Andrew White. 399.John Coltrane, Brasilia, transcribed by Andrew White. 4010.John Coltrane, Nature Boy, transcribed by Andrew White. 4211.John Coltrane, After the Crescent, transcribed by Andrew White. 4412.John Coltrane, After the Crescent, transcribed by Andrew White. 4513.John Coltrane, One Down, One Up, transcribed by Andrew White . 4614.John Coltrane, One Down, One Up, transcribed by Andrew White . 4715.John Coltrane, Peace and After (from Suite), transcribed by Andrew White . 4816.John Coltrane, Transition, transcribed by Andrew White. 4917.John Coltrane, Untitled 90314, transcribed by Andrew White . 5018.John Coltrane, Untitled 90314, transcribed by Andrew White . 5119.John Coltrane, Untitled 90320, transcribed by Andrew White . 5220.John Coltrane, Untitled 90320, transcribed by Andrew White . 53iv
21.John Coltrane, Mars, Transcribed by Andrew White . 5422.John Coltrane, Mars, Transcribed by Andrew White . 5523.John Coltrane, Mars, transcribed by Andrew White. 5824.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, #574 . 5925.John Coltrane, Brasilia, transcribed by Andrew White. 5926.John Coltrane, Jupiter, transcribed by Andrew White. 6027.Nicloas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, pattern #892 . 6128.John Coltrane, Saturn, transcribed by Andrew White . 6229.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, pattern #827 . 6230.John Coltrane, Venus, transcribed by Andrew White . 6331.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, #270, ditoneProgression with Infrapolation of Three Notes. 6432.John Coltrane, One Down, One Up, melody (beginning), transcribed by AndrewWhite . 6533.John Coltrane, One Down, One Up, improvisation, transcribed by Andrew White. 6634.John Coltrane, One Down, One Up, melody (return), transcribed by Andrew White. 6735.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, #186 . 6736.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, pattern #182 . 6937.John Coltrane, One Down, One Up, transcribed by Andrew White . 7038.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, pattern #187 . 7139.John Coltrane, One Down, One Up, transcribed by Andrew White . 71v
40.John Coltrane, Nature Boy (2/17/65), transcribed by Andrew White . 7241.John Coltrane, Nature Boy (2/18/65), transcribed by Andrew White . 7342.John Coltrane, Untitled 90314, transcribed by Andrew White . 7443.John Coltrane, Song of Praise, transcribed by Andrew White . 7544.John Coltrane, Brasilia, transcribed by Andrew White. 7645.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, pattern #447 . 7746.John Coltrane, Saturn, transcribed by Andrew White . 7847.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, #394 . 7848.John Coltrane, I Want to Talk About You, transcribed by Andrew White. 8049.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, #497 . 8150.John Coltrane, Jupiter, transcribed by Andrew White. 8251.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, #570 . 8352.John Coltrane, Saturn, transcribed by Andrew White . 8553.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, #606 . 8654.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, #570 . 8655.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, #2 . 8856.John Coltrane, One Down, One Up, transcribed by Andrew White . 8957.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, #2 . 8958.John Coltrane, One Down, One Up, transcribed by Andrew White . 9059.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, #3 . 9160.John Coltrane, Offering, transcribed by Andrew White. 9261.John Coltrane, Untitled 90320, transcribed by Andrew White . 9362.John Coltrane, Venus, transcribed by Andrew White . 94vi
63.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, pattern #2 and #3. 9564.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, pattern #28 . 9665.John Coltrane, Untitled Original 90314, transcribed by Andrew White . 9766.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, pattern #30 . 9767.John Coltrane, Untitled Original 90314, transcribed by Andrew White . 9868.John Coltrane, One Down, One Up, transcribed by Andrew White . 9969.John Coltrane, One Down, One Up, transcribed by Andrew White . 10070.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, pattern #28 . 10171.John Coltrane, Nature Boy, transcribed by Andrew White. 10272.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, pattern #30 . 10273.John Coltrane, Nature Boy, transcribed by Andrew White. 10474.Nicolas Slonimsky, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, pattern #40 . 10475.John Coltrane, Transition, transcribed by Andrew White. 10676.John Coltrane, Chim Chim Cheree, transcribed by Andrew White . 107vii
INTRODUCTIONJazz improvisation by the great masters reveals an extremely high level of artistry.Most of these musicians continually perfected their craft, drawing on new material forinspiration and experimenting with harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic elements that led toinnovation. Due to his many unique contributions to the jazz style, John Coltrane must beregarded as one of the greatest innovators of the twentieth-century. The introduction ofharmonic and melodic interval cycles into jazz repertoire is just one of the manyinnovations initiated by Coltrane that has had a lasting impact on the style of jazz music.This study will document melodic vocabulary in John Coltrane’s improvisations from 1965to 1967. The melodic vocabulary of this period will be divided and analyzed in twocategorical sections. The first section will analyze melodic vocabulary that is derived fromthe cycle of descending major thirds progressions found in John Coltrane’s compositionsof 1959 to 1960, which scholars have traced to the Thesaurus of Scales and MelodicPatterns by Nicolas Slonimsky1. The second section will analyze melodic vocabulary thatis derived from the Thesaurus using the theoretical terminology incorporated in thetreatise. Using the terminology included in the treatise to analyze John Coltrane’s cyclicpatterns also serves the purpose of understanding the Thesaurus from a pedagogicalstandpoint and creating the opportunity for this vocabulary to be extensively assimilatedinto the language of jazz. Fortunately, many references to the development of thisvocabulary survive in documented interviews with John Coltrane and those musiciansmost closely associated with him. Observations by jazz critics and writers contemporaryto that time period and the present will also be included.1David Demsey, “Chromatic Third Relations in the Music of John Coltrane,” Annual Review of JazzStudies 5 (1991): 154-5.viii
Melodic vocabulary of the second section will be referred to as interval cycles. Inhis book entitled Twentieth-Century Music, Elliott Antokoletz defines such patterns thatare constructed by the progression of a single recurrent interval as “interval cycles.”2Interval cycles and their function in the music of composers of the late nineteenth andtwentieth centuries can be found in the scholarly writings of Antokoletz, George Perle,Gary S. Karpinski, Richard Cohn, and Edward Lundergan.3This study is intentionally limited to those portions of Coltrane’s improvisations thatare organized using cyclic construction. It is not meant to be an analysis of the entireimprovisation nor is it meant to document the interaction between musicians of theensemble during the improvisation.2Elliott Antokoletz, Twentieth-Century Music (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1992), 19.3Elliott Antokoletz, A Study of Tonality and Progression in Twentieth-Century Music (Berkeley: Universityof California Press 1984); Elliott Antokoletz, “Interval Cycles in Stravinsky’s Early Ballets” Journal of theAmerican Musicological Society 39 (Fall 1986): 578-614; George Perle, “Berg’s Master Array of the IntervalCycles,” The Musical Quarterly 63, no 1 (January 1977): 1-30; George Perle, The Listening ComposerBerkeley: University of California Press, 1990); Gary S. Karpinski, “Structural Functions of the IntervalCycles in Early 20th-Century Music,” International Journal of Musicology 4 (1995):183-206; Richard Cohn,“Maximally Smooth Cycles, Hexatonic Systems, and the Analysis of Late-Romantic Triadic Progressions”Music Analysis 15:1 (1996): 9-40; Edward Lundergan, “Musical Metaphor: Cyclic-Interval Structures inBritten’s ‘War Requiem’” Choral Journal 38 no 7 (February 1998): 9-15, 17-20.ix
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW AND METHODOLOGYLiterature Review. In the article Chromatic Third Relations in the Music of JohnColtrane, David Demsey discusses the late nineteenth-century practice of rootmovement by major or minor thirds in chord progressions that freed composersof the typical root movement by fourths or fifths. He defines a chromatic thirdrelation as a progression that moves by major or minor thirds, which would dividethe octave into equal parts.7 Demsey demonstrates that John Coltranefrequently employed chromatic third relations in his original compositions andarrangements as elaboration of ii – V – I harmony. For instance, in theprogression d minor – G7 – C major, Coltrane would substitute a series of V7 – Icadences descending by major thirds between the d minor and G7 chord. Theresulting progression, d minor – Eb7 - Ab major – B7 –E major – G7 – C major,would be what Demsey describes as a “tonic prolongation.”8 Jazz musicianstypically refer to this chord progression as “Coltrane Changes”. Demsey aptlyillustrates the differences between compositions that contain chord substitutionsused as tonic prolongations, such as “Countdown”, from the composition “GiantSteps” in which the function of the progression is to form a complete major thirds7Ibid., 147-50. Demsey’s use of the label “Chromatic Third Relations” (sometimesreferred to in music theory as a “Chromatic Mediant Relationship”) is applied differently in thiscontext.8Ibid., 161. The term “tonic prolongation” is used in a different context than others haveused it (i.e., Schenker).1
cycle.9 The chord structure of this piece, cited as Example 1, is composedentirely of three key centers (B major, G major, and Eb major) a major third apartarranged so that the entire composition is a complete cycle. The cyclicconstruction of “Giant Steps” is so complete that it is difficult to determine whichof the three key centers is the principal key of the work.10 In this progression themajor thirds cycles no longer function as substitutions that prolong the tonic, butrather chordal sequences that continuously perpetuate themselves. Indeed, asDemsey points out, Coltrane referred to them as “sequences.”11 As this studywill illustrate, he ceased to incorporate them into the harmonic structure of hiscompositions, but they remained a part of his improvisational melodic vocabularyuntil the very end of his life.Example 1: John Coltrane, chord progression of Giant Steps, transcribed byAndrew WhiteReprinted by permission of Andrew White, Andrew’s Musical Enterprises, Inc.9Ibid., 169. Major thirds cycles have been used by composers previous to thisapplication, but in a different way than John Coltrane used them (i.e., Liszt).10Ibid., 169.11Ibid.2
In his definitive biography John Coltrane: His Life and Music, LewisPorter provides an early example of the melodic application of major thirds cyclesby way of David Demsey:Many musicians believe that Coltrane’s free playing wasderived from playing "Giant Steps" patterns over the modalpieces. An early example was "Fifth House." But in that case heactually had a specific chord sequence in his mind while theband played a pedal point. Can one really find the "Giant Steps"technique in his playing over strictly modal pieces like"Impressions"? David Demsey believes so and provided me thefollowing analysis of Coltrane's live 1961 recording of the piece,the title track of his Impulse album.12Demsey has found numerous places in Coltrane's solo on "Impressions" wherethere is implication of chromatic thirds related harmony. 13 Many of these areminor third relations. However, there is one particular example illustrated byPorter from Demsey's examples that clearly indicate movement by major thirds.It is a phrase of approximately three measures that implies the same briefdominant - tonic cadences descending tonally by major thirds that can be foundin "Giant Steps". The melodic pattern implies the harmonic progression: A7 - Dmajor -F7 - Bb major - Db7 - Gb major.14 Porter refers to other occurrences ofthird related patterns in his own analysis of Coltrane's solo on "Venus" (1967)and in the research of German scholar Gerhard Putschogl, who finds "fleeting12Lewis Porter, John Coltrane: His Life and Music (Ann Arbor: University of MichiganPress, 1998), 223.13Ibid., 223-4. Minor third cycles are commonly identified in music theory as the octatonic14Ibid., 225scale.3
traces of thirds patterns as late as the recording of 'Brasilia' in May 1965 "15Walt Weiskopf has discovered an implied major thirds cycle in Coltrane’sunaccompanied solo break on the composition “Summertime”, recorded inOctober of 1960. The implied harmonic progression, as outlined by Weiskopf isE minor – G7 – C major – Eb7 – Ab major – B7 – E minor. The cycle as it occursin this example includes a minor key (E) along with the major key centers of Cand Ab.16 Keeping in mind that the above examples are beyond the recordingdate that produced "Giant Steps" and "Countdown" in the early spring of 1959,another example cited by Porter is interesting for the fact that it was recordedover a month before this pivotal date. In the February 1959 recording of"Limehouse Blues", Porter illustrates (upon the recommendation of CarlWoideck) an example of an implied major thirds cycle over four measures of asingle dominant chord. The melodic pattern in this example implies the harmonicprogression of key centers a major thir
Bair, Jeff, Cyclic Patterns in John Coltrane’s Melodic Vocabulary as Influenced by Nicolas Slonimsky’s Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns: An Analysis of Selected Improvisations. Doctor of Musical Arts (Performance), August 2003,
member of the John Coltrane Quartet. This study also details the musical influence John Coltrane had on the development of Tyner’s signature style in the early 1960s. As a member of Coltrane’s quartet, Tyner not only received valuable lessons from Coltrane, but was also exposed . v
John Coltrane Take the Coltrane Kelly Bucheger Transcribed by From ìDuke Ellington & John Coltraneî (Impulse) Recorded September 26, 1962 Kelly Bucheger / HarderBop.com harderbop.com. 37
Jazz Festival, as well as sit-in performances with Coltrane inspired saxophonists Branford Marsalis (2007) and Pharoah Sanders (2010). As a precursor to the anticipated 2016 Jazz Festival, three Fall Coltrane tribute programs were performed: On September 23 (Coltrane's 89th birthday), tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson was joined by Les McCann. On
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John Coltrane was at the forefront of many important directions in jazz in the 1950s and 1960s, including those that have been labeled hard bop, modal jazz, avant-garde jazz, and world music. One interest that became an increasingl
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5.3 Cyclic Voltammetry of Ferrocene Carboxylic Acid 5.3.1 Switch the current range to 10 µA. 5.3.2 From the techniques menu select Cyclic Voltammetry. This opens the Staircase Cyclic Voltammetry dialog box, which is used to set the limits and ramp rate of the voltage waveform applied to the working electrode. In the dialog box, select the .
Thus it might seem that Scrum, the Agile process often used for software development, would not be appropriate for hardware development. However, most of the obvious differences between hardware and software development have to do with the nature and sequencing of deliverables, rather than unique attributes of the work that constrain the process. The research conducted for this paper indicates .
