Category Archives: Teoria

Musician Protagonists in SF, pt.12

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TITLE: Orfeo

AUTHOR: Richard Powers

YEAR: 2014

IS THIS SF?
I believe so, though it’s close.  Based a bit on the story of Steve Kurtz, the SF in this book centers around tinkering with biological agents in home lab.  This is not so SF in itself, but in this story the protagonist, composer-teacher Peter Els, aims to tinker with bacterial DNA to a degree where he can code his music into it.  So the world of the book is the world of 2014, but with the science a bit speculative-ish…

PJE SYNOPSIS
See above, but then the FBI fears he might be a terrorist, so a chase ensues with many flashbacks along the way (Richard Powers style….)

REALLY A MUSICIAN?
YES, talks aptly and deeply about music and musicians.  Know full well the trials and tribulations of working creatively in music, finding performers, making recordings, etc.T ells a great story about Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, witnessed a Cage happening.

WHY A MUSICIAN?
Why a composer (hahaha)?  Someone who is a good tinkerer, used to be being alone with their thoughts.  Someone who is good at ‘theory’, though most composers, like this one, mostly fake it 😉  Also, good to have a protagonist who is intellectually well-rounded and curious, and has been for the past 50 years or so.

RECOMMENDED?
YES—moves along quickly with all kinds of drama and flashbacks, I enjoyed it.  Perhaps for non-musicians there’s a bit of lull here and there.  The drama with the daughter helps tie things together, but only as a touchstone and move-along for the plot.

© 2020 Peter J. Evans, theorist

Protagonist Musicians in SF, pt.9

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TITLE: Limitless (TV version)

AUTHOR: The Good People at CBS?  Craig Sweeny?

YEAR: 2015-2016

IS THIS SF?
YES?—action takes place in the now, but there is advanced pharmaceutical technology in the form of NZT-48.  The invention and use of this drug makes the narrative quite speculative.

PJE SYNOPSIS
Brian Finch is a failed musician, failed in life—takes a pill, becomes incredibly smart, with super-quick and detailed recall, and also the ability to make connections become concrete, no matter how far-fetched they may seem.  The pill kills, however, overwhelming the brain unless a immunization-booster shot is administered.  The booster in this case is administered by a shady-seeming politician.  Given this, crime-solving with the FBI becomes Finch’s main goal/day-job, though he runs into politically-oriented conspiracies that threaten his family and co-workers.

REALLY A MUSICIAN?
YES, though “failed” without commercial or aesthetic success.  Sings, plays guitar—after first taking the drug one part of Finch’s “mastery montage” is the playing the guitar an an incredible rate of speed.  Also has many LPs of unknown bands in non-popular genres…

WHY A MUSICIAN?
I think, mostly, for the sake of irony—from fumbler to fed!  Writers/creators needed someone to start off as low as possible to present contrast to the tight-lipped straight-arrows.  They also needed someone who seemed to have no prospects who would’ve been no stranger to drug culture.  Perhaps, and this is where I hang some of my hopes, they wanted someone who didn’t think like cop, but rather someone who sought connections, and is used to lateral thinking on their feet—so why NOT a musician!?!

RECOMMENDED?
SO-SO, at times light-hearted and speculative—-a bit weak as the conspiracy deepens… Would have been better off as a “monster of the week” type show.

© 2018 Peter J. Evans, theorist

Protagonist Musicians in SF, pt.8

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TITLE: City of Dark Magic

AUTHOR: Magnus Flyte

YEAR: 2012

IS THIS SF?

YES?—action takes place in the now, and there is neither advanced technology, nor any parts of the present that we wouldn’t recognize. It is quite speculative, as the present tries to come to turns with the science of the past, and how it still seems to work. Ultimately, the reference to Prague as the “city of dark magic” is potentially explaining because of miniature-yet-local time warps.
PJE SYNOPSIS

After her mentor dies mysteriously in Prague while studying Beethoven-related manuscripts and letters, Sarah Weston, a graduate student in musicology as well as a pianist, travels to Prague to complete her mentor’s work, to figure out why he died, and to try to avoid death herself. Along the way, she meets a dwarf who may have been Tycho Brahe’s assisstant, unocvers who Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved” really was, and falls in love with the heir to the throne of the royal house of Prague. She also comes to experience a drug that allows one to experience time in layers based upon whatever location she’s in, and as such witnesses the dealings of former occupants and passers-through, including performances by Beethoven and experiments by Brahe. She also manages to expose the nefarious plottings of a traitorous and murderous U.S. Senator with Presidential aspirations.
REALLY A MUSICIAN?

YES, great musical descriptions regarding technique, dynamics, harmonies, ensemble skills, tempi, etc. Sarah Weston is a teacher as well, giving lessons to a young and blind piano prodigy. In fact, Weston’s kind of musicianship (ear training, manuscript studies, paper writing, exhibit preparation) is presented in stark relief to that of the prodigy, who just seems to have unnatural and innate abilities. Part of the backdrop is the opening of a museum dedicated to the Royal collection, and Weston meets experts in the fields of weaponry, fashion, fabrics, blah blah blah, and the fact that the author chooses Weston above the the others as the focal point, elevates Music to my mind. 
WHY A MUSICIAN?

Someone with a good ear, with heightened perceptual abilities. Someone whose typical day-to-day experiences are the connection of old papers to current people. Someone who accepts the magical yet also sets their noise to the grind-stone as a matter of course.  Beethoven is the link between Brahe and the present, so why not a musicologist?    It is also great that the musician-protagonist has multiple and complicated facets to her character.
RECOMMENDED?

YES, not pure SF, but there is enough science, and a lot of throwing different time periods into relief. Reads really quickly and easily—there’s a lot of humor, and a lot of sex, as well as a race against the clock within a plot of evil intrigue. Kind of like Dan Brown, perhaps, but better, funnier, and more believable.
© 2016 Peter J. Evans, theorist

Harold in Italy as a precursor to Film Noir

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idée fixe
French cantus firmus

Harold is simple, unchanging, an innocent

am I the subject am I the observer

He witnesses a procession of Pilgrims
He witnesses a lover’s Serenade
He witnesses an Orgy of the Brigands
(nudge, nudge, wink, wink)

I am the subject I am the observer

As if that’s not proof enough, here’s videographic evidence

© 2016 Peter J. Evans, theorist

Schenker-Salzer-Brahms-Evans?

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10

PJE-schenker-brahms?

Let’s work with this template—

1) — starting with THE TONIC—how far can it be prolonged?

The black arrow typically represents contrapuntal motion towards the dominant.  The repeat reminds us indeed that we do return to THE TONIC….  However, the move from V to iii is jarring, an unexpected ‘cadencing’, therefore perhaps it is not a cadencing at all!?!?!?The motion to the iii after the repeat forces the listener to re-evaluate the motion towards the Dominant—was it the arrival of THE DOMINANT, or rather an extension of THE TONIC? This is change-of-hearing is reflected by the then-added green arrow and the underlying TONIC bracket.

2) — iii is then defined and re-affirmed by its dominant

but is it THE PREDOMINANT?  Here it certainly looks so…

3) — ending with THE DOMINANT—how far can it be prolonged?

Given the visual evidence (just the clarinet part!), the V bracket at the end of the charting seemed a possibility, though remote (see ?)—tonic 6/4, inverted IV chord, augmented sixth then Dominant again?  It was an effort to see if we could fit in with the template suggested by Ex.101a of Felix Salzer’s Structural Hearing—see the top line.

Though often regarding as simplistic, limiting, or at worst, unmusical, I find that Heinrich Schenker’s approach is quite inspiring, allowing for creativity, experimentation, even (thus this picture and this post!). Salzer’s presentation of Schenker’s approach is even more so, though it must always be kept in mind that reductive graphings can also be read in reverse as creative/additive possibilities.

BUT ALAS…!!! 

After examining the score of the third movement of Brahms’ second clarinet&piano sonata, op.120, the I 6/4 after the V7 is indeed rooted (duh!).  However, the iii is a predominant through that tonic-which-now-should-be-rooted.  The fact that the passage continues until a more structurally progressive pre-dominant arrives in the form of a rooted IV (not inverted…) says that this is not but rather A predominant, and that 101a is not THE TEMPLATE but rather a nested prolongation to further elaborate the tonic prolongation… In other words, THE TONIC bracket should continue below the iii and continuing, essentially breaking THE DOMINANT bracket in half.

 © 2014 Peter J. Evans, theorist

Actual Possibilities

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Music Theory: Actualities vs. Possibilities

“What is musical reality? What is a musical actuality?” I’ve come to ask myself these questions in light of student concerns, interests and presentations specifically stemming from this year’s Pedagogy of Theory class.

Theory itself is too abstract, non-relevant—the primary concern is that which will achieve immediate results in classroom and lesson settings, with Performance ultimately the main locus focus of attention.  Indeed, we, as the members of the Theory Department, say in our collective syllabi…

“Coursework should be thought of as not only classroom activity, but also as small-scale, highly-focused versions of musical reality.”  

In all honesty, this is meant to encourage students to prepare solfege and part-writing homework with the utmost attention to detail and musicality.  Thoughts of similar ilk seem to be an over-riding concern among those who teach theory these days: not Theory itself, but rather its practical application.   If preparing homework is akin to preparing for a lesson or a performance, is that an end in its own right?

This is a minor third, and you play/sing/hear it this way.  This is an eighth-note, and you feel it this way.  These types of approaches are undoubtedly well-intentioned but ultimately self-defeating, opening several different cans-of-worms. Will performances and hearings of these things be the same in all contexts and styles on all instruments and voices?

This train of thought is actually contrary to historical evidence (which mostly suggests the reverse…) and perhaps may ultimately harm music by stunting creativity from within the field… (has it already?)

I suggest that folks are too performance-biased, unwilling slaves to the literature—RE-creationists!  Is that actually a useful result?  There are useful aspects of that kind of thinking, but performance cannot be THE result, instead is has to be the beginning!  The equation needs to be revisited, or re-calibrated so that Performance rather marks the entry point of the Theory cycle…

…ultimately raising and addressing the following questions:

What was that?  Did that work?  How did it work?  Why did it work?  Is it duplicable?    Is it comparable?  Is there a model?  Has is developed from some previous form?  Can I make it work in the same way?  Can I improve upon that?  Can I further develop that?  WHAT’S NEXT?!?!

Theory is not solely preparation for musical actualities, but also it is there to introduce and explore musical possibilities!  Not just re-creation, because then the art form is dead, but rather….

Distillation/Reduction:

  • Guido d’Arezzo     —   compose with only one pitch per vowel
  • J.J. Fux           —         think/hear/teach in whole-note species
  • J.S. Bach Chorales — quarter-note reductions of harmonic-phrase units
  • Heinrich Scheker   —  think/hear/teach with unending variations and prolongations of cadential templates
  • Nicholas Slonimsky — propose over 1,000 new kinds of scales

Note that thes above list includes methods and techniques that are often SEVERAL SCALES OF MAGNIFICATION REMOVED FROM MUSICAL ACTUALITIES MANY OF WHICH HAVE BEEN RIGOROUSLY TESTED VIA
Experimentation—Assumptions that get tested, Questions that get asked:

  • How far can you stretch a minor third?  On a piano, clarinet, or natural horn?  In the blues?  As the combination of two sine tones?
  • How far can you push and pull an eighth-note? In the style of Bach or Wagner?  In Dixieland, Sing, Bop or Funk? In different tempos? As a discrete unit of time?  As a pulsation of Acoustic Beats?

COMPOSITIONS that push forward instead of regurgitating.
PERFORMANCES that address issues or ask questions.
IMPROVISATIONS that allow real-time explorations.
ANALYSES that  inspire better listening/hearing/imagining.
TEACHING that explains actualities, yet opens the door for further possibilities…

Evidence suggests that teaching is one of the most important things that separates humans from apes, the ability to deliberately (not just imitatively) pass on a skill.  Beyond that basic definition, “part of teaching is being able to coordinate your attention with another person’s attention” and that, I think, is also a pretty fair definition of music.  The highest aim of any art is to express & share a viewpoint, that is… to teach!

All in all, the point of Theory is to not to restrict one goal’s along a unidirectional path, but rather to provide students the means to traverse the self-aware feedback loop that is MUSIC.

© 2013 Peter J. Evans, theorist