Bill Evans, "Oleo": One Pianist's Approach to Rhythm Changes

American Music Teacher Magazine

2019

This chapter undertakes an exploration of rhythmic practices in twentieth and, especially, late twentieth-century European-International modernist music, focusing on attempts to reduce or eliminate durational projection and taking into account the role of notation in crafting experiments with a newly emancipated rhythm. It is suggested that this emancipation of rhythm is at least as significant as the “emancipation of dissonance” and, indeed, far more significant if “rhythm” is given a properly broad scope. Principal examples are taken from Morton Feldman’s De Kooning (1963), Toru Takemitsu’s Rain Tree for percussion (1981), and Salvatore Sciarrino’s Muro d’Orrizonte (1997).

This is the text of a presentation to the Research Seminar series in Music at the University of Edinburgh in the spring of 2010. The paper explores the ways that social roles in polyphonic rhythmic practice are important for both performers and listeners in the processes of music making. Themes from this talk are developed in later publications (see forthcoming pubs).

2012

Jazz, as a representative type of music for the Americans, was rapidly spread, conquering the sphere of academic music through the contribution of composer George Gershwin.” R apsody in blue”, one of his outstanding works, is the most eloquent example to capture the integration of jazz into academic music. An interpretation of the work’s title with reference to visual art, literature and music, towards a theme associating Russian creation, blues scale or even R&B, determining the concerto style out of the fusion between rhapsody, fantasy and concertino – these are a few of the instances dealt with in the present paper. Key-Words: Gershwin, entertainment, rhapsody, jazz, blue, experiment, syncretism

Jazz Perspectives, 2012

Pianist, composer and bandleader Edward Kennedy ("Duke") Ellington (1899-1974) emerged on the New York City jazz scene in 1923. Within just a few years, the Ellington band's original repertoire and performances were attracting much critical attention. A common theme of the discourse surrounding Ellington from the 1920s was the comparison of his repertoire with European classical music. These judgements were always imposed from outside, for although Ellington expressed an admiration for classical composers, he frequently asserted his desire not to associate his own works with the classical tradition. At one point in his career, he even stated that "I am not writing classical music, and the musical devices that have been handed down by serious composers have little bearing on modern swing." 1 Ellington composed prolifically in the jazz idiom for the entirety of his performing career (which ended with his death in 1974), and critical and scholarly evaluations of his works using classical music criteria were further fuelled by a series of large-scale compositions that he produced from 1943. 2 Critical assertions of classicism in Ellington's repertoire have almost universally focussed on the subtleties and sophistication of his composition-with "composition" referring to the predetermined and usually notated sections of the work. 1 Duke Ellington, "Certainly It's Music!" in The Duke Ellington Reader, ed. Mark Tucker (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 246-248. Ellington qualified his statement by explaining: "That I owe a debt to the classical composers is not to be denied but it is the same debt that many composers, for generations, have owed to Brahms, Beethoven, Debussy and others of their calibre. They have furnished us with wholesome musical patterns in our minds and have given us a definite basis from which to judge all music, regardless of its origin." Ibid., 247. 2 Although earlier works such as "Rockin' in Rhythm" (1931)-in rondo form-borrowed from classical formal techniques, only the 1940s larger-scale works were performed in classical venues. Examples of these works include Black, Brown and Beige (1943), The Perfume Suite (1944), Deep South Suite (1946), Liberian Suite (1947) and The Tattooed Bride (1948)-all of which were composed for performances at the traditionally classical venue Carnegie Hall.

2019

Reprising Craftsmanship, 2021

The present chapter looks into an expressive perspective of technique. It starts by discussing some pertinent issues to frame the overall discussion. The notion of reprise developed in previous chapters will be extended into the realm of technique, connecting rhythm and effective action in eurhythmy, a feature of technical activity’s life cycles. In their expressive dimension, musical instruments are impregnated –in their making, sounding and even presence– with mythical and practical values. Additionally, more or less intangible (in music) and more or less tangible (in luthiery) form giving processes are constantly actualized by reprise dynamics. This will help specifying how technical (e)motions are linked to expressivity. Since the value of a technical form giving cannot be fully foreseen by people behind it when these (e)motions (and objects) are produced, the eurhythmy that characterizes skilful action refuses to be limited to one particular sphere of valuation.

2012 academic year. I taught the course together with Professor Edwin Serrousi. While he focused on the multi-cultural sides of the Tango, I focused on the musical aspects of this wonderful genre. I chose the materials and prepared them so that I could connect with students who did not necessarily have a musical background (demonstrating the points under discussion on the piano, which was good for everyone), since the course was directed at graduate students from both the Musicology and the Latin American Studies Departments. Nonetheless, this article discusses the subject with a professional musicological reading. The subject is only one of the many topics covered at length; the others are beyond the scope of this article. In conclusion, I would like to mention that all the ideas that appear in the article are mine, and are the result of my own research and my great love for this genre.

This thesis examines the music of two pioneers of free improvisation in jazz: Lennie Tristano and Ornette Coleman. Besides emphasizing the melodic language of both musicians, this study presents analyses and transcriptions of their compositions and improvisations. The author's approach as a musician-researcher stresses the importance of transcription and emulation as study methods.