Roger Bourland
writes about music and life

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This week in Music History, Culture, and Creativity, our students must compose, record, convert to mp3 and upload their compositions to the class website. Their compositions are to feature a drone (a sustained bass note throughout a section or an entire piece of music), or pedal (as in when an organ holds down a PEDAL, a low note, while other music happens on top) with a melody. It may be for any instrumentation and in any style.

For inspiration I played several music videos from YouTube illustrating a wide variety of musics that use drones or pedals.

In Stevie Wonder’s “Too High” both the opening tonic vamp and the dominant pedal are short drones.

Influenced by Ravi Shankar and Indian ragas, the Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” lays down a complicated drone thoughout.

The Habanera from Bizet’s Carmen has a bass line ostinato that changes chords throughout, but the bass line refuses go anywhere.

“Scotland the Brave” is a perfect example of a memorable melody over a drone. But, to paraphrase Stravinsky, the monster never breathes.

Some of you may remember Moondog. I saw him both performing in the streets of Manhattan, but he came to the UW Madison School of Music and had an all-day residency. He wrote a round called “N-O-S-I-D-A-M” which is Madison backwards. I still remember the tune if anyone needs it. I may have a copy somewhere as well. But this is an example of an invention with one note, played by several instruments.

Here, John Coltrane tells the bass player in “Giant Steps” to sustain an E flat pedal. I don’t get it but this video/transcription is maddeningly brilliant.

Here Seal whoops up the audience over his drone song “Crazy.”

These songs represent a wildly diverse range of music inspired by drones and pedals.

I’ve heard a lot of Tibetan monks chant, but never with this incredible sense of cosmic harmony. Listen to all the notes in each chord: unbelievable! Then, you have the contrabass solos functioning as little interludes. Then they all join in again. WOW!

Uh, yeah.
This website alleges to have “found” a cassette of a lost Beatle album. Whatever. But it IS a wonderful mashup of Beatles tracks put together in fun new ways. Instant Beatles! Shazaam!


Link -via YesButNoButYes

Rachmaninov: Song of Grusia performed by Clara Rockmore, theremin

Rachmaninov: Vocalise performed by a much younger Clara Rockmore, theremin

After decades of wishing, the composition program at the UCLA Department of Music now has a Composition for Visual Media track in its Masters degree. In its second year, we have started slowly and accepted only two per year–although we plan to expand to eight or so.

And after decades of wishing, we now have a very nice bridge between the Department of Music and the Department of Film––as it should be, but for years, it was out of commission.

Today I met with the Chair of the Film program who has two terrific projects funded by major donors (I’ll let her reveal that information when it’s time). The first project involves eight, three-minute animated films on various themes funded by a well known animator; and the second is about global education, told in three-minute films, made by the UCLA Grad students in film, and UCLA student composers.

These relationships are so important in the growth of both artists––learning how to collaborate. For composers used to the dictatorship of the classical world, we must get used to rewrites: “Sorry Roger; it’s a lovely piece of music, it just doesn’t work for this scene. I need you to try again.” Composers must smile and get to work without attitude.

If the director is not especially music-savvy, and he has met a composer with whom s/he is simpatico, very often, they stay together. Think: Henri Mancini and Blake Edwards; John Williams and Steven Spielberg; Tim Burton and Danny Elfman, and so on.

Tossing your students together like this, knowing that something fabulous is going to happen, is one of the great joys of teaching.

Last December, Marc Hirsh wrote a terrific article for the Boston Globe called “Striking a chord” about how a chord progression [think: Joan Osborne's "What if God were one of us? Just a slob like one of us?" and you'll hear the progression] that has shown up in a lot of songs recently. Marc’s blog dedicated to the so-called “Sensitive Female Chord Progression” lists them all. I’ll post a few here. I love it that the ur-SFCP song is the Door’s “Crystal Ship.” [I can't help but think that Elgar may have done it first.]

1967
The Doors: “Crystal Ship”
Scott McKenzie: “San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)”

1976
Boston – “Peace of Mind”

1977
Iggy Pop – “The Passenger”

1982
Toto – “Africa”

1985
Heart – “What About Love”

1987
Heart – “Alone”
Loverboy – “Love Will Rise Again”
The Smiths – “You Just Haven’t Earned It Yet, Baby”

1988
Midnight Oil – “Beds Are Burning”
Roxette – “Listen To Your Heart”

1989
Alice Cooper – “Poison”
Ani DiFranco – “Fire Door”
Starship – “It’s Not Enough”

1990
Jeff Lynne – “What Would It Take”
Yanni – “Almost A Whisper”

1992
Bad Religion – “Generator”
Gin Blossoms – “Until I Fall Away”

1993
The Smashing Pumpkins – “Disarm”
Therapy? – “Screamager”

1994
The Cranberries – “Zombie”
The Offspring – “Gotta Get Away”
The Offspring – “Self Esteem”

1995
Ani DiFranco – “Shy”
Guster – “Window”
Jewel – “Foolish Games”
Joan Osborne – “One Of Us”

1996
Social Distortion – “Don’t Drag Me Down”
The Waifs – “Brain Damage”

1997
Sarah McLachlan – “Building A Mystery”

1998
Eagle Eye Cherry – “Save Tonight”
Jewel – “Hands”
Madonna – “The Power of Good-Bye”
Neutral Milk Hotel – “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea”

1999
Melissa Etheridge – “Angels Would Fall”
The Offspring – “The Kids Aren’t Alright”
The Red Hot Chili Peppers – “Otherside”
Britney Spears – “Born To Make You Happy”

The whole list is here.

Here’s one more from the Red Hot Chili Peppers “Snow (Hey O)”

Mmm, I’m having a summer flashback. In our trip to southern France, we ate at home several times. One of the highlights of those meals was Jenny and Daniel searing a demi-lobe of foie gras, with salad, a lovely Gigondas wine, stinky cheese, French bread, and ham. That was lunch.

Jenny was perpetually photogenic as she cooked. Nicely framed by the kitchen window, I snapped this Vermeerish picture.

I watched the two-hour documentary on Philip Glass this weekend called GLASS: Portrait in 12 parts. It’s a terrific look inside one of America’s most successful composers. The amount of work he has done in his life is stunning: operas, symphonies, film scores, concertos, chamber music, piano music. He confesses to getting up early in the morning and working all day: “that’s my secret.”

He doesn’t care whether people like his music or not. “There is plenty of other music to listen to. You don’t have to listen to mine. Listen to Mozart, or the Beatles…”

I love hearing him confess that he never has a plan when he starts composing–he just starts. When asked what he was composing, he answered: “It’s the 8th Symphony, but I’m not sure whether it’s the first movement or the third movement.”

Does Glass’s music mean that we should perpetuate kosher voice leading a la Bach, or throw it out the window as any chord can really go to any chord. One this is for sure, fingers still appreciate good voice leading, regardless of the esthetic.

What blew my mind was that Glass composes with pencil. PENCIL! Can you imagine the king of repetition using a pencil? Copy and paste is what computers do best Phil!

The film gave me a new respect for Philip Glass as an artist, an American icon, and as a person.

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