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Westminster Quarters

7 May 2008, 12:18 pm

The clock tower song “Westminster Quarters” was composed by William Crotch in 1793.

The last C that strikes the hour sounds more like a C minor, because of the audible Eb overtone. This type of modulation, from a Major key to the same key in Minor, is known as a Reverse Picardy.

The “Westminster Quarters” is one of the most influential pieces of music in the urban soundscape. The Major Third in the third measure (from the E to the C) served as the inspiration for the Door Bell, Car Horn, and the Convenience Store. All are Major Thirds, a very happy interval indeed.

If you live anywhere near a big clock, as I do, you probably hear this song at least 24 times a day, at every half, for 12 hours straight. Good thing “Westminster Quarters” rocks so much ass. When I hear it, I imagine the gods kicking in on weather drums. Most people are probably habituated to the “Quarters”, or probably don’t consider it much of a song.

Still, it’s arguably the most played song on Earth, and I’ll hear it so much much more than my favorites, like Air Supply’s “Lost in Love”, or Rivers Cuomo’s “Lover in the Snow”. Certainly more than America’s “That’s All I’ve Got to Tell You” with vocals by Jeff Bridges.

But probably not more than “My Mother” by the Chipettes.

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Melodic Development at the Playground (y’know?!)

5 May 2008, 12:18 pm

In my previous post, I conceived of “Relay” and “Challenge” as Minor Thirds, but now that I think about it, and really try to recall the pitches of twenty years past, I believe they were actually Whole Tones. Like this:





The Minor Third sounds like this:





Out there on the playground, melodies have a little legroom. Some kids might sing Minor Thirds, and others will sing Whole Tones. And certain little bastards will only sing semitones.





The Minor Third is more of a child’s interval. Children are naturally melodic, and speak and sing freely in giant steps. But by the time they start playing “Butt’s Up”, they can barely muster a Whole Tone. Their intervals continue to flatten until they are a typical monotone adult.

Or maybe the Minor Third is just too wide an interval to sing when you’re butt’s about to go up.

It’s likely that “Relay”, “Challenge”, “Farted On”, and “Not It”, were inspired by “Nanny Nanny Poo Poo”, the most popular playground melody, which is actually a parody of “Ring around the Rosie”, a song going back to the 18th century.

COMING SOON: Olly Olly Oxen Free!

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Suicide Songs

4 May 2008, 12:17 pm

Here’s a few more Playground melodies from the handball game “Suicide”, or “Butts Up”.

When a ball lands out of bounds, the player who fetches it can sing a “Relay” to beseech her fellow players to cut off her throw to the wall. A “Challenge” is sung by the other players to deny her “Relay” request. Both figures cover the interval of a Minor Third from G to E.

The dis below can be used in just about any schoolyard game or life situation.

“Farted On” is also a Minor Third. It’s a little more mature version of “Nana Nana Poo Poo” although the melody is practically the same, and both have a swung rhythm. “Farted On” is usually preceded by a falling “Ohhhhhhhhh!”. You don’t wanna be on the receiving end of one of those.

“Into” is short for interference. An “Into” is sung when a ball hits an object out of play. It is identical in melody and rhythm to a “Not It”, at a slower tempo.

In the previous post, I wrote that these playground melodies were in C Major Pentatonic, because they originate from “Ring around the Rosie”, a Major folk song. But now I’m thinking that out there on the blacktop, these figures take on a new tonality – the very closely related E Minor Pentatonic. The E acts as a resolution in all of these melodies.

Know who else likes E Pentatonic?
Jimi Fuckin’ Hendrix!
Try jammin’ along with some Nanapoops, Not It’s, Into’s, and Farted On’s.

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Playground Melodies

2 May 2008, 12:17 pm

English is atonal. Adults are monotonal. But the kids are all singsong

This here mocking melody has many variations—neeners, nahs, and ners. It is sung to the tune of Ring around the Rosie. The dominant interval is a Minor Third, between the G (poo) and the E (poo).

The following 2 note melody is delivered in rounds right before a game of Freeze Tag. The interval is a Whole Tone, between the E and D.

Both Nana Nana Poo Poo and Not It belong to the key C Major Pentatonic (5 note scale).

It is a happy key, for there are no semitones to create tension and longing. Most lullabies and folk diddies are in Major Pentatonic.

COMING SOON: More playground songs like “Relay”, “Challenge”, and “Farted On.”

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Close Encounters of the Major Third Kind

18 April 2008, 12:16 pm


“Up a Whole Tone, down a Major Third, down an Octave, up a Perfect Fifth.”

In “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, grey aliens play these 5 Tones on their mothership’s synthesizer. Hollywood composer John Williams wrote the lick, and fashioned it after the 5 letter word “Hello”. Two of the tones are the same, just like the double L’s.

The 5 Tones belong to the Ab Major Pentatonic Scale





The Major Pentatonic scale is a happy floaty dream – ‘Playground’ tonality. There is little tension. The intervals are widely spaced; there are no semitones. This is because the Pentatonic scale omits two very important notes from the Diatonic (7-note) Scale.





These 2 notes form a Tritone, or “Devil’s Interval”. Sounded together, they are the most dissonant interval known to man. In studies done on babies, tritones produce a negative response. In the middle ages, this interval was banned by the church for being so awesomely evil.

When added to the Pentatonic scale, the tritone creates two semitones, between the III and IV, and the VII and VIII. The semitone produces the most tension in harmony, as it is the smallest interval in Equal Temperament.

It makes sense that greys would come at us with a Pentatonic scale. A nice, neutral scale, that wouldn’t offend Earth’s babies.

You wouldn’t want to encounter this:





Here’s the best scene ever from any movie.


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Cardinal

14 April 2008, 12:16 pm


A lot of birds out there sound like dial-up modems, but not many have cool vintage lazer sounds like this guy. In phoneticized bird, he’s saying “purdy purdy purdy – whoit whoit whoit.”
Sometimes, he says “wheet” instead.

Here’s the full song.

I took a lot of artistic license with this one. In reality, birds hit all sorts of microtones that can’t be found in 12-tone Equal Temperament – the tuning system used by Western music from the 20th Century on. Also, due to their peculiar anatomy, birds constantly produce two sounds at the same time and combine them. The notes of a bird, are more like chords, spread out over a small band of adjacent frequencies. However, there are frequency spikes in these chords, and those are the notes I chose to denote.

The cardinal sings in the key of B Mixolydian. And sometimes switches to B Harmonic Minor.

Once in a while, in the midst of purdies and whoits, he’ll bust out his little triplet lick. The progression is pure jazz; modulating all over town.

To better hear the music involved, check out this rocking version of the cardinal by Boird Band.

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The Mourning Dove

10 April 2008, 12:15 pm


This little guy is so good.
He sounds like a panflute. He flattens the decay on each of his notes.

His song is in the key of C# Mixolydian, but he often changes key. The second phrase modulates down a half step, but it isn’t a perfect transposition to C Mixolydian. Instead of hitting the C at the end of the phrase, he hits a B. What a crazy boird!

Here’s the full song.

As with all bird songs, there are more rests than notes. It calls to mind French composer Claude Debussy’s famous quote: “Music is the space between the notes.” Of course, there aren’t any rests in the ambient noise that surrounds him – the pink noise of a river, the Ionian honks of car horns, and a million other oscine songs.

The very awesome Stevie Nicks’ song “Edge of Seventeen” uses the dove’s riff. The chorus also features a very bird-like call & answer. Sexy hot.

My progressive bird band Boird band also covers the dove.

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