Mich was saying stuff about her funny sounding piano parts in "Simple Gifts"(Section C) and that probed me to double check on my transcription and I also did a bit of reading. Well, I've looked through the scores again, I don't think there's a mistake with the notes though. Anyway....
It seems like Copland likes to use "polychords".
What are polychords? Well, basically they are just chords stacked one above another.
Hence, for example, if based on F, we could have a typical stack like this:
F - A - C - E - G - Bb
Looking at the way it is constructed, and also at Copland's scoring, he did not choose to extend his polychords this way. Actually most of the extensions are fine, but just perhaps, E - G - Bb and F - A - C isn't so great since it may sound quite cadential.
Instead, he constructs the stack in G - Bb - D - F - A - C, making it sound like a tonic expansion moving to and fro within chords I, II and IV, major and minor, spaced across the barline in a gallop rhythm.
and there we have COLOUR!
No comments:
Post a Comment