Here’s a different version of my song, The Cove. The original recording is on the Flying Dream CD. I sang this one in a lower key, to leave room for two harmonies above. I found some adventurous harmonies, especially ninth intervals. I’d like to make a movie of this one; it lives deep in the…
The V chord, the major chord based on the 5, is a powerful compositional tool. It points, very clearly and with a lot of tension, directly at the tonic. If you want to lead the ear to the I, the V chord is the top-of-the-line triad. Why this is so is still a bit mysterious…
When I started exploring the extended lattice beyond the central 12 notes, the first note that was really new to me was the 10/9 major second, also called the minor or lesser whole tone. Now I call it the 2-. The lattice extends forever in all directions. When you continue multiplying and dividing, generating new notes beyond the boundaries…
The notes get more exotic as you move outward from the center. The ninth is quite consonant, but not nearly as consonant as the fifth. (Consonance and dissonance are descriptions of feelings; they are part of the flavor of an interval, and I don’t think the last word has been written on them yet. I’ll be…
Multiplying the tonic by 2, 3 and 5 creates the octave, fifth and third respectively. The ear hears these intervals very well. We can easily sing them. Each one has a feel, a sort of harmonic flavor, that makes a fifth a fifth and a third a third. It turns out that the ear can…