1. a piece my friend wrote, begins and ends with a certain Riff.
2. it’s sorta an Arch-Form (sorta, a little) in that way.
3. I can’t believe I somehow have become, even a little, the kind of person who feels that the introductory RIFF of a piece of music, a THEME, should be more than just a THING you play at the beginning and end, and should have MORE THAN A PASSING “STRUCTURAL?” importance/relation to, the rest of the piece.
OTHERWISE it’s just a cool riff you played, merely as a “hey, everyone listen up” thingy.
more often than not, however, something ELSE happens, in “pop” type music at least (and in some other music as well.)
more often, it’s just USED as an intro, and basically a BACKGROUND/SUBSIDIARY thing to something ELSE… AND- SAID something else is…
not only “not all that related” to the thing, but FAR LESS INTERESTING THAN it.
I find this in Hip Hop some. and man… EVEN in JAZZ, which I love, YES I appreciate that obviously “the head” is being repeated over and over and is the harmonic (as well as other things) BASIS for the tune, for the solos, yes yes of course… but I just think it can also be MORE than that…
take the case of STOLEN MOMENTS by Oliver Nelson. believe it or not, I wish always that there was um, “more development” of the nifty voicing (voicings, but apparently, “voicings” plural isn’t a word:)
in the beginning.
maybe it’s just me…. maybe I’m SUPER WHITE. yeah, likely.
when I First learned African music, yes, AT CalArts, from Alfred and Kobla (and Chris T. Armstrong, the first thing I did in my private lessons was NOT to learn a bunch of the different drum patterns from one piece, but four different pieces with four different bell patterns (uh, rhythmic underpinnings, that is.)
not that that was advisable, to this day I don’t “always” now “all” the supporting rhythms for some of the easier BASIC pieces, which kinda “isn’t ok”, but I digress.
it took me, um, “some time” (try 10 or more years) before I developed the patience to get into the SUBTLETIES of the pieces, so…. what do I know… who knows, who knows indeed.
I guess all I’m saying is I’d like it more if the opening material of a piece isn’t just used an excuse to make some “kinda generic” music on a theme (not saying that about Stolen Moments, just trying to get the point across, sorry if I offend someone with that analogy) I mean, dude, it happens in classical music some TOO. “this here is a concerto, which is a lot like other concerto’s, but on THIS theme, but otherwise has a very similar form, etc….)
fucks sake, do somethin different, and APPRECIATE THE OPENING MATERIAL FOR IT”S OWN SAKE, IT”S OWN SOUND, NOT JUST AS A BACKGROUND/FRAME FOR music which, even if great, is like many other such pieces.
phew, tough to say.
p.s. this may have something to do with STRUCTURE, TIMBRE, HARMONY, RHYTHM… and perhaps NOT with Melody?:)
here’s HERE’s an example: there’s a version of that same tune, STOLEN MOMENTS by OLIVER NELSON, played and arranged by BILL CUNLIFFE…. the intro in that version alters some of the chords… I’d like (and maybe it DOES do this, haven’t heard it all yet)
to hear the harmonic relations of what they altered to chords to like… DETERMINE the modulations later in the piece… like… at the end of the head in this version…
it (it’s in c minor)
goes to EbM7, GbM7, and EM with a G natural in the melody the whoe time (making the EM kinda like a E7 #9, except there’s no 7th:))
I’d like to hear the tune MODULATE to those keys, or even modulate in the DIRECTIONS those keys ARE from C, even upside down….
even it such a thing wasn’t obvious….
SO WHAT’S WRONG WITH ME, other than being WHITE???:)(by white, I mean Classically trained, and not a jazz musician:)