rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen) (07/05/84)
> A favorite example of mine: popular songs that occasionally make a > sudden and violent keychange to go up one half step. A song > might start in e-flat major and end in e-major. Composers > have found their own reasons for the sudden modulation, but no one > seems bothered that the song ended in a different, and entirely > unprepared, key. > Schubert's Lied, "Gruppe Aus der Tartarus", contains sudden > changes from C-major to C# major that (I think) evoke much of > the modern excitement of this kind of keychange in pop songs. > But Schubert prepares for this very carefully, by placing it > in the context of many other chromatic upward sequences in the song. > And the song does not end in C#-major; each transition from C to > C# is mathced by a truly wild transtion back to C. To > Schubert's listeners, these transitions were not prepared > enough; to modern listeners, in modern pop music, the preparations > are wholly unnecessary. This may be a reason why I have so much disdain for so much 19th century music. ('disdain' may be too harsh a word...) Because I as a modern day listener find much of the "preparation", to put it bluntly, boring and unnecessary, sounding as if some composers felt a need to find a "moral and ethical justification" for modulation. ("See? It's O.K. because I put that common diminished chord there." "APPROVED" -- National Board of Music Modulators). I listen to such contortions and say to myself "Why doesn't he just get to the new key already, instead of waffling around!?" Of course, to others there is great beauty in what I think of as waffling. (Plus, for me, much of 19th century music seems to repeatedly use those same "waffling" techniques over and over again from one composer to the next. Again, those passages that bore me are the favorites of others. One thing musical learning may have done for me is that I cannot accept musical redundancy as worthwhile listening. Unfortunately, that means I skip over and ignore music that others consider great moments in music. For me, quality = craftsmanship AND originality, and one without the other just doesn't cut it.) -- "Now, Benson, I'm going to have to turn you into a dog for a while." "Ohhhh, thank you, Master!!" Rich Rosen pyuxn!rlr -- It doesn't matter what you wear, just as long as you are there. Rich Rosen pyuxn!rlr