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Chapter VI

PUT IN PRACTICE: Analyzing and Experimenting

          1) The Melody of the Köln concert

          2) The Harmony of the Köln concert

          3) My Production

1) The Melody of the Köln concert

The key to the artistic direction of this concert was the piano, Keith Jarrett had to base the execution on the sound possibilities of the Bösendorfer. The specific instrument was passable on the medium-low register, while on the high register the sound was too bright and thin. This is one reason that all the improvisation were performed in the central part of the keyboard, limiting the melodic and harmonic choices. 

As can be seen on the score, all the thematic elements are developed between the E1 bass key and C5.

While occasionally during the sections where the improvisational element prevails he goes higher.

This limitation meant that the playing was more focused on the rhythmic element; probably also one of the reasons why this concert has become so famous, this approach has given to the improvisation a hypnotic sense, capable of creating hypnotic music with a strong artistic identity and to be easily received by the public.

This was my starting point in my re-composition phase of the concert in Köln; I wanted to approach each new composition starting from the piano, trying to imitate Keith Jarrett's approach, limiting myself to building the various voices in a more restricted area of the piano. Analyzing the score of the transcription of the concert in Köln, I noticed that in the more thematic sections, the melodies develop starting from a short melodic cell, always one or two bars long.

Let's take the opening concert in Köln as an example.

Jarrett has a purely contrapuntal approach, developing the theme on a question and answer between short and rhythmical melodic cells and sometimes changing the register, as in bar 23 when the left hand proposes a diatonic phrase harmonized to sixths.

The left hand always proposes phrases that move in a diatonic way ex: bar.10, bar.17, bar.23; -while right hand phrases have a larger motion, often featuring intervals of fourths and fifths. The melodic cell presented in bar 1, is a melodic fragment composed of 5 notes built on the pentatonic of A minor; the first interval consists of a leap of an ascending fifth G-D and then descending by a conjunct degree to C, followed by a descending leap of a fourth to G and then resolving by a conjunct degree to A.

This melodic cell is the seed of the theme, which is re-proposed and manipulated as happens in bar 4, in bar 5, transposed a minor third below and re-proposed in bar 11 with a different rhythm.

Ex:

You can see the same intervals between the two melodic cells, the difference being that when it is reproposed, the cell has been rhythmically manipulated and enriched with embellishments. The melodic development consists in gradually presenting new material slightly different from the previous one, to then finish the theme with a totally different melodic cell from the first exposed.

Ex:

The fact of having short melodic cells leave room for a response, as happens in bar 6. The possibility of being able to propose a response is a tactic for introducing new material.

In figure 1 it is possible to see how the melodic cells are reproposed and permuted, for example in measure 6-7 it is possible to see how the mutation towards a new melodic cell takes place. As can be seen, in bar 6 a melodic cell is proposed which is then swapped in bar 7.

from this moment on, the melodic cell will take this rhythmic shape.

2) The Harmony of the Köln concert

Harmonically the opening theme of the concert in Köln has nothing particular, during the exposition of the theme the left hand presents power chords as a harmonic background, (chords without the presence of the third, composed only of the root and the fifth), this to give a more suspended sound to the piece.

What is interesting is the use of the “direct transition technique”; the harmonic context of the concert in Cologne is a modal context, i.e. harmonic progressions that do not follow classical cadences such as a II-V7-I or a typical jazz turnaround.

Direct transition is a compositional technique that allows you to modulate from one tonal center to another through the presence of one or more common notes.

In this next example it is possible to see how to pass from a D7 chord to an FMaj7 by using the note A as a common note.

Out of curiosity, I report here an example taken from the Cathédrale Engloutie, a composition by Claude Debussy, who studied harmonic techniques in the modal field.

This example shows how it has passed from the tonal center in E minor, due to the combination of the pedal of E with the fourth chords above it built on the pentatonic of G (bars 5-7) to a key based on the whole tone scale of B through the use of the E as a common note (measure 8).

It is interesting to see how this piece by Debussy is so similar to the concert in Köln, both immediately create a suspended environment with the harmony, if you notice the left hand of the Cathedrale engloutie has the same voicing as Jarrett's left hand at the beginning of his improvisation and both build a theme built of pentatonic scales which combined with a pedal create a tonal center.

In the concert in Koln, in bar. 1-4, the right hand plays the pentatonic of C major, which placed above a pedal of D, creates a tonal center in D eolian; and then move to bar. 5 on a pentatonic in G above a pedal of A, suggesting we stay in the mode of A eolian.

The same procedure can also be found on the Cathedrale engloutie, where at bar 3-4 the G pentatonic built on the F pedal takes us to F lydian, to then modulate on the pentatonic of G, which built on the pedal of E, takes us to E Phrygian. 

This analysis made me appreciate Jarrett's vast knowledge in the field of compositional/improvisational techniques even more, as he shows himself capable of being able to draw even from the classical sphere and bring it back to a modern context.

3) My production

Once I had gathered enough information from a technical-compositional point of view, as mentioned before, I decided to approach my compositions starting from the piano. This approach helped me develop a rhythmic sense that theoretically would have been less percussive and probably more predictable, instead by playing and improvising I was able to transcribe ideas that developed in a natural and coherent way.

Here I present two piano recordings, during the composition phases of some of the pieces inspired by the concert in Cologne.

In this next example I decided to test a possible string quartet orchestration, trying to imitate the movement of the voices on the piano. 

During the orchestration phase I also took into account Jarrett's musical philosophy; as explained in the previous chapters, after the experience with the Miles Davis group during the late 60s, Keith began a campaign against the advent of electronic music.

For this reason, even in the arrangement phase, I didn't want to insert any type of electronic sound and I decided to write for a totally acoustic ensemble:

1 Flute

1 Alto Saxophone

1 Tenor Saxophone/Clarinet

1 Tenor Saxophone

1 Bass Clarinet

3 Trumpet

3 Trombones

1 Guitar

1 Vibraphone

1 Drum

1 Double Bass

Quartet of strings

Here I present an example of my written composition, where I took into account all the available elements that I had analyzing the musical style of Keith Jarrett and the concert in Köln.

Down here is possible to download the complete score.

The melodic development consists of constructing a theme by re-presenting and manipulating short melodic cells.

In bar 1 the first melodic cell is exposed, to then be re-presented with the same rhythmic form a fourth below; the melody will be manipulated on the intervals.

While in bar 1 there is a major second rise from Eb to F, to then descend a fourth to C, in bar 2 there is a leap of 3 minor between Bb and Db, to then descend a descending fifth to Ab.The intervals of the fourth and fifth will be extensively used in this composition, on purpose to create a similarity to the opening theme of the previously analyzed concert in Köln.

As in Jarrett's song, the melody develops with the presence of a question and an answer.

How showed in the next example, in bar 3 of the piece, I introduce the response to the previous melodic cell;

this was obtained through the opposite motion of the direction of the melody in bar 1; instead of going up a major second and then going down a fourth, in bar 3 the melody goes down a minor second and then go up a fourth and then resolving a fifth down.

In the B-part of the theme, the response derives from a passage in the left hand during the opening piece of the concert in Köln.

The response to the new B melodic cell of the theme was assigned to the bass clarinet, as if to emulate the response in the low register of the piano at the concert in Köln.

In the next example I compare my melodic passage with the bass line made by Keith Jarrett.

Both cells have the same melodic direction, but are transposed into another key; in the concert in Köln the melody is built on the C major scale, while in my piece it is presented in A major and then modulated in Bb minor (consider that the bass clarinet is a transposing instrument in Bb).

Rhythmically I wanted to double the value of the notes:

Harmonically I decided to use the already mentioned composition technique “direct transition”, used from Keith Jarrett and Claude Debussy.

In the next example I can show how I passed from one chord to another one, by two or more notes in common;

In bar 1 one I present a A6/9 chord that moves to a B6/9 chord with the F# and the C# in common, in bar 3 I move from B6/9 to Bb-9 keeping the C# (that become the minor third of the new chord, Db) and end the progression to GbMaj9 keeping as notes in common Db, F and Ab.

The whole piece is based on this technique; it allowed me to move from an extended chord to another in a really delicate way, even if they are from a different tonality.

Here is an example taken from the first 4 chords of the piano solo progression.

The harmony of my piece is mainly supported by the brass.

The arrangement of the voices was distributed as in the left hand of the piece from the concert in Köln.

Another element taken from the concert in Köln, which I have reported in my composition is the accompaniment of the left hand of which occurs at minute 7 of the piece "Part I"

This pattern was used for the background during the piano solo, in order to give more movement to the orchestral background.

The manipulation occurred both rhythmically and melodically, changing the rhythmic figure into a couple of eighth notes and changing the intervals.

In the next example I will show how was the mutation process.

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