Jazz?

In my previous post I talked about the use of sacred music in my current project; I also said that I would be using jazz techniques. On the face of it it would seem a random choice, though I will define its existence and purpose in the context of my piece.

Art music, jazz, and ‘holy’ music have had conversation with each other in the 20th and 21st centuries. Besides the art-sacred composers previously mentioned (look to ‘Jazz-Bible Mass’), Jazz composers have also made their own contributions to sacred music, such as Mary Lou Williams’ Mary Lou’s Mass, Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts, or John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme.

Jazz also had an influence in art music. The popularity of the art-jazz crossover has been increasing in contemporary music, where composers like John Taylor – who, among other things, used extended piano techniques and jazz syncopation/ harmony – and Eberhard Weber – who, among other things, combined minimalism and jazz phrasing/ complex modes – have set up new sensibilities in the tradition of chamber music.

However, it could be argued that the influence has also worked vice versa. Bill Evans’ classical training continued to impact his style (Reilly 1993). The avant-guarde and virtuosic style of Chick Corea showed off his classical interests, with his compositional complexity similar to that of Bach’s (Cal Vid 2013).

Having seen how these musics have influenced each other, I am now trying to convey the fluctuating relationship between these musical styles in my project. Language and semiotics are the basis of this blog, hence – for this project – I am:

• Using this mass to allude to and quote previous composers’ pieces that resulted from the combination of these compositional styles
• Finding out how conveyance can used in a combination of the three musics
• Looking into how else the compositional techniques of the three musics can work together and ‘speak’ with each other within the piece

Now, the definition of ‘swing’. Most definitions of jazz include references to syncopation, improvisation, swung rhythm, and extended harmony, normally with some sense of a ‘moving’ rhythm. However, as Gunther Schuller pointed out, if one were to follow the common definition of jazz one could end up at its derivatives rather than itself (1989, 198). Jazz, as a genre, is very difficult to define because of how vast it is. However, jazz can be defined by its historical, social, and performance contexts, even if this definition doesn’t seem so objective. So, I am borrowing techniques and phrases from swing composers to make clearer the existence of jazz in my piece.

It is possible to argue that my resultant piece is not ‘jazz’. My type of approach to this composition seems more academic than soulful. In researching about how different people define jazz, sacred music, or art music, I am also trying to work out the aesthetics of the interstylistic regions. The reason I call this a ‘Jazz Bible-Mass’ rather than ‘Bible-Mass with influences from jazz’ is because I want the impulsiveness – not necessarily improvisation, though this will also have a key role – of jazz to evoke the extralinguistic and spontaneous imagery that is normally associated with the praising of God.

Currently, I’m working on the themes and skeleton score of the piece, though I will show what I have soon.

Bibliography

Cal Vid. 2013. Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Marcus Gilmore – Bach Live 2013. August 14. Accessed December 28, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1JIU4BRE94.

Schuller, Gunther. 1989. The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Reilly, Jack. The Harmony of Bill Evans. Brooklyn: Unichrom, 1993.

Jazz Bible-Mass

Before this project had begun to take form I had been wondering about the compositional and semiotic possibilities within sacred music. Pärt and Tavener used their own unique minimalist techniques to make their contemplative-sacred atmospheres more vivid; Messiaen applied his own complex musical language for a more celestial and ethereal setting; in Schnittke’s sacred music, a combination of stylistic features described unity from diversity, which is a notably Christian trait (Ephesians 4:1-16). From these influences, I decided to look into the extent of the role of sacred music. This is a brief explanation of the project.

My interest in semantics and semiotics in music has already greatly influenced my work. Regardless of whether one thinks that music is/ is better autonomous or programmatic, the compositional and listening processes are still affected by the way one approaches music in these ways. For example, a mathematical compositional process will result with different sounds and perceptions of sounds (when the listener is told of the process) than one that involves ‘describing the sea’. Music conveys something, even if that something is itself or elements within itself.

This project is more to do with the extra-musical, although rather than using one signified element there will be two (look to ‘Polysemiotic Representationism’); these will be the sacred text of a mass and a chronological series of events in the Bible. The aim is not necessarily that both elements are successfully portrayed in the music, but rather to find how the compositional process and perception of the music are affected. Of course, the words will not be the ‘servant to the music’, so I will do my best to keep their integrity regardless of the processes used.

The image supplied in today’s post is a part of the plan. What is shown is a collection of associations that I made between points of the Bible and (what I feel are) appropriate points in the text. These connections are the basis for how the music at each phrase and word will be treated, where I will use representationism to range from subtle to obvious.

Similar to the oratorios of Handel, this piece will take Biblical imagery as the theme for this sacred work. The addition of jazz to this project seems to be an obscure one, with questions of purpose and stylistic ontology seemingly muddying my proposed objective. Therefore, I will expand on this in the next post.