Modern Harmony - Lesson 10: Ravel

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[Music]

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in my years of teaching composition I've

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met many composers whose knowledge of

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Harmony consisted of labeling chords

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like a G7 or a c have diminished or else

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studying classical functional Harmony

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perhaps with a Shuan orientation or very

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often just learning a bunch of rules

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like avoiding parallel fits these

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methods unfortunately are not always

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useful in looking at music with more

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complex Harmony that doesn't seem to

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follow the same rules and also they

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usually pay no attention to texture

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register tamber and other aspects to the

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music that nonetheless have an enormous

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influence on what the listener

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perceives this new video and the

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following ones in this series we

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continue the modern Harmony videos but

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instead of focusing on specific

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techniques as in the previous ones we'll

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now Center on specific composers

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examining logic behind their harmonic

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Styles you can find the link to the

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modern Harmony series below I also have

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a free online book about general

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principles of Harmony the link is also

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below the idea behind this book was to

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see which aspects of classical Harmony

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could be generalized to other styles in

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the coming analysis I'll be referring to

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the principles mentioned there as they

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apply in specific cases so we'll look at

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music by revale DEC BTO Stravinsky and

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other composers to better understand how

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the music makes harmonic sense the first

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work I'm going to look at is Noel the

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first movement of reviles miroir here

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Revel uses many harmonic techniques

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typical of his style let's try to

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understand how they work let's listen to

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the first two

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[Music]

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pages

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[Music]

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the key signature here is dlat major but

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it's clearly not tonal in the sense that

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Mozart is tonal the chords are often

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much more complex and the piano textures

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are also very rich distributed in

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different registers often with two or

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more planes of tone when you listen the

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hole doesn't sound arbitrary it seems to

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breathe to have a sense of direction how

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does revel accomplish this

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you look at the first two bars we can

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see there are two planes of tone the

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left hand is arpeggiated Dom seventh

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chords while the right hand alternates

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between single notes sometimes chromatic

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and intervals of thirds or fourths the

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Baseline in the left hand the lowest

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notes on each beat turns around a flat

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the G flat and the B flat on the second

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and third beats act like neighor note to

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the a flat dominant 7th on the Down Beat

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and indeed when measure three AR ribes

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the base is clearly def flat so these

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bars are overall a kind of dominant

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tonic progression and d flat major the

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right hand colors the harmony with these

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chromatic tones the Baseline is quite

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clear even in measure three the d flat

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major chord is momentarily colored with

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an eal instead of the normal F so while

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the right hand here is dionic in D flat

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major left hand adds a touch of d flat

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minor what's important here is the

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difference between the first two bars

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and the third bar the first two bars

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contain lots of cromatic notes and the

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third bar contains only one rather like

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classical dissonance and consonant these

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degrees of chromaticism at various

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places in this piece will vary and these

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variations help to give the music the

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feeling that it breathes it's not just

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gray

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overall in measure four and five the

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opening idea returns but the harmonic

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rhythm is different instead of a

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different Basse note on every beat the

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first two beats are dominant chords of a

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major and the last beat is the tonic so

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these two bars are further from the d

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flat major home key and thus a bit more

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intense notice also the register has

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changed now we're in the middle register

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after this we go into a lower register

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with an aredo on what sounds like a

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dominant ninth chord based on E flat

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this AR Pedro includes a couple of

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chromatic notes as well F sharp and a

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natural then when it's Echo higher

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measure seven there's a d natural as

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well interesting a bit more novelty but

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the amount of chromaticism is definitely

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less than the preting bars creating a

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kind of lead

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relaxation measure eight and N the

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Rhythm slows down to e notes the texture

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becomes just chords these parts contain

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only major seconds touching on a whole

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tone scale

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why a whole tone scale well since a

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whole tone scale contains no semmit

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tones it has no harmonic tension here it

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acts like a Cadence for the opening

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section overall the Baseline is

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descended from a flat and measure 1 to d

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flat and measure 3 to a and measure four

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and now to E flat in measure six the E

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flat turns out to be a dominant to the

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coming a flat in measure 10 where the

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opening music starts up again the new

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phrase begins like an answer to the

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first nine bars using the same

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figuration and thematic material but the

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second half of measure 12 and an extra

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38 bar measure 13 we Echo the d flat

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measor chord but now in F minor since F

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minor was a closely related key to d

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flat major only one note changes the G

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again this moment lets the harmony

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breathe as it did in measure three in

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measure 14 a new line is introduced in

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the top voice if you look at the outer

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parts the melodic line of the bass notes

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accompanying it in measure 140 to 17 all

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the notes come from the E flat major

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scale the AR Pedros in the middle touch

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on chords outside of E flat major but

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the main lines create a sense of tonal

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Unity essentially Revel is ornamenting a

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fairly simple diatonic framework with

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secondary chromatic cords the orms

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themselves are mostly triotic and

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sometimes include chromatic

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auras the start of measure 18 a natural

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appears in the melody and then starting

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from the middle of measure 18 the arpas

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alternate between the notes of G major

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and F dominant seven chords as the

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melodic lines disappear the Rhythm also

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speeds up and the figuration Rises to a

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higher register where once again Revel

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pauses then in measure 20 this little

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harmonic conflict resolves onto a g-

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chord but without the third this is

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another Cadence achieved by Rhythm and

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simpler Harmony given the overall

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richness of the harmony here if all the

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punctuations had been onto simple Trias

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they would have seemed rather

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tepid overall the result of these

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techniques is Rich but not chaotic the

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overall Harmony is still the third based

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with lots of seventh and nine chords

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although the succession of the chords is

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not classically functional like mozar

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but the voice living is very

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straightforward and the active notes

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always resolve conjunctly within the

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same chord or the next CHT here's a

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simple example with the non-consecutive

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resolutions indicated by the brackets

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and the last chord here both the G sharp

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and the B resolve on to a tonal Harmony

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is not an abstract rigid system but

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depends on our natural perceptual

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priorities thus can be extended in all

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kinds of ways as long as they respect

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what's Audible The V takes advantage of

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the way our ears prioritize the outer

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parts and the way that conjunct motion

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connect even notes that are not in

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immediate succession as long as they

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appear in successive chords since the

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movement of the outer parts is usually

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fairly diatonic we perceive the varying

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degrees of chromaticism in the inner

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parts as degrees of tension allowing the

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music to

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breathe unlike some later invented

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systems revel's musical logic here is

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always based on what we can hear result

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is Rich but coherent and results in

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musical phrases which of course the

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performer has to

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emphasize a simple example here's the

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little example we had in better 16 with

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all the notes played exactly equal

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without the main lines highlighted and

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phrase the audible result is quite

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chaotic now the same example with the

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outer parts highlighted and

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phrased as we see here music is

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definitely not a democracy our minds

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automatically prioritize certain things

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this enables us to perceive the world

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much more richly than if everything was

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equal since we can't take in remember

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very many things at once by prioritizing

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perception into layers we can also

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understand things that aren't always

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side by side like the notes in the main

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melodic line the sum up ral's harmonic

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style is based on fairly simple dionic

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pillars which are filled with elaborate

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often more chromatic ornamentation so in

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addition to the provisional gradations

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of consonants and dissonance there are

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also gradations of chromaticism varying

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numbers of notes outside the key which

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make the music more or less intense it

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feels like it

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breathes