On Nov 22, 2007, at 1:02 PM, Darcy James Argue wrote:
Barry Manilow uses the half-step up modulation on the last chorus
in practically every tune. It's true there's nothing inherently
wrong with that device, but when it becomes a crutch, an easy way
to give a boost to the end of every single tune, it gets real old
real fast.
Stevie Wonder often ends with an upwards modulation but he mixes it
up -- sometimes going up a whole step instead of a half step, or
going up a series of half steps. And since he doesn't do it every
damn time, it's a lot more effective.
Cheers,
- Darcy
On 22 Nov 2007, at 8:32 AM, Christopher Smith wrote:
On Nov 22, 2007, at 8:01 AM, Mark D Lew wrote:
On Nov 21, 2007, at 5:57 AM, Christopher Smith wrote:
Barry Manilow (over)uses the previous tonic to become the new
leading tone when he modulates up a semitone, which is widely
considered to be tasteless these days.
Really? That's tasteless? It seems perfectly fine to me.
Rather ordinary, true, but what's wrong with ordinary?
Heh, heh! It's overused, and anything overused gets old and by
extension, tasteless. "In the Mood" is perfectly fine tune, but
overplaying has taken the shine off it.
Is good old II-V-I tasteless now, too?
Depends on your circle. 8-)
Christopher
Actually (in reply to myself) I find myself looking for alternatives
to the II V I cadence more and more these days, even in musically
conservative situations. I just don't want my stuff to date as
quickly as some things I see, and finding a workable solution outside
the usual solutions may take more time, but it usually pays off.
I find myself mining for cadences in Ravel, Prokofieff and
Shostakovitch, who seem to have a real fresh bent for great cadences.
However, in defence of the II-V-I, I still get knocked out by Dizzy
Gillespie's "Con Alma", where he manages to get seamlessly from
Emajor in bar 1 to Eb major in bar seven in the most natural way
possible. I wish all my two-fives sounded as fresh. Wayne Shorter's
early stuff is great for that, too.
Stevie Wonder, as Darcy mentioned, manages to make the unusual sound
usual, and the usual sound like nobody else has ever done it. "Sir
Duke" the chorus is one of my favourite examples, where he goes in
four bars
A | Ebm7 | D | D/E E7
Wacky second chord, eh? But perfect!
Christopher
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