[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
<< Many laments don't really contain much anger >>
I don't know about that, David. I don't mean to challenge you, it's just that
my experience is different from yours. I find that most laments do indeed
have at least one phrase that expresses anger. Usually at the beginning of
the B part. Often, the melody rises at that point and it's almost set up for
you to express anger with big chords underneath that melodic line. That, or
you can swell the dynamics along with the melodic line.
As I sit here and think through the half-dozens laments I played at my gig
this afternoon, I arranged them all with an increase in dynamic or harmonic
expression in the beginning of the B part. Some of them, I build up large
chords, sometimes unexpected chords. Like, an E minor chord underneath a
melodic line that has several repeated G's (where the impulse might be to use
a G major chord.)
I'm not familiar with Carolan's Owen Roe lament. There is a Lament for Owen
Roe in Alison Kinnaird's Small Harp Tutor which I played today. Alison says
she learned it from her husband, and that it's Irish, but she doesn't credit
Carolan, so it must be different. If you have the opportunity, take a look at
her arrangement. The A section is just the melody, with a single broken chord
at the end of each phrase. Then, at the begining of the B section, she
increases the tension through a slow glissando at the beginning, building up
to a large rolled chord and parallel octaves. You can't help but feel the
anger there.
Maybe you found this out...it's the arrangement, how you build the harmony
and dynamics of the lament to make it something more than just a pretty, slow
air in the minor mode.
--Cynthia Cathcart
http://www.cynthiacathcart.net
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