Tag: instrumental

Royksopp | Royksopp Forever

From MotD reader and first-time contributor Max Willard comes the track “Royksopp Forever” (2009) by the Norwegian electronica duo Royksopp.

The duo’s album The Invitable End (2014) was widely considered to be the duo’s swan song; quite a few years of radio silence followed. In a 2022 Billboard interview, the duo describe their return: “The current scene is, luckily, a lot of things. That hasn’t changed for us. Some people look at the scene as music that crosses over, because electronic dance music became pop at some stage in the last 10 years … On the flip side, because it’s so saturated with music, there is a lot of crap as well. I have to be blunt and state the obvious. But as far as electronic music goes, for example, the genre of traditional rock was proclaimed “dead.” Those kinds of statements are so redundant. It’s just not as prominent, but it’s obviously still there. It’s just shifted a bit. Electronic music is now mainstream pop music. It’s just a little shift, but nothing really dies. It just becomes a bit more specialized and disappears and reappears. I like those shifting trends.”

Max’s take: “I think this modulation merits consideration because the entire song builds to the moment of key inflection.” After starting in D minor, the track transitions at 3:10 to a behemoth E major/A minor vamp, repeating onward to the end as it fades and shapeshifts.

Gustav Mahler | Symphony #6 in A Minor, Movement 1

From the memoirs of Austro-Bohemian composer Gustav Mahler’s wife Alma (UtahSymphony.org), on the topic of the Sixth Symphony:

“No other work came so directly from [Mahler’s] heart as this one. We both cried . . . So deeply did we feel this music and what it foretold us. The Sixth is his most personal work and is also a prophetic one. In Kindertotenlieder and in the Sixth, he musically anticipated his life. He, too, received three blows from fate, and the last felled him. But at the time, he was cheerful and conscious of the greatness of his work; he was a tree in full leaf and flower.

In this passage from her 1940 memoirs, Alma Mahler suggests that autobiographical meaning informs the content of her husband’s Sixth Symphony, and on many levels, her words ring true. Gustav Mahler did, in fact, suffer “three blows from fate” in 1907: he felt it necessary to resign from his conducting post in Vienna, his eldest child Anna Maria succumbed to scarlet fever, and a doctor discovered the heart defect that would ultimately end the composer’s life. However, none of these incidents had transpired when Mahler penned Symphony no. 6 (in 1906). Alma’s memoirs, therefore, correctly interpret this symphony as something foreshadowing events yet to come.”

After the movement starts in a brooding A minor, 1:53 brings a gentle woodwind chorale, then another wide-ranging section with full orchestra. At 2:54, a surprisingly lighthearted but brief section in F major sounds almost like a passage from a composition for children. The simplicity of the textures doesn’t last, but the tonality does manage to endure for a quite some time before more transitions appear.

Jean-Baptiste “Toots” Thielemans | Undecided

Jean-Baptiste “Toots” Thielemans, “the Belgian-American musician who cut a singular path as a jazz harmonica player … began his professional career as a guitar player (and added the ability to whistle a line above it), but inspired by the mid-20th century innovations of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, he returned to the chromatic harmonica and developed a bebop-influenced technique on it,” (NPR). “He performed and recorded widely with his bebop heroes and many other stars of postwar jazz, and his tune ‘Bluesette’ quickly became a jazz standard. His work also graces many film and television scores.”

Later in his career, “Thielemans became a first-call studio musician for top arrangers like Quincy Jones. His harmonica graced the theme song for Sesame Street and the score for the movie Midnight Cowboy. And that’s his whistling in the commercial jingle for Old Spice toiletries. Jazz remained his first love; even toward the end of his career, he would begin every morning with practice on the complex changes to John Coltrane’s ‘Giant Steps.’ … He was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in the U.S., and a baron by the king of Belgium. He only retired from performing at the age of 92.” He passed away in 2016 at the age of 94.

His performance on “Undecided,” a 1939 standard by Charles Shavers, would have been remarkable for any other harmonica player — but it was utterly routine for Thielemans. His technique on the instrument broke through to entirely new levels of speed and agility. The groove drops out for a break just before the half-step modulation at 1:18. As if that weren’t enough, the second half of the video showcases Toots’ famous guitar-and-whistling skills!

Antonin Dvorak | Symphony #9 in E minor (“New World”), Op. 95

Former Baltimore Symphony conductor Marin Alsop wrote for NPR of ” … Dvorak’s melodic gifts, as well as his ability to spin a seemingly infinite number of variations on a tune. This, combined with Dvorak’s Bohemian heritage, results in music unlike any other composer’s. Symphony No. 9 is nicknamed New World because Dvorak wrote it during the time he spent in the U.S. in the 1890s. His experiences in America (including his discovery of African-American and Native-American melodies) and his longing for home color his music with mixed emotions. There’s both a yearning that simmers and an air of innocence.”

The piece is often considered to be one of the most popular of all symphonies. Astronaut Neil Armstrong took a recording of the New World Symphony along during the Apollo 11 mission, the first Moon landing, in 1969. (WRTI.org).

Among the more prominent of the piece’s many modulations is a shift from E minor to G# minor at 7:12.

Nickel Creek | Stumptown

“Mandolinist-singer Chris Thile, guitarist-singer Sean Watkins, and fiddler-singer Sara Watkins recorded their self-titled debut for Sugar Hill in 2000,” (AcousticMusic.com). “The band had a lot going for it. Its members were young, spunky, and nice to look at on CMT; they were good musicians and singers, and brought a youthful edge to a music that seldom reached a youthful market. Indeed, the most surprising thing about Nickel Creek was that three, young with-it teenagers would choose to play anything resembling bluegrass, and that they, as Alison Krauss had some years earlier, were able to make acoustic music seem kind of cool.

The band’s third album, Why Should the Fire Die? (2005), (is) an intense, innovative album … Detractors will argue that Nickel Creek has strayed far from the traditional bluegrass path, but even the group’s first and most conservative effort wasn’t traditional. The problem with traditional-progressive conflicts is that they don’t tell you much about the quality of the music itself. Quite possibly, Nickel Creek doesn’t even qualify—at this point—as traditional, progressive, or any other kind of bluegrass. They are, however, an exciting band because they’ve brought new elements into acoustic music, giving it a potent injection of youthful vigor.”

After a starting in E major, a shift to G major is in effect from 1:02 – 1:18, where the band hiccups back into the original key.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Symphony #40 in G Minor (K. 550), Movement 1 (Molto Allegro)

“Mozart’s last three symphonies come from the extraordinarily creative summer of 1788,” (RedlandsSymphony.com) “In the space of slightly over six weeks, he composed the Symphony in E-flat, K. 543; the Symphony in G minor, K. 550; and the Symphony in C major, K. 551 …

Of the three 1788 symphonies, the Symphony in G minor, K. 550 (popularly referred to as No. 40, but probably No. 53), is the most original and has had the greatest influence on future composers. Few works from the 18th century are as intense, chromatic, and unconventional … few classical works more clearly point the way toward 19th century romanticism.”

Beginning in G minor, the movement transitions to the relative major key, Bb, for the first time at 0:27. Many other shifts in tonality follow.

Miles Davis | So What

“For many, (Miles Davis’) crowning achievement was the album Kind of Blue, the best selling album in jazz history,” (JazzWise). In 1999 it topped The Independent’s ’50 Best Recordings of the 20th Century’ list, in 2006 it topped the Jazzwise ‘100 Albums that Shook the World’ listing, while more recently The Guardian’s ‘1000 Albums to Hear Before You Die’ gave Kind of Blue a half-page box-out, an honour accorded to just 20 or so albums on the whole list. It even featured at No. 66 on the pop station VH1’s ‘100 Greatest Albums of Rock ’n’ Roll.’

“No other recording in jazz has come remotely near acquiring the kind of cachet Kind of Blue has accumulated over the decades. It’s an album that has probably been responsible for more Damascene conversions of non-believers into the jazz faith than any other, it has been the base-station from where countless fans have begun their journey into jazz and it’s an album that crops-up in the record collections of classical, rock, pop and country & western devotees who would not otherwise give jazz house room.”

After an intro, Kind of Blue‘s “So What” (1959) starts in earnest at 0:34. Even though the melody repeats throughout, the half-step upward modulation on the third pass (1:02 – 1:17) lends the track a classic AABA form. At 1:17, the tune reverts to its original key.

Maurice Cahen | Impromptu #1 for Flute and Guitar

Guitarist and composer Maurice Cahen was born in Saint Germain en Laye, France. He began studying classical guitar while playing jazz in the Paris area. He traveled back and forth to Spain, where he discovered his love for traditional and contemporary Spanish music. In 1982, Maurice moved to the United States to study at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, followed by studies with Charlie Banacos and Dimitri Goryachev. Since then, he’s collaborated with various Boston and New York based musicians and has published original chamber music for flute and guitar, including the Impromptu #1.

Cahen has toured Israel with The Little Big Band and later toured Brazil with his own quartet and duo. Since then, Maurice has created numerous ensembles: Reflection, Brazilian Serenade, and various duos and trios featuring his original work, improvisation, etc. and exploring many styles, instrumentations, and genres (Classical, Latin, etc.) Maurice is currently studying North Indian Classical music and sitar technique with Jawwad Noor.

Impromptu #1 for flute and guitar, featuring Cahen on guitar and MotD co-curator Elise MacDonald on flute, begins in an overarching B minor and D major, but shifts to B major at 1:03. After touching on several other keys of the moment, we return to B minor and D major at 1:44.

Liz Story | Things With Wings

Pianist Liz Story studied music at Hunter College and at Juilliard. “Although she was an accomplished pianist, (she) lost interest in a music career until she saw Bill Evans play one night at the Bottom Line in New York,” (MusicianGuide). “That concert opened up performance possibilities that she had never considered. ‘What hit me was the improvisation. I had the impression that improvising music had died in the 18th century, that it was a musical feat people knew about in some other time,’ she told DownBeat. ‘All these lights went on. I had, for the first time, a clear idea of what I would do in music.’

The timing of Story’s entrance onto the music scene was fortuitous. She arrived when a new form of music, popularly dubbed New Age, was gaining wide acceptance. William Ackerman helped pioneer New Age music through his Windham Hill label, which he formed in 1976 to release his first album of guitar music … Story recorded her first solo album, Solid Colors, for Windham Hill in 1983. High Fidelity reviewed the album: ‘ … a virtually flawless technical capacity, a fine gift for melody, a great sense of creative passion … a performer-composer with the melodic power to move an audience.’ Story claims that she desires simplicity in her compositions. ‘When I sit at the piano, complexity dissolves. I want music to somehow move me, simple and stripped down as it may be. I wonder at the possibility that a melody of three notes can turn the heart.'”

Story’s 1983 track “Things With Wings” begins in F major; at 1:03, there’s a modulation to F# major, then a reversion to the original key at 1:46.