Journey To The Island ....Chord Scale System ?

[tedfud 38]

Hi

Please forgive me if this is a daft question but i'm trying to get to grips with JW's wandering melodies. It helps me to think of this section from "journey to the island" as a kind of sequence. Basically a a/b motif that keeps repeating in ...well different keys to my ears . Could this be a Jazz thing , sort of like the chord scale system ? Where the melody is being altered chromatically to fit the chords . Is that the best way to describe it ?

Many Thanks

[Ludwig 1,120]

Yes, the melody's chromatic changes are dependent on the chords. The chord changes you can think of in terms of Lehman's "Chromatically Modulating Cadential Resolutions" - he shows them abstractly in this very passage in Example 29 of his online article.

Or it might help to think of the key relationships. The main interval used to change keys is the third in various forms. In your diagram, in terms of keys, bar 10-11 (according to your bar numbers) is a minor 3rd down, bar 13-14 is a minor 3rd up, bar 15-16 is a minor 3rd down, and bar 17-18 (18 is not shown) is another minor 3rd down.

You can see how much this passage relies on thirds to keep the key changes sounding fresh. There's also the lack of resolution where we expect tonic chords of each key to come in, part of the "sensation of wonderment" that Lehman discusses.

One other thing I'd mention is the pattern of motives in the melody. For one thing, every bar is based on the same basic rhythmic motive, but varied. And these are grouped into pairs of bars, and the first pair is varied over another three statements of it. So you could write it schematically as:

a1 - a2(extended to 3 bars) - a1' - a2'

And these could be grouped further into larger segments like this:

A1 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A2 - - -

a1 - a2(extended to 3 bars) - a1' - a2'

This is a very typical Williams device - always drawing on the same basic motive, but never stating it quite the same way. Many of his themes do this.

[tedfud 38]

Thank you Ludwig

most helpful. The A,B development is nicely done. I have spotted this a lot. I didn't notice the keys where all a min third apart.

t