[Harp-L] Re: Harp-L Digest, Vol 93, Issue 24 - keys, key signatures etc

[Richard Hammersley <rhhammersley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I come to the idea of keys/ key signatures from a rather different direction because I am interested in music that does not necessarily use the 12 standard notes of the western tonal system, never mind using the fixed selection of 8/12 notes that comprises a 'scale' in a 'key'. However, this is rather a perverse interest for a harmonica player because, unless you retune them, harmonicas provide precisely those 12 notes (chromatically) or 8 notes (diatonically). But there is bending which offers the possibility of freer playing, which I have sometimes experimented with. XB-40s are good for getting between the notes. So far, I have found overblowing too focussed on hitting those extra notes to be good for playing off key on purpose.
  From this music theory perspective there are two possible starting places to understand keys and key signatures. One is the view that almost all music, including music that tries to avoid key signatures, can be translated into the standard notation system - the extended tonality view. This applies apparently even to 12-tone music, serial compositions and to 'free' Jazz. The simple claim as I understand it is that music that sounds 'good' tends to have a key even if this is heavily ornamented with key changes, modulation and accidental notes. I don't have the expertise to tell whether this is true. I do know that non western tonal systems, for example Indian ragas and some African music have recently veered towards western tuning and tonality partly to accommodate western instruments, notably the keyboard synthesiser.  
  A harp example of out of tune music making sense was that recently my pals called the key of tune wrong so I was playing a C harp instead of a D harp. But, because I was improvising anyway, I adjusted for this by ear without realising at the time and played in D on a C harp, as is commonplace. Those of you skilled enough to play in many positions on one harp (I am limited to about 3) have the facility to do this often.
  The other starting place, which is where I came from when I was making music concrete in the 1970s, is the music as sound position - that even the idea of a 'note' is a simplification on what is actually produced when music is made. For example, some transcriptions of early blues recordings show tunes with only one or two notes, but when you listen it does not sound like that because of variations in the precise pitching of the note(s), in their timbre (tonal qualities), volume, rhythm, etc. etc. Western notation (and tab systems) are poor at capturing those aspects of music. There is also plenty of music (not however in the hit parades) that provides combinations of notes which are not in key. Ug some readers shudder. "Take that terrible noise off" says my wife when I listen to, for example, Cecil Taylor or Anthony Braxton. I mention these two because their music is based on completely logical musical principles, just not ones that sit easily in the ear of the standard listener. But, before writing off the non-key view of music as a perversion, which is what many people do, consider that as well as the blues, a lot of hit parade music is so trite in terms of western musical notation that it is impossible to describe why some of it makes classic durable music and some of it is disposable rubbish. Snobbier classically trained musicians can dismiss almost all 'pop' because their training misses these nuances, which don't get into the transposition system.
  These two places are hard to combine but I think that both are valid. As someone who plays blues and allied music with other people, I will continue to generally try and find the right harp to play in key. But I sometimes also use harp as a sound source in less tonal music. I started to feel less inhibited about this when I read that the improvising guitarist Derek Bailey insisted on tuning his guitar very precisely so that he knew precisely how the dischords he hit were going to sound. I have yet to work out a way of playing the harp in a free way that I think is really interesting rather than being a sort of novelty item. The current top jazz harmonica players tend towards the "extended tonality" starting place. 
  Anyone interested in music theory, but not wanting a full classical education, I recommend the following books:
  Fundamentals of Music Composition by Arnold Schoenberg. Sounds heavy but the clearest explanation of how the western key system works that I have ever read. 
 Silence by John Cage. Sounds pretensious, but gets across the idea of music as sound very clearly and makes one recognise that 'perfection' in music is an unattainable goal.
Then, for those of you who think that all this is a load of ...
Words and Music: A history of Pop in the Shape of a City by Paul Morley. Amongst other things this book shows how the extreme avant garde have influenced the fluffiest pop music. If you listen to the backing to some contemporary hit parade music there are some very surprising things going on that, for me, back up the idea that key signatures and sound are both valid places to start thinking about music. Plus, many people are now making electronic/ dance musics by dropping samples into a computer editing system without having to think too closely about western ideas of music and tonality at all. 
 Oh, and "Improvisation" by Derek Bailey is interesting too.
 Richard