A Review of Modes, Scales, Functional Harmony, and Nonfunctional Harmony in the Compositions of...

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Brian Bartling

A Review of Modes, Scales, Functional Harmony, and Nonfunctional Harmony in theCompositions of Herbie Hancock by Keith Waters

Keith Waters' 2008 article Modes, Scales, Functional Harmony and Nonfunctional

Harmony in the Compositions of Herbie Hancock looks through the lens of Herbie Hancock's

music to etermine which as!ects of his harmonic language are a continuation" an which

as!ects are a break from" earlier #a$$ !ractices% Although the title is a bit longer than a usual

acaemic !a!er on #a$$" Waters narrows his focus to #ust a few iiosyncratic features of

Hancock's harmonic !ractice" an then makes" in my o!inion" a thoroughly convincing case that

these features are ifferent" but not too ifferent" from the harmonies foun in the #a$$ of the

!ast% At the same time" Waters !ro!oses some analytical moels that can be use to analy$e

Hancock's music that can then e&ten to the analysis of the whole of moal #a$$ a movement in

the ()*0s in which Hancock is #ust one active member% +ince Waters' article is esigne to be an

analysis of music that is ifferent from the !ast" , will begin by framing its conte&t within some

of the analytical moels we have e&!lore in the class% , will then summari$e the article's main

!oints" an then en with a few remarks about these moels%

A robust analytical tool for #a$$ music before the influ& of moal #a$$" an inee other

ty!es of #a$$ that break own tonal bounaries" is the a!!lication of +chenkerian analysis

-.arson ())8/% his ty!e of analysis was !ioneere by its namesake" Heinrich +chenker" in the

late ()th an early 20th centuries" an was intene to be a!!lie solely to the music of Austro1

ermanic com!osers like 3o$art" Beethoven" +chubert" etc% hus" its a!!lication to music

outsie of this s!here is a !oint of contention" es!ecially to music that is im!rovise" like #a$$%

4evertheless" the cru& of +chenkerian analysis is that it is s!ecifically ae!t at iscovering things



that all tonal music has in common" an a great eal of #a$$ is tonal" therefore +chenkerian

analysis can be a!!lie to a great eal of #a$$% An overview of the methos of +chenkerian

analysis woul be outsie the sco!e of this !a!er" so , will only escribe a !oint of similarity

with the following analysis a !iece of music is ivie into multi!le layers% he ee!est layer is

the backgroun" an on to! of this is two more layers 5 the milegroun an the foregroun 5

which contain successively more notes that are 6com!ose out7 of the ee!er layer%

he most com!elling !art of a +chenkerian analysis is iscovering links between

successive layers of a com!osition% or e&am!le" if there is an u!!er neighbor figure that occurs

in the foregroun" i%e% 9 5 :b 5 9" this may be echoe harmonically in the milegroun an

thus s!an a much larger !art of the com!osition% his" in +chenkerian !arlance" is referre to as

motivic parallelism% ,n the essay at han" Waters suggests that" while functional harmony is not

integral to moal #a$$" a conce!t similar to motivic !arallelism is at !lay% hat is" Hancock

oesn't com!letely abanon the iea of telesco!ing a surface1level motive into a ee!er structural

level% While a strict +chenkerian sketch of a moal !iece may be im!ossible" a reuctive sketch

that is cogni$ant of multi!le musical layers will e;ui! the analyst with an e;ually robust tool%

unther +chuller" in his analysis of the im!rovisation of +onny Rollins on Blue 7 " argues that

Rollins !erforms a coherent solo by em!loying motives an variations u!on motives -+chuller

()8*/% +chenkerian analysis takes this conce!t a ste! further by situating these motives within

multi!le layers" an Waters then takes u! the baton by e&tening this conce!t to moal #a$$%

our characteristics of moal #a$$ are outline in the article -(/ the use of e&tene !eal

!oints" -2/ the su!!ression or absence of stanar functional harmonic !rogressions" -</ slow

harmonic rhythm" an -=/ the association of a seven1note scalar collection with each harmony"

!roviing a grou! of !itch classes for im!rovisation an accom!animent% ,n orer to unerstan



how these characteristics emerge through the com!ositions themselves" Waters !oints to three

com!ositional tools that Hancock use in his works interval cycles" scalar voice1leaing" an

motivic enlargement%

An interval cycle is an organi$ational evice that allows a com!oser to unify multi!le

imensions of a com!osition 5 the harmonic an the meloic% ,nterval cycles are re!eate

motions of an interval class> that is" an interval that is given an integer notation -0 is unison" ( is

minor secon" 2 is ma#or secon" etc%/% Jessica is one such com!osition that em!loys interval

cycles% he meloy in the introuction is es!ecially interesting it begins with an ar!eggiation of

the tonic tria on the first beat" an an 6ic?7 chor that is com!ose of ic?s 5 @02 5 is !resente

on the secon beat% A trans!osition of ic?" ?" is hear on the subse;uent beat" an the ne&t

measure is a com!lete ? of the !revious measure% Alreay" there are three layers to this o!ening

meloy that em!loy ic? the iniviual notes" a grou! of <1notes" an the entire measure% hese

ic? !rogressions are then mirrore in the bass" creating an even ee!er layer the first two

harmonic cou!les are ic?1relate Abm19bm an ma#1Bbma#Z?" followe by :bm% his is

su!!orte by ic? relationshi!s in the meloy% A reuctive sketch of this is shown in Figure 1%

Accoring to Waters" there are !rimarily two seven1note scales that Hancock uses in his

com!ositions the iatonic collection an the acoustic collection% he latter is an orering of the

ascening meloic minor scale on the ominant% hat is" a C1acoustic scale will have a raise

fourth" Z" an a lowere seventh" Bb% hese scales !rovie the available !itches for

accom!animent an im!rovisation" shown in Figure 2% ,n Herbie Hancock's music" function is

not hear in terms of tonic" ominant" or subominant> a function is instea hear as a

!rogression among the iatonic an acoustic collections% hus" Waters efines the term distance

value to mean the number of istinct elements that are is!lace between two collections% or



e&am!le" the istance value between 90 an A? is ( the : shifts to :b% Waters !rovies networks

for multi!le istance values" but nees two networks !er istance value because no two acoustic

collections have a istance value of (% he network for the istance value of ( is shown in

Figure 3%

Waters uses his conce!tion of istance value to analy$e the com!osition ittle !ne% ,n

this !iece" closely1relate voice1leaings occur between mm% (1= an *1(2" in that each

!rogression has a istance value of (" an form harmonic @02 motives that are a ee!er1level

result of the @02 o!ening sonority% here are three caences thus far in the com!osition" an

each has a ifferent istance value there is a value of ? at mm% ?1*> = at mm% (21(<> an < at

mm% 2012(% Although they are ifferent" each is a escening ic(% his is shown in Figure 4%

A further !oint of com!arison between Hancock's music an his !reecessors'" an" by

e&tension" Waters' methos an +chenker's" is that of motivic enlargement% Waters has foun a

literal instance of intra1layer enlargement of a motive" or motivic !arallelism" in Hancock's

"olphin "ance% Here" the o!ening meloy outlines a escening minor thir between an :b"

which is then echoe in the bass between mm% ( an 2?%

his latter observation concerning motivic enlargement" cou!le with Waters' first

observation about Hancock's use of interval cycles" forms a com!elling narrative about the

continue use of motives through multi!le musical layers into moal #a$$% he secon

com!ositional strategy outline here" the calculation of istance values among the iatonic an

acoustic scales" is" , think" less convincing% he way in which Waters em!loys this analytically

in ittle !nes is to show how harmonies that are closely relate" or have a istance value of ("

unfol over a !eal !oint in the bass between mm% (1= an *1(0% he three caences at mm% *"

(<" an 2( have more remote istant relations 5<" =" an ? 5 an thus 6clarify the !oints of



harmonic arrival in the com!osition%7 his analysis is interesting because Waters reuces all of

the harmonic events that occur in the music uner analysis to one of two ty!es of trans!osable" 1

note scalar collections% his woul be un!receente in any other ty!e of music the harmonic

changes occur too fast here to establish any ty!e of scale over another" an it woul seem that an

analysis of voice1leaing woul be more effective if it was one among the harmonies

themselves" rather than the unerlying scales% 4evertheless" one of Waters' original claims was

that Hancock associate the two seven1note scalar collections with each harmony> an so all

notes" whether they are harmonic or meloic" can be erive from one of these two collections%

his being the case" a voice1leaing moel among the scales an their trans!ositions can be a

useful analytical tool%

,'m not entirely sure that Waters really showe anything with this moel" though% rue"

the harmonies that unfol over a !eal !oint have a close istance value of (" but the iea that

com!osers like to use closely1relate collections an a lot of common tones is not a new iea in

the literature% Also" the fact that each caence has a ifferent istance value is not enough to

warrant the creation of a new system% Derha!s the most useful way to situate these scales within

Waters' moel" an to use them in a way that , sus!ect Waters woul like to show" is to imagine

them as irecte voice1leaings within sum1class grou!s" a similar iea to that !ro!ose in

Richar Cohn's work -Cohn ())8/% hat is" the sum of each !itch class of a given trans!osition

of either scale is calculate" mo (2% his way" one iatonic scale an one acoustic scale will

belong to a single sum1class grou!" an will be situate within a single iagram% his is because

the acoustic scale is erive from the iatonic scale by raising the fourth an lowering the

seventh> that is" 1( E ( F 0" which is shown in Figure 5% his suggests that voice1leaings among

the sum1class grou!s shoul be in terms of the motion of the iniviual voices as irecte



intervals rather than as unorere interval classes% hat is" two voices that move by semitone in

contrary motion Gcancel each other out"G in that they sum to 0 rather than to 2% his way" every

trans!osition of the iatonic or acoustic scale can be situate within a single iagram 5 not 2

ifferent iagrams" like in the article% ,magining these scales as sum1class grou!s allows us to

see the istance values irectly involve in the system without recourse to the clumsiness of

unorere interval classes% 3y conce!tion of these scales as sum1class grou!s is shown in

Figure 6%

ne interesting as!ect of this network" arrange in terms of its contiguous istance values

as Waters has one" is that it forms @02 sets from the roots of the scales 5 a voice1leaing

analogue to the @02 !itch1class set forme by the harmonic arrivals in ittle !ne% hat is" there

are three ways to obtain @02 sets from the roots of these scales" which can then be trans!ose to

any moe in the scale% Ising my sum1class grou! notation" these are ([ 0] ,[(] ,[2]) ,

([ 0] ,[(] ,[<]) , an ([0] ,[2],[<]) # hus" @02 sets in sum1class grou!s have low" contiguous

istance values" an this seems to be e&!loite in ittle !nes% As shown in Figure 7" the sum1

class grou!s that unfol over the !eal1!oints in the bass form ([ 0], [(] ,[2]) grou!s" as well as

the three 6anomalous7 sum1class grou!s that together form a unit in mm% ?" ()" an 22%

,magine in this way" the voice1leaings among Hancock's harmonies form @02 sets that are

mirrore in successively higher levels of the com!ositions the !oints of harmonic arrival , an

the @02 o!ening sonority% Infortunately" Waters misse this interesting theoretical nugget"

which further highlights Hancock's !enchant for similarities among multi!le layers of a

com!osition%



Works Cited

Cohn" Richar% ())8% 6+;uare 9ances with Cubes%7 Journal of Music $heory =2 28<12)*%

.arson" +teve% ())8% 6+chenkerian Analysis of 3oern Ja$$ uestions about 3etho%7 Music$heory Spectrum 20 20)12=(%

+chuller" unther% ()8*% 6+onny Rollins an the Challenge of hematic ,m!rovisation%7 ,n63usings he 3usical Worls of unther +chuller%7 8*1)% &for Iniversity Dress%

Waters" Keith% 200?% 63oes" +cales" unctional Harmony" an 4onfunctional Harmony in the

Com!ositions of Herbie Hancock%7 Journal of Music $heory =) <<<1<?%



Appendix I

Fi%ures &'7

Figure 1. ,c? in multi!le musical layers in Jessica% Aa!te from -Waters 200?/%



Figure 2. -a/ he iatonic -9/ an acoustic -A/ collections% -b/ Harmonies erive from theiatonic collection% -c/ Harmonies erive from the acoustic collection% Aa!te from -Waters

200?/



Figure 3. he collection of iatonic an acoustic scales with a istance value of (% Aa!tefrom -Waters 200?/%

Figure 4. 9istance value relations in ittle !ne% Aa!te from -Waters 200?/%



Figure 7% +um1class grou!s of the harmonic !rogression from ittle !ne% A voice1leainganalogue to the @02 set is shown here" in that ([ 0], [(] ,[2]) sum1class grou!s unfol over the

harmonic movements that occur over !eal !oint 5 those that have a istance value of ( an thusare closely relate -!erha!s a better way to e&!ress these grou!s is ([(0] ,[((] ,[0]) /% he istantvoice1leaings that Waters !ointe out form their own ([ 0], [(] ,[2]) sum class" so they are

themselves versions of the @02 voice1leaing analogue% he sum1class grou!s in mm% ? an22" both @2" are outline in !ur!le because they aren't a!!roache by a istance value of (%

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