Re: Melodies move by step in any form of music?

On May 28, 11:56 pm, Neil <nhmil...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On May 28, 5:41=EF=BF=BDpm, nono umasy <nigelinsouthamer...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wro=
te:
>
> > just a general question on melody.
>
> > no matter what form of music, jazz, flamenco, cuban, funk, afro-beat,
> > the melody in these form of music moves by step and not by leaps.
> > basically the melodies move using similar contours and intervallic
> > spaces?
>
> > this just leads me to another question,
> > what makes melodies characteristic of certain forms of music, for e.g.
> > flamenco the melodies usually start with a tonic note, followed by a
> > b2, b3 imposing that phrygian sound.
> > e.g. arabic music usually has 3 minor seconds in the scale.
>
> > but what about the other forms of music?
>
> > would be nice to have a guideline or chart which breaks these
> > different characteristic grouping of sounds.
>
> When does an interval become a leap?

When it is a third or more in most cases. (micro-tonal music may be
different lol )

Leonard Bernstein was very fond
> of the interval of a major 7. The opening phrase of Beethoven's Piano
> Concerto 1 is a C octave leap (as you say). You can't include jazz as
> a style of music --too varied, and there's plenty of leaps -- it's
> more of a genre.

"musical style: noun
an expressive style of music [syn: music genre]
WordNet=C2=AE 3.0, =C2=A9 2006 by Princeton University."

Since you brought up Leonard, this is news to me that he has a
preference of one interval over another. I have never seen his quick
bio that listed either his favorite color, movie, quote or interval!
If his music is any indication, I would think that he "favored" all
the intervals. When it comes to his music, he seems to have used them
all. In his own composition of West Side Story, which one could say
was written in the "genre" of Jazz (hmm, that really doesn't roll off
the tongue as well as "style" now does it?) uses the Minor 7th as the
opening two notes of one of his most beautiful melodies, "Somewhere".
Not to mention the augmented 4th/diminished 5th that is sometimes
characteristic of the Jazz Style or Genre, but I believe that he uses
just about all the intervals as he considers them appropriate for his
compositions.

LJS


>
> There are many how to books about different styles of music, and their
> analyses should answer your question, though the title will not be
> exactly How To Compose a *Whatever*.
>
> Neil Miller, author of The Piano Lessons Book
> Enter in Amazon.com search: Neil Miller Piano Lessons Book