Re: klezmer melodic contours 5

[Joshua Horowitz <horowitz...>]

Tom Puwalski wrote:

> OK then. How come there only seems to one type of ending??????? Tom Puwalski

Tom, I'm not sure I understand your question. In the freygish mode alone
I've found 156 cadence types. If you isolate and group the cadence forms
which begin on each and every note of the mode, including the sub-tonic
tone group (in parentheses below) you come up with an average of 17 for
types for each note. For instance, here is the D freygish mode:

       (B C D) Eb F#G A Bb C D

One typical example of a 2-bar cadence beginning on the lowest note of
the mode, B (using 4 sixteenth notes and a whole note) is:

B C D Eb   F# G F# Eb    D

One variant of this cadence is:

B C A G   F# G F# Eb     D 

One typical example of a 2-bar cadence beginning on the next note of the
mode, C (using 4 sixteenth notes and a whole note) is:

C B C D  Eb G F# Eb   D 
 
Let's jump to our beginning note of the cadence being G:

G C D Eb   F# G F# Eb   D

When I grouped the freygish cadences of ca.1500 tunes into categories
like this (each cadence form beginning on a different note of the mode)
I found 156 different *contours* of cadences. Many tunes have similar
cadences. If we had more tunes to study, there would be more cadence
forms. A friend of mine just sent me a new freylekhs from Sokireany in
freygish - a beautiful tune with a cadence form I haden't seen, so I'm
sure there would be more if we could gather more tunes. That study I
wrote years ago when I was trying to improve my vocabulary of
improvising variations, so it had a practical purpose for me then.
Cadences in music (as in linguistics) can tell you a lot about  regional
origins. In the study of the contour of a melody, there is probably less
overlap from mode to mode in the cadences than there are in other parts
of the melody (in spite of my showing some overlap in a previous mail).
I never tried to publish it because who wants to see a collection of 156
freygish cadences with accompanying verbal descriptions?? I like to roam
freely and don't want anyone locking me into a rubber room with a
plastic bed pan and a copy of the new testament.

Take care... Josh

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