Re: klezmer melodic contours 5

[asinger <asinger...>]

>For whatever it's worth, on his instructional video, Andy Statman pointed
>out the similarity of this ending to the endings of symphonic works in (I
>believe he said) the 18th century, and speculated that imitation of the
>symphonic works may have been the source. I suppose it could also have been
>the other way around if related at all.
>
>Matt
>
If a melody ends with a D, followed by an A, followed by a D one octave up
from the first D, you could see how one would chord it as D minor, followed
by an A major followed by D minor, which for D minor would translate into a
chord on the first degree of the scale, then on the fifth degree and then
on the first degree, or a I V I chord progression.  The chord progression V
I is referred to as a perfect cadence, and was used as an ending for all
Western Classical music since the 1600's, symphonic or otherwise.  This
ending thus could have diffused from the court musicians into the Jewish,
gypsy, eastern european peasant music cultures over the next 300 years or
so.  My whole point here is that Andy Statman may see a similarity, but I'm
not sure it's valid.

Alex Singer


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