A Minor Happy Tune?

[JazzJunkie]

I wish I could remember who said this because I know it was someone of great prominece, but that someone once said, "B-flat is not the same note as A-sharp." A great statement to illustrate notes in context to other notes. And how I'm getting from there to my next thought, I don't know, but is it possible to write a "happy" tune in a minor key?

JJ

[mke]

Originally Posted by JazzJunkie

I wish I could remember who said this because I know it was someone of great prominece, but that someone once said, "B-flat is not the same note as A-sharp." A great statement to illustrate notes in context to other notes.

It also illustrates the fact that it isn't.

[hglord]

Dizzy Gillespie's "Birk's Works" is a happy minor tune. Well, I guess that "happy" is open to interpretation, but I think it's pretty happy.

I don't know of a recording by Diz, but Art Pepper made a terrific recording of it on "Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section."

[graypencil]

Birks Works is a minor 12 bar blues ..there are many others ..

pop tunes in minor keys that feel "happy" (?) :

lullaby of the leaves
42nd St
hit the road Jack
lullaby of Birdland
That's a plenty
Bernies Tune
Sing Sing Sing
It dont mean a thing ..

i could continue, but

[Squaredancecalling Steve]

Originally Posted by hglord

Dizzy Gillespie's "Birk's Works" ...

I don't know of a recording by Diz

I have Dizzy doing it on "The Champ," nice album with Kenny Burrell, Milt Jackson, Stuff Smith and a young John Coltrane.

[JazzJunkie]

Thanks to all -- I never would have guessed Birk's Works was in a minor key. Found The Diz version on a Verve compilation, "Birk's Works: The Verve Big-Band Sessions"/Dizzie Gillespie. Also, listened to some samples from "Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section" and that stuff absolutely kills -- might have to actually bust out some cash for that one!

JJ

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by graypencil

hit the road Jack

An instrumental version, perhaps.

[bluenoter]

Klezmer and other music from Eastern European sources are full of happy tunes in minor keys. Three absurdly popular examples are "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen," "Moscow Nights," and what may be the best example of all, "Hava Nagila."

[Dennis Gonzalez]

People who grow up listening to music in minor keys don't necessarily feel the "sadness" we associate with those keys. In other musics, they are not even referred to as "minor". They are the prevalent modes of those musics.

And of course, many songs are written with changes that go from a major to a minor to a major all in the first 4 measures.

"Commie Memories" by Firesign Theatre is a funny minor key song.

[JazzJunkie]

Thanks Dennis, you make a very good point -- I definitely need to travel out of the States more. "Commie Memories" -- I'll have to check that out -- am already anticipating a sequel, "Commie Dearest" -- sorry, just couldn't resist! Thinking about ironic, sarcastic, sardonic works reminds me of Prokofiev's 1934 cinematic "Lieutenant Kizheh" and a tune from that called "Troika" or "Three Horsed Sleigh Ride" which I've always wished someone or "somemany" of the jazzically-inclined would have some fun with. It's a great tune that has been little recorded, at least that I know of.

JJ

[Dennis Gonzalez]

The great jazz vibist and composer Werner Pirchner wrote some great humorous political music, my favorite titled "Variations on a Tyrolean Slave Song (String Quartet for Wind Quintet)"...the liner notes state one very interesting point about Pirchner's work which ties in with yesterday's death of Ronald Reagan: "Herein lies the political significance of Werner Pirchner's musical wit and works - they are an answer to the false pathos of a (Kurt) Waldheim, (Helmut) Kohl, or a (Ronald) Reagan (while the names are replaceable, the phenomenon remains the same)." The notes were written in 1986.

Straying a bit from the original theme of your thread, JJ, but interesting nonetheless.

[graypencil]

Originally Posted by Pete C

An instrumental version, perhaps.

depends on your viewpoint , I guess ...

I lways assumed the gal was really happy to get rid of Jack

[JazzJunkie]

Originally Posted by Dennis Gonzalez

Straying a bit from the original theme of your thread, JJ, but interesting nonetheless.

I can't think of a better place to stray from originals than a jazz forum! And just so you'll know, with talk of political satirism, I did fall asleep last night with images of Pat Paulsen running thru my head!

JJ

P.S. Is "These Are A Few... Favorite Things" in a minor key?

[graypencil]

Originally Posted by JazzJunkie

P.S. Is "These Are A Few... Favorite Things" in a minor key?

JJ:

It actually has a strain in each ..minor /then major ..

[JazzJunkie]

Thanks graypencil. You seem to have offered up quite a few theatrical tunes. Do you compose for the theater?

JJ

[Fluter]

This issue has been studied by music psychologists and extensively reported in the literature.

The most important determinant of the emotional impact of music is tempo. This can be seen with very small children.

Fast music is happier than slow music, regardless of other variables. Any song can be made happier just by speeding it up, and vice versa. Try it for yourself.

Then comes the pitches used in the song. A lot of musicians think pitches are more important than tempo on this parameter, but I don't experience that way and again, the research says that most other people don't, either.

Jewish music is full of minor tonalities in songs played at a fast tempo, creating a joy tinged with something less joyous, in my opinion, a very nice complexity, but with happiness being dominant.