wrong notes

>> I wrote a waltz based on the idea of wrong notes. It's a 12EDO work, so
>> it's not microtonal. If anyone would like to hear, I am quite happy to
>> send them a midi file. But (British microtonalists may laugh) a
>> comedian by the name of Les Dawson was an expert at the comic qualities
>> of wrong notes. Of course it goes without saying that wrong-note
>> romanticism is exemplified by Berg and his violin concerto.
>
>Yes!!! and just about the entire output of Prokofiev !!!
>

It never occurred to me about the Berg, but I guess I can see what you're
saying.

Trouble is, that after listening to a piece a lot, all the notes start
to sound "right". It's virtually impossible to right permanently "wrong"
notes. sooner or later they sound right.

I Was thinking about this and how music theory has lots of ways of talking
about why the notes are "right", but no ways of talking about why the
notes are "wrong".

Christopher Bailey wrote:

> >> I wrote a waltz based on the idea of wrong notes. It's a 12EDO work, so
> >> it's not microtonal. If anyone would like to hear, I am quite happy to
> >> send them a midi file. But (British microtonalists may laugh) a
> >> comedian by the name of Les Dawson was an expert at the comic qualities
> >> of wrong notes. Of course it goes without saying that wrong-note
> >> romanticism is exemplified by Berg and his violin concerto.
> >
> >Yes!!! and just about the entire output of Prokofiev !!!
> >
>
> It never occurred to me about the Berg, but I guess I can see what you're
> saying.
>
> Trouble is, that after listening to a piece a lot, all the notes start
> to sound "right". It's virtually impossible to right permanently > "wrong"
> notes. sooner or later they sound right.
>
>
> I Was thinking about this and how music theory has lots of ways of > talking
> about why the notes are "right", but no ways of talking about why the
> notes are "wrong".
>
>

I think Schenker's remarks on the the Stravinsky Piano Concerto illustrate a great example of how the right notes are the wrong ones (or the other way around). Early on, there were some popular descriptions of Stravinsky's techniques as "cubist"; such a label is limited in utility but perhaps more useful against the background radiation of something like Schenker's view of tonal music. If Schenker's view is "realist", then his critique of Stravinsky's voice leading may well be heard as "cubist" in seizing on disjunctions and violations of normative chronology.

DJW.

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Daniel Wolf <djwolf1@a...>

/makemicromusic/topicId_6882.html#6883

> I think Schenker's remarks on the the Stravinsky Piano Concerto
> illustrate a great example of how the right notes are the wrong
ones (or
> the other way around). Early on, there were some popular
descriptions of
> Stravinsky's techniques as "cubist"; such a label is limited in
utility
> but perhaps more useful against the background radiation of
something
> like Schenker's view of tonal music. If Schenker's view
is "realist",
> then his critique of Stravinsky's voice leading may well be heard
as
> "cubist" in seizing on disjunctions and violations of normative
chronology.
>
> DJW.

***I think Mr. Wolf's comments are quite apt. Hearing "cubist"
or "extended language" notes as "wrong" notes, essentially is mis-
hearing or mis-understanding the language.

There are no "wrong notes" in Prokoffiev, sorry.

It's just like microtonality. If you *hear* the microtones,
specifically, you're not really hearing the piece, as in "wow, these
are weird..."

If it's all part of the fabric, then you're "speaking the language"
so to speak.

Just my personal opinion (which might be expected, since I happen to
be writing this...) :)

J. Pehrson