Three Seasons

Just saw the movie "Three Seasons" which takes place in Vietnam. The
music is really haunting. The score is not bad although the string
harmonization at the end seems a little questionable.

I love the forum and the way it's making me hear music so critically.
One comment re "serialism." It is a compositional tool that has the
ability of unifying the sound of a composition. Its roots go back to
the "fugal" form and it enables a composer to explore parts of a scale,
especially a tempered scale, that might otherwise be ignored.

I've been experimenting with Kiganda music from Uganda. It uses an
equi-pentatonic in such a way that melodies are composed to sound good
in all five transpositions based on an octave ambitus for the melodies.
Not that the music is played in all five transpositions or "mikos" but
the melody is supposedly instantly recognizable. The music is
"harmonized" by a very rapid isorhythmic pattern, usually grouped in
sixes, comprised of two interlocking patterns. The interesting part is
that the overall pattern can be fairly long and that the two
interlocking patterns are often played by different individuals.

What I have found is that the pattern and its constant repetition, used
as a foundation for a piece, evenly distributes the various pitches.
Melodic permutations, as in "fugue" are the foundations of classical
music composition. Accompaniment by a pattern of pitches is similar to
the "row" idea in serialism.

This consistency of pitch material was considered one of the most
important prerequisites of good composition by Carter. In other words,
he hated octaves & major thirds. Banished the major triad. And didn't
like repeated notes.
RT