Musical questions and answers thread

[Pulcinella]

0, 2, 5 refers to the number of semitones between the notes of a chord and the chord's root - so an example here would be C, D, and F: C is the root, there are no semitones because it doesn't have an interval with itself (other than a Unison, which is 0 semitones away from itself). D is 2 semitones away from C, and F is 5 semitones away from C.

Transpose C D F down a minor third, and you get A B D;
Transpose C D F up a minor third, and you get Eb F Ab

Invert C D F, and you get C Bb G (0, 2, 5 semitones going downwards from the "root")

Transpose C Bb G up a tritone and you get F# E C#

The emboldened trichords are the ones you mention (without the octave fixing) you quote from Whittall.

Thanks to you, too.

[Joseph K]

Ah! Thanks.
And surely then the second and fourth are inversions: coming down rather than going up?

But their intervallic content seems to be a minor third and major second...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

… so I get the first and third ones. But not the second and fourth. Perhaps I should look at one of my texts on post-tonal theory...

And surely then the second and fourth are inversions: coming down rather than going up?

- in the time it took me to post, you'd sorted it out between you.

[Joseph K]

Oh I see, inversions, yes.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But their intervallic content seems to be a minor third and major second...

Yes - it is in the ascending trichords, too: C-D, and D-F. (The numbers refer to the distance from the "root", not the note immediately above/below.)

[Joseph K]

Yes - it is in the ascending trichords, too: C-D, and D-F. (The numbers refer to the distance from the "root", not the note immediately above/below.)

[Joseph K]

[Pulcinella]

Don't feel bad, Joseph!
You were at least one step ahead of me.

[Serial_Apologist]

there are no semitones because it doesn't have an interval with itself (other than a Unison, which is 0 semitones away from itself).

Isn't language just wonderful???

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[Pulcinella]

Another plea for enlightenment.
In the Poulenc mass that the choir I'm in is currently learning, there is an instruction to the tenors for one bar (two bars before figure 8) to sing clair, with the following bar marked naturel.
Does clair really just mean 'clear'?

I could have sworn that I had seen the instruction en clair associated with the horns in The Rite of Spring, but a quick skim through the score didn't reveal it.

All thoughts/comments welcome.

[ahinton]

I could have sworn that I had seen the instruction en clair associated with the horns in The Rite of Spring, but a quick skim through the score didn't reveal it.

I can't seem to find my score of Le Sacre at the moment but, from memory, isn't that instruction pavillons en l'air?

P.S. Found it now. It is indeed pavillons en l'air (or "bells up" in horn players' slang, I guess) and appears for the first time in the bar before fig 46 on p.41 in the Ritual of abduction movement.

[Pulcinella]

I can't seem to find my score of Le Sacre at the moment but, from memory, isn't that instruction pavillons en l'air?

Yes, I noticed that, and wondered if my memory was playing tricks.
It probably was.


It's a little trumpet-like motif, but at least I know I'm not confusing it with en chamade!
Though that might be the sort of projection being asked for.

[edashtav]

Another plea for enlightenment.
In the Poulenc mass that the choir I'm in is currently learning, there is an instruction to the tenors for one bar (two bars before figure 8) to sing clair, with the following bar marked naturel.
Does clair really just mean 'clear'?

I could have sworn that I had seen the instruction en clair associated with the horns in The Rite of Spring, but a quick skim through the score didn't reveal it.

All thoughts/comments welcome.

Dolmetsch on-line suggests:

clear voice, white voice, voce chiara (Italian), voce bianca (Italian), voix claire (French), voix blanche (French):
a clear open timbre in which the tongue retracts and blocks the pharynx

[Pulcinella]

Dolmetsch on-line suggests:

clear voice, white voice, voce chiara (Italian), voce bianca (Italian), voix claire (French), voix blanche (French):
a clear open timbre in which the tongue retracts and blocks the pharynx

Many thanks.