Law of Resolving Tendencies, Autumn Leaves and CMGs (long)

[chespernevins]

Wonderful replies guys.

I agree about the circle. I have played with this idea for a long time - trying flat lying lydian scales over sharp lying lydian keys which for the most part give us what sounds to me like the traditional horizontal scales. The flat lying keys all tie into the underlying sharp lying keys in some way or another (play Eb lydian 9 tone order over C lydian and you still have the tone C). This sounds like blues.

Then I have played with sharp lying lydian keys over flat lying lydian keys, which gives what I think of as a "Paul Bley" sound, but I'm sure that's only one way to categorize them. These sharp lying lydian scales have a very "out" quality, with no tether to the underlying lydian key. (Play E lydian or B lydian over C lydian, and there is no C to tie it to the underlying C lydian).

Yeah Db, I'm also trying to get conscious...

Edit after the fact: Let me clarify that this is just an observation on my part, and really may not hold up to the letter of the law of the LCC - I don't know.

I want to distinguish this post from my next post, where I am trying to be accurate with the LCC.

[chespernevins]

Hi Bob, I may be over-answering here, but what the heck.

I said (and not very clearly):

>The first gives us a picture of a vertical state (Bb lyd) being asked to resolve to something foreign to it (an F chord) - a chord that implies a sharp lying vertical state.

Let me rewrite this a little more clearly:

Bb Lydian is being asked to resolve to an F Major chord – a chord that implies F lyd. F Lydian is 1 step sharp around the cycle of fifths from Bb lyd.

Here’s more detail:

If a C major scale is a duality, then it is because F is really the vertical tonic of the C major scale, but you are making the C Major chord a priority chord through placement and emphasis. (Thus making C the horizontal tonic of the C Major scale).

So to say this exact same thing slightly differently, in a C major scale, you are taking an F Lydian scale and making it sound, through emphasis and placement, like it is resolving to a C major chord.

Having said that, let me now shift emphasis from melody to a harmonic progression:

Ex. I:

| F | G7 | C Maj |

We could analyze the above as F LYD I | F LYD II | C LYD I |.

This is an example of the “Law of Resolving Tendenciesâ€

[chespernevins]

"the cycle of doom"
philoxenos

But you're the one who coined that term, right? H just loved it though.

[sandywilliams]

Just to reiterate: vertical states and horizontal states exist simultaneously within a tune. An F blues may have all kinds of chords flying by but you can still play an F blues scale over it. You might choose, however, to play vertically over the chords. As a soloist you are usually juggling vertical and horizontal sates at the same time, dipping into one or the other in the moment as you wish.

[chespernevins]

Dogbite says:

the law of resolving tendencies (is this even mentioned in volume one?)

I think this is the only concept in this thread that may not actually be (explicitly) in book I.

I took the 101 class with George and was not able to take the second (which disappoints me greatly to this day). But I recall George mentioning the "Law of Resolving Tendencies" in class 1, and therefore make the (perhaps fallacious) leap that it is reasonable to mention it along with Book I discussion. My only slight concern is that of whether I remember it correctly - or fully!!!

I have no fear that I will reveal any book II secrets no matter how freely I speak... My observations on the LCC come from that 1st class and reading the old book and the new book each 5,967 times.... and playing...

Just one of the blind leading the blind here!

I agree that there is so much in book I alone, if we are clever enough to apply it all and to take it to its logical conclusions.

[dogbite]

[quote="chespernevins"][quote]"the cycle of doom"
[i]philoxenos[/i] [/quote]

But you're the one who coined that term, right? H just loved it though.[/quote]

i actually "coined" the term, "circle of doom" and he titled his next post "the cycle of doom", which i thought had a deeper "ring" to it. "round and round" we go!!!

db

[Bob]

.

Just one of the blind leading the blind here! .

So might one implication be that one might design a 'tune' by designating an overall lydian tonic, then a framework of resolving Lydian 'stations,' (roughly analogous to the Shenkerian I-V-I) then articulate this framework with melodic development and vertical successions, progressions, and colors?

[chespernevins]

I think so.

[Bob]

I think so.

So even if the chords "aren't going anywhere" the larger structure is 'still moving' Moments of relative 'harmonic' stasis may still be moving through melodic and rhythmic devices.

[Bob]

So, since AL ultimately resolves to Dmin the VI of F Lydian, the tune as a whole may be seen as Bb Lydian resolving, to the sharp side, to F Lydian. The importance of Bb Lydian is in its role in the Vertical Tonal Gravity of most of the chords. The overall structure of AL is Bb Lydian > F Lydian. A case of the "diatonic duality between the non-final Lydian do and the final Ionian do", thus, achieving "the state of being a unity." LCC p.8
Or not.

[sandywilliams]

That's it.

[Bob]

That's it.

OMG! I need a cigarette.

[strachs]

In the confusion we all seem to have about whether to label a major chord Vh of one LCS, or I of another, it may be helpful to examine GR's analysis of a very familiar Bach prelude on pgs 205-207.

The peice begins on a C major triad, which is labeled F Vh. It ends on a C major triad, which is labeled C I. The difference seems to be whether the triad is functioning as a "non-final" or a "final". As a non-final, the melody is related to a CMG, but as a final, the melody is related to a I Major tonic station.

All seems to depend on context. The confusion we seem to experience stems from trying to label a given chord in "absolute" terms, whereas, the Concept factors in the context.