Cyclic Patterns in John Coltrane’s Melodic Vocabulary as ...

CYCLIC PATTERNS IN JOHN COLTRANE'S MELODIC VOCABULARY AS INFLUENCED BY NICOLAS SLONIMSKY'S THESAURUS OF SCALES AND MELODIC PATTERNS: AN ANALYSIS OF SELECTED IMPROVISATIONS

Jeff Bair, B.M.E., M.M.

Dissertation Prepared For the Degree of DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2003

APPROVED: James Riggs, Major Professor Graham Phipps, Minor Professor Deanna Bush, Committee Member John Murphy, Committee Member James C. Scott, Dean of the College of Music C. Neal Tate, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse

School of Graduate Studies

Bair, Jeff, Cyclic Patterns in John Coltrane's Melodic Vocabulary as Influenced by Nicolas Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns: An Analysis

of Selected Improvisations. Doctor of Musical Arts (Performance), August 2003, 112 pp., 76 musical examples, references.

This study documents and analyzes cyclic patterns used as melodic vocabulary in John Coltrane's improvisations from compositions of 1965 to 1967. The analysis is categorized in two distinct sections. The first section analyzes melodic vocabulary that is derived from the cycle of descending major thirds progressions found in the compositions of 1959 to 1960. The second section analyzes melodic vocabulary that is derived from Nicolas Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns using the theoretical terminology incorporated in the treatise. Musical examples consist of patterns from the Thesaurus and excerpts from selected improvisations of John Coltrane as transcribed by Andrew White.

Important scholarly contributions relevant to the subject by Carl Woideck, Lewis Porter, David Demsey, and Walt Weiskopf are included. Every effort has been made to cite interviews with musicians and commentaries by writers contemporary to that period of time with special emphasis on the important influence of Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, and Ornette Coleman.

Chapter headings include: Literature Review and Methodology; Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, and Ornette Coleman: Converging Influences; Analysis: Coltrane's Major Thirds Harmonic Cycles Used as Melodic Vocabulary; Interval Cycles in Coltrane's Melodic Vocabulary Based on Patterns from Slonimsky's Thesaurus; Summary and Conclusion.

Copyright 2003 by

Jeff Bair

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TABLE OF CONTENTS page

LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES .....................................................................................iv INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER

1. LITERATURE REVIEW AND METHODOLOGY .................................................. 1 2. THELONIOUS MONK, MILES DAVIS AND ORNETTE COLEMAN:

CONVERGING INFLUENCES ........................................................................... 23 3. ANALYSIS: COLTRANE'S MAJOR THIRDS HARMONIC CYCLES USED AS

MELODIC VOCABULARY.................................................................................. 34 4. INTERVAL CYCLES IN COLTRANE'S MELODIC VOCABULARY BASED ON

PATTERNS FROM SLONIMSKY'S THESAURUS............................................. 57 5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION...................................................................... 109 SELECTED BIBILIOGRAPHY..................................................................................... 113

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