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Good morning my wonderful SC friends. Boy do I have a wild ride for you. :D
Today, I’m elated to share my latest (and third) collaboration, working with the musical mastermind… Carlos Vivanco (https://soundcloud.com/carlosvivanco-1, https://carlosvivanco1.bandcamp.com/). Very few people live and breath the musical world like Carlos does. And working with him is always a mind expanding event. This fellow seriously knows his music history, and he’s generous with that knowledge. I’m thrilled to be on the receiving end of that information. I learn a lot.
So as I’ve done in the past, I like to include what I learned about the song (and the music theory behind the song) while creating it.
For starters, this song is 7/8 (This is my second venture into that time signature. ‘The Seven Petals of Anemone’ was also 7/8). But Carlos threw a few surprises at me with this one, by performing some unusual musical math centered around my birth date… and concluded that 8/10/69 = 7/8 C Locrian mode. Carlos loves advanced and unusual time signatures, and is a wealth of knowledge in that regard. Here’s what I found out…
Locrian is one of seven modes (which includes: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolidian, Aeolean and Locrian). It is more commonly considered a modal chant theory from after the 18th century (although the original term dates back to the Greek regions of Locris). Locrian is also considered a minor scale. But it can be a major scale, if started from the seventh scale degree of any Ionian (not entirely sure what that means just yet. Haha).
On the white piano keys, the scale starts with B (but it’s called C Locrian mode. I’m still unsure how that works as well). The ascending form goes: key note, half step, two whole steps, half step, three whole steps. And Carlos makes it very easy for me by providing the usable notes: C, D♭, E♭, F, G♭, A♭, B♭.
That’s probably the extent of what I was able to pull from this one. I still struggle with understanding terms like 'diminished fifth'. And the phrase ‘the only modern diatonic mode in which the tonic triad is a diminished chord’ just melts my brain at the moment. But I’m getting better at this stuff every day, and that’s a wonderful feeling.
So without further delay, Carlos and I are very happy to present you with our latest collaborative creation, ‘Seven See Locrian’. We sincerely hope you enjoy it. :D
- Genre
- ChantTheory