This is another version of the set II from Schuman’s Three-Score Set, with variations. Each of the variations messes a bit more with the note order, duration, envelopes, octaves, dynamics, glissandi, and rhythms to create something progressively less like the original, until it’s almost completely unrecognizable. But the chords are the same throughout. It’s like a machine that destroys the material as it progresses. For this version, I shortened some of the variations, and included a repeating bridge between variations.
This is a more or less final version of the set II from Schuman’s Three-Score Set, with variations. Each of the variations messes a bit more with the note order, duration, envelopes, octaves, dynamics, glissandi, and rhythms to create something progressively less like the original, until it’s almost completely unrecognizable. But the chords are the same throughout. It’s like a machine that destroys the material as it progresses.
Today’s post is a very short trial run on variations on set 2. For now, it only includes the first two measures. They consist of four bitonal chords:
B major on top of C major, realized as overtones of C
A major on top of D major, realized as overtones of D+
G major on top of D# major, realized as overtones of D#
F# major on top of E- major, realized as overtones of E-
Each of the variations messes a bit more with the note order, duration, envelopes, octaves, dynamics, glissandi, and rhythms to create something progressively less like the original, until it’s completely unrecognizable. But the chords are the same throughout. My plan is to add more measures over time.
Today’s post is three variations on set 1. The first has minimal alterations, just tempo and glides. The second uses the Drunkard’s walk to wander around the set. The third is much more wide open, with notes taken from one measure and durations from another.
This is aother variation on set one. Lots of similar and dissimilar variations of each measure in the set. The order of the measures is backwards or forwards, with some Drunkard’s Walk, and some sequential.
This is a variation on set one, the 20 measure piece that uses fourth chords and a melody line. I stripped out the notes and the durations, then mixed them up a bit. I’m still working through the material here.
This is much like yesterday’s version. I increased the volume a bit, so it’s now using some louder samples in the Bosendorfer sample set, and I’ve changed my own source code to make it simpler to modify going forward. I plan to play with the durations and the pitches a bit next.
This is an arrangement of William Schuman’s Three-Score Set for solo piano. It was written in 1943, a banner year for the composer. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first ever awarded; he had the first performance by Serge Koussevitzky of his Symphony for Strings (aka No. 5); and he composed this little ditty, Three-Score Set.
He is a fascinating character. He first studied business, while working for an advertising agency. A performance at Carnegie Hall in 1930 convinced him to become a composer. He studied privately with Roy Harris, who brought him to the attention of Koussevitzky. Pretty heavy stuff for a man in his 30’s.
I had never paid much attention to him. At Bennington, we were taught to ignore the establishment, and Schuman was as establishment as they get. He first taught at Sarah Lawrence College from 1935 to 1945, then became president of Julliard School. He founded the Julliard String Quartet. He left there to be president of Lincoln Center in 1961 through 1969. He won a second Pulitzer Prize on 1985, and a National Medal of Arts in 1987. He had a long and successful career as a performer, composer, and administrator.
This piece fascinates me. It’s very dense and short, but contains elements that Schuman used throughout his composing career. Each of the three movements is just 20 measures long, hence three 20 measure sets, or Three-Score Set. The first is all fourth chords, the second is all bitonal hexads, and the third something else.
I was attracted first to the second movement. Each chord is made up of two contrasting major chords. To start, he piles a B major on top of a C major chord, two triads to make a hexad. I’ve composed with hexads for a long time. The first six overtones of an otonality is a hexad: 4:5:6:7:9:11, C:E:G:A+:D:F+, which can be interpreted as a C major together with an D major of sorts. Schuman has the same opening chords start the Symphony of Strings second movement. It’s not stealing if it was your idea in the first place.
To realize this piece, I scanned through all the otonal scales in the tonality diamond to the 31 limit to find scales that could match the bitonal chords in the Schuman piece. For example, the first chord in set 2 is B major and C major. C major is found in a 1:1 otonality, but there’s also a sort of B- major in it as well. The C major is 4:5:6 and the B- major is 15:19:22, not really a major chord, but when heard with the C major, it reinforces the sense of C. I did this for all the chords in the set, and this is the result.
It lasts all of two minutes and forty seconds, so I plan to look for ways to stretch it out a bit.
Scott Schumann
@shoemaker703
In my 20th-century analysis class today we looked at this moment in Holst’s “Uranus” from the Planets Suite. I think we decided to officially declare major triads w/ sharp 4 the “marching band chord,” since it’s used in almost every marching band/drum corps show
I see this as Holst playing the D# as an 11:8 over the following chord in A major.
I made some more alterations to this piece to spread the theme throughout the piece in small chunks. I also increased the volume of the reverse envelope piano parts so they are more noticable.
