Chilly Nights, Quiet Winds

Chilly Nights, Quiet Winds: a meandering motive searchs out and seeks, perhaps for a warmer breeze.

If the previous piece of this album, “False Relations in an English Town” more obviously refer to renaissance musical styles, this one does it much more subtly. Not only the motif but the underlying harmonies are perhaps reminiscent of soundtrack music. If we call this the cover of the book, then the way the motif is weaved, or the text inside the book, reminds me more of Francisco Spinacino’s recercares; which literally means “to search out; to seek”. Even if the bass-melody building blocks of this piece do not follow textbook examples of schemata, I will list what I perceive to happen and might aid in future improvisations: the opening i-VI-IV would be what I’ve sometimes called a modern romanesca, minor variant. I think so because wikipedia page for I-vi-IV unknowingly lists romanescas in its classical examples. In the 0:06 mark (see player below for playback), and then again 0:11 mark both initiate a descending-fifths sequence, the latter instance going farther. Of note is that from the relative major key perspective they are the ubiquitous ii-V-I -progressions, familiar from jazz.

For playback (& if you like this album, consider buying it in BandCamp to support my art):

Here’s the recording session video of the piece:

• Category: Wherever The Wind Takes Me

• Tag: Descending5ths
• Tag: Romanesca