The Power of Long Notes

Ida Vujović

Pedal points and drones are present in almost all musical genres and styles. Although they appear in a whole variety of ways, and can have very diverse effects, music analysis rarely pays attention to these differences. The reason is, perhaps, that there are no defined concepts that would provide vocabulary to both describe and understand the power of sustained notes. My first research question addresses the ‘working’ of pedals and drones: How can we explain the perceptual difference among instances of pedal tones and drones? In searching for the right perspective to tackle this question I have come to two concepts that inspired the further research. The first is the concept of expectation. It is mostly promoted by the writings of Leonard B. Meyer (in the more recent time it is researched and developed by others), which I take as conceptual frame. The second is the concept of interactions that defines and organizes the musical events. The inspiration for the latter came from the social studies. The two concepts are interrelated: the expectation is a product of interactions of musical elements, and the expectations are also involved in interactions, thereby influencing the perception and understanding of a musical piece. My following research questions are: Could the concept of musical expectation and the concept of interaction help explain the power of long notes? If yes, in which ways can these processes influence the perception of pedals and drones? In the process of research, I have concluded that there are several categories of pedals/drones that are not labeled in music theory but are recognizable by many music theorists and musicians. Pointing at these categories and defining them could provide us with more words in pedal/drone-vocabulary. On the other hand, in case these models are recognizable as such, they have the potential to engage in various interactions with the other musical events in the piece, influencing the listener’s understanding of it. From this perspective, it is relevant to examine them. The current research aims at pointing at a number of such models. To define them, I have used the concepts of expectations and interactions. Music analysis of the chosen models and a number of musical fragments are so presenting the practical application of my theoretical research.

Models

Quite comparable to verbal information, the beginning of musical phrase directs our attention and provides the first elements on the basis of which the meaning starts to form. After just several words/notes we do not yet have a clear idea in which direction the phrase will go, thus our expectation related to the coming words/notes will allow many possibilities. Before the phrase is terminated, we might change our mind several times about what is being said (which musical patterns we hear). Redefining meaning happens often in music. A particular tone could at first be felt to be a part of one grouping pattern, and later reconsidered and understood as a part of another pattern. Implicitly, what is at first heard as deviation could later be understood as a part of a known pattern (which we couldn’t anticipate on time). The play with meaning happens also between the levels of musical organization: that what is a logical continuation on one level could be felt as a deviation on another.

The aim of this chapter is to outline a number of drone/pedal-categories, that are, while listening, recognized as such. This ambition implies some doses of abstraction, as it is through generalization of musical experiences that listeners develop the ‘knowledge’ of these categories. While not necessarily on a conscious level, this knowledge provides elements of meaning, which contribute to our aural understanding of pieces that feature pedals and drones. Recognizing a model is implicative. On one hand, it projects various expected relations onto the elements that are considered important for the pedal/drone (according to the model), and raises certain expectations related to the pattern (that is recognized as a model). On the other hand, it projects expectations to other musical events, on the same and higher level of perceived structure. In other words, a pedal/drone model is a pattern that works as a sound term.

A kind of ‘proof’ that these models actually do exist in one’s ears is the situation when the listener recognizes a particular pattern in a piece that does not feature it at all (we consider the pattern being implied). The conclusion could be made that a certain reference takes place, or that the interaction of different actors deceives us, like creating an illusion. To show this I have included several examples, within related chapters.

I will describe a number of models but I am thereby not suggesting that this selection is final. Such a categorization is naturally always open for additions and adjustments. Furthermore, the categories are not exclusive. They are defined here according to what is considered to be their most active parameter. In concrete musical pieces, we shall rarely encounter any ‘pure’ category; in most cases a pedal/drone will have combined properties, and the models that one can recognize in it will most probably interact with each other, assisting or undermining each other’s working.

next: Harmonic Pedal ('default type')

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