OC Music Magazine

James Lee Stanley

Last night I saw a wonderful film entitled Songcatcher.   It is the story of a female musicologist who goes up into Appalachia in the first decade of the 20th century and discovers this treasure trove of Scottish and English ballads that have been unaltered by the progress of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Using a grammapone, she records these mountain people singing acapella the songs that their ancestors had sung; playing the banjo that was actually brought back into the mountains from contact with African slaves who basically invented the instrument; or employing the  guitar or fiddle with the vocal.

It is a fascinating and compelling film, especially for anyone with more than a passing interest in folk music, but what was most fascinating to me were the way the melodies of these folk songs were structured.

As each centuries old melody was sung, (with the exception of the new song co written by the director’s husband), all of the melodies had a drone tone that could be sung against the entire melody.

I know you all know this, but just in case someone  doesn’t, a drone tone is a consistent unaltered pitch that can be sung or played across the entire piece.   There is always a drone tone in classical Indian music.   As a matter of fact, there are drone strings on every sitar.

At first I wondered why these melodies would accept a drone so readily., as my own melodies tend to drift (compellingly, I hope) through key centers and there this drone would not apply.   Then as I thought about it, I realized that many of the people who settled in Appalachia were of Scottish descent.

The instrument for which the Scottish are most known is, of course, the bagpipes; an instrument that employs a drone as part of it’s sound.   Now it began to make sense.

Any melody composed against or over an instrument that was providing a drone and thus a very strong key center, would have to accommodate that drone.

Then I began to extrapolate and realized that any instrument that you compose a melody on, is going to be restricted, in a sense, by that instrument.

So my suggestion to you today, is to try to compose a melody without using any instrument.    Then if  you have the means, record it, acapella, just you and the melody, no chords, no accompaniment of any sort.

On Monday, we’ll start the second phase of this experiment.

This article is reprinted with permission by JamesLeeStanley. Please find the original article and support James at datamusicata.com