harmolodic theory

[JoeVice]

holy shit, this is neat. have any of you guys ever heard any of his stuff or read about harmolodic theory?

here's a bit from an article

"Ornette Coleman may well be the James Joyce of jazz; while his genius is incontestable and his influence nearly universal, few understand his contribution in concrete terms. The saxophonist’s harmolodic theory remains enigmatic 30 years after its introduction. Basically, harmolodics (a conflation of harmony, melody and movement) engenders a system by which notated intervals can be transposed (or superimposed) to any number of key signatures, resulting in a more or less improvised harmonic terrain. Simple enough. But any avid Coleman fan will hasten to add that the system is also a sound, irreducible and inexact. To distill it to bare essence is to strip it of character and life."

there are a lot of naysayers. he has been dubbed an idiot savant. i listened to some samples from skies of america...its quite chaotic

here is a quote from a reviewer on amazon

I commented to the guy who put this on; "I don't think I understand what is happening in this music."
He replied,"The musicians aren't sure what's happening. That's part of the point."

what do you guys think about this harmolodic theory? you oughta do some research on it if you haven't heard much about it.

 

[Powers]

So basically so long as the harmony and melody sound ok, the key signatures can be in any order?

 

[Braighs]

Interesting!

 

[ThePoisoning]

We listened to Ornette Coleman in my Jazz History class. It sounds like people trying to be artsy as fuck by playing really shitty music.

 

[hibernal_dream]

Jazz = bad

 

[[KOTNO]Narrot]

your opinions tend to amuse me

 

[soundave]

Ornette is a challenging listen to be sure.

 

[Kenneth R.]

challenging but interesting to all but the most undeveloped minds. see "jazz = bad" above.

 

[soundave]

Ornette was seeking a way of freeing himself from the shackles of traditional tonality. The results are not for everyone. It reminds me of a quote I heard about Arnold Schoenberg: People appreciated his mind but hated what it thought.

I found this interview on Musictoyz.com with Living Colour's Vernon Reid, and he talks a bit about harmolodics:

It's funny -- rock was the music I felt I had the clearest voice in. I was always struggling with jazz, even though I loved it. I loved Dolphy, Coltrane, and Ornette so much that I tried to integrate the two things. The Decoding Society was a school for solidifying what I really wanted to do; it was my chance to integrate the blues with the harmolodic concept, to pick and choose and make it really coherent.

Could you explain the harmolodic concept?

The harmolodic approach was developed by Ornette Coleman. It's a theory of music that frees melody from its subservience to harmony. Traditionally, certain chords dictate certain melodic lines, but in Ornette's theory, melody, harmony, and rhythm are free from each other; they can interact on different levels. You can play things in different keys and make it work because the combination of keys creates another, freer tonal center. Everyone has had the experience of being somewhere, listening to music, and then hearing a radio outside playing different music. For a brief moment, you hear the two songs together and you perceive the consonances between them. Harmolodic theory tries to synthesize that moment.

Like the story of how Charles Ives, the 20th-century American composer, was inspired by hearing two marching bands as they moved in different directions?

Exactly. It's an idea that's been around.

Charles Ives is a great listen, ftr. I particularly like The Unanswered Question.

 

[Arasmas]

We listened to Ornette Coleman in my Jazz History class. It sounds like people trying to be artsy as fuck by playing really shitty music.

lmao ornette coleman is about one hundred thousand times better than anything you listen to

 

[Braighs]

I took an introductory level jazz piano course and it really opened up my eyes. Its a language of infinite possibilities and its really fun and challenging to play. However, when I want to listen to something, its blues, rock, metal, folk, etc. I haven't heard that particular Ives yet...

 

[hibernal_dream]

I was kidding guys. I like a few selected jazz groups.

 

[ThePoisoning]

lmao ornette coleman is about one hundred thousand times better than anything you listen to

LOLOL

Isn't Ornette Coleman the one that vomitted upon finding out that he knew absolutely nothing about music?

 

[Don Corleone]

listen to his "free jazz" album with the double quartet. now thats a very interesting listen. not all jazz has to be melodic in the conventional sense, you know. for instance, guitarist john scofield does some fucked up shit too