Form/Texture

                Textures in music are not rough or smooth or bumpy, and they definitely don’t describe how a song feels when you touch it (I wonder how that would work, anyway?). Instead, textures are the different ways music is aligned – for example, if there is simply a melody, or maybe a melody with a harmonic accompaniment, or even two melodies at once.

In “Chega de Saudade,” there is a melody, carried either by an improvising instrument, saxophone, or trumpet, which is then supported by harmonies and rhythms coming from the rhythm section. This texture is considered homophonic; the piece essentially has a melody with a chordal accompaniment. However, briefly, “Chega” displays a polyphonic texture when a trumpet plays a countermelody during the first playthrough of the song’s chorus (see seg. 8). Though this may not be considered true polyphony, since the trumpet seems to be harmonizing and playing with the saxophone in parts, it does display polyphonic properties. “Maple Leaf Rag” has a melody carried in the right hand with a stride-bass accompaniment in the left hand. This, too, is an example of homophonic texture.

A more intuitively defined aspect of music, form, represents exactly that: the way a music piece is structured. In music, each section of a song is assigned a letter that corresponds with its order of appearance (for example, the first section is called A, the second B, etc.). Listening to “Chega de Saudade,” one can hear four clearly defined sections, an A section, B section, C section, and D section. The A and B sections are minor, and the C and D sections are major (see seg. 9 and seg. 10 for A section and C section, respectively). After one playthrough of each of these sections, the song launches into an extended improvisation session, before each of the sections is played again and the song ends. “Maple Leaf Rag” is considered the prototypical ragtime piece. It has four sections, an A, B, C, and D (see seg. 11 for D section). Each section is played and repeated once, and in between the B and C sections, the A section is repeated once more. In essence, the form is as follows – AABBACCDD. 

Harmony

                Scales are, when stripped to their essence, a collection of sounds that are related to each other in some way.  They’re essential to any musician’s repertoire, not because practicing scales can improve technique (it can!), but because they facilitate an understanding of the relationships between notes in a scale. Using these relationships, one can create chords, groups of sounds that create harmonies in music. Sometimes the harmonies created by a song’s chord progressions can make the song sound strange, sad, or upbeat. These sad harmonies could be described as “minor,” while the happier or more upbeat harmonies could be described as “major.”

Interestingly enough, a song can be both happy and sad – that is, parts are major, and other parts are minor. This two-sided existence is known as bitonality. “Chega de Saudade” displays bitonality simply because it begins with multitudes of harmonies based on minor chord progressions, and shifts to harmonies based on major chord progressions. This shift is noticeable; the song’s mood changes quickly from wistful to excited and almost hopeful (see seg. 6). This is a shift from a minor to its parallel major, instead of to its relative major (essentially shifting from D minor to D major, as opposed to shifting from D minor to F major). “Maple Leaf Rag,” too, has a key change, but not a mood change: it modulates up a perfect fourth, from A^­­­_{b ­}major to D_b major (see seg. 7). This makes “Maple Leaf Rag” bitonal just like “Chega,” since it features two different keys. The mood changes coming from an upward shift seem more subtle than a shift from a minor to a major; one could possibly feel the rising excitement or elation often associated with higher pitches.

One can link “Chega de Saudade” back to jazz and even to ragtime through its use of chord modifications like dominant sevenths, sixths, and flat nines. Using these modifications gives the song a bluesy feel that is common amongst jazz songs. “Maple Leaf Rag,” like most ragtime, makes extensive use of the dominant seventh chords and diminished chords. Ragtime was formerly a popular music style around the turn of the 20^th century, and its popularity was directly followed by the popularity of swing and jazz, which borrowed ragtime’s syncopation and use of chords like the dominant seventh. Since bossa nova has roots in jazz, it could be surmised that ragtime indirectly influenced the bossa nova genre.

               

                

Melody

                When one thinks of a music piece, what does he remember most? Does he remember its syncopation, its drumming, or its chord progression? Possibly, but it is most likely that he remembers what defines the song: its melody.

                A song’s whole melody is composed of fragments of music called phrases. In “Chega,” each of these phrases have a clear beginning and end, and last eight measures. Segment 4 demonstrates one of “Chega’s” phrases. “Maple Leaf Rag’s” phrases are much shorter than “Chega’s,” both with respect to time and number of measures. This is the result of “Maple Leaf’s” meter and tempo. “Maple Leaf’s” simple duple meter has only 2 beats per measure to “Chega’s” 4, and “Maple Leaf’s” tempo is also slightly faster than “Chega’s.” Segment 5 demonstrates one of “Maple Leaf Rag’s” phrases. Notice the difference in length.

The relative length of “Chega de Saudade’s” phrases may contribute to the piece’s cantabile quality: it feels lyrical. The continuous melody lines like those in segment 4 demonstrate “Chega’s” lyrical nature. In retrospect, this would make sense, since “Chega” was originally written with lyrics (though Dizzy Gillespie’s version is purely instrumental). Maple Leaf Rag, by comparison, isn’t nearly as lyrical. Its melody, though distinctive and catchy, is too fast moving and has too wide a tessitura (range) to sound as if it was sung. Finally, ornamentation, like improvisations, embellishments, and arpeggiation were widespread in “Chega de Saudade.” Much of Dizzy Gillespie’s recording of “Chega” is composed of improvisation. Improvisation often facilitates ornamentation, since musicians aren’t restricted to playing the melody of the song, they can play what they want over the chords of the song. As such, they might embellish, arpeggiate, trill, and use grace notes, among other things. All of these melodic features were prominent in “Chega.” When one listens to “Maple Leaf,” however, he notices that the entire song is just the melody: there is no improvisation. This leaves less room for ornamentation.

Meter and Rhythm

One of the easiest things to notice when listening to a music piece is that piece’s beat pattern, or meter. A song’s meter describes which beat receives emphasis in a measure, and how many of those beats are in a measure. Listening to “Maple Leaf Rag,” one can feel a distinct “one-two one-two one-two” as the left hand’s stride bass hits an octave on the majority of downbeats (see seg. 1). This “one-two” feel, combined with constant chord changes every two beats, leads me to believe that “Maple Leaf Rag” is in simple duple meter. This simple duple meter is very common in ragtime, and contributes to the designation of many rags as “two-steps.” “Chega de Saudade,” on the other hand, has its measures divided into patterns of four beats, with a more drawn out rhythm. Generally, simple quadruple meter accents the first beat and the third beat of the four beat measure, but the first beat is accented more strongly than the third. I noticed something odd about the accents of the simple quadruple meter in “Chega” though. They weren’t in their usual places on the first and the third beat of the measure.
                Throughout “Chega de Saudade,” beats are accented in unusual places. This accenting of a different beat than is “normal” is known as syncopation. In this segment (seg. 2), for example, the maracas play on the 2^nd and 4^th beat, effectively syncopating by emphasizing an unusual beat. Syncopation is a main component of the bossa nova genre; constant focus on the second beat, fourth beat, and upbeats leads to a Latin feel that adds a layer to a bossa’s sound. Coincidentally enough, syncopation is present in “Maple Leaf Rag” as well. The syncopation, rather than being displayed prominently by a rhythm section to create a Latin (like in “Chega de Saudade”), is in the melody, though syncopation is also present in the left hand stride bass for portions of the song. This segment (seg. 3) of “Maple Leaf Rag” shows the syncopation of the stride bass, which emphasizes the downbeat of one and the upbeat of two. The melody syncopates; it never seems to focus on the downbeat of one (the beat that is normally emphasized in simple duple meter). Syncopation is a defining characteristic of ragtime as much as it is of bossa nova, but the syncopation in each song produces a different feel. 

Hi!

Hi everyone! My name is Bernie Degnan, and I am investigating musical links between the bossa nova and ragtime styles of music. The two pieces I will compare to gain insight into the ragtime and bossa nova genres are “Maple Leaf Rag,” by Scott Joplin, and “Chega de Saudade,” by Antonio-Carlos Jobim. I'll be comparing and contrasting the meters, rhythms, harmonies, melodies, forms, and textures of "Chega" and "Maple Leaf."