![]() It is very much akin with the figured bass practices in the Baroque, except that the single note melody provided in the manuscript is not the bass (although the bass notes are identified in the chord symbol)it is the melody, or the "soprano." In this chord notation, the chords are written above the melody, sometimes with quite explicit information about what notes are in the chord as in the example below), sometimes without. It was likely being utilized in that era to some degree, but the chord notation system used in jazz really came to the fore in the 1940s. Jazz Leadsheets (Figured Soprano?): A Short-form Notation System for All Improvising Jazz Musicians If this had followed suit with other developments, we would have expected to find it being adopted in the Swing Era. Since Rameau's conceptual breakthrough, his chord theory and its concomitant ideas on chord inversion revolutionized classical music theory, but is also the preferred method of short form notation for popular music of all kinds. ![]() the C chord with an E in the bassthen it was a C chord that had been "inverted" with its 3rd in the bass and its root (C) above it. Rameau also claimed that when another pitch from the chord was found in the bassi.e. A 'C' in the bass with an 'E' and a 'G' above was not thought of as a C chord it was simply a 'C' in the bass with a 3rd and a 5th above it. Prior to this development in the first quarter of the 18C, composers did not think of a "C chord" or a "G minor chord"they thought in terms of the intervals above a bass note. ![]() Johann Sebastian Bach, Cantata "Komm, süßer Tod" ("Come Sweet Death") BWV 478 Rameau's Chord Revolution Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1784) was a composer and theorist who first came up with the idea of "chords" with roots. Thus, the keyboardist was improvising, but was doing so within a well-defined set of stylistic guidelines. Of course, the keyboardist was working in a stylistic framework that connected chords together using quite stringent "rules" that arose from practice. This system does not tell the performer how or where these notes should be playedthat is entirely up to the keyboardist who is therefore improvising the solution to these numerical symbols. For example, if the bass note was a 'C' with a 3 and a 5 above it, then the keyboardist knows that the 3rd and the 5th note above 'C' are the correct notes for the intended harmony. These tell the keyboardist what the notes are that should be played above the notated bass line. Figured Bass: A Short-form Notation System for the Improvising Baroque Keyboardist Figured bass is the short-form notation system that features numbers written above bass notes. The Baroque and Be-Bop Eras have some shared attributes that make both very demanding for both composer and performermost importantly, both feature a similar approach to the resolution of dissonance, but the notation systems, separated by 250 years, are also very interesting to consider. The most notable, (as highlighted in the graphic), is the development of a short-form notation system that was practiced in the Baroque Era, but did not emerge in jazz until the Be-Bop Era. Of course, not all developments occurred in the same order. Ensembles standardized in the Classical Era (symphony orchestras and string quartets) and in the Swing Era (big band).Textures moving from polyphony to homophony from the Baroque to Classical and from Dixieland to Swing.Separated by time and place in such dramatic fashion, these creative minds nonetheless moved forward from era to era in spectacularly similar ways, for example: Patterns of innovation emerge in both genres that speak to some deep rooted characteristics of human creativity. If we consider their stylistic development from a broad, conceptual perspective, striking similarities are found. This is more remarkable when one considers that they have nothing to do with our survival as a species, but rather serve to nurture our emotional and intellectual needs, occupying a place in our psyches near our spiritual and religious beliefs. Together, they encompass a range of expressive capability that is simply astounding, giving voice to the human experience from centuries past to the present and in doing so, enriching our lives immeasurably. Jazz and classical music are two of the most monumental achievements in human history.
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