Abstract
Shadows Linger
Context
‘Shadows Linger’ is an album for sextet in which I was trumpet player but not composer or instigator (receiving the music a week in advance of recording), providing a distinctive case study for my research into my jazz improvisatory techniques over the last decade (c.f. previous and current REF submissions).
Methodology
The improvisations reveal facilitative (technical) traits combined with less localised musical decision-making, together creating a semantic structure (Goldman, Jackson, and Sajda, 2020) and producing complex phrasing constructions (Sawyer and Keith, 2002) through chunking of good practice areas based around:
1. Instrumental facilitation – all technical aspects around scales, arpeggios, harmonic techniques, range, dynamics, articulation and intervallic playing.
2. Musical decision-making – dynamic contouring, durations in approach to target tones, intervallic choices, motivic development of in-the-moment ideas.
3. Pre-performance/arrangement decisions – concepts linked to narrative, stylistic consistency, and overall structure.
My technique involves parsing these dimensions into iterative exercise development and listening protocols using a marginal gains approach (Mugglestone, 2024) combining technical (facilitation) with musical ideation and structural decision-making.
Examples and Findings
• ‘Got a Spring in My Step’ bars 10-15 – altered dominant and Lydian substitutions, encasement, chromaticism, motif development
• ‘Sole Shuffle’ bars 12-17 – repetition and transfer of intervallic motif, altered substitution which resolves to strong inside harmony
• ‘Jump in Quick’ bars 9-11 – strong inside harmony to altered substitution further resolving to inside harmony with intervallic closure
• ‘Once There’s Love’ bars 18-25 – alliterative notation, Lydian substitution, complex note / rest combination, motivic development, strong inside harmony at resolution
Examples can be considered via narrative/linguistic models, with technical facilitation partnering internalized musical decision-making (Zhou, Yang, and Li, 2002), demonstrating structural and stylistic consistency regarding internal and localised motivic development (including melodic cross-referencing and harmonic substitutions) and interaction with broader compositional dynamics.
Dissemination Recorded July 2022, released Jayde Records, January 2023
Context
‘Shadows Linger’ is an album for sextet in which I was trumpet player but not composer or instigator (receiving the music a week in advance of recording), providing a distinctive case study for my research into my jazz improvisatory techniques over the last decade (c.f. previous and current REF submissions).
Methodology
The improvisations reveal facilitative (technical) traits combined with less localised musical decision-making, together creating a semantic structure (Goldman, Jackson, and Sajda, 2020) and producing complex phrasing constructions (Sawyer and Keith, 2002) through chunking of good practice areas based around:
1. Instrumental facilitation – all technical aspects around scales, arpeggios, harmonic techniques, range, dynamics, articulation and intervallic playing.
2. Musical decision-making – dynamic contouring, durations in approach to target tones, intervallic choices, motivic development of in-the-moment ideas.
3. Pre-performance/arrangement decisions – concepts linked to narrative, stylistic consistency, and overall structure.
My technique involves parsing these dimensions into iterative exercise development and listening protocols using a marginal gains approach (Mugglestone, 2024) combining technical (facilitation) with musical ideation and structural decision-making.
Examples and Findings
• ‘Got a Spring in My Step’ bars 10-15 – altered dominant and Lydian substitutions, encasement, chromaticism, motif development
• ‘Sole Shuffle’ bars 12-17 – repetition and transfer of intervallic motif, altered substitution which resolves to strong inside harmony
• ‘Jump in Quick’ bars 9-11 – strong inside harmony to altered substitution further resolving to inside harmony with intervallic closure
• ‘Once There’s Love’ bars 18-25 – alliterative notation, Lydian substitution, complex note / rest combination, motivic development, strong inside harmony at resolution
Examples can be considered via narrative/linguistic models, with technical facilitation partnering internalized musical decision-making (Zhou, Yang, and Li, 2002), demonstrating structural and stylistic consistency regarding internal and localised motivic development (including melodic cross-referencing and harmonic substitutions) and interaction with broader compositional dynamics.
Dissemination Recorded July 2022, released Jayde Records, January 2023
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Media of output | CD |
| Publication status | Published (in print/issue) - 30 Jan 2023 |