![]() Included in the former category are immediate or directly applied types of chromaticism-i.e., local passing and neighboring tones, blue notes, applied dominants, neighboring and passing chords, and so forth. Species of chromaticism, of both smaller and larger scales, are then scrutinized. I begin with a more thorough inspection of the “black-key” argument, and the types of pentatonicism that would result from such an approach. However, the principal aim of the article is to interpret the expressive and structural uses of a vital component of Berlin’s songs, as well as of the Tin Pan Alley repertory in general: chromaticism. In doing so, I explode the myth that a transposing lever motivated his musical choices, and propose instead the opposite: that it was a very musical ear that guided any lever-twisting that might have occurred. Because exaggerated references to the piano lever have been so prominent in the Berlin literature, I occasionally return to such a possibility in order to expose its logical inconsistencies vis-à-vis the particular type of chromaticism under discussion. Annotated appendices provide information on many more. In the main text, 70 songs are cited, spanning a half century, from 1908 to 1957 many are examined in detail, and occasionally in more than one context. ![]() My goal is to delimit the various types of expressive chromaticism that enrich so many of his melodies to consider the ways in which they function, and how they impinge upon a listener’s interpretation. In this article, I set aside received hyperbole and meticulously examine the musical results of Berlin’s labors. Over the years, journalistic writers of minimal musical knowledge have succeeded in greatly exaggerating both circumstances-especially through their claims about the compositional benefits that supposedly accrue from using a transposing piano. Garfunkel on November 5th.Those who have written about songwriter Irving Berlin (1888–1989) have frequently fixated on two facts, both related to his lack of proficiency on the piano: first, that he preferred to play on the black keys and second, that he used a “transposing piano”-i.e., one fitted with a lever that shifted the position of the strings vis-à-vis the hammers, allowing any selected key to be heard while the notes of another key are being fingered. Garfunkel recently celebrated their 72nd birthday Mr. 28th, 1976) it won the award for 'Album of the Year'.īoth Mr. Three tracks from the album entered Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart "50 Ways to Leave Your lover" (#1 for 3 weeks), "Still Crazy After All These Years" (#40), and in a duet with Art Garfunkel, "My Little Town" (#9).Īnd at the 18th Annual Grammy Awards (held Feb.
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