This leads to statements like "When Ellington went from the key of C to A-flat, he moved up the scale a
minor sixth, raising pitch via an interval most unpredictable" (p.
This year's Festival had everything from Rytis Mazulis's reduction of music to a single note descending a
minor sixth and picking up resonances along the way, through Lynne Plowman's marshalling of music as a vehicle to express multi-layered human experience in her opera House of the Gods, to zeitkratzer's shock tactics which, ironically, are far from new and can be found in 'grunge' and the latest 'glitch' rock.
Catfish Keith, with his own inimitable style on his small, Welshmade guitar, brought the event back to R'n'B but the
minor sixth chords and haunting tremeloes of the genre were virtually non-existent with the final act - the wonderfully powerful and deep voiced Angela Brown and the Mighty 45s where rock- dominated and some spirituals were more than evident, especially in the last number, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory of the Lord.
Such a resolution is impossible, because the solo line in the next bar centres on a[prime], so White produces a
minor sixth chord that would never appear in this style in such a place.
The third interval consists of the first plus the second, that is, it has in itself as great a span as these together; the fourth interval consists of two of the second; the fifth, of the first plus two of the second; the sixth, of three of the second; the seventh, of the first and three of the second; the eighth, of four of the second; and the ninth, of the first and four of the second." (Babb 1978, 18.) Despite his apparent awareness of the incommensurability of tones and semitones in Pythagorean tuning, he nonetheless parses the minor sixth as equal to four major seconds.
The major sixth is that which contains four whole tones with one semitone, the minor sixth that which contains three whole tones with two semitones.
For her a minor second is sour, a major second bitter, a minor third salty, a major third sweet and a
minor sixth creamy.
The basses - unaccompanied by cellos this time - appear to leap up a
minor sixth, instead of making the drop of a major third as the cellos and basses did in Ex.
Minor sixths are emphasized in Number 7, a quick 3/8 that contains many dynamic contrasts.
I would add a fourth musical characteristic found throughout the cycle: the frequent use of minor sixths and diminished fifths/augmented fourths in the piano.
The piano begins with legato repeated [F.sub.3]s (that will continue throughout the song) in the left hand under bell-like octaves (an acciaccatura to the bottom note) in the right that play the first phrase of John Dowland's "In darkness let me dwell." The right hand then begins melodic material in minor sixths in patterns that also include bell tolls.