David Carson Berry, “Gambling with Chromaticism? Extra-Diatonic Melodic Expression in the Songs of Irving Berlin,” Theory and Practice 26 (2001): 21–85. • ABSTRACT • 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. 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. In this article, I set aside received hyperbole and meticulously examine the musical results of Berlin’s labors. 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 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. Annotated appendices provide information on many more. 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. 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. 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. I begin with a more thorough inspection of the “black-key” argument, and the types of pentatonicism that would result from such an approach. Species of chromaticism, of both smaller and larger scales, are then scrutinized. 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. Regarding the latter category, I consider how chromatic passages can complement the larger-scale designs of songs, through definition and elucidation of four ways in which Berlin used chromaticism on this level: in changes between parallel modes, in exactly-transposed segments or phrases, in tonicized segments or phrases, and in sectional key changes. ERRATA NB: This copy corrects two errors in the printed edition: pp. 42–43: the second line of the caption for Ex. 22—“(b) climax of minor-mode section”— was placed at the top of p. 43 instead of under the example heading on p. 42. p. 53, bottom para., line 5: “(with n% Gn)” should be “(with n%, or Gn)” Gambling with Chromaticism? Extra-Diatonic Melodic Expression in the Songs of Irving Berlin David Carson Berry Irving Berlin was not only one of the most commercially successful songwriters of the twentieth century, he was also one of the best known to the general public. Indeed, his was truly a "brand name"-one whose mere appearance on the cover of an otherwise unknown piece of sheet music suggested, to many people, something about the quality of that unheard song. This reality was the basis of an advertising slogan used, for a time, by his music publishing company: "Standards of the World / 'Sterling' on Silver / 'Irving Berlin' on Songs."l The sentiment was also immortalized (less self-servingly) by fellow songwriter Cole Porter, in the lyrics of a 1934 hit which declared: "You're the top! You're a Berlin ballad."2 If there is an unfortunate circumstance to a songwriter's being so well known-to being as much a celebrity as most of the performers of his songs-it is that myths and half-truths inevitably begin to spread, in part through journalists of the popular press with a penchant for sensationalism and exaggeration. In Berlin's case, this has been especially true. Because he achieved great success while lacking formal musical training, proficient performance skills, and allegedly the ability to read and write music,3 many colorful stories have arisen about his working methods and, generally speaking, his approach to songwriting. In the present essay, I will set aside received hyperbole and meticulously examine the musical results of his labors. My goal will be to delimit the various types of expressive chromaticism which enrich so many of his melodies, and to consider the ways in which they function. As an appropriate point of departure, let us inspect two correlative exaggerations which have taken root in the popular (mis)understanding of Berlin's songwriting techniques. First, as is often reported, Berlin was not a proficient pianist,4 and he tended to favor the black keys when playing. As he phrased it, "The black keys are right there under your fingers. The key of C is for people who study music."s His practice was widely known, and fellow songwriter Harold Arlen made witty reference to it-in rhyme with Berlin's original name, Israel "Izzy" Baline-in a private 21 22 THEORY AND PRACTICE birthday song he composed for Berlin, which proclaimed: "There's no curtailin' / The F sharp scalin' / Of Izzy Baline / The mighty B."6 However, while there is little doubt that Berlin found those raised piano keys to be easier to grasp, many writers have been unable to stop with so general a statement, and instead have constructed more "fascinating" tales by reporting that black keys were all that he played. In Appendix 1, I give a sampling of quotations, by various writers, about Berlin's use of the black keys. These are listed roughly in order of increasing exaggeration. Thus, at the top are reasonable and true statements, such as by Forte and Furia, that Berlin generally played in F# major (and, implicitly, in D# minor) and so mainly fingered the black keys; at the bottom are such absurdities as that "he never touched the white notes," and "he avoided the white keys and played only on the black." If the latter were true, even songs in F#, with no secondary tonicizations, would be completely devoid not only of leading tones but also of all the "blue notes" and other local chromaticisms that Berlin's melodies tend to incorporate? Second, and again, as is frequently mentioned, Berlin used a transposing piano, partly to overcome his performing limitations. Such an instrument was fitted with a lever that, when turned, would shift the position of the hammers vis-avis the strings, and thus would allow one key to be played (e.g., F#) while notes from another key were being sounded. These pianos were common in Tin Pan Alley offices at the time Berlin first obtained one, around 1910,8 and were quite useful when a pianist had to accompany a singer whose range required a different key than the one in which a song was written. Yet, once more, we find extreme exaggeration in the way the instrument has been rendered in Berlin biographies; its importance to Berlin's songwriting has been overstated to the point that one would have to imagine a device with almost mystical qualities! Appendix 2 collects various statements by which Berlin's piano-which he dubbed "Buick"-has been portrayed in the literature, from descriptions of its construction and mechanisms, to remarks about its constant presence whenever and wherever Berlin was working, to comments which even suggest that his compositional choices were prompted by it. The problem with intimations of the last kind-in addition to being factually unsubstantiated-is that they diminish Berlin's actual talent. This is especially true of the quoted remark by Michael Freedland, who compared Berlin's songwriting success on the instrument to a gambler's success on a slot machine, saying "as soon as he pulled the lever, he would as often as not hit the jackpot."9 The analogy is colorful, and indeed prompted this essay's titular reference to "gambling with chromaticism," but it does a disservice to Berlin by ascribing a mechanical or imprudent quality to his songwriting. There is never the feeling that his melodies take chromatic excursions due to arbitrary turns of a lever; rather, his local diversions from diatony are generally the products of one who is musically quite sensitive and sophisticated, despite a pronounced lack of formal training. By insinuating that his various chromaticisms are novelties resulting from the asinine twist of a lever, these writers have perpetuated the notion advanced by Berlin's first biographer (and friend!), Alexander Woollcott: that Berlin was simply a "creative ignoramus" who was born with an "unrivalled capacity for inventing themes," but GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 23 who possessed "little of the art, the patience, the interest in form, and the musicianly knowledge which could elaborate them."IO In the following examination of Berlin's chromaticism, we will discover that great consistencies of personal style and tonal thinking underpin his songs; the evidence will also suggest that his artistic, formal, and musicianly attributes were much more developed than Woollcott indicated. Because exaggerated references to the piano lever have been so prominent in the Berlin literature, I will occasionally return to its alleged usage in order to expose logical inconsistencies vis-a-vis the particular type of chromaticism under discussion. In doing so, I will 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. However, considerations of the piano lever aside, the principal aim of this essay 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. I will begin with a more thorough inspection of the "black-key" argument, and the types of pentatonicism that would result from such an approach. Species of chromaticism, of both smaller and larger scales, will then be scrutinized. Included in the former category will be immediate or directly applied types of chromaticism-Le., local instances of passing and neighboring tones, blue notes, applied dominants, neighbor and passing chords, and so forth. These events, particularly conspicuous when they occur within a pervasively diatonic field, can be exceptionally expressive. Regarding the latter category, I will consider how chromatic passages can complement the larger-scale designs of songs, through definition and elucidation of four ways in which Berlin used chromaticism on this level: in changes between parallel modes, in exactly-transposed segments or phrases, in tonicized segments or phrases, and in sectional key changes. Because many of Berlin's applications of chromaticism are consistent with those of the repertory in general, their analysis here will also partly fill lacunae in the literature on Tin Pan Alley, which too often discusses blue notes and other chromatic devices without clear definition. Indeed, to the extent that many of the operations to be discussedof both larger and smaller scales-have currency in a wide variety of tonal music, this essay will also offer generalizable observations on the various structural roles of chromaticism. Musical Sources: Provenance and Authoritativeness In the main text of this essay, I will discuss 70 different Berlin songs, spanning half a century, from 1908 to 1957. Some of these will be cited in passing, but many will be treated in detail, and occasionally in more than one context. Appendices 3-9 add to this number other songs drawn from Berlin's catalog, grouped according to various topics to be investigated. Musical examples are provided in many instances, although verbal descriptions alone may be given when practicable;l1 but there is no substitute for experiencing each of the cited songs in its entirety, and readers are strongly encouraged to consult the sheet music when possible. Many of 24 THEORY AND PRACTICE the roughly one thousand copyrighted songs by Berlin are currently out of print, and perhaps difficult to locate. I have endeavored to facilitate access by restricting the entries in Appendices 3-9 to songs available in a single source: the six-folio series, The Songs of Irving Berlin, which was published under the imprint of the Irving Berlin Music CO. 12 Most of the songs cited and discussed in the main text are also found in this source, although eleven are not; in these cases, notes are provided to indicate their provenance. As for the status of the published music itself, even in popular music of the Tin Pan Alley era, in which a piano/vocal score generally predated any recorded or stage arrangements (unlike in the later rock era), questions still linger as to how much a score reflects the input of the credited composer, and how much it is the product of an uncredited staff arranger. Although there is little doubt that Berlin was the sole author of his melodies and lyrics, it is well known that he relied on "musical secretaries" to help arrange his songs. I have addressed the nature of his interaction with these arrangers in another article,13 and so here I will only submit that Berlin seems to have been very involved in crafting these piano arrangements. At times, musical secretaries would be working literally under his nose, changing--<:orrecting-harmonizations and even chord inversions upon his command. Moreover, just four years after his first song was published, Berlin could be assured that no arrangements of his songs would be issued without his approval, as he became his own publisher: he was named a partner in Waterson, Berlin and Snyder in late 1911; beginning three years later, he was concurrently involved with his own company, dedicated mainly to his theater songs; and in 1919 he consolidated all of his efforts under a single, private company. However, even if one maintains a healthy suspicion about the extent of Berlin's input as piano arranger, it weighs little on the current project, which is concerned principally with melodic chromaticism-a component of the sheet music that is indisputably Berlin's. I. Pentatonicism, Diatonicism, and Chromaticism Before turning fully to chromaticism, some words should be tendered about Berlin's diatonicism--especially in light of the charges that he favored the black keys of the piano. Together, the five pitch classes of the black keys form one transposition of the pentatonic collection, and thus black-key playing lends itself to a particular type of "hyper-diatonicism" devoid of semitones and tritones. If Berlin's musical imagination was truly defined by his alleged piano-playing limitations, then one would expect to find a profusion of songs whose melodies make extensive use of pentatonicism; and indeed, some Berlin melodies do feature pentatonic phrases or even fully pentatonic sections. However, before one rushes to judgement (as certain biographers have done) and credits black keys with fomenting many a melody, there are factors to be considered. First, as documented in Appendix 3, we find that the unadorned pentatonic is not common for larger spans of Berlin's melodies. 14 In compiling the list, I did not investigate every published Berlin song, and so definite percentages should not be inferred. Nonetheless, I did examine over 200 songs from throughout his GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 25 career, and of these only the two songs listed under section 3-1 are purely pentatonic-and even here it is perhaps significant that both are much shorter than the frequent (but by no means exclusive) 32-bar refrain form. Moreover, the pentatonicism in one of these two songs serves a special role, as a token of the Orient: "Sayonara" (1953/57) was contributed as the theme song of the 1957 Academy Award-nominated film of the same title, which was based on a James Michener novel about post-World War II Japan. Accordingly, its wholesale pentatonicism was prompted by distinct considerations. More common are songs in which pentatonicism governs a particular section; and if that section is the repeated "A" phrase within AABA forms, then the melody will still be largely pentatonic. Finally, there are several songs that may be interpreted as having a strongly pentatonic basis, but which are embellished by one or more (usually chromatic) neighboring or passing tones. Under this heading, which obviously necessitates judicious yet subjective appraisals, I have listed only those songs with mostly pentatonic melodies, and in which the extra-pentatonic tones serve a typical embellishing role. For example, "Easter Parade" (1933) admits a greater variety of "extra" tones than other listed songs; yet accepting notes of longer length and with metric accent, while excluding, e.g., the chromatic neighboring tones which adorn the beginning of its famous melody, seems musically reasonable and not capriciously selective. Still, even when the totality of AppendiX 3 is considered, one concludes that most Berlin melodies are not pervasively pentatonic. Instead, it is far more common to find pentatonic motives, or occasionally brief phrases, in his songs. Second, there is the issue of whether or not one can logically ascribe pentatonic passages-whether short segments or larger spans-to the black keys. There are three unique pentatonic subsets of the diatonic collection. In a major key, these correspond to the scale-degree sets {I, 2, 3,5, 6}, {4, 5, 6, I, 2}, and {5, 6, 7, 2, 3}. As these contain, respectively, the I, IV, and V triads, I will refer to them with these Roman-numeral prefixes. IS In the key of F#, the black keys correspond to the I-set; if the IV- or V-sets are used, a white key will be necessitated in each case (4 and 7, respectively). Thus, it is possible that a section of a song could remain in the main key of F#, be pentatonic, and still involve a white key. As Appendix 3 indicates in its"collection" column, almost all of the larger-scale pentatonic sets correspond to the I-set. The reason for its ubiquity is rather obvious: it contains not only the crucial tonic triad, but two very important embellishing tones, 6, which serves as a common upper neighbor to 5 as well as part of an ascending consonant skip that often adorns 1; and 2, which is not only useful in passing between members of the tonic triad and as a neighbor to 1, but also is consequential to melodic closure, given the decisiveness of a (3)-2-1 descent at endings. Still, IV- and V-sets are also used, especially in cases of smaller-scale pentatonicism. The verse of "An Old Fashioned Tune Always is New" (1939) will illustrate. 16 As shown in Example 1, it begins with the I-set, as the tonic is established. In m .. 6, pentatonicism is exceeded, due to an arpeggiation which introduces the 7-4 tritone as part of an authentic cadence. Pentatonicism resumes in mm. 9-12, but now the IV-set is used, due to a small-scale tonicization of IV.17 26 THEORY AND PRACTICE Example 1. "An Old Fashioned Tune Is Always New," verse, mm. 1-12 not pentatonic "IV-set" In minor-key pieces, full (Le., five-note) pentatonicism is sometimes unpracticable (although a smaller subset may be used), due to the fact that the set which contains the tonic triad, and which corresponds to the black keys in D# minor, will consist of {I, b3, 4, 5, b7}-Le., the subtonic is present instead of the leading tone. This so-called "pentatonic minor scale" is prominent in blues and later blues-rock, but it is not common in Tin Pan Alley songs, which are, in the main, quite tonal. When exceptions are found, they tend to connote something special, as in the case of Berlin's "Abraham" (1942),18 which was written to suggest an African-American song about the U.S. president who "set the negro free." Its affect is achieved, in part, though melodic use of the pentatonic minor scale. As illustrated in Example 2, its b7-5 skips usurp tonally normative ｾＷＭＱ successions. Example 2. Abraham," mm. 1-8 /I We must also recognize that pentatonicism may appear on chromatic levels beyond that of the main key. For example, in the verse of "I Got the Sun in the Morning" (1946), the opening eight-bar phrase is mostly pentatonic, using the I-set (a single appearance of 7, at the end, precludes pure pentatonicism). The subsequent four-bar phrase is a transposition of mm. 1-4, on the level of bIll. It is entirely pentatonic, but of course the ｾｉＭｳ･ｴ consists of {b3, 4, 5, b7, I}, and thus three of the five notes would have been fingered on white keys in ｆｾ｡ｳ ｵｭｩｮｧ that Berlin's transposition lever was not in use, which is a point to be debated later in this essay. For our third and final main argument against fetishizing the black keys when thinking of pentatonicism, we must acknowledge that pentatonic units are simply an important element of the Tin Pan Alley idiolect-common here as in earlier folk and parlor songs, or in later blues-influenced or modal rock music- GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 27 and that this reality transcends any particular keyboard fingering. 19 George Gershwin is an especially notable example of a Berlin contemporary whose melodies often had a pentatonic basis: e.g., the refrains of "Sweet and Low Down" (1925), "Clap Yo' Hands" (1926), "Maybe" (1926), and "How Long Has This Been Going On" (1927) each begin with prominent pentatonic propensities; and some of his most famous incipits also are distinctly pentatonic (as opposed to being merely triadic),20 such as those of "Someone To Watch Over Me" (1926), "I Got Rhythm" (1930), and "Love is Here To Stay" (1938). Of course, Gershwin was an exceptional pianist, and thus no one would credit his pentatonicism to the strictures of the black keys. In sum, we find that pentatonicism is no more prevalent in Berlin's melodies than elsewhere in the repertory, and even when employed it often would have involved scale degrees other than those of the black keys in F#. The pentatonic sound-image was one that Berlin would have assimilated through years of contact with music, and he would have replicated it in his own songs, regardless of keyboard fingerings. Favoring the black keys certainly may have aided his pentatonic designs in some cases, but given the above considerations, one should not invest too much authority in them. As we move into our study of Berlin's melodic chromaticism, we will find even more evidence supporting the assertion that his musical imagination was not confined to a particular set of piano keys, whether black or white. This is demonstrated, in part, by the sheer ubiquity of chromatic elements in his melodies. True, some melodies contain but a single chromatic note, perhaps arising through tonicization or some other embellishment of a diatonic tone; examples are listed in Appendix 4-1. But it is a rare melody that is completely diatonic. Appendices 4-2 and 4-3 list some of the relatively few songs that fit the description in toto, along with a few in which the (more familiar) refrain melodies are wholly diatonic, but the verses introduce a small degree of chromaticism. Standing apart from these entries are the vast majority of Berlin's songs, which feature chromaticism in various-and at times extensive-degrees. As mentioned earlier, for the purposes of the following investigation, melodic chromaticism will be grouped into five categories: very local and often individually-occurring chromatic tones; and more concentrated chromaticism resulting from mode mixture, tonicized sections/phrases, transposed sections/phrases, and internal sectional key changes. II. Direct Chromaticism Berlin's melodic chromaticism is often of an immediate or directly applied kind, rather than that resulting from phrase- or section-wide transformations. Because these touches of chromaticism may occur sporadically, and across the range of the pitch universe (Le., without being confined to a single "new" key area), they obviously cannot be thought of as originating in the use of a transposing lever. Below I will describe general types of direct chromaticism exhibited by his songs-and, by extension, by the repertory in general. These will be divided into "individual" tones of ornament (passing and neighbor tones, blue notes), and those that are part 28 THEORY AND PRACTICE of variously functioning chordal arpeggiations (applied [Le., secondary] dominants, neighboring and passing chords, etc.). Chromatic passing tones. Berlin often fills diatonic whole steps with chromatic passing tones. Naturally, some of the resulting melodic patterns lend themselves to stock harmonizations. For example, when chromatic passing tones ascend, they may suggest secondary leading tones, and accordingly may be harmonized with applied V(7) or VIIO(7) chords. Another possibility arises with the ascending pattern 2-#2-3, which may be harmonized V5-#5-I. Certain descending chromatic lines also suggest conventional tonal harmonizations: e.g., 5-#4-W-3 suggests I-V(7)jV-V7-I, and 6-b6-5 suggests ｉｖＳＭｾ ｉＮ Harmonic connotations aside, however, chromatic passing tones are melodic in origin, and Berlin utilizes them in a variety of ways. Indeed, they frequently appear on submetrical levels without individual harmonization, although sometimes they are enriched by parallel thirds or sixths. Berlin's early "ragtime songs" often feature this type of chromaticism, exemplified by passing tones that traverse a third within an underlying major triad or dominant-seventh chord; Example 3 illustrates with an excerpt from "Stop, Stop, Stop (Come Over and Love Me Some More)" (1910). Chromatic passing tones also appear in less-immediate forms, perhaps separated by other embellishing notes, or as components of compound (polylinear) melodies. Example 3. "Stop, Stop, Stop," verse, mm. 7-10 Some diverse applications of chromatic passing tones may be illustrated with two four-bar phrases from "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails" (1935; each phrase is subsequently repeated in the song). In the G-major verse, the melody rises chromatically from 5 to 3, with a return to 5-an internal pedal point-in between each note of ascent (Example 4a). The bass ascends along with the melody in parallel sixths (assuming enharmonic equivalence) as the harmony progresses I ... V-I. In contrast, within the C-major refrain, the bridge tonicizes E (3) and features a semitonal descent from E5 to GM, with a downward consonant skip every third note (Example 4b). More precisely, the line is based on a three-note motive exactly replicated in successively descending forms. The motive itself consists of the descending pattern <-1,-4>, as measured in semitones. The initial notes, of its successive forms, effect a stepwise descent through a segment of the E-minor scale (E-D-C-B-A), against which the harmony provides a standard progression in E minor ＨｉｾＳＩＭｉＰＷｖＭＱｾＩＮ The harmonic and melodic layers are somewhat independent (the melody forms dissonances against the lower chord tones more often than not), and the change to E major at the end is surely prompted by the G# that completed the last motivic cell. After the phrase is repeated, another chromatic descent (Glt-F#-Flt-E) leads into the song's final C-major section. 29 GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? Example 4a. "Top Hat," verse, mm. 5-8 Example 4b. "Top Hat/' refrain, mm. 17-20 (i.e., bridge) A 6 " If ｾ . I I ,,,,,.. ''"" .... .... .-J 'SI _-, _ - I u. 1J. I .. .,_ _ .,-, _ T .,.-J I .-J h. .r--, . : "'- L.-..---J a ..........'" '. L I ..J.. a .---- - ｾ Em: - ｆｾ t--..I -------- -I r ｾｶ a I ':j • -I. <J' ﾷＴｾ ｾ I ｾｦ - .,... "" I I h..-J _ - -- tII-J .. a Ｗｾ ... -1 "'''''' q;?J7 & V Chromatic neighbor tones. Often a diatonic pitch will be displaced by an adjacent chromatic pitch. Some Berlin melodies extensively feature this type of embellishment (or motive) in one form or another, such as "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1911) and "(I Wonder Why?) You're Just In Love" (1950). As with chromatic passing tones, sometimes chromatic neighbor tones suggest a particular harmonization. For example, upper and lower neighbors can each be incorporated into applied V(7) and VIIO(7) chords. The specific use of ｾＶ as neighbor to 5, in an otherwise major key (which also provides an instance of mode mixture), may also suggest a ｉｖｾ chord succession, which is exactly what occurs when the b6-5 figure is repeated in the refrain of "What'll I Do" (1924) and the bridge of "Blue Skies" (1927). Nonetheless, chromatic neighbors, like chromatic passing tones, are primarily of melodic, not harmonic, origin; and again we find them employed in Berlin's melodies in a variety of ways: as complete neighbor figures and as neighbor prefixes or suffixes; in figures that use either the upper or lower neighbor and in those that use both; on weak as well as strong beats; in longer as well as shorter durations; both individually harmonized (or enriched by thirds/sixths) and not; and so forth. Among the idiomatic figures used by Berlin (and other period songwriters) are the lower-neighbor suffixes of Example 5, shown as they appear in "Everybody Step" (1921) and "Manhattan Madness" (1931/32). In both instances, the third of the underlying major chord is approached melodically from the semitone belowa scale-degree "bending" evocative of the blues, and common in popular music and ragtime. 21 30 THEORY AND PRACTICE Example 5. Chromatic neighbor prefixes (a) "Everybody Step," verse, nun. 3-4 (b) "Manhattan Madness," mm. 5-6 ｾ q - .(b) Blue notes. The preceding comment brings us to the general category of ublue notes," or notes affectively flattened in a major-key context: b3, b7, and (less commonly) b5; although sometimes excluded from the heading, b6 may be used in similar ways. While blue notes warrant a separate division of direct chromaticism, they often arise through chromatic passing or neighbor tones, or chordal arpeggiations, not to mention through melodic sequences and one of the broader categories to be discussed later: mode mixture. Accordingly, it is often impossible to speak of blue notes as a discrete phenomenon. Nonetheless, one often finds b3 and b7 (the most common blue notes) used in an otherwise major-key setting, but not as components of applied dominants, nor as direct passing or neighbor embellishments; and especially in these cases it is usually proper to think of the lowered notes as "blue."22 Below I will discuss some melodic applications of b3 and b7 that offer especially striking and perhaps unambiguous instances of blue notes in Berlin's songs. "Supper Time" (1933) illustrates a common manner of introducing blue notes: as components of dominant-seventh-chord arpeggiations. In the excerpt shown in Example 6, first b3 tops a melodic projection of IVb7, then b7 tops ｉｾＷＮ It must be stressed that, although the arpeggiated chords outline dominant-seventh sonorities, neither functions as a dominant. In fact, in each instance, the harmonization changes upon the chromatic melodic notes: b3 is accompanied by bVI, as it is frequently, and b7 by 1°. Melodic arpeggiations of ＱｾＷ and ｉｖｾＷ are fairly common-the verse of "Let Yourself Go" (1936), for instance, alternates both-and their employment in the popular repertory may remind one of their harmonic use in twelve-bar blues progressions. Occasionally it is a diminished-seventh chord arpeggiation that introduces a blue note. Such happens, for example, at the beginExample 6. "Supper Time," nun. 1-5 * * GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 31 ning of the refrain of "Song of Freedom" (1942), and in the bridge of "You're Easy to Dance With" (1942): in both, 3 is lowered to ｾＳＬ from which ensues an arpeggiation of Vllo7/V. At times, blue-note arpeggiations are partially or completely filled with passing tones, as demonstrated by the scalar ascent to ｾＷ in mm. 3-5 of "Harlem on My Mind" (1933), shown in Example 7. In this case, :f7 is also sounded both before and after the passage shown: first in m. 1, as a conventional V7/IV, and then in m. 5, as a non-functional sonority. There are also further attributes which suggest an association with the blues: the lyrics make reference to Harlem; and the dottedeighth/sixteenth rhythms are similar to the "swing" (or triplet) eighths of jazz. 23 However, a stepwise approach to b7, concurrent with a Ib7 harmonic accompaniment, c'an also suggest modality of a kind distinct from blues influences. See, for example, the excerpt from "Lady of the Evening" (1922),24 in Example 8. In the abstract, the melody of this passage is similar to that of Example 7: in both, there is stepwise ascent from a lower member of Ib7 to b7, and then a reversal of direction. However, in the latter, the slower rhythmic pacing (primarily in quarter notes), above a tonic pedal, educes a more meditative mood; and the lyric speaks of a "sheltering palm in the evening" and "cares and troubles that ... fold their tents just like the Arabs." Accordingly, the chromaticism in "Lady of the Evening" suggests (Tin Pan Alley's conception of) Middle Eastern modality; the intersection of lyrics, melodic pitches, and rhythms intimates a different affect here than in "Harlem on My Mind." Still, both songs utilize b7 to suggest a certain musical "otherness"-something apart from conventional Western tonality. Example 7. "Harlem On My Mind," verse mm. 3-5 Example 8. "Lady of the Evening," refrain, mm. 17-20 The direct descent b3-i (i.e., with no intervening notes) is a most emphatic token of the blues; Example 9 shows instances from "Mr. Monotony" (1947), "Song of Freedom" (1942), and "Manhattan Madness" (1931/32). In the first, ｾＳ is harmonized by V9 (in which b3 [Gb] substitutes for 2 [F]); in the second, by IIP/7 (in which b3 [Eb] is a dissonant minor ninth above the bass); and in the third, by an augmentedsixth sonority which subsequently will resolve to V7 (Bb7). Notice the extra emphasis granted to these blue notes: in the first two cases, the added dissonances of the blue-note harmonies amplify the affect of the flattened melodic notes; in the third, 32 THEORY AND PRACTICE Example 9. (a) "Mr. Monotony," mm. 5-7 (b) "Song of Freedom," refrain, mm. 5-7 (c) "Manhattan Madness," mm. 3-4 it is the longer duration of b3 that draws additional attention to the alteration. 25 Although b3- 1 is employed often, it must be stressed that the direct melodic succession (1)-b7-1 is rare. In songs of the subsequent rock-music era, the latter is much more frequent, being emblematic of the genre's modal qualities;26 however, it seldom occurs in Berlin's melodies or in the Tin Pan Alley repertory.27 When exceptions are found, the circumstances are usually likewise distinctive. For example, in "The Freedom Train" (1947), the subdominant-oriented bridge provides a contrasting declamatory section, and it is in this rather chant-like context that the unusual I-b7-1 melodic segment appears (on the level of IV). Similarly, "The Piccolino" (1935) contains an internal section on the level of bIll (a key area that itself may be thought of as "blue," relative to the overall tonic), with restricted melodic motion and the repetition of one particular pitch as if a reciting tone. Here, a I-b7-1 segment occurs with an interpolated skip: I-b7-5-1, reminiscent of the b7-5 33 GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? skip in Abraham."28 In a related but somewhat different fashion, one also finds successive repetitions of b7-1 at phrase endings in "I'm an Indian Too" (1946),29 where a minor-key melody is crafted to suggest the supposed modality of Native American songs. 30 All of these contexts are special: the melodic designs of the passages in question differ from the normative, and suggest chant-like or expressly in Berlin's songs, modal characteristics. However, of the few occurrences of ｾＷＭＱ some are neither "modal" nor indicative of the blues, but instead result from an embellished V7/IV. For example, consider a passage from "Manhattan Madness" (1931/32; Example 10): there ｾＷ and 1 (Dh and ｅｾＩ alternate, but ｾＷ is part of a bilinear melody: ultimately, it descends to 6 (C) as V7/IV resolves to IV. II Example 10. "Manhattan Madness," mm. 45--49 (score) 1\ I \I I{ I-.. ,"" v ｾ ｾ Ｚｾ -' ....'" V Q I I-.. ｲｾｶ ｾ .. -". -' I-.. v - vI-. r J J .J -6 CJ ｊｃｾ --- --------a .--- -:- '" L..---a v- .. ---- Eb: V7/IV -r"I--"Ir'-- -r---.--... I _. I-. .., Ｎｾ IS • l-. r I ｊｾ - "- ｾ r- -J .... ....'" ｾ I _1-...-1_.-1 - r ....'" ....'" r1_ r:I I _.-1_ ｾ r (reduction) I{ ｾ 1 _.-I v,.. ｾ '" ....'" I-.. ｾ 1-...-1 1-1.. ...... ｢ｾ ｾｲＭ 1----'- ｲｔｊｾﾷ｢ •- I - _ I .J.. I .J.. I ｾ --- .. ....--? IV VI ,... .. -,.. r- - -- .-I ......... '-"" - -e- - I L_=::iO .. '-"" o ｾ V7/V V7 Chromatic arpeggiations. Above, we found that blue notes are often incorporated into arpeggiations. Chromatic notes of other types also arise frequently through partial and complete chordal arpeggiations: dominant-seventh chords are often outlined, as are, to a lesser extent, diminished-seventh chords; and chromatic triads are also common. These arpeggiations may be divided into those that involve conventional leading-tone resolutions and those that do not. An applied leading-tone chord serves as V(7) or VIIO(7) of the subsequent chord. For example, the refrain of "The Best Thing For You" (1950) begins with a two-bar arpeggiation of V7/III, which resolves to III in the following measure (upon which a melodic sequence is begun); the two chromatic melodic notes, #2and #4, function as the leading tone and supertonic of the tonicized scale degree. In some cases an arpeggiation may be abbreviated, but its implicit functional harmony remains clear. For instance, the passage from the verse of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1911), shown in Example II, strongly suggests VIV-V, even though the melody passes through only the root and third of VIV. Applied-dominant arpeggiations of all persuasions may be used (perhaps incomplete, perhaps melodically embellished), but the two most common, here as in tonal music in general, are V(7) IIV and V(7) IV; a passage from "When I Leave the World Behind" (1915; Example 12) presents both successively. 34 THEORY AND PRACTICE Example 11. Alexander's Ragtime Band," verse, mm. 7-8 II v c: v/v Example 12. "When I Leave the World Behind," refrain, mm. 9-13 c: V7/1V IV V7/V V V(7)IV, with its #4, will be examined presently, but special mention should be made here of V(7)/IV, with its b7. The popular-song repertory exhibits particular emphasis on the subdominant, and tonicizations of IV may be more frequent here than they are in the "classical" tonal repertory.31 Accordingly, melodic presentations of b7 via V7/IV are found often in Berlin's songs, in one manner or another. b7 also arises in a related fashion: through the tonicization of II, the relative-minor key area of, and frequent chord substitute for, IV. In such cases, b7 usually occurs as part of the progression II07-V7-I(b} of II, as illustrated by a passage from "I Used To Be Color Blind" (1938; Example 13, upper staves). It is a simple task, however, to reconfigure most tonicizations of II so that IV is the goal instead. As shown in the lower staves of Example 13, the A-e-Eb of the previous melody could be interpreted as outlining VII/IV, and thus a different harmonization could be constructed, which would tonicize IV. Example 13. "I Used To Be Color Blind," refrain, mm. 20-24 35 GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? Not all chromatic arpeggiations result from applied leading-tone chords. Some function as passing or neighboring chords to those diatonic chords which have a more fundamental role in the underlying tonal progression. An example of the neighboring type is found in "Because I Love You" (1926). As illustrated in Example 14, the melody departs from and returns to D, with adjacent notes E and C# in between. The supporting chords are also adjacent: D is harmonized by ｂｾ (IV), while the intervening notes are part of an A-major (lIn) arpeggiation. The arpeggiated III# chord (like the chromatic note it spawns) plays no role in a functional tonal progression, but rather is a neighboring chord between statements of the subdominant. 32 The refrain of "Be Careful, It's My Heart" (1942) provides another instance: the second, eight-bar phrase is engaged in an embellished descent from .5 to 2, in preparation for a half cadence. In the latter half of the phrase, shown in Example 15, b3 is used as a passing tone between q3 and 2, and is prolonged by an arpeggiation of bllI-a chord which, itself, serves as an upper neighbor to the subsequent VIV, intensifying the motion toward the half cadence. Example 14. "Because I Love You," refrain, mm. 17-21 Example 15. "Be Careful, It's My Heart," refrain, mm. 12-16 F: I ｾｉ V7/V V7 Sequences? So far, I have intentionally ignored one common procedure through which chromaticism may be introduced: the use of melodic sequences. Partly, this is because melodic segments treated sequentially are often lengthy (two, four, or rarely, even eight bars in length), and so a discussion under the heading of smaller-scale, direct chromaticism would be inappropriate. Nonetheless, smaller melodic cells are also treated sequentially, and could result in the kinds of local, "individual" chromaticism I have been examining. However, quite often these would be better explained by other species of chromaticism, such as passing tones/chords, or even blue notes/mode mixture, and it is mostly for this reason that I have not treated chromaticism via sequences as a separate category. To illustrate the point, let us consider the beginning of "I'd Rather Lead a Band" (1935/36; Example 16). The melodic unit repeated in the first two measures 36 THEORY AND PRACTICE consists of a descending perfect fourth followed by an ascending major second. The unit strongly suggests its harmonization, due to the tonal significance of the descending fourth, which implies a chord root and fifth. The unit is stated a major second lower in each of the following two measures, and thus the suggested chords are a major second lower each time. To this extent, the successive units introduce what may be thought of as arpeggiation-related chromatic tones; more particularly, given that they suggest chords that descend by step, they insinuate chromatic passing chords. But how does the descent function melodically? What is its goal (Le., to what is it passing), and what dictates the (non-diatonic) major-second sequential interval? Underlying the passage is a descent from lover I to 5 over V, using the minor form of the scale; and so mode mixture is another apt chromatic descriptor (in fact, the parallel minor mode occurs again, in more lengthy passages, later in the song). Thus we see that while the melody certainly features a sequential descent, there are more precise ways of describing exactly how its chromaticism functions: mode mixture and chromatic passing chords guide the melodic sequence, rather than the other way around. Example 16. "I'd Rather Lead a Band," mm. 1-6 c: I V7nVII bVII bVI V7 Raised 4. For the concluding category in this survey of directly-applied chromaticism, I return to the use of W, previously mentioned under the heading of applied leading-tone chord arpeggiations. Of the general categories considered here, Wdeserves particular attention due to a harmonically and structurally significant function: Berlin often uses this scale degree as a means of strengthening the melodic/harmonic impetus to 5, for section-demarcating half cadences. In the repertory, an arrival on V frequently occurs at the end of the verse (so as to prepare for the ensuing refrain), or at the end of the initial half of a refrain in an AA' formal scheme (so as to prepare for the second and concluding section, with its opening repetition). At these moments, even if #4 is not present in the vocal melody, it frequently appears in an accompanying piano line, because Berlin's melodies are still generally designed to support V(7) /V prior to these half cadences. (For example, Wmay be an inner voice when the measure[s] in question contain melodic 2 or 6, which are easily fitted with the applied dominant.) However, my interest is in those songs in which Wis used melodically, not just because melodic chromaticism is the topic of this essay, but because-given that Berlin's authorship of his melodies is much more certain than that of his harmonizations-here we have evidence of his intuitive understanding of dominant tonicization at structurally significant moments. In fact, such is demonstrated by the very first song for which he wrote both the music and the lyrics, "The Best of Friends Must Part" GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 37 (1908):33 one measure before its verse-ending half cadence, the melody projects an embellished outline of V IV. Appendix 5 lists additional Berlin songs in which #4 is used prominently, and indicates where within the songs the scale degree is located. There are countless specific ways in which Berlin incorporates #4 into his melodies; however, when the immediate melodic context is considered, most uses are reducible to one of the two models shown in Example 17. (It should be emphasized that the actual melodies may highly embellish these models, and may come to occupy several measures each.) At (a), #4 is part of a stepwise ascending line leading to 5; the line may depart from 1 as well as 3, although, in the more immediate context, the latter is probably more frequent. As a common variation, before #4 completes its ascent to 5, the upper-neighbor prefiX 6 may appear. At (b), #4 has a neighboring role-either alone or as part of a double-neighbor complex--embellishing 5. #4 is often heard just once during these pre-cadence sections, but it is not uncommon for the note to be repeated within more elaborate instantiations of the paradigms. Consider the second half of the 32-bar verse of "I'm Going Back to the Farm" (1915), as interpreted in Example 18. There, #4 is sounded melodically five times within four consecutive measures (and is used harmonically two bars later), but ultimately it is subordinate to 6, which is prolonged as upper neighbor to 5; 5 ends the verse just as it began its two principal sections, in mm. 1 and 17. Although the underlying voice-leading of the passage is akin to the neighboring model of Example 17b, it is greatly transformed, and the repeated melodic #4 serves as an "inner" voice in the larger scale. Example 17. Models for #4 (a) may be extended to 1... 5 (b) may reverse the order of double neighbor tones Example 18. "I'm Going Back to the Farm," verse, m. 17ff., and graph Eb: I V7111 II V7/V 38 THEORY AND PRACTICE In the preceding, I summarized the most prominent applications of #4, but there are notable exceptions. First, while the innate tension of #4 seems best used to anticipate moments of strong arrival, these need not always be section-ending half cadences. "Easter Parade" (1933), for example, employs the ascent 1-2-3-#4-5 in its bridge, as a means of attaining the song's climactic apex pitch, 5. (Even here, there is a half cadence just a measure afterward, prior to the final eight-bar section; however, the melody has descended from 5 to 2 by this time.) Second, although #4 usually will lead to 5, occasionally the resolution is only implicit (perhaps realized in an inner piano voice), and instead the melody proceeds otherwise, possibly through an arpeggiation that takes it into a different register. The verse of "So Help Me" (1934) illustrates. As outlined in Example 19, the three initial four-bar phrases have ended on 5 (at mm. 4, 8, and 12). But, in the fourth and last phrase, VIIo7/V is arpeggiated such that 5 leads to #4, but then b3 leads to a verse-ending 2, a fifth higher; the motion from #4 back to 5 transpires only in an inner piano voice. Third and finally, there are times in which the melodic and harmonic goal of #4 is not 5 over V, but rather 5 over III, or even 3 over III. Such instances can arise easily, due to the fact that #4 may serve as either 7 of V, or 2 of III (about which more later). The verse of "White Christmas" (1940/42) offers an example: its melody ends with a 1-2-3-#4-5 ascent, but 5 arrives upon a tonicization of III; V follows thereafter. Example 19. "So Help Me," verse mm. 4 12 13 14 15 16 In summary, Berlin's more immediate chromaticisms occur in various fashions, but all function logically and effectively within their contexts. Given their nature, it would be impractical-indeed irrational-to imagine any as resulting from the twist of a lever. Moreover, Berlin's alleged piano-key preferences are now cast in a different light, for we see that even if he did play almost exclusively in F# major, such frequent occurrences as b3, #4, b6, and b7 (not to mention the leading tone!) would each necessitate an allegedly ignored white key. Thus, on many occasions, Berlin would have been left with only three black keys to finger (1, 2, and 5). III. Mode Mixture Progressing now to larger-scale forms of chromaticism, we observe that one of the most striking types employed by Berlin is that deriving from mode mixture: the introducing of notes from the parallel minor into an otherwise major section, or vice-versa. This type of pitch mutation achieves a significant impact due not just to the net change per se, of as many as three notes out of seven in the diatonic collec- GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 39 tion, but also to the fact that the tonic note is retained while the qualities of intervals formed with it, including those of the tonic triad, are altered. Berlin's mode mixture occurs on various levels, from within phrase segments, to that encompassing full sectional spans, to that which is pervasive throughout a song. Interpreting mode mixture within shorter segments of music may be more problematic than one suspects. When a phrase, or especially a whole section, stands in complete modal contrast to other parts of a song, then the change between major and minor is clear and distinct. But, as mentioned earlier, if a piece in major has only isolated borrowings from the minor mode-especially if there is just a single ｾＳ or b7-then often these are more properly thought of as blue notes. Minor-key pieces may also borrow from the parallel major without suggesting a wholesale change in mode: #7 (i.e., the leading tone) routinely occurs, and #6 and #7 are both frequent within ascending lines. Given Berlin's use of blue notes in major, as well as the so-called "melodic-ascending" form of the minor scale, by what criteria can we claim that smaller song segments truly change modality? For present purposes, I posit that a musical segment may be taken to define a new mode if: (a) it employs a harmonic progression that confirms the status of the opposite-mode tonic triad; and/or (b) it employs a melodic progression, of more than two notes, that is emblematic of the opposite mode but not typical in the present mode. (The last clause will preclude taking the minor-mode ascent 5-#6-#7-1 alone as suggesting a change to major, as that particular succession is typical in minor.) Appendix 6-1 lists some songs that include smaller spans of mode mixture in accordance with the above guidelines. Under heading (a) are songs in which the quality of the tonic triad is changed after being approached by a standard tonal progression (at minimum: V-I). Each song provides a different context for the change. "If You Don't Want Me (Why Do You Hang Around)" (1913) is in major, but the indicated four-bar section employs melodic ｾＳ (as the verse's highest pitch) and has a repeated V7-Ib progression, all leading to the arrival on 2 over V at the end of the phrase. 34 "Tell Me Little Gypsy" (1920) also turns from major to minor, but only for two bars, as defined by a ｉ｢ＭｖＷＱｾ progression; however, here the melody simply sustains I-the mode change transpires solely in the harmony.35 Finally, "(I'll See You In) Cuba" (1920) offers the opposite change, from minor to major: as shown in Example 20, the verse melody presents all notes of the (natural) minor mode within its first six measures, in an embellished descent from 1 to 2. But then a V7-1 progression resolves to #3 and the melody reverses direction, passing through #6 and #7 to attain 1 at the start of the next phrase, upon which the tonic triad reverts to minor. All notes of the parallel major mode are used within just three measures. This circumstance, plus the V7-I# underscoring of the new mode, differentiates the passage from others in minor that employ only #6 and #7 in the progression to a minor tonic chord. Listed under heading (b) are songs that adhere primarily to the second criterion: they each employ a melodic progression emblematic of the opposite mode. Specifically, each of these major-mode songs contains a minor-mode melodic segment found frequently among Berlin's melodies: the scalar descent ＱＭｾＷ ＶＵＮ The pattern appears variously: in some songs it occurs as a direct melodic succession; in others, it is embellished in diverse ways, and may span several measures, as 40 THEORY AND PRACTICE illustrated previously by the passage from "I'd Rather Lead a Band" (Example 16). In addition to appearing in manifold melodic guises, the scalar descent is also harmonized variously: sometimes the harmony is simply parallel major triads Ｈｉｾｖ ｉｾｖ Ｍ Ｉ［ but colorful alternatives exist, as shown by "Say It With Music" (1921; Example 21), with its chromatic, contrary-motion arrival on outer-voice 5s. Example 20. "(I'll See You In) Cuba," verse, mm. 1-10 - Example 21. "Say It With Music," refrain, mm. 9-12 Turning our focus to sectional modal contrast, we note that Berlin occasionally differentiates verses and refrains by parallel modes. Appendix 6-2 lists some examples: three songs that have minor verses and major refrains, and three more that have the opposite. One finds this procedure early among those songs for which Berlin wrote both music and lyrics; e.g., "That Monkey Tune" and "Business is Business" (both 1911)36 each have a minor verse and parallel-major refrain.37 At that period in the repertory's development, verses were weighted more heavily in a song's design, and were usually as long, if not longer, than the following refrains. Accordingly, these earlier sectional modal shifts did not divide what was essentially an introduction/main-body schema (as would later be the case), but rather differentiated two equal components. As might be expected, in many cases the expressive sectional shifts from one mode to another highlight changes in the lyrics. For example, in "Reaching for the Moon" (1930), the major-mode verse refers to "a dream of love"; but the minormode refrain faces a more forlorn reality, as the protagonist recalls that "you ... [are] so far from me" that I "wonder if we'll ever meet." On the other hand, "Pack Up Your Sins and Go To the Devil" (1922) begins appropriately with a minormode verse, as its lyrics are of dire portent: the protagonist sings of getting"a mes- GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 41 sage from below" from a deceased friend. One suspects that the friend has come to issue ghoulish warnings; but instead, as the refrain turns to major, the friend informs that "Hades ... [has] the finest of gentlemen and ... ladies," all of whom have a terrific time carousing all night and dancing to jazz. Not all such songs have an obvious differentiation built into their lyrics. For example, there is nothing about the lyrics of "Heat Wave" (1933) that strongly suggests a progression from minor to major. And as for "Russian Lullaby" (1927), although the minor mode seems appropriate for its refrain-which speaks of a "plaintive tune" sung in the hope of "a land that's free" for mother and child-the major modality of its verse might seem to contradict its reference to "a lonely Russian Rose ... down upon her knee." In such cases as these, the initial verse mode does not reflect the mood of its lyrics as much as it serves to strengthen the effect of the refrain's subsequent mode change. That is, the "Russian Lullaby" refrain seems even more plaintive because its minor-ness is cast into greater relief by the verse's opening major-ness. Likewise, the ebullience of the major-mode refrain of "Heat Wave," which proclaims that a "heat wave" is what overcomes men whenever a certain dancer's "seat waves," is made even more blithesome as it emerges from its minor-mode introduction. Returning to the broader topic of sectional chromaticism, it must be recognized that Berlin often incorporates elements of the forthcoming refrain mode into the opposite-mode verse, or retains elements of the prior verse mode even in the refrain. Through such anticipation and recapitulation, mode mixture becomes part of the fabric of the whole song. For example, "Puttin' On the Ritz" (1928/29) has a predominantly major verse, but its first four, tonic-oriented bars are exactly transposed a minor-third higher, to the level of bIll, for the next four bars. The second phrase unit, with its melodic b3 and b7, anticipates the parallel-minor refrain that will arrive eight bars later. 38 "Soft Lights and Sweet Music" (1931) intermingles major and minor more subtly. Although notated with the key signature of F major, the verse is unambiguously in F minor: the tonic triad is always minor in the piano accompaniment; and in the melody, all 3s are lowered to b3. 6 and 7 are not used melodically in any guise, although minor IV, with its b6, does occur twice harmonically near the verse's conclusion. In the harmony, every 7 is in its leading-tone form-which, obviously, is often the case in minor settings. However, when the otherwise-major refrain begins, its first note is b7, part of a r7 blues chord. Indeed, the refrain begins with two statements of b7-5, a minor-third motive that becomes prominent in the melody, transplanted to different scale degrees. b7 is further distinguished by being the only chromatic note in the refrain, and, until the fourth and final eight-bar phrase, its highest pitch. If one listens to the refrain alone, b7 probably would be thought of simply as a blue note. But if the minor verse is heard first (as written), then the expanded context prompts a different interpretation, in which b7 functions as a "pivot note": it offers an extension of the previous minor modality, as a member of its implicit pitch collection, and simultaneously introduces a prominent motive in the new major modality, as a blue note. Mode changes may also demarcate sectional divisions within refrains; Appendix 6-3 provides some examples. Particular candidates for such treatment are bridges (that is, B sections within AABA forms), although extra-refrain "patter" 42 THEORY AND PRACTICE sections, and B sections within ABAB forms, may be transformed likewise. These types of sectional mode-shifts may be more familiar to many listeners than those between verses and refrains, as verses are often omitted in performances and recordings. As before, certain pitch elements of the preceding verse may increase the impact of intra-refrain mode changes. For example, "Steppin' Out With My Baby" (1947) has a verse in F major, with phrases also on the levels of ａｾ ＨｾｉＩ and C (V); a refrain in D minor; and a bridge in D major. The affective shift from D minor to D major would be great in any context, but when one first experiences verse tonicizations of F and C, in comparison the bridge's melodic usage of F# and C# (3 and 7 of D major) becomes especially pronounced. Often, musical features of earlier portions of the refrain are artfully connected with later mode changes, so that-as asserted previously-the chromaticism seems more related to the whole, rather than an abrupt alteration for novelty's sake. For example, the C-major "Cheek to Cheek" (1935), which has no verse, is cast in an AABBCA form, in which the B sections are more like internal "patters," and the C section, set in the parallel minor, assumes the role of a bridge. 39 Each A section reaches its climax at around its midpoint, upon the song's apex pitch, E5 (3), a note further highlighted by its chromatic accompaniment, BPl_A7 (Le., ＷｖＭｬ ｾ of II), as shown in Example 22. 40 The C-minor bridge has as its apex pitch ｅｾＵ ＨｾＳＩＬ a note further highlighted by its harmonization by ａｾＹＬ a chord that not only has all three minor-mode notes, but an additional flat Ｈｇｾ［ see also Example 22); relative to the overriding mode of C major, this chord contains all blue notes: ｾＳＬ ｾＵＬ ｾＶＬ and b7. E5 and Eb5 are thus associated by each being climax pitches of their respective sections, accentuated further through chromatic harmonization; and due to their semitonal relationship, ｅｾＵ is easily thought of as originating in E5-as representing a dramatic lowering of the song's apex pitch, which in tum prompts the shift to the parallel minor. Indeed, this semitonal registral association strengthens the connection between the A and C sections, causing the intervening, patterlike B sections to sound even more like interpolations. Example 22. Associations of climaxes in "Cheek to Cheek" (a) climax of major-mode section (b) climax of minor-mode section (a) (b) ...... c: ｬｾｉｖ ｯｦｾ v 7, Ｌｶｾ .. : ｾ of V I ｾｉｖ｢ __ _ __ ..J ｖｾＹ --- I ....... VIIo7/VI VI GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 43 Finally, there are some songs that have much more pervasive mode mixture. In these, major and minor may repeatedly give way to one another, each mode highly represented in pitch content, but with the changes between them not being sectionally discrete; there may also be numerous blue notes. Appendix 6-4 lists three such songs, along with a very brief description of the type of mixture in each. Rather than summarize further any of their interesting modal and chromatic features, I will suggest instead that readers study each of these songs in its entirety. Of the four categories of larger-scale chromatic application discussed in this essay, parallel-mode changes raise the most questions about the alleged role of Berlin's transposition lever. If his performance keys of choice were F# major and the relative D# minor, then presumably to move from major to the parallel minor would necessitate moving from F# major to D# minor, then cranking the lever so that the latter key would sound a minor third higher. Of course, even in doing so, Berlin frequently would have had to play two additional "white keys" while fingering D# minor: C and D, the enharmonic equivalents of #6 and #7. But let us assume such a procedure (bizarre though it is) worked fairly well when playing those songs with discrete sectional mode changes. What of those songs in the first subcategory-those having mixture within shorter segments? Surely Berlin did not revert to cumbersome (and perhaps confusing) lever-shifting just to introduce a few altered notes. Instead, more "white keys" were probably fingered, such as G (enharmonic Fx) as #3 of D# minor, and E and D when traversing ＱＭｾＷ ＶＭＵ in F# major. More pointedly, what of those songs in the last subcategory, in which the interpenetration of major and minor scale degrees is pervasive? It is certainly absurd to imagine that Berlin turned the lever every few notes for the duration of a song, as if shifting gears continuously on a car while ambling up and down a hilly road. One might as well imagine-for it would be only slightly more preposterous-that he played just the single note F#, and twisted the lever to produce all other notes. IV. Transposed Segments/Phrases When discussing species of "direct chromaticism," we found that brief, exactlytransposed melodic cells were sometimes joined sequentially to form highly-chromatic phrases (as illustrated by the bridge of "Top Hat, White Tie and Tails," Example 4b). Chromaticism may also result when these same types of cells, or motives, are distributed non-consecutively throughout a melody; although, again, such units would likely fit within a particular melodic context in a manner that could be described by one of the forms of direct chromaticism already cited. In contrast to such smaller-scale motivic and sequential applications is a broader method of incorporating chromaticism: through exactly-transposed melodic segments in a statement/altered-restatement schema. In these instances, a melodic segment of more than one measure in length begins (or fully encompasses) two successive phrase units, the second an exactly-transposed version of the first. The second segment is usually stated at a pitch level higher than the first (with the 44 THEORY AND PRACTICE increase in pitch height suggesting an increase in melodic tension), and typically there is a voice-leading disjunction between the segments (that is, the segments are usually not connected by step, as sequences often are, but instead are somewhat stratified). The second segment-an altered repetition of the first, which appears at a higher and disjunct pitch level-thus provides a prominent vehicle for the introduction of chromaticism. Appendix 7 lists several songs that utilize this type of transpositional gambit; these may be subdivided based on melodic structure as well as transpositional level. The transpositionally-related segments may be perceived as either closed or open. A closed segment is one that (whatever its length) could function as a complete musical statement in its own right. In order to avoid overly-specific melodic and harmonic criteria for which there might be many contextual exceptions, suffice it to say that such a unit will conclude in a tonally satisfactory manner. Because some means of articulating closure are stronger than others, we may choose to speak of weakly or strongly closed segments. In contrast, an open segment is one that is not tonally autonomous: some continuation is required. Berlin seems to have had a preference for closed units: when he employs the types of phrase transpositions under discussion, the original forms are often four-bar phrases that end on I. Sometimes transpositionally-related segments, of either open or closed types, are given in immediate succession and lead to a related (but not necessarily againtransposed) third segment; the result is a modular use of phrase transposition. Modular phrases usually ascend in the form of larger-scale melodic or bass arpeggiations directed toward ends of larger phrases (or sections). Rather than providing and commenting upon examples of these categories now, I will do so below, when transpositional levels are also considered. The list of Appendix 7 is not comprehensive, but it does suggest, through its labelling of transpositional levels, an attribute common to the repertory as a whole: an ascending perfect-fourth transposition between phrases, which usually reflects a shift from I to IV. Because the diatonic collections of I and IV differ by just one note (b7, Le., 4 of IV), it sometimes happens that the transposed melodic segment does not contain this key-defining note, although it may occur in the piano accompaniment. If the transposed unit altogether avoids the new 4, in both melody and harmony, it is possible that a strong sense of transposition may be undermined. That is, if all notes of the transposed unit are contained within the diatonic collection of the original key, a listener might perceive only a general move to the IV chord, not the tonicization of a new key area. However, even if the new 4 is absent, it does not necessarily mean that there will be no chromaticism, as the original melodic segment may itself contain chromatic elements (passing tones, etc.). Excerpts from the verse of "How Many Times?" (1926; Example 23) will illustrate the preceding points. Mm. 1-4 provide a closed phrase, slightly on the "weak" side of the continuum, because the penultimate leading tone progresses down to the sixth of a 1+6 chord instead of resolving up to 1. The phrase is almost exactly repeated, as mm. 5-8 (the last two notes are altered); it is then restated a perfect-fourth higher, as mID. 9-12. Only the ending note of the transposed phrase is altered: instead of G (as it should have been) it is F (the local 5)-although the phrase still has a weaker close than if Bb (the local 1) had been used. (Observe that GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 45 the melodic note of the final quarter-beat of ffi. 10 [i.e., F] is given an octave lower than per strict pitch transposition-presumably due to vocal-range considerations-but nonetheless the pitch class is as it should be.) ｾｅ (local 4) is not present in the melody of the section on IV, because the corresponding note ＨｂｾＩ was not present in the original passage; but ｅｾ does appear frequently as an inner piano voice, and the phrase-ending cadence makes it clear that IV has been tonicized. Moreover, even within the melody, the chromatic ascent at the beginning of the passage clarifies that "true" transposition has taken place, as opposed to simply a pitch relocation within the original key. The transference of pitch, to a level a fourth higher, also demonstrates other features mentioned above. First and more generally, the wholesale shifting of not just melody but all piano pitches stratifies the two phrases, and the pitch disjunction causes the second phrase to be perceived not so much as a continuation of the first (as might be the case if there were a stepwise, sequential connection), but as an analogous yet transformed restatement. Second and more specifically, the higher pitches suggest an increase in melodic tension; in fact, the D5s of mm. 10-11 are the highest pitches in the verse. This affect is appropriate given that the transposed segment occurs only four bars prior to the end of the verse, and verses tend to end with some type of melodic and/ or harmonic tension, so as to anticipate the ensuing refrains. 41 In both fashions, the chromaticism introduced by the second phrase is cast in great relief. Example 23. "How Many Times?," verse, mm. 1-4 and 9-12 Whereas I-IV shifts are conventional to the repertory as a whole, the songs listed in Appendix 7 include other phrase-transposition schemes more idiomatic to Berlin: those from I to the major mediants, lIn and ｾｉ Ｎ These highly favored shifts are more chromatically striking, as the key areas of I and ｾｉ differ by as many as three pitch classes, and I and lin by as many as four. The verse of "Steppin' Out With My Baby" (1947; Example 24a) instantiates the ｉｾ pattern. The first four-bar phrase (with its 2+2 repetition) is strongly closed, ending with lover I; the second phrase exactly transposes the first, and 46 THEORY AND PRACTICE tonicizes bIll. The subsequent four-bar phrase tonicizes V; it is not related to the previous by transposition, but has frequent similarities of contour and rhythm, and likewise it embodies a 2+2 repetition (albeit with a single change between the second and fourth bars). As shown in the voice-leading graphs of Examples 24b and 24c, the passage projects a large-scale bass arpeggiation of the tonic triad, with the third inflected to its blue-note form. bIll thus has a prominent role in the progression from I to V: it divides the ascending-fifth bass progression into two thirds (in Schenkerian parlance, it is a "third divider"),42 and so it offers a colorful filling or elaboration of the more-basic tonal space. Because transpositionally-related phrases were connected to create this larger, goal-oriented line, the verse provides an example of modular construction. Example 24a. "Steppin' Out with My Baby," verse melody ｾ ｾ ｉｾ j F: 1 V7 1+6 1 V7 1+6 V7 1+6 (I) ｾ ｪｾ Al,: 1 V7 1+6 1 (bIll) ｾ ｾ j f - - --------., o c: I V7 I V7 I7 1 6 17 V7 - 6 (V) ｾ j 17 - 6 F: II (I) V7 1+6 Dm:V9 (VI) (Dm:) 1 In five of the six songs listed with phrase-transpositions from I to bIll, a tonicization of V follows, resulting in a large-scale arpeggiation of the type described. 43 Also, in these five songs, the transpositional scheme is always in the verse. For those songs that remain in the same key for verse and refrain, this means that the verse attains its ending half-cadence through the 1-4III-V arpeggiation, following which the refrain begins with the resolution to I. The listed song that seems to behave differently is "Heat Wave" (1933), in which the tonal shift under discussion is in the intra-refrain "patter" section, which employs the diatonic collections of IV GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 47 and ｾｖｉＮＴ However, other circumstances suggest that even this song enjoys a strong association with the phrase-transpositions of the other five. First, the patter section precedes a return to the beginning of the refrain, and so it actually has a formal role analogous to that of a verse. Second, though the diatonic collections of IV and bVI are used, the melodic headnotes of the two transposed phrases are first I, then ｾＳ［ the latter is followed by an arrival on 5 over V immediately before the return to the refrain. In short, the patter embodies a large-scale melodic (as opposed to bass) arpeggiation of the "minor" tonic45 prior to the refrain-something that gains extra significance, given that the actual verse was in the parallel minor mode and also melodically emphasized I and b3 prior to the major-mode refrain. So we see that all songs listed under the I-i,III scheme exhibit striking similarities, and demonstrate great consistency in Berlin's compositional choices. Example 24b. "Steppin' Out with My Baby," verse, foreground graph ｾＳｲＭ F: I -----";;'r--------------l v VI Example 24c. "Steppin' Out with My Baby," verse, middleground graph As for the other major-mediant relation, the 1-111# transposition, three listed songs fit the model; their harmonic contexts are similar to the preceding ones, Le., they serve as parts of large-scale I-III#-V arpeggiations. In the sixteen-bar verse of "I Can't Remember" (1933), the first eight-bar phrase (which consists of a 4+4 melodic repetition) is mostly on I, returning to I in the bass every other bar; the next four measures are a restatement of the initial unit on the level of 111# and so have 3s in the bass;46 and the different melody of the final four-bar phrase prolongs V, starting and ending with 5 in the bass. The verse of "Better Luck Next Time" 48 THEORY AND PRACTICE (1947) begins as if it will adhere to the same model: the initial four measures on I are transposed to 111# for the next four measures (albeit with m. 7 offering an embellished form of m. 3). However, the subsequent and final four measures only touch on V7 twice; instead, the new, sequential melody ends with V7/11, which anticipates the 117-V7-1 progression that will initiate the refrain. Still, the arrival on V7 in the second bar of the refrain does sound like the true goal of the final verse phrase (the expressive delay of I is appropriate for the discouragement evinced by the lyric), and so one could easily argue that a similar I-III#--V-I model was operational here, only with a more elaborate ending. Finally, the well-known ballad"Always" (1925) changes the formal placement we usually have seen, and employs the I-lIn transposition in its refrain. As shown in Example 25a, its first eight-bar phrase consists of a diatonic melody in a 4+4 division, harmonized by a simple I-V7-I progression. The next phrase creatively elaborates the original: the phrase rhythm is accelerated with a 2+2+2+1+1 division, in which the first three units build toward a climax on D4, the song's apex pitch (excepting a subsequent, single occurrence of its chromatic upper neighbor, Eb4, which is used to embellish another D4). The transpositional relation of the first and second two-bar units is part of a phrase-long I-III#--V succession, much like the ones encountered previously. Note that the original unit, mm. 9-10, is harmonized entirely by I, and yet it is still relatively open in terms of contour and melodic closure: it consists of only a melodic ascent, without the metaphorical relaxation a descent would provide; and it ends on 3 rather than 1. This openness is actually increased by the transposed version, which maintains the relatively unstable chord fifth in the bass for both measures. 47 The openness of both two-bar units creates the forward momentum that leads thereafter to the climax pitch. Example 25a. "Always," refrain, mm. 1-16 V7 F: I ｉ Ｃｾ (I) III #3 V7/II1 Example 25b. "Always," voice-leading graph of first phrase "\I ,'f"'It. I{ h V ｾ .,,- ＮｾＯ ,. /'. h F: r I .--- 1\ 1\ 3 2 I - -.. I . .. .......... "al-way" .; .,,- . I v I ＼Ｓｾ - I ｾ :-I ··1:" r V7 GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 49 Thus far I have focused on the harmonic implications of major-mediant transpositions as third dividers in larger progressions to V. However, often these transpositional levels also reflect salient features of the melody. For example, the first phrase of the"Always" refrain may be interpreted as shown in Example 25b: as an embellished descent from 3 to I. 3 is the goal of the first phrase unit, and subsequently ends the first setting of the title word; 3 also is present for the first syllable of the title word at the end of the entire phrase, where it skips to I. Given the prior melodic emphasis of 3, the shift to the key area lIn seems quite appropriate. "Better Luck Next Time" likewise casts 3 in a prominent role melodically: beginning with its appearance at the end of the verse, it serves as the refrain's primary melodic tone (in the Schenkerian sense). Indeed, there are only two four-bar phrase units in the entire refrain that do not begin with a metrically-accented 3. True, one could argue against the special significance of 3 in these two songs, on the grounds that 3 is often emphasized in tonal music, and is certainly a frequent Kapftan in Schenkerian interpretations. Nonetheless, 3 does playa particularly strong melodic role in these songs and, in such a context, a 1-111# transposition gains significance and suggests a coordination of melodic and harmonic parameters on Berlin's part. Berlin's phrase transpositions may seem to be prime candidates for the employment of his transposing lever: all he had to do was playa phrase, crank the lever, and then play the same passage again, fingering the same piano keys, while a new set of pitches was produced. Indeed, he could have done exactly that for most or all of the songs listed in Appendix 7. However, the preceding commentary has suggested that, if the lever was used, it only helped him articulate what his inner ear already demanded. Berlin's phrase transpositions usually were either those common to the repertory (I-IV) or products of his own idiolect (I-blll or 1-111#), and they either played a consistent role in larger-scale harmonic/melodic motion or complemented the given melodic context. In short, these transpositions were thoughtfully integrated transformations resulting from a keen sense of compositional design, however intuitive that sense might have been. v. Tonicized Segments/Phrases As we have seen, Berlin sometimes uses exactly-transposed modules. However, far more common is his shifting between tonal centers without melody transposition-that is, his use of "new" melodic material within tonicized segments or phrases. AppendiX 8 lists several songs that exhibit the trait, grouped according to the level of tonicization. Because fleeting tonicizations (i.e., occurrences of single applied dominants within otherwise diatonic fields) are common, I have listed only songs in which tonicization extends to a phrase unit of two or more measures. Also, given that my primary interest is melodic chromaticism, I have not listed passages in which notes specific to the new key area are in the harmony alone. For example, in the sixteen-bar verse of "Let Me Sing and I'm Happy" (1928/29), the melody is entirely within the C-major collection, and begins and ends by clearly defining that key; yet the harmonies of mm. 9-14 repeatedly tonicize the relative A minor. Still, one could easily construct a reasonable, alternative harmonization for 50 THEORY AND PRACTICE these measures, which would include an authentic cadence in C. Because the melody itself did not so strongly suggest a new key area, this song and others like it are excluded from the present discussion. On the other hand, tonicizations in major-key songs of the relative minor sometimes include at least minimal melodic chromaticism (e.g., the new leading tone, if nothing else), and thus I have listed a couple of songs that employ melodic #5 in service of a phrase on the level of VI. However, Appendix 8 excludes tonicizations of the relative major in minor-key songs, as these require no altered notes in melody or harmony. A well-known example is the refrain of "Blue Skies" (1927), in AABA form, which progresses from E minor to G major toward the end of each A section, and remains in G for its bridge; no melodic chromaticism is necessitated. 48 The most striking aspect of Berlin's phrase tonicizations is the preponderance of mediant tonicizations: III and (to a lesser extent) III# serve as new key areas in the vast majority of cases listed. ＨｾｉＬ more prominent when exact phrase transpositions were considered, is not significantly represented here.) While it is true that the list is not comprehensive and thus specific percentages of various tonicizations are not suggested for Berlin's entire output, nonetheless the sampling does reveal his exceptional preference for tonicizing 3. With this trait in mind, it is a bit perplexing to note that Alec Wilder, after "searching assiduously for stylistic characteristics in Berlin," revealed that he could not find any, and so asked rhetorically, "Is Berlin's writing experience one of such enormous intensity that the song being written is totally isolated in his mind, to the exclusion of every other song he has written, resulting in a unique form and style for each one?"49 Later in the same essay, Wilder revealed that he had uncovered one possible contender for a Berlin songwriting mannerism: the use of repeated melodic eighth notes"as a contrast to long notes."50 But while Wilder noted this rather small-scale trait, in support of which he cited just three songs,51 apparently the very frequent and chromatically striking use of mediant-tonicizing phrases went unnoticed. Yet the latter is a much more significant mannerism of Berlin's songwriting, and it shows that (Wilder's rhetorical remark aside) Berlin most certainly did not compose each song in a vacuum, not only sealed off from his prior work but severed also from his internal musical predilections. Mediant tonicizations are a prime characteristic of his style. In terms of the net change in pitch content, (minor) III is of course closely related to a main (major) tonic: the former has just one extra sharp in its natural collection, although two more chromatic notes may result, in either melody or harmony, due to the common raising of 6 and 7. Actually, in almost all listed cases of tonicized III, the melody introduces just one or two chromatic notes beyond those of the main key, and these tend to be the new leading tone and supertonic-Le, #2 and #4 of the main key. In the majority of these cases, #4 alone is heard melodically, #2 having been relegated to the harmony. Thus, the change in key area is intimated by minimal melodic alterations. Still, in most cases when #4 is the only chromatic note, the phrase melody is designed such that #4 clearly functions as a new supertonic. A strong arrival on 3 suggests its local significance, even though the new leading tone is absent from the melody. Occasionally, however, chromatic pitches raise issues of tonal ambiguity, and imply certain strategies of goal postponement. The equivocation arises due to 51 GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? a fact mentioned earlier: #4 can function as either 2 of III or 7 of V; the appearance of this chromatic pitch in the melody could lead to either tonicization. Sometimes the use of #4 seems to suggest a tonicization of V more strongly than that of 111especially when the note comes near the end of a section whose melody and formal placement intimate a half cadence-and yet, the harmonization of the passage may instead tonicize III, with V following afterward. In these cases, the initial tonicization of III may be thought of as forestalling the arrival of V, which is implied tonally but not immediately realized; it is kept in abeyance while III provides the passage with a minor-key coloring, giving way to the more structurally-portentous V only at a larger phrase (or section) ending. An example is found in "I Keep Running Away From You" (1957; Example 26), in which a four-bar tonicization of III comes eight bars before a significant half cadence-Le., one that precedes a return to the song's opening material. Here, a tonicization of V could easily begin with the introduction of #4 (Bq), but instead III is tonicized and V is suppressed until the very end of the larger phrase: a root-position V7 chord arrives only as the section-ending harmony. By reserving the dominant chord until this moment, its arrival is made even stronger. Among other instances in which III substitutes for and delays the arrival of V are the lesser-known verses of two well-known songs: "White Christmas" and "God Bless America" (1938/39). The former was described previously. In the latter, #4 and 6 serve as melodic neighbors to a subsequent, durationally-extended 5; but 5 becomes the third of a tonicized III chord, not the root of tonicized V. As in the other examples, a root-position V7 chord arrives only at the end of the larger phrase, upon a section-defining half cadence. Example 26. "I Keep Running Away from You": I-III-V-I arpeggiation (end ofprevo phrase) ｾ ﾷｩ＿ｉＭ ＢＧ ｴＭｌＨｾ (new 8-meas. phrase) ｾ ---------l V7/II1 F: I S III (return to opening material/title lyrics) of V Above, tonal ambiguities were considered, whereby a III ...V progression was introduced although a tonicization of Valone was strongly suggested. But even in those many cases in which the melody clearly mandates an immediate tonicization of III, a progression to V will usually follow, either at the very end of the phrase/section, or with V given its own, somewhat larger, tonicized segment. Either way, a larger-scale tonic arpeggiation (I-III-V) is in operation, similar to the ones discussed earlier. Indeed, as indicated in AppendiX 8, these are frequently in the verses, as they were before. The verse of "Tell Me Little Gypsy" (1920; Example 27a) illustrates. Its first half is divided into two four-bar units, each tonic-oriented 52 THEORY AND PRACTICE and related melodically as per the scheme AA'. Its second half begins with a fourbar phrase on the level of III (employing both #2 and #4-the new leading tone and supertonic); but then the next four bars emphasize 2 as V is tonicized, anticipating the return to I at the beginning of the refrain. 52 "Tell Me Little Gypsy" also illustrates another trait of many of these phrase tonicizations: although sometimes they consist of entirely "new" melodic material, at other times (as here) the second phrase is closely modelled on the first, in its rhythms and contours if not also in its intersecting pitch content. Example 27a. "Tell Me Little Gypsy," verse melody, mm. 1-16 III Ｍｾ ｶｾ ｾ 8 'k - - - - - - 7 7 V ｾｦＭ Ｎ 7 a/V The foregoing observation brings us back to the issue of the transposing lever. With exact transposition, it is not difficult to imagine Berlin playing the same piano keys while new (transposed) sounds emerge. But here Berlin would have had to play different piano keys, because the III-phrase offers a variation on the 1phrase. To facilitate comparison, Example 27b aligns the two phrases and transposes both to the same tonic. Even if one allows that Berlin could have created the second phrase by playing a variation of the first after turning his lever, there is still the difference in mode to contend with: the former is in major and the latter in minor (a change minimally represented in the melody as juxtaposed in Example 27b, but of course reinforced harmonically as well). Clearly, extra chromaticism would have been required even if the transposing lever were used, thus discounting the notion that Berlin's chromaticism stemmed from the device. But more importantly, as the tonicization in question is of a specific kind that occurred frequently in Berlin's songs, it seems that even if Berlin did use his lever, it was only so that the sounds emerging from his piano would match those he already imagined. 53 GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? Example 27b. "Tell Me Little Gypsy," mm. 1-4 and 9-12 transposed to same tonic (G) The tonicizations of 111# are similar in function and placement to those of (minor) III: in these songs, 111(#) serves as a third divider in the progression to V. The major-mediant tonicizations, of course, stand in contrast to the minor ones due to their employment of the note which gives the tonicized chord its different quality: #5 of the main key, which serves as local 3. A tonicized phrase could avoid the scale degree melodically, imparting its major quality by the harmony alone; but in fact, all songs listed under the 111# heading include #5 in the melody as well. Because the key areas of I and lIn share only three pitch classes, tonicizations of lIn can be more chromatic than those of III; and, of the listed 111# tonicizations, almost all introduce either two or three chromatic melodic notes. "That International Rag" (1913) is most thorough in its transformation: its III-phrase includes not only all four raised notes vis-a.-vis the main key, but also the local #4 (Le., #6 of the main key). Example 28. "This Year's Kisses," verse, mm. 9-16 (refrain) Again, these types of chromaticism often defy explanation in terms of a transposing lever. This is obviously true of the C-major verse of "This Year's Kisses" (1937), in which the mode changes twice in a short span: as shown in Example 28, its second and final eight-bar phrase begins with a tonicization of III (with q5, or Gq), but a measure later the melody is inflected to lIn (with #5, or G#). The final four bars then begin like the first, with a return to III (q5), which now serves to initiate a cycle of fifth-related chords on the level of, and progressing to, the dominant (Le., III-VI-117-V7-1 of V). Consider also the sixteen-bar verse of "What'll I Do?" (1924; Example 29): there the formal scheme is AA'; the second half begins as did the first, but then continues with chromatic inflection-Le., what was C is now C#, G now G#, and F now F#. The changes define a move from C major to E major, yet not only is there no exact transposition, the notes within the E-major segment are never analogous in terms of scale degrees to those within the C-major segment. 54 THEORY AND PRACTICE For example, the first phrase has a penultimate E which is harmonized as the third of a C-major triad, but the second phrase has a penultimate E which is harmonized as the root of an E-major triad. Because the second phrase begins as did the first, but is transformed afterward by selective semitone alterations, one would be hard pressed to offer an interpretation consistent with a transposing lever. The most reasonable explanation, here as in the preceding example, is that Berlin's penchant for mediant tonicization manifested itself, and the "new" notes were determined first and foremost in his mind, and only then translated in some fashion to his piano keyboard. Example 29. "What'll I Do?," verse We have found that Berlin apparently had a deeply-ingrained preference for mediant tonicizations. But before closing this section, it should be noted that these tonicizations often emerge from contexts so conducive to their application, that one senses they would have arisen even were they not manneristic. For example, in the verse of "I Never Had a Chance" (1934), the first eight-bar phrase uses #2 twice as a neighbor-tone embellishment of the third of the tonic triad. The second and final eight-bar phrase begins as did the first, but the second appearance of #2 now precipitates a tonicization of III and a developmental transformation of the melody. Here, the III-phrase seems not so much a stylistic cliche as the creative outgrowth of established material. The refrain of "They Say It's Wonderful" (1946) anticipates a tonicization of III in more entailed ways. In m. 3, when the tonic chord first appears, 5 is the melodic tone (and the highest pitch thus far in both verse and refrain). Two bars later a stepwise connection is forged with 4, harmonized by 117-V7; but 3 does not appear with the subsequent resolution to I, instead the melody continues in a different register with the lower-octave 5. When the eight-bar phrase is subsequently repeated, the ending is altered so that the previously-absent 3 now arrives as the final pitch and is sustained for six quarter-beats. This is followed by the bridge, in which the prior goal-tone, 3, is tonicized in its minor-mode form. The significance of 3 prior to the bridge was not imparted by the melody alone, however: the first tonic chord of each prior phrase was in first inversion (i.e., with 3 in the bass); and the same inversion was used in the third measure of the bridge, which, through simple 6-5 (contrapuntal) motion above the bass, was transformed into III, to initiate its four-bar tonicization. Thus, the 111phrase was forecast by both larger-scale melodic goals and a prominent harmonic inversion. Just as there can be strong contextual reasons for a particular mediant toni- GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 55 cization, likewise, many of Berlin's less frequent tonicizations have clear relations to other attributes of their songs. For example, the tonicization of bVI in the bridge of "Let's Face the Music and Dance" (1935/36) relates to touches of the parallelminor mode in other sections of the song; and in "How About a Cheer for the Navy" (1942) the tonicization of IV within the first half anticipates a modulation to IV for the second half (about which more will be said in the next section). As always, there is evidence that a finely tuned musical mind was directing any chromaticism that occurs. VI. Songs with Sectional Key Changes Although phrases often establish new key areas (through tonicization), or are exactly transposed from their original forms, some songs include lengthier and even permanent key changes: those that differentiate and help define formal sections. Appendix 9 lists several such songs and their internal tonal relations. Of course, other tonal relations could be found if the complete inventory of Berlin's modulatory songs were examined; but the sampling will provide some of the most common relations while allowing a greater discussion of each. The songs may be subdivided into those that return to the initial key after an internal deviation, and those that begin and end in different keys. I will first consider songs in the latter category, the interpretations of which may seem more problematic from a monotonal viewpoint-Le., from the position that local key areas are actually expansions of, and are ultimately reconciled with, a single underlying tonality. Least difficult to interpret are those songs that alternate between relative keys. "(I'll See You In) Cuba" (1920) and "Steppin' Out With My Baby" (1947) provide two examples, the first with a minor verse and major refrain, and the second with the opposite. 53 Given that the basic pitch collection does not change between relative key areas (only the tonic does), it is implausible to imagine that Berlin required a transposing lever to compose or perform songs of this type. Presumably, at the piano, he simply would have switched between F# major and D# minor as his ear dictated, adding common altered notes, such as #6 and #7 in minor, as easily as he added other forms of directly-applied chromaticism. Berlin wrote songs with sectional shifts between relative keys almost from the beginning; "Dorando" (1909),54 only the second song for which he wrote music as well as lyrics, featured a D-minor verse which yielded to an F-major refrain. Indeed, in this instance, it is irrefutable that the change was directed by Berlin's inner ear, and not a mechanical lever (and not just because he did not own a transposing piano at the time). As has been commonly reported in his biographies, he was compelled to improvise the melody and sing it to a publisher's pianist/arranger on the spot, because he had just lied to the publisher about having a melody to go with the lyrics he was trying to sell. Incidentally, although Berlin's relative-key changes are easily interpreted from a purely musical perspective, they are sometimes difficult to reconcile with the affects of his lyrics, and so demonstrate that certain elements may occasionally be more important than pitches and intervals in the association of words and 56 THEORY AND PRACTICE music. For example, in the F-major verse of "Steppin' Out With My Baby," the protagonist boasts of "seem[ing] to scintillate" and "feel[ing] sublime," and certainly is emotionally positive enough to warrant a major key. The refrain should likewise be joyous, as he sings of how he "can't go wrong" and "never felt quite so sunny." Yet most of the refrain (including the music for these lyrics) is in the relative 0 minor-only the bridge and the ending two measures change to the parallel major. Why the seeming contradiction of modal and textual affects? Probably because Berlin conceived a memorable and rhythmic melody appropriate for the title phrase "steppin' out," and it happened to be in minor. Here, the primary form of text painting is rhythmic-the matching of a danceable melody with the title phrase, all for a movie song intended for Fred Astaire-and that association seems to have trumped any contradictory modal ones. 55 Songs that begin and end in different keys, other than relative major and minor ones, are often more difficult to interpret tonally. In considering some of these below, my aim will be to demonstrate what information may come to bear on a listener's interpretive decisions, and to ponder to what degree the ever-present piano lever can be reasonal:!ly evoked in these contexts. I will introduce the topic with a more thorough examination of "Alexander's Ragtime Band" (1911; hereafter"ARB"), which begins with a verse in C major and ends with a refrain in F major. Given the incredible popularity of "ARB" in its time, and its endurance throughout the twentieth century, it is no wonder that it has been discussed by many who have written about Berlin's career and music. However, its key change has been represented in many questionable ways, a multiplicity of which are found in comments by Ian Whitcomb. He refers to its modulation as being to the "subdominant key," and claims that the move was "leftover from the [piano] march" version that predated the song proper. He asserts that "[n]o popular song had done this before," although "[m]any were to copy," and asks: "Had Irving's key-change lever inspired such a shift?"56 Other writers have been in agreement with one or more of these points. Alec Wilder affirms that, of the popular songs known to him, "ARB" is "the earliest ... in which the verse and chorus are in different keys."57 Philip Furia stops short of granting the key change chronological priority, but he does describe it as "rare."58 Perhaps Lawrence Bergreen means the same thing when, with characteristic flourish, he calls it a "daring ... violation of formula songwriting."59 Bergreen too holds that the song appeared first as an instrumental march, although he does not directly relate the modulation to any stylistic traits of the latter. As for Whitcomb's rhetorical question about the lever, Furia suggests his answer somewhat directly, when he describes the modulation as "[e]xploiting the possibilities of [Berlin's] transposing piano." For the most part, these various claims are suspect, if not wrong. First, Charles Hamm has argued convincingly that the song version actually came first, and only later was adapted into a piano march. Supporting evidence includes not only the facts of the copyright dates (the instrumental version was copyrighted six months after the song), but also the structure of the piano version, which is peculiar when compared to most marches and rags, and suggests an adaptation of an earlier song. 60 GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 57 Second, as for the chronological priority of the song's modulatory scheme, one need look no further than songs of which Berlin himself was co-writer to find earlier examples. "Wild Cherries (Coony, Spoony Rag)" (1909),61 with Berlin's words and Ted Snyder'S music, features the same exact modulation: from a Cmajor verse to an F-major refrain; and two songs from 1910 with Berlin's lyrics have the same key relations (though only the second features the same exact keys): "Grizzly Bear" (music by George Botsford) and "Oh, That Beautiful Rag" (music by Ted Snyder).62 Of those published songs for which Berlin himself composed the music, "ARB" was indeed the first to feature the key relation; but we find that it was the fourth to do so of those he at least co-wrote. 63 Moreover, the same year as "ARB," Berlin wrote both lyrics and music to two more published songs that featured an ascending-fourth sectional modulation ("Ragtime Violin!"64 and "Everybody'S Doing It Now"); and five more songs of this kind, by him alone, were published the following year. An obvious fact emerges: "ARB" was neither the first popular song to feature this type of modulation, nor was the key change particularly rare. 65 Third, what associations should guide our interpretation of the key change? Is it to the subdominant key? Charles Hamm has pointed out that "[i]nstrumental ragtime pieces ... usually move to the subdominant for the trio," and so he concludes, "[b]y fitting ["ARB"] with a chorus in the subdominant, Berlin was making a musical connection with ragtime."66 Indeed, rags do commonly modulate to a key a perfect fourth higher, and often end in the second key, just as "ARB" doesalthough there are many rags in which the original key returns at the end, suggesting the tonal succession I-IV-I, as in the well-known Scott Joplin compositions, "Maple Leaf Rag" (1899) and "The Entertainer" (1902). If we accept the I-IV modulation as a token of ragtime composition, and allow that"ARB" would have been thought of by contemporary audiences as a product of ragtime (a premise for which Hamm has offered convincing arguments),67 then there is certainly support for a I-IV interpretation. However, "ARB" undoubtedly belongs also to another repertory: that of the Tin Pan Alley popular song; and an interpretation consistent with that repertory's norms dictates that the relation between verse and refrain be heard as V-I. In Tin Pan Alley songs that remain in the same key (which are certainly the majority), verses usually end with a cadence on V, in preparation for the refrain (which will begin on, or be directed toward, I). All that happens in "ARB" is that the entire verse prolongs V, which becomes V7 at the very end, to facilitate a stronger resolution into the refrain. Given the song's structure in conjunction with the norms of the Tin Pan Alley repertory, if one must choose either an interpretation in which the song ends in the subdominant, or one in which the verse serves as a dominant introduction to a tonic-ending song, the latter interpretation is more reasonable stylistically (not to mention tonally). Fourth and finally, what of the possibility that Berlin's transposing piano "inspired" the modulation? Of course, it cannot be verified whether or not Berlin used the transposing abilities of his piano at some stage during the composition of the song; but that is an entirely different issue than whether or not the key change was motivated by the presence of the piano's much-vaunted lever. Given the ubiquity of cadences on V at the ends of verses, and the fact that three prior songs with 58 THEORY AND PRACTICE lyrics by Berlin featured an expansion of V so that it was the basis of the entire verse, it seems most reasonable to say that Berlin was "inspired" by conventions of the popular-song repertory, which he had assimilated during several years first as a singing waiter and song plugger, and then as a songwriter. So, once again, if Berlin turned his lever, it apparently was turned only as far as was dictated by one with an implicit understanding of stylistic and tonal norms. With ARB," our interpretation is largely guided by formal/harmonic conventions which transcend the individual song. The same guidelines apply to the ascending-fourth modulation of "When You Walked Out Someone Else Walked Right In" (1923), which has a verse-refrain structure identical to that of ARB"; thus, V-I seems the most appropriate tonal scheme for the reasons previously described. However, sometimes a song so strongly asserts its own, particular context, that more general tonal templates may be overridden. One such case is presented by "How About a Cheer for the Navy" (1942). Although it, like the previous two, has an ascending-fourth modulation, its tonal interpretation must proceed differently, because its differs in both formal design and certain other harmonic associations. "How About a Cheer..." is in two principal sections, but these are not verse and refrain. The first is a full 32-bar unit in AABA form, with the title incorporated into its lyric; in short, it is a refrain. But the second section is also a complete 32-bar unit (in AA' form), is just as interesting musically as the first, and although it offers a continuation of the prior lyrics (the first section asks "how about a cheer," and the second section delivers one with a repeated "hip, hip, hooray"), nonetheless the lyrics of the second section could stand alone. Both sections are autonomous units, and-unlike in the model described earlier-here the initial section does not end with a dominant-seventh chord; the C-major section ends with C+6, a common concluding chord in the repertory. If one privileges the ending key of a modulating song, then V-I will still be preferred, but not for the additional stylistic reason described above: namely, that verses tend to end with V in anticipation of the refrain. But there is another consideration: the bridge of the first section tonicizes IV extensively; it moves to V only at the end of the phrase, in order to introduce the final A section. Given the prior tonicization, the key change for the second section initially sounds like another tonicization of IV. Hearing the song for the first time, one might expect a later return to the initial key, as happens in "I'm On My Way Home" (1926), also listed in Appendix 9. Of course, the initial key does not return in "How About a Cheer...," and so, from a monotonal perspective, we are forced to decide between V-I, supported only by the strength of a tonic ending, and I-IV, supported by the song's harmonic context but providing no closure on the tonic. "Happy Holiday" (1941/42) presents similar interpretive problems. Its two sections are exactly alike (each a sixteen-bar, AA' unit), except that the second is repeated a perfect-fourth lower. This time, there is no contextual reason to privilege the subdominant (unusually, the song completely avoids IV, except as embedded within II7-V7 progressions), and so a IV-I sectional interpretation could only be made on the basis of desiring a tonic ending. On the other hand, there are compelling reasons for advocating the alternative I-V interpretation: in the first section, 5 initiates most melodic units and is often returned to; and I and V are not 1/ 1/ GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 59 only the primary harmonies but, even when the tonic chord is sustained, the arpeggiated bass (in quarter notes) often contains a single I but three 5s per measure. The emphasis of both 5 and V in the first section anticipates the subsequent modulation. In the preceding, I have suggested contextual reasons for embracing tonal schemes that do not end with the tonic: I-IV for "How About a Cheer..." and I-V for "Happy Holiday." Obviously one could argue that Berlin, given his lack of music-theoretical indoctrination, would not at all have considered the modulations to be the expression of a single, underlying tonality. In short, to Berlin, "How About a Cheer..." probably expressed neither I-IV nor V-I, but simply C-F, if not [mostly black keys] to [mostly black keys after x turns of the lever]! However, something clearly motivated Berlin's choices of "new keys" for the two songs. True, in both cases the modulation was by perfect fourth-a ubiquitous interval of transposition surely very familiar to Berlin, in sound if not in theory, from years of contact with music. But it was a fourth higher in one case, and a fourth lower in another. Why the difference? One may answer in any of a number of ways,68 but in the absence of hard evidence, it seems to me that the most musically supportable answer would be based on the evident musical traits of the initial section of each song: one contains a significant tonicization of IV (or F major, or "the sound of that set of pitches") and so moves there again for its second section; and the other greatly emphasizes 5 (or Bb, or "that piano key") and the triad built upon it, and so retains that note and chord for a larger-scale emphasis in its second section. The point, here as always, is that Berlin's changes of key were highly associated with prior features of his songs. His modulations, however one may choose to interpret them-and however he fingered them on his piano-were contextually relevant compositional choices. Moving now to those songs of Appendix 9 which return to their initial key areas, we see that the I-IV-I model (in one guise or another) is operational for three: "I'm On My Way Home" (1926), UHeat Wave" (1933), and"Any Bonds Today?" (1941). (In all cases, a brief V7 actually precedes the return to I.) Although IV is a common key area in the repertory, again such modulations are often anticipated by specific musical features. For example, a subtle association is found in "I'm On My Way Home." Following the verse is a 32-bar AA'BA' refrain; then comes a sixteen-bar "patter" (P) on the level of IV; it leads to a repetition of the last half of the refrain (BA'), in the original key. The composite form is thus AA'BA'PBA'. The only significant use of IV in the refrain proper comes at the start of the bridge (the B section). Unlike the bridge of "How About a Cheer...," which remained on the level of IV for most of its length, here the tonicization is fleeting: V7flV leads to IV at its start, but the ensuing melodic sequence then prompts other harmonies. This brief emphasis on IV might be dismissed if not for the fact that this very bridge follows the IV-oriented patter, initiating the half-refrain repetition (...PBA'). Berlin perhaps recognized the tonal relation between the patter and the beginning of the bridge, and used it as his harmonic pivot back into the original key. This, of courses, again raises questions as to how a transposing lever might have been used (if at all): presumably he would have turned the lever from UI" to "IV" between refrain and patter, and then turned it back to "I" only to begin with 60 THEORY AND PRACTICE the IV chord! It becomes complicated to understand such operations, unless one concedes that Berlin's ear guided everything, and occasionally-when the lever would have confused more than helped matters-he surely must have played in different keys. The two remaining songs-"The Piccolino" (1935) and "Miss Liberty" (1949)-each feature a section on bIll, at the end of which they each introduce V in preparation for the return to I. Accordingly, they offer expanded versions of the 1-l,III-V-I progressions discussed earlier. These large-scale connections are more pronounced in the case of "Miss Liberty," in which the V that occurs between bIll and I is no single chord, but rather an eight-bar section that tonicizes the dominant. But often the use of the bIll key area seems related to more than just Berlin's apparent partiality for large-scale "minor-tonic" arpeggiations. Consider "The Piccolino," which has an unusual form: an AABA refrain of 52 measures, followed by a contrasting section of 28 measures (which begins in bIll, but returns to I before its conclusion), and then a sixteen-bar recapitulation and extension of the opening A material. Whence the bIll? From a melodic standpoint, the fact that the refrain prominently features 5 is conducive to the change, as that scale degree is included in both I and bIll. From the harmonic standpoint, the fact that the refrain has an internal tonicization of qllI# may have been a motivator: in the context of a prior qlII#, bIll is heard as a further chromatic lowering (Le., a developmental use of harmony), which makes the "blue-note" attributes of bIll more pronounced by comparison. Then too, a nice harmonic symmetry is formed, based on tonicizations by ascending major thirds: the refrain establishes the sound through its modulation from I to qlII#, and the contrasting section replicates it with a move from bIll to V, in preparation for the return to I. Though we cannot know Berlin's exact motivation, his modulatory choice was clearly supported by several internal relations. VII. Summary In this study, I have familiarized readers with some of Berlin's idiomatic uses of expressive chromaticism, and have considered ways of interpreting those usages. We have seen that both local and broader-scale forms of chromaticism tend to be associated with prior features of the same song; they represent contextually relevant compositional choices, however Berlin may have fingered them on his piano. Only by setting aside elements of his biographies that have more to do with style than substance-those flamboyant turns of phrases and ornate descriptions that transcend fact-ean we come to a more reasonable understanding of the output of the person Cole Porter declared to be "the greatest song-writer of all time."69 Only by studying Berlin's musical legacy-the roughly one thousand songs he left behind-ean we come to a better understanding of the musicianship his friend and biographer Alexander Woollcott was all too ready to dismiss. And only through this understanding can we come to appreciate the insight of Milton Babbitt, who, in a 1983 lecture, coupled Berlin with Igor Stravinsky in a brief-but tantalizingaside: GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 61 I'm constantly bowled over (in much the same way that I am by Irving Berlin) by the way in which [Stravinsky] did things which he obviously could not have arrived at by any kind of technique ... with regard to precompositional things,70 If "technique" of a "precompositional" nature is meant to refer to those initial procedures by which a composer explicitly calculates formal aspects, and the motivic and tonal materials to be used, then indeed it is likely that Berlin never thought "precompositionally." And yet, the sound worlds he fashioned are often tightly integrated and demonstrate a handling of materials that could hardly be more deft. Babbitt, unlike Woollcott, was keenly aware that the proof of artistry is in the musical products, not the composer's pedigree. For Berlin, part of that artistry lies in the expressive use of chromaticism, and those who take it to be the result of a "trick piano" must not to be listening to the music at all. NOTES 1. See advertisements on back covers of Berlin's sheet music from the 1920s, e.g., "Russian Lullaby" (1927). 2. The line comes from refrain 5 of the full version of "You're the Top," and may not be on all versions of the sheet music. It is, however, familiar to many through its inclusion in certain recordings and in the musical Anything Goes. 3. Berlin could neither notate nor read music when he first began composing songs (his music was transcribed by others); and it has been taken as fact by virtually all biographers that he never learned to do so in later years. His daughter, Mary Ellin Barrett, suggests otherwise when she states that his Nachlass includes a manuscript of the 32bar melody of "Soft Lights and Sweet Music," bearing an inscription in Berlin's handwriting which reads: "1st lead sheet ever taken down by Irving Berlin, Aug. 16, 1932" (Barrett, Irving Berlin: A Daughter's Memoir [New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994]: 112-13). However, before concluding that Berlin did learn to notate music by this date, we should consider two facts: First, this particular song was written in 1931 (as indicated by the copyright date) and was used in Face the Music, which premiered 17 February 1932-months before the date on the lead sheet. Second, the 32-bar portion of the song corresponds to the refrain; the 20-bar verse apparently was not notated by Berlin. Together, these circumstances of late dating and incompleteness suggest that when Berlin "took down" the refrain, in August 1932, it may have been as a training exercise in notation; it certainly was not the product of his independently notating a newly composed song, without help from one of his "musical secretaries." Thus, for all we know, he may have been copying notes from the already-published sheet music-painting a picture, as it were, rather than actually using symbols with which he was conversant. Of course, I hasten to add that Berlin may well have learned to notate music at some point in his life; my argument is simply that the "Soft Lights and Sweet Music" specimen offers no proof of the fact. 62 THEORY AND PRACTICE 4. Most biographies relate anecdotes of how collaborators or assistants would hear Berlin playing for the first time, only to be amazed at his less-than-expert technique. 5. Laurence Bergreen, As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin (New York: Penguin Books, 1990),56-57. 6. Edward Jablonski, Irving Berlin: American Troubadour (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1999),319. The song was from 1965. 7. Incidentally, I should also direct the reader's attention to the many characterizations of Berlin as "pounding" or "thumping" the black keys. These remarks not-so-subtly reinforce the notion that Berlin was a cloddish amateur with little musical sensitivity. 8. George M. Cohan reportedly owned three, and every publishing house on the Alley allegedly had one (Bergreen, As Thousands Cheer, p. 57). Berlin bought his original one for $100, from the Weser Company in the U.S. At one time or another he owned several, one of which (a 1940 Weser Bros. model) is now housed at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. The Smithsonian featured this piano, along with others of distinction, in "Piano 300: Celebrating Three Centuries of People and Pianos," an exhibition held March 2000-March 2001. However, again demonstrating the ineptness of most descriptions of how this instrument was used, consider the statement placed under a photograph of the piano, on the exhibition's Web page: "This upright piano was customized for Irving Berlin with a special transposing lever beneath the keyboard, allowing the pianist to play in any key using only white or black keys [?!]" (from <http://www.piano300.org/collectn.htm>.asit appeared in November 2000). 9. Michael Freedland, Irving Berlin (New York: Stein and Day, 1974),47. 10. Alexander Woollcott, The Story of Irving Berlin (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1925), 219. 11. All songs copyrighted before 1923 (i.e., twenty of the songs cited in the main text) are in public domain. For the remainder, to keep in accordance with the "fair use" guidelines of the U.S. copyright law (17 USC 107), I extract only as much of the sheet music as is necessary for the argument, often giving just a short section of the melody, and not the full piano part; lyrics are never included in excerpts. 12. The Songs of Irving Berlin (Irving Berlin Music Co.; distributed Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corp., 1991). Hereafter, this source will be abbreviated to SIB. 13. See the section "Regarding Urtexts" in my article "Dynamic Introductions: The Affective Role of Melodic Ascent and Other Linear Devices in Selected Song Verses of Irving Berlin," Integral 13 (1999): 1-62. [2-5]. 14. In order to document different types and degrees of pentatonicism in Appendix 3, I have violated my previously stated rule and included two songs not in SIB: GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 63 "Sayonara" and"Abraham." I am not aware of an anthology that contains the original versions of either song, and thus individual sheet music may need to be consulted. However, there are at least two (non-original) versions of "Sayonara" in print: in The Irving Berlin Collection: E-Z Play Today (Irving Berlin Music Co.; distributed Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corp., 1991), and The Irving Berlin Fake Book (Irving Berlin Music Co.; distributed Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corp., 1992). 15. Throughout this essay, I shall use a flat or a sharp before a capped scale-degree number to indicate the raising or lowering of that scale degree from its usual, major-key, diatonic state, no matter the specific accidental required by the key. Thus, for example, #4 will mean a raised 4. even in the key of Eb, where it would be spelled ａｾＮ Scale degrees of minor keys are denoted vis-a.-vis their parallel major form (a necessity, given mode mixture and other chromatic cross-pollenizations), and thus the minorkey tonic triad would be given as i -b3-5. Only if a minor-key context is clear, and if it is important explicitly to distinguish different forms of certain scale degrees, will I refer (e.g.) to a raised 6 as #6. When representing chords by Roman numerals, they will be followed by a "0" if diminished, a "!d" if a half-diminished seventh chord, a "+" if augmented, and a "+6" if the triad has an "added sixth." 16. The typical schema of songs to be considered consists of a "verse," or an introductory section that is often declamatory or not as distinctive melodically; and a "refrain," which is typically more memorable melodically, and generally presents the title phrase in its lyrics. Many refrains are in some semblance of an AABA form, in which the melodically contrasting section (the B section) is called the "bridge." 17. In musical examples and in verbal references, measures are numbered beginning with the entry of the vocal part. 18. Not in SIB; see n. 14. 19. For general comments on the repertory's use of harmonic pentatonicism, see pp. 8-13 of Allen Forte, "Harmonic Relations: American Popular Harmonies (1925-1950) and Their European Kin," Contemporary Music Review 19/1 (2000): 5-36. 20. By "distinctly pentatonic," I mean that they consist of a combination of emblematic intervals: whole-tone steps and (often minor-) third skips. 21. Compete neighbors are also common; e.g., in the opening of the refrain of "All By Myself" (1921), 3-#2-3 and 5-#4-5 appear in succession. 22. In contrast, the previously-mentioned neighboring figure, 5-b6-5, by itself does not suggest as strong a kinship with the blues. 23. Similar associations exist for "Supper Time." There, the dotted-eighth/ sixteenth rhythms are obviously the same. The lyrics may not seem overtly related to an African-American experience, but in the Broadway show which introduced the song 64 THEORY AND PRACTICE (As Thousands Cheer), it was sung by an African-American woman mourning the loss of her husband to a lynch mob. Whereas the actual lyrics do not strongly suggest this scenario (they might just as well refer to a man who has abandoned his family), nonetheless they are written in a type of exaggerated dialect that likely would have suggested an African-American protagonist to contemporary audiences (e.g., "How'll I keep from tellin' that that man 0' mine ain't comin' home no more"). 24. In Irving Berlin Anthology (Milwaukee, WI: Irving Berlin Music Co., distributed by Hal Leonard Co., 1994). 25. In some cases, a ｾＳＭｉ melodic figure-perhaps filled with a passing tone or otherwise embellished-presages a section in the parallel minor (something true of the "Song of Freedom" example), and so again the question arises: Is Ｓｾ a blue note, or simply the beginning of a passage in minor? In "Song of Freedom," the former seems more accurate, given the prior prominence of q3 in both melody and harmony; but such determinations are difficult to generalize. 26. Allan Moore argues that ｾＷ is as normative in rock music as the leading tone (q7), and discusses melodic patterns, cadences, and modulations within rock's modal system in "The So-Called 'Flattened Seventh' in Rock," Popular Music 14/2 (1995): 185-201. 27. It is found more in some songwriters than others-Harold Arlen employed it more than Berlin, for example-but in general it is not emblematic of the repertory. Along similar lines, the ｾｖｉ Ｍ harmonic succession is also uncommon in Tin Pan Alley. A rare example from Berlin's catalog is in mm. 1-3 of the verse of "I Got the Sun in the Morning" (1946), where ｾｖｉ ＫＶ serves as a neighboring chord, bounded on each side by 1+6. 28. Of course, ｾＷＭＵ 29. In the Annie Get Your Gun piano/vocal score (New York: Irving Berlin Music Corp., 1967). Although the song's lyrics are not overtly racist, they do evoke many cliches of Native American life and nomenclature, and it was probably for this reason-Le., to bring the production into greater accord with current ethnic sensitivities-that the song was one of the ones excised from the recent (1999) Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun. 30. The ending of the song, which turns to the relative major, transforms the repeated ascending figure into one much more common in the repertory: 6-I. 31. This trait was only amplified in post-1950s rock music, in which many songs are equally-if not more-tonic/subdominant- than tonic/dominant-based. Consider the repertory's frequent descending-fourth root progressions, or what might be thought of as chains of applied subdominants. E.g., Jimi Hendrix's recording of "Hey Joe" (1966; song by Billy Roberts) is based on the repeated chord succession ｾｖｉ ｉｾｖ ｉＭ ｖ ｉＬ and (keeping with a "Hey J-" motif) the lengthy fade-out chorus of is to V as ｾＳＭ I is to I. GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 65 The Beatles' "Hey Jude" (1968; song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney) consists of the repeated succession I-l,VII-IV-I. 32. The arpeggiation is harmonized by two chords, V7/11l-11l7, but the melodic outline is solely of the III chord. 33. In Charles Hamm (ed.), Irving Berlin: Early Songs, 1907-1914, 3 vols. (Madison, WI: A-R Editions, 1994), vol. 1. Hereafter, this source will be cited as "ES" plus volume number. 34. When repeating V-Ilr-V-Ib, one might begin to hear V (not Ib) as the goal, and interpret Ilr-V as IVlr-I of V. But the actual V includes its (minor) seventh both times when leading to Ib, and only afterward drops it to become a V triad and thus a potential tonic. 35. Of course, as discussed earlier, the issue of authorship is problematic when harmonizations are considered. Still, it would be absurd to suggest that Berlin could not tell the difference between major and minor tonic triads, within a major-key context; thus, we can only assume that he approved and desired the change to minor. 36. "Business is Business" is in ES I; "That Monkey Tune" is in ES II. 37. The minor I major sectional divisions are not always discrete. For example, "That Monkey Tune" has a 24-measure, mostly-minor verse, but major is introduced eight bars before its end. Conversely, the major-key refrain of "Business is Business" reintroduces the parallel minor for two measures, four measures before its end. 38. Just as the verse looks ahead, the refrain takes a backward glance at the verse when the last half of the bridge tonicizes bIll. However, the tonicization is in the service of a larger-scale melodic descent, and the greatly-different context obfuscates the connection. 39. The "patter" melody is, incidentally, strikingly similar to a section from the verse of Berlin's "Mandy" (1919), mm. 9-12. 40. One might be inclined to interpret Bb9 as functioning as an augmented sixth chord. However, due to Berlin's uses of chromatic neighboring harmonies (as previously described), I am more inclined to the interpretation given. (I could point out that the enharmonic augmented sixth, Blr-Ab, in fact resolves to A-G as if parallel sevenths, rather than in contrary motion to A-A. But this would probably not dissuade one who is determined to hear an augmented sixth, as sometimes, even in eighteenthand nineteenth-century tonality, the augmented sixth above the bass becomes the subsequent chord seventh.) 41. This is an underlying claim of my article, "Dynamic Introductions." 66 THEORY AND PRACTICE 42. See Heinrich Schenker, Free Composition, trans. and ed. Ernst Oster (New York: Longman, 1979),29-31 (§§ 53-65). 43. Inversions may be used such that a I -b3-.5 arpeggiation is not literally present in the bass (as in "Puttin' On the Ritz," in which I is always in first inversion), but the harmonic root motion will still suggest this pattern. 44. To use the term "tonicize" here would be technically imprecise. A pentatonic melody is accompanied by ascending and descending thirds in the bass, and by another stepwise-moving voice, all of which is confined to either the C- or Eb-major diatonic collections (Le., IV or bVI of G). In short, it is a tonally non-functional, "pandiatonic" accompaniment that departs from and returns to C- or Eb-major triads. 45. I use the term "minor" tonic because that is literally what the arpeggiation forms. But there is no real projection of the minor mode: b3 is a blue note harmonized by bIll in a locally major context. 46. Incidentally, SIB has an obvious error in m. 10, during the phrase on III: octave Os are given on the downbeat rather than the correct Bs. 47. One might well debate the status of the ａｾ chord. To some, it will certainly sound like a "cadential ｾＢＭｴｹｰ･ figure; that is, the functional harmony of mm. 11-14 is V of E, embellished with a double appoggiatura: ｾＭｴ However, due to hearing the earlier I-V7-1 alternation in F, one might likewise be conditioned to hear I-V7-1 of A, in mm. 11-15. Thus the chord of mm. 11-12 might be heard as a "consonant ｾＢＭｴｨ｡ is, a true, functional A triad, in second inversion. The latter interpretation is reinforced by two additional factors: First, ｆｾ occurred in mm. 2, 4, and 8, due to bass arpeggiation, and thus one has already become accustomed to hearing "consonant ｾＢｳＮ Second, except for its initial bass note, m. 12 is an exact transposition of m. 10, a major-third higher; thus, if m. 10 had F as root, then m. 12 would have A as root. 48. The melody is devoid of any chromaticism except within the G-major bridge, where the local b6 is employed. The harmonization is enriched with chromaticism (most notably in its semitonal bass line), but nonetheless the change from E minor to G major did not require pitches outside of their shared diatonic set. 49. Alec Wilder, American Popular Song: The Great Innovators: 1900-1950, ed. James T. Maher (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1972), 105. 50. Wilder, American Popular Song, 113. 51. These were "Now It Can Be Told" (the song under discussion at the time), "Say It Isn't So," and "You're Laughing At Me." 52. The second half is extended by four more bars, which continue the tonicization of V and end with .5 over V. GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 67 53. From a purely melodic perspective, the verse of "Steppin' Out With My Baby" often suggests C major as much-if not more than-A minor (the opening As would easily fit a C+6 chord, as they do five bars into the C-major refrain). However, the ascent ｅＭｆｾ ａＬ which introduces the second half of the verse, clearly mandates the Aminor harmonization. As for an interpretation consistent with a monotonal view, a Schenkerian would hear each of the two songs cited in the main text as embodying a deeper-level auxiliary cadence (Le., a progression without an initial tonic, but an ending V-I): from verse to start of refrain, the first song would progress VI-V-I, and the latter III-V-Ib. 54. In ES I. 55. The song was written for the Astaire film Easter Parade (1948). 56. Ian Whitcomb, Irving Berlin and Ragtime America (New York: Limelight Editions, 1988),75. 57. Wilder, American Popular Song, 94. 58. Philip Furia, Irving Berlin: A Life In Song (New York: Schirmer Books, 1998),41. 59. Bergreen, As Thousands Cheer, 60. 60. See Hamm, Irving Berlin: Songs from the Melting Pot (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1997), chapter 3 (especially 112-17). Furia-while acknowledging Hamm's conclusion as a product of "formidable" scholarship-eontinues to assert the view that a piano version was written first. He counters that he has found "several interviews where Berlin himself states that [the song] was first an instrumental" (Irving Berlin: A Life In Song, 288). These quotations are assimilated into his text, and give rhetorical weight to his claims about the sequence of composition; but he never directly addresses the inconsistencies between Hamm's research and Berlin's own remarks. 61. In ES I. 62. Both in ES I. 63. In this regard, it is important to note that Berlin was primarily a lyricist at the time, and relatively new to composing: of his fifty-nine previously published songs, he had written the music for just fourteen. (This claim is based on the song numbering found in ES.) In ES II. 64. 65. I do not mean to suggest that such a modulatory scheme is frequent in the repertory, only that one can find it easily enough, and in a variety of songs. Other examples, by well-known songwriters, include: Harold Arlen's "Fancy Meeting You Here" (1936), George Gershwin's "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" (1936/37), Jerome Kern's "I've 68 THEORY AND PRACTICE Told Ev'ry Little Star" (1932), Cole Porter's "Satin and Silk" (1954), and Richard Rodgers' "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" (1935). Although modulating songs definitely form a minority class, their key changes are often interpretively rich events. For example, I have discussed elsewhere the use and significance of various verse-refrain modulatory schemes in the songs of Jimmy Van Heusen (see David Carson Berry, "The Popular Songwriter as Composer: Mannerisms and Design in the Music of Jimmy Van Heusen," Indiana Theory Review [forthcoming]). 66. Hamm, Irving Berlin: Songs from the Melting Pot, 104. 67. This despite a view, from later in the century, that excluded popular songs from an accepted canon of piano-rag compositions. See, e.g., Hamm, Irving Berlin: Songs from the Melting Pot, 105-06. 68. For example, one might fall back on the affective differences between such modulations. A modulation a fourth lower (or fifth higher) takes one to a sharper and thus "brighter" position on the circle of fifths, which perhaps matches the affect of the "merry bells [that] keep ringing" in the lyrics of "Happy Holiday." A modulation a fourth higher (or fifth lower) takes one to a flatter position on the circle of fifths, and perhaps suggests a "darker"-or, to adopt the sex-typing of the day, more "masculine"-change appropriate for a lyric about the power of the Navy. Such determinations are, of course, highly subjective. 69. Freedland, Irving Berlin, 156. 70. Milton Babbitt, Words about Music, ed. by Stephen Dembski and Joseph N. Straus (Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1987), 107-8. GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 69 APPENDIXl Selected references to Berlin's use of the "black keys." (See next page for key to sources.) • "[H]e played mainly on the black keys" (Forte, 86). • "[Berlin] could only play in the key of F#. Among songwriters, this was known as playing on the 'nigger keys,'* since F#, with its five sharps (F#, G#, A#, C#, and 0#), consists of almost all black keys" (Furia 2, 34). • "[H]e only played in the key of F-sharp, the black note key that fell easily under his fingers" (Barrett, 103). • "Like most men who play only by ear Berlin is a slave of one key. Since he always plays helplessly in F sharp..." (Woollcott,34-35). • "All Irving could play in was Flo All he used was a finger in each hand" (Whitcomb, 68). • "It is well-known that the man who wrote more hit songs than anyone else in all three song categories-pop songs, show tunes, and movie songs-cannot read a note of music, cannot write music, can hardly play the piano, and plays in only one key-F sharp" Gasen,71). • "[Arthur] Freed's office had a standard piano, without a shifting keyboard, so the untutored songwriter could not (so thought Swifty [i.e., Irving P. Lazar]) play for them. (In fact, he could have done fine using just the black keys.)" Gablonski,307). • "By pounding the black notes on the old upright piano..." (Freedland 2, 28). • "Berlin thumped on the black notes and produced a recognisable rendering of his new [song],' (Freedland 2, 99). • "He created something like 3,000 songs** and influenced practically every songwriter for three generations by pounding the black notes in the key of F sharp..." (Freedland 1, 11). • "He would virtually have to sit at his piano, thumping the black keys obstinately waiting for the thought [that would produce the needed song]" (Freedland 2, 81). • "He had been picking out tunes on the cafe piano after closing (he never would learn to play on anything but the black keys, though soon he got a piano with a special lever that allowed him to transpose into other keys)" (Furia 1, 49). • "Like many self-taught musicians, he hit only the black keys, which were easier for his untrained hands to control" (Bergreen, 56) • "His was a unique approach in that he avoided the white keys and played only on the black, in the key of F sharp..." (Jablonski, 26). • "Since he never touched the white notes, they had their own vital purposes to serve-as an ashtray for the cigarettes he now chain-smoked whenever he thumped away on the black notes" (Freedland 2, 196). *This racist term was, unfortunately, part of the period's vernacular. ** Surely an exaggeration; Berlin copyrighted a little less than 1000 songs. 70 THEORY AND PRACTICE Author Legend for Works Cited in Appendices 1-2: Barrett = Mary Ellin Barrett, Irving Berlin: A Daughter's Memoir (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994). Bergreen = Laurence Bergreen, As Thousands Cheer: The Life of Irving Berlin (New York: Penguin Books, 1990). Forte = Allen Forte, The American Popular Ballad of the Golden Era: 1924-1950 (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1995). Freedland 1 = Michael Freedland, Irving Berlin (New York: Stein and Day, 1974). Freedland 2 = Michael Freedland, A Salute to Irving Berlin (London: W.H. Allen, 1986). Furia 1 = Philip Furia, The Poets of Tin Pan Alley (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1990). Furia 2 = Philip Furia, Irving Berlin: A Life In Song (New York: Schirmer Books, 1998). Jablonski = Edward Jablonski, Irving Berlin: American Troubadour (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1999). Jasen = David A. Jasen, Tin Pan Alley (New York: Donald I. Fine, 1988). Whitcomb = Ian Whitcomb, Irving Berlin and Ragtime America (New York: Limelight Editions, 1988). Woollcott = Alexander Woollcott, The Story of Irving Berlin (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1925). GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 71 APPENDIX 2 Selected references to Berlin's use of a transposing piano. 1. General descriptions. • "[Later he would use] a special transposing piano, which mechanically shifted the hammers so that the songs would be heard in keys more conventional than the multiple flat or sharp keys in which Berlin (quite unknowingly, of course) was playing them" (Forte, 86). • "...[U]nder the keyboard was a lever which shifted the entire works so that the player could instantly be transposed into any other key while still fingering his favourite. All Irving could play in was F#. All he used was a finger in each hand" (Whitcomb, 68). • "Whenever he wished, he could let himself in [the Snyder Company offices] with a key, climb the stairs, and sit at his special piano, a Weser Brothers model that he had acquired, secondhand, for a hundred dollars. It was a peculiar instrument. On the righthand side, at the treble end of the keyboard, was a small wheel, not unlike a miniature version of that used to steer an automobile. By turning it, Berlin could shift the keyboard and, still using only the F-sharp black keys, play the melody in other keys. This type of piano was widely used by unschooled pianists, called 'fakers,' in Tin Pan Alley, vaudeville, and cabaret. Perhaps cued by the wheel, Berlin referred to this contraption as his Buick. A later Buick was equipped with a less obtrusive shift, a crank under the keyboard" (regarding Berlin, ca. 1910; Jablonski, 42). • "Berlin and other composers could transcend the limitations of F# by using a transposing piano. This instrument had a lever that shifted the keys so that the pianist could continue to hit the keys of F# but hear how a song sounded in any of the other major and minor [!] keys. ... [It] required only that a person know how to play in a single key in order to encompass the full range of the instrument" (Furia 2, 34-35). • "Since he always plays helplessly in F sharp, he has had to have a piano especially constructed with a sliding keyboard, so that when he wants to adventure in another key, he can manage it by moving a lever and rattling away on the more familiar keys" (Woollcott, 34-35). • "[The home] library was where the brown transposing upright piano was, the old one with the knob that moved the keyboard, at which, at odd hours of the day and night, my father [i.e., Berlin] worked. Though he only played in the key of F-sharp, the black note key that fell easily under his fingers, he needed to hear songs in different keys. Patiently, he explained the mechanism to me. One pull of the knob, and as he continued to play in Fsharp, out the notes would come in C or G or E-flat, or whatever key was right for singing that particular song" (Barrett, 103). • "Two things about both [pianos that belong(ed) to Berlin] set them apart from other pianos. One is a lever underneath the keyboard that can change the sound of the notes struck, just as the movement of a gearshift in a car can change the sound of the engine. The other thing they have in common is that they are both instruments on which Irving Berlin transformed the popular song" (Freedland 1, 11). • If he took lessons, Berlin thought that "[h]e might even be able to play one of the grand pianos he had bought-but which were no more than mere ornaments. No one could find a way of fitting a gearlever to one." (Freedland 2, 69). • Berlin played a regular piano "the best he could without the aid of the levered piano-which by now he had learned to change as easily and as effortlessly as the newfangled automobiles were changing gear..." (regarding Berlin, ca. 1911; Freedland 2, 42). 72 THEORY AND PRACTICE APPENDIX 2 (continued) 2. References to its omnipresence. • "A piano must have followed him, that special piano with the transposing keyboard that went wherever he went, to a hotel, on a cruise ship or ocean liner" (regarding a 1929 European trip; Barrett, 77). • "With Moss Hart, he sailed for Naples in the Italian liner, Rex. With him went the old upright piano-with the gear lever carefully checked to make sure that it would shift the keyboard whenever it was needed" (regarding Berlin, ca. 1935; Freedland 2, 159). • "One day, deciding to demonstrate the new number for a visitor, [Berlin] called [musical assistant] Helmy Kresa into his office.... [Berlin] had taken his original, battered Buick out of storage and kept it in repair and tuned (as he explained, 'I like to keep it around the office; I love working on it'), but Kresa went to the other, more recent piano, also equipped with a special movable keyboard" (regarding Berlin, ca. mid-1960s; Jablonski, 309-10). • "There was no symbol more evocative of Irving Berlin's songwriting career than his transposing piano-the upright, tinny-sounding, cigarette-scarred 'Buick' on which he picked out his tunes" (Bergreen, 528). 3. References to its role in song composition. • "His fingers had to be poised on the keys and gripping the 'gearlever', ready to come out with what had been ordered" (regarding Berlin's ability to meet the requests of his music publishers; Freedland 2, 81). • "Inevitably, Berlin tried composing on a transposing piano. He could still play 'nigger piano,'* he discovered, but by flipping the lever, he could sample any key he wished. The device freed him to develop the harmonies, nuances, rhythms [!], and fill notes he needed to embellish his tunes. At the touch of a lever, he could test a chord or a phrase in a different key; he could experiment with interactions between words and melodies..." (Bergreen,57). "Working at his transposing piano, Berlin found the songs now came easily..." (Bergreen, 58). • "[H]e rarely played [his grand piano] and never composed on it, for the instrument lacked the ability to change keys at the touch of a lever. It was to his reliable trick piano that he turned when the urge to compose came over him, but he kept this device out of sight for the time being, as if it were a secret vice. [....] Irving Berlin did indeed love a piano, as he said in the song, but not this sleek beauty [Le., the grand]. He loved a battered upright with a funny lever tucked beneath the keyboard, to which he remained furtively devoted" (Bergreen, 136). • "Berlin's piano was like a slot machine: as soon as he pulled the lever, he would as often as not hit the jackpot" (Freedland 1,47). • "Somehow, tugging at the gear lever under his one-key piano was no longer the equivalent of throwing a switch. It didn't automatically mean that fingers laboriously thumping the keys would be able to create a miracle which in turn became a virtual licence to print money" (Freedland 2, 150). • "A leftover from the march (which has the same form as classic ragtime) gave the verse a novel twist to the ear: it modulated at the end into the subdominant key, thus setting the chorus onto a fresh path. [...] Had Irving's key-change lever inspired such a shift?" (regarding"Alexander's Ragtime Band" [1911]; Whitcomb, 75). • "Exploiting the possibilities of his transposing piano, Berlin further demarcated 73 GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? the new structural priorities of his song by changing keys between the verse, which was in the key of C, and the chorus in F-a rare shift for a Tin Pan Alley song" (regarding "Alexander's Ragtime Band" [1911]; Furia 2, 34-35). * This racist term was, unfortunately, part of the period's vernacular. APPENDIX 3 (continued on next page) Selected songs which employ pentatonic sets. NB: songs listed chronologically within each division ref = refrain; PT = passing tone; N = neighbor tone Location Collection Description (under no. 3 only) 1. Entirely pentatonic Mandy (1919) ref (18 bars) {I,2,3,5,6} Sayonara (1953/57) all (22 bars) {I,2,3,5,6} 2. Extended pentatonic segments When You Walked Out Someone Else Walked Right In (1923) verse: A sect's (of AABA);* ref: 1st 6 + last 12 bars Blue Skies (1927) verse: A sect's (of AABA); {I,2,3,5,6} (all instances) {I,Z,3,5,6} ofmaj. form (all instances) ref: A sect's (of AABA) The Song Is Ended (1927) ref: A sect's (of AABA) {I,Z,3,5,6} How About a Cheer for the Navy (1942) "Hip, hip, hooray" sect. (after key change): A sect's (of ABAC) {I,2,3,5,6} Little Fish in a Big Pond (1949) A sect's (of A4 A4 / B4 C4 / D4 D'4 / A4 C4 / [coda]10) {l,Z,3,5,6} * chromaticism at end of last A sect. 74 THEORY AND PRACTICE APPENDIX 3 (continued) 3. Embellished pentatonic Remember (1925) ref: A sect's (of AABA) PT (b5) in 1st two As; N (4) in last A {l,2,3,5,6} Marie (1928) ref: A sect's (of ABAB') + part of B PTs (b6, b3) {l,2,3,5,6} Easter Parade (1933) ref: A sect's (of AABA) PTs (4, 7) and Ns (#2, #4, 7) {1,2,3,5,6} So Help Me (1934) ref: A sect. + start of A' (of ABA'C) PT (#2) {5,6,7,2,3} Isn't This a Lovely Day ref: A sect's (of ABAC) (To Be Caught in the Rain?) (1935) PT (#2) No Strings (I'm Fancy Free) (1935) ref: A sect's (of AA'BA") PT (#5) and Ns (#1, #2) Abraham (1942) A sect's (of AABA); also B sect., except for final q7 PT (#4) (in A sect's) {1,2,3,5,6} {l,2,3,5,6} or {5,6,7,2,3}* * depending on which notes (lor 7) are taken as "structural" vs. "ornamental" GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? 75 APPENDIX 4 Selected songs with minimal melodic chromaticism. Scale degree and type of accidental 1. Songs with only one chromatic melodic note. I'm Sorry for Myself (1939) When Winter Comes (1939) ｾＷ Paris Wakes Up and Smiles (1949) An Old Fashioned Wedding (1966) #4 within area tonicizing V #1 (repeated) as part of tonicization of II as part of IV-V7-1 of II (which becomes V7 IV) #4 (repeated) before half cadence (locally, part of 11-7V of III) 2. No chromaticism in refrain; verse has minimal chromaticism (as indicated). Mandy (1919) God Bless America (1938/39) This Is the Army, Mr. Jones (1942) Let's Take an Old-Fashioned Walk (1948) 1 note (repeated): ｾＵ as submetric passing tone 1 note (repeated): #4 before half cadence (locally, part of VillI) a few repeated notes: within tonicization of bIll 1 note (repeated): b'7 as part of tonicization of IV 3. No chromaticism throughout. *Happy Holiday (1941/42) The Girl That I Marry (1946) I Got Lost In His Arms (1946) Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor (1949) Little Fish in a Big Pond (1949) * song has midpoint modulation to new key, but no chromaticism within each key area 76 THEORY AND PRACTICE APPENDIX 5 Selected songs with melodic 14 in preparation of phrase- or section-demarcating half cadence. v =verse; r =refrain; no letter prefix =song without published verse; numbers denote measures arp arpeggiation; exp = expanded * = #4 anticipates half cadence at end of verse (which usually appears in m. 16) ** =#4 anticipates half cadence at middle of AA' refrain form (which usually appears in m. 16) t =phrase extended, otherwise #4 would immediately precede ending Alexander's Ragtime Band (1911) Snookey Ookums (1913) That International Rag (1913) I Want to Go Back to Michigan (Down on the Farm) (1914) I Love a Piano (1915) I'm Going Back to the Farm (1915) When I Leave the World Behind (1915) Stop! Look! Listen! (1916) Oh! How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning (1918) Nobody Knows (And Nobody Seems to Care) (1919) A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody (1919) H Location ｾＱ v7, r14** vl3-14*, rl3-14** v: 3-#4-5; r: 1-2-3-#4-5 v, r: 5-#4-6-5 v15* vl5*t , r13-14 3-#4-5 v: expo 3-#4-5; r: 3-#4-5 vl3-15* v25-30*, rl3-14 vl3-15* vl3-15* v13-15* 3-#4-5 v: exp. 5-#4-6-5; r: 5-#4-6-5 exp.5-#4-6-5 exp.5-6-#4-5 3-#4-5 (or expo 5-#4-5) vI5*, rI3-14** v: 3-#4-5; r: expo 5-#4-5 or 3-#4-5 rl3-14** downward arp. from #4, resolves to W/V7 in inner voice downward arp. from 114, resolves to 5 in bass expo 5-#4-6-5 expo 5-#4-6-5 exp.5-#4-5 exp.5-#4-5 exp. 5-6-14-5 You'd Be Surprised (1919) 13-14** All By Myself (1921) Everybody Step (1921) They Call It Dancing (1921) Pack Up Your Sins and Go to the Devil (1922) How Many Times? (1926) Puttin' on the Ritz (1928/29) Easter Parade (1933) So Help Me (1934) vl3-14* r13 vl3-14* v14* rI4** v15* r22 v13 & 15* I Used to Be Color Blind (1938) It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow (1939) White Christmas (1940/42) This Is the Army, Mr. Jones (1942) v14* v14* vI3-14* Anything You Can Do (1946) v6*, r21 Gee, I Wish I Was Back in the Army (1954) rl3-14** vII 3-#4-5 1-2-3-14-5 (5 =song apex) 5-#4, then arp. up and 5 resolves in inner voice 3-#4-5 (or expo 5-6-14-5) 5-#4-5 expo 1-2-3-14-5 downward, filled-in arp. from #4, resolves to 5 in inner voice v: 5-6-14-5 (6-114 filled-in V /V arp.) r: #4 within filled-in V/V arp. which continues upward 5-#4-6-5 1. Gives the local context, in accordance with the paradigms of Example 17. If a slightly larger segment of music is considered, "exp." (expanded) precedes the paradigm designation. 77 GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? APPENDIX 6 Selected Songs with Parallel Major/Minor Modes (i.e., Mixture). v = verse; r = refrain Location 1. Small-scale mixture (within phrases) (a) Changes in tonic-triad quality If You Don't Want Me (Why Do You Hang Around) (1913) v9-12 maj r7-8 maj v7-n-［ｾｉＭＷｖ Ｓｾ only, preps 2/V VＭｉｾ V; Ｓｾ only, ｉｾＭ preps 2/V (I'll See You In) Cuba (1920) v6-8 min embellished 1-V7; begins #3 Tell Me Little Gypsy (1920) v7-8 maj ｉｾＭｖＷ harm (1 in melodyr Say It With Music (1921) r9-11 maj 1ＭｾＷＶＵ Shaking the Blues Away (1927) r7-8 maj (b) Minor-mode descent ＨｩＭｪＬＱｾ ＳＩ in major 1-6,9-14 Plenty To Be Thankful For (1942) 7-8, 19-20, 39-40 ... I) i ＭｾＷＶＵ (IｾＭ I'd Rather Lead a Band (1935/36) Ｈｉｖｾ ｾＭｉ ｖ VI-V7) ｭｾ desc.seq.= embellished 1Ｍｾ 7ＭｾＶＵ (I-[V7]-bVII -bVI-V7) ＱＭｾＷ ｢Ｖ Ｕ (I-bVI7- 1+6) Just One Way to Say "I Love You" (1949) * Piano's V7 includes 7, but 1 held in voice. (continued on next page) v9 * maj * verse ends in m. 11 ＭＲ Ｓｾ 1ＭｾＷ｢ＶＵ (mvmt. above pedal b7 - V7) 78 THEORY AND PRACTICE 2. Mode changes between verse and refrain (a) Major to Minor (b) Minor to Major Russian Lullaby (1927) Puttin' On the Ritz (1928/29) Reaching For the Moon (1930) Pack Up Your Sins and Go to the Devil (1922) *Soft Lights and Sweet Music (1931) *Heat Wave (1933) * notated key signature of verse is major mode; consistent accidentals denote minor mode 3. Other sectional mode changes Song Location Cheek to Cheek (1935) 49-56 (bridge) maj expanded ｉｾＭ ｖｉ ［ ｾＳＬ ｾＵ used, but 55-56 back to major ＨｾＳＩ I'd Rather Lead a Band (1935/36) 33-40 (bridge) maj. ＬＳｾ 49-64 (patter) maj ［Ｚｾ in melody; minor harmonies fully minor Song of Freedom (1942) r9-16,25-32 maj (B sect's of ABAB) fully minor Steppin' Out With My Baby (1947) r17-24 (bridge) min fully major (song also ends maj) Best Thing For You, The (1950) r17-24 (bridge) maj area in ｾｖｉ (suggests largerscale melodic deseent IＭｾ ::;ＭＶｾ 5) 4. Pervasive mixture (less sectionally discrete) Song Manhattan Madness (1932) General description 1st sect. = AABB form: A begins minor tonic, has many minor/blue elements; B has ｾＺ［Ｌ but ultimately functions V7flV; 16-bar interlude ends ｾＳＭＲ I; then ends with A statement Let's Face the Music and Dance (1935/36) AABA form: A sect's begin minor but end major: B sect. tonicizes ｾ VI, ends V Let Yourself Go (1936) AABA form: A sect's begin minor but end major; B sect. features blue notes on level of IV (Le., Ｓｾ and ｾＶ of I, but ｾＺ［ and ｾＳ of IV) 79 GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? APPENDIX 7 Selected songs with transposed melodic segments (of two measures or more in length). v = verse; r = refrain; p = patter ch = melodic chromaticism employed (not all transposed segments will introduce "new" pitches) "no b?" = transposition from I to IV, but although chromaticism is present, there is no key-defining b? "CI/Op" column = closed or open original phrase (closing scale-degree and harmony in parentheses) (NB: every recurrence of a motive is not listed-only if units are in a statement I transposed restatement schema) ｾ Transp.leyel Clli42 Alexander's Ragtime Band (1911) rl-2,17-18 r5-6,21-22 up P4 (I-IV) CI (1/1) ch;nob' I Love a Piano (1915) vl-2, 3-4 rl-4 up P4 (I-IV) up P4 (I-IV) CI(5/1) CI (5/1) ch;nob' ch;nob' Someone Else May Be There While I'm Gone (1917) vl-4,13-16 v5-8,17-20 up P4 (I-IV) CI(3/1) ch: b' ｡ｮ､ｾＧ Always (1925) r9-10 rll-12* up M3 (I-III) [* phrase is completed in new key area, III] CI(3/1) ch: #1, #4, #3 How Many Times? (1926) vl-4,5-8* v9-12 up P4 (I-IV**)t CI (6/1+6) ch; no b' [* ends differently] [** new "tonic" is not included in transp. segment, but arrives thereafter] [t octave shifts at end of transposed statement] I'm On My Way Home (1926) v9-10 vll-12* up m3 (I-bIII) [* last note is tonally adjusted] Op (5/V) ｣ｨＺ｢ｾＬ Ｖ Puttin' On the Ritz (1928/29) vl-4 up m3 (I-bIll) Op (2/V) ｣ｨＺ｢ｾＬ Ｇ Manhattan Madness (1932) 37-40,41-44 45-48 up P4 (I-IV) CI (5/1) ch:b' Heat Wave (1933) pl-4, 9-12 p5-8, 13-16* up m3 (I-bIII) [* altered at very end to facilitate V-prep.] CI (3/1) I Can't Remember (1933) vl-4, 5-8 CI (6/1+6) ch: #1, ｾＣ Maybe It's Because I Love You Too Much (1933) 9-10 11-12,13-14 I-J,III-V IV [seq.] [NB: actually a 2-bar sequence; mm. 15-16 ends phrase on HC in same contour, but not exact seq.] ch: single b' Happy Holiday (1941/42) dn P4 (I-V) 1-16 17-32 [NB: entire 16-bar song repeated in new key; piano accomp. differs somewhat] CI (1/1) [full transp.] I'm Getting Tired So I Can Sleep (1942) vl-2 v5-6 up P4 (I-IV) CI (5/1)* ch: b' [NB: two consecutive 4-bar phrases begin with 2-bar transposed unit; 3-4 almost repeats 1-2, but ends diff.] [* only regarding the 2-bar transposed unit] v5-6 r5-8 v5-8 v9-12 up M3 (I-III) This Is the Army, Mr. Jones (1942) vl-4 v5-8 You're Easy To Dance With (1942) 1-6, 17-22 7-12,23-28 up P4 (I-IV) You Keep Coming Back Like a Song (1943/45) up m3 (I-bIII) Ｇ｢Ｌｾ Ｚｨ｣ CI (1/1) CI (1/1) ch:b' vl-4 v9-12 up P5* CI (1/1)** ch: #4 [NB: two consecutive 8-bar phrases begin with 4-bar transposed unit] [* transp. suggests toniciz. of V, but #4 here toniciz. III] [** only regarding the 4-bar transposed unit] 80 THEORY AND PRACTICE APPENDIX 7 (continued) I Got the Sun in the Morning (1946) vl-3 v9-11 up m3 (I-ltIII) CI (1/1)* ch: ＬＳｾ Ｑｾ [NB: two consecutive 8-bar phrases begin with 3-bar transposed unit] [* only regarding the 3-bar transposed unit] Better Luck Next Time (1947) vl-4 v5-8* up M3 (I-III) CI (3/1) ch: It 12, 14, IS [* varied 2nd half, but ends on M3-related pitch to orig unit] Mr. Monotony (1947) 1-8,9-16 Steppin' Out With My Baby (1947) vl-4 Let's Take An Old-Fashioned Walk (1948) vl-8 17-24 up P4 (I-IV) CI (1/1) ch: Ｑｾ v5-8 up m3 (I-ltIII) CI (1/1) ch: ＬＳｾ v9-16 up P4 (I-IV) CI (i /1) ch: \.1 Ｑｾ APPENDIX 8 Selected songs with phrase/section tonicization. v = verse; r = refrain Tonicized chord (number of songs) 1) mm. ｾ 2) description SQng dlL mel. J2IQgL. 1. Tonicizations of single (identical) scale degrees within songs. II (1) 9 ff.* II none II-V-I '" inexact seq. (freq. shifts vis-a-vis 1-8, but same rhythms) 18-21 II II, \.1 II07-V7-1 of II II ｾＱ II o 7_V7_1 of II 27-29 Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me (1953) ｉｾ (2) ｉｾ ｖＭｉ ｾ Change Partners (1937/38) 33-38 Any Bonds Today? (1941) 33-36* \.III*'" \.3, \.1 *... l-ltlII-V ... interlude (=key change to IV; all Roman nos. relative to IV) ...* enharmonic \.III (III) in between 4 bars on I and 4 bars on V III (23) Girl On the Magazine Cover, ｾ･ (1915) v9-14 III 14 I-III ... V7 rhythmic and some contour sim. w / prev. r13-16 III 14 I-III ...[V]-IV = altered ending (AA') Nobody Knows (And Nobody Seems to Care) (1919) v13-14 III new material V7-VI; III ... V* prev. phrase = deceptive Tell Me Little Gypsy (1920) v9-12 III 12,14 some contour & rhythmic sim. I-I\.-III ... V 81 GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? APPENDIX 8 (continued) Crinoline Days (1922) #1, #2, #4 I-VI-III ... [V]-[V]-V v12-14 III sim. motives, rhythms d. r23-24, which =contour sequence of prior unit on III (IV-III-IV) Waltz of Long Ago, The (1923) v11-16 III #4 I-V /V-III-V /Ill-III minimal suggestion of key: just arch line 3-#4-5-#4-3, filling in 3rd of III (part of altered ending: AA') All Alone (1924) v13-15 III #4 [V]-III-[VIIO]-II-V part of inexact seq. liquidation r13-15 III #2, #4 [V]-III-[V]-[V]-V NB: m.13 = lin, but it is V of prior VI chord Always (1925) v17-23 III #2, #4 III ... V new material; NB: #4 near end (before V) could have been V IV NB: refrain has exact transp. to III, but it continues past Blue Skies (1927) v9-10 III #2, #4 V7/1II resolves to V7 instead Song Is Ended, The (But the Melody Lingers On) (1927) v13-16 r17-23 III III #4 #2, #4 III-V-I III ... [V]-II-V-I Let's Have Another Cup of Coffee (1932) r17-21/22 III #2, #4 III ... [V]-[V]-V I Never Had a Chance (1934) v12-14 III #2, #4 ... III-V NB: the #2-3 figure prey. embellished I; now chrom + arp = III Isn't This a Lovely Day (To Be Caught In the Rain?) (1935) v13-15 No Strings (I'm Fancy Free) (1935) r17-20 III #4 III-V (see other sections with 3-#2-3 in context of I) Top Hat, White Tie and Tails (1935) 17-25 III [see note] III ... V NB: trichord transpositions suggest III, but highly chromatic I Used To Be Color Blind (1938) v13-15 III new material God Bless America (1938/39) v11-12 III #4 IlL.. [V]-V NB: could be interchanged with tonicization of V; nothing mandates 3 as root, except holding off V till HC When Winter Comes (1939) r21-22 III #4 1- (Ir"7-V7 of III) -II-V-I NB: harm. II*7-V7 of III, but no III; could have been [V]-V; III III ... V III-V melody has 114-' leaps that seem to tonicize , (!) White Christmas (1940/42) v13-15 III #4NB: could have been [V]-V Angels of Mercy (1941) 9-16 III #4 III-V exact seq. of 1-8, but not exact transp.; NB: 19-20 and 35-36 = arp of III I'm Getting Tired So I Can Sleep (1942) 21-23 III 114 III-V NB: seq. of 4 bars that ended I; now 3rd higher, ends III III-V 82 THEORY AND PRACTICE APPENDIX 8 (continued) III III ... II-V-IIF (not 16 ) They Say It's Wonderful (1946) r20-23 Best Thing For You, The (1950) rl-3, 9-11, 25-27 III begins V7 I III-III outline I arp 12,14 III-II-V-I I Keep Running Away From You (1957) 33-36 III 14 NB: could just as easily have tonicized V III-[V]-V r23-24 IIII transp. of prior segment 14,15 V7-lIn-IV-II-V-I r9-15 all+new #4 v-lIn ... V-I III' (12) Snookey Ookums (1913) That International Rag (1913) lIn new material (NB: corresp. mm. 25-26 = ｉｖｾＩ Orange Grove in California, An (1923) lIn v13-15 = altered ending (AA') 12,14, #5 V7-VI-IIn ... V What'll I Do? (1924) vII-IS Ii, 14, #5 lIn ... V lIn NB: chromatic inflection: C to CI, G to Glf etc. Remember (1925) v17-21 new section Slumming on Park Avenue (1937) v13-15 lIn #4,15 IIII ... [V]-V7 IIII Ii, 12, 15 IIII-V IIII or In" li,15 same contour as 1 H., but not exact transp.; * sometimes maj III, sometimes minor lIn or III - [V]-V "This Year's Kisses (1937) v9-12/13 Doin' What Comes Natur'lly (1946) 33-38 There's No Business Like Show Business (1946) v17-20 IIII 15 III#-V arp of III, followed by same arp of I leading to V Couple of Swells, A (1947) 23-26 IIII III' #1,14,15 #4,15 I-III#-V-I lIn ... V I'm Beginning To Miss You (1949) 17-19 lIn Ii, 12, 15 lIn ... [V]-V NB: resolves as if VlVI, but sequential nature of bridge suggests 4 bars III', 4 bars II (= V IV) Sisters (1953) 17-24 III' Ii, 14, 15 III#-V7 IV (1) How About a Cheer for the Navy (1942) ｉｖｾ 17-22 ｉｖｾＧ NB: 2nd main section (33-64) IV-[V]-V =key of IV (2) Let's Face the Music and Dance (1935/36) 31-36 ｾｖｉ ｾＳＬ ｾＶＬ Ｇ ｾｖｉＭ NB: relates to minor emphasis of prior sections 83 GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? APPENDIX 8 (continued) Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep (1952) ｉｖｾ ｉｖｾ 17-22 ... V VI (2) When I Lost You (1912) 9-12 VI similar to prev. phrase ... III-V When You Walked Out Someone Else Walked Right In (1923) r9-12 I-VI ... [V]-V VI 2. Tonicizations of multiple (different) scale degrees within songs. Lazy (1924) r8-11 [V]-[V]-II II 2-#1-2 lower neighbor 13-15 III =sequence Because I Love You (1926) vl-8 = I v9-12 = III [seq] III ... V } # 4 } large-scale I-j-5 arp #4 } v13-16 =outlines V/V r18-20 = outline of III., with IV on either side (neigh. chords) Russian Lullaby (1927) rl-8 ｾ }no chr. but low. neigh r9-16 = III [tonal seq.]* }(enh.) r17 ff. = begins like seq. on V {#6, #1}, varies after 2 mm. * exact except ending Let Me Sing and I'm Happy (1928/29) v9-14 VI* none** * 3 authentic cadences on VI, but then V(7) or [V]-V ** 1st two bars suggest 5-1 of VI, but otherwise could be I harm. r17-24 III #4 III ... II-V leaps =5-1of III Puttin' On the Ritz (1928/29) r17-19 r21-23 IV none* IV ... ｖＭｉ ＩｾＨ Ｊ ｉ ＩｾＨ｝ｱ･ｳ｛ * melody asc. 5th, 4-1 ** relates to verse key (reI major; melody asc. 5th, j-,) Reaching For the Moon (1930) Funnies, The (1933) v9-10 = I vll-12 = V7/III* v13-14 ff.** * could have been V/V ** III-[V9)-[V7]-V7 (no chrom) } } seq. } v13-15 III #4 III-V NB: chromo inflection: same as mm. 5-8 but now #4 r25-28 r29-32 bIll V ＧｾＬＳ｢ # 4 } seq. of verse mel. (blII-V-I) Harlem On My Mind (1933) r17-20 III r21-24* V * begins as seq. } III }V [V9)-III-VI V7/V ... 84 THEORY AND PRACTICE APPENDIX 8 (continued) Heat Wave (1933) vl-8 = ｉｾ l v9-14 = bIll l v15-16 V l patter: 1-4 =new key IV; phrases = IV-J,VI-IV-bVI-V Piccolino, The (1935) 17-39 lIn all+ b6 IIlI III ... V NB: 25-32 = pocket of IV of III (I)-bIII-V all+b7 53-70 bIll'" '" actually written w Inew key sig. I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket (1936) III# 11,#2 IIl#-[V]-V v11-12 NB: no 3; really outlines Villi more than III; in fact, parallel no accidentals if G-min section 5 of I just as this = 5 of III bVI b2, b3, b6, b7 bVI ... V r19-22 NB: bridge begins IV-bVI (= I-bIII of IV); VIbVI bIll, but really a dominant, not tonic chord III# HonV" #1, #4, #5 What Chance Have I With Love (1940) r17-20 r21-24 [seq] All of My Life (1944) 23-24 VI'" #5 '" within tonicization of IV: [V]-III-V7:I (note underlined prog!) Miss Liberty (1949) 17-24 II 11, b7 II-V7-I NB: 3rd in series of seq. phrases, but is only one with alterations 65-88 bIll'" [all] '" actually given new key sig.; "'''' moves to phrase toniz. V prior to repeat of section on I Marrying For Love (1950) v9-12 r21-24 bIll ｉｾ } lII#-V-I } bIII-[V]-V III#-II-V III ... [V]-V bVI-V7 Sittin' In the Sun (1953) 17-20 III 25-27 bVI NB: in service of motion toward V This Is a Great Country (1962) v13-15 III# #4,15 lin ... II-V NB: 4-bar interpolation-the following seq. leads to I r9-11 III #4 III ... [V7]-V NB: melody = large-scale outline 1-3-5 of III, but 5 of III (=7 of I) harmonized by V 85 GAMBLING WITH CHROMATICISM? APPENDIX 9 Selected songs with sectional key changes (other than mode mixture). TQnal relatiQn(s) Key change(s) 1. Return to Initial Key Area I'm On My Way HQme (1926) F ver & refl Heat Wave (1933) Gm G tC-Eb-C-Eb G ｉｾ - ｉｾ - IV- ｉｖｾ verse refl patter ref2 [NB: verse has key sig. Qf majQr, but is in minQr] The PiccQlinQ (1935) o A sect. Miss Liberty (1949) F B -I D C sects. ver & refl ａｾ ... ｾｅ interlude ... ref2 & a ... & ｅｾ Any BQnds TQday? (1941) I-IV-I & ... F patter ... ref2 Al & B sects. I-IV -I C ... A2 sects. 2. Begin and End Differently C verse F (I'll See YQU In) Cuba (1920) *Am verse C refrain When YQU Walked Out SQmeQne Else Walked Right In (1923) G C V-I verse refrain [NB: verse has G7_C7 harmQnies: analQgQus tQ V-I Qr I-IV] Alexander's Ragtime Band (1911) Happy HQliday (1941/42) HQW AbQut a Cheer fQr the Navy (1942) V -I refrain ｅｾ & 1st half 2nd half VI - I [relative] I - V (Qr IV - I) C F V - I (Qr I - IV) 1st sect. 2nd sect. [NB: tQnciz. Qf IV in bridge Qf 1st sect. anticipates 2nd sect.] Steppin' Out With My Baby (1947) F verse *Dm refrain ｾｉ - ｾ [relative] * with area Qf parallel majQr Qr minQr key t nQ strQng tQnal prQgressiQns; uses indicated key cQllectiQn exclusively, while melQdy suggests "tQnic" arpeggiatiQn CONTRIBUTORS DAVID CARSON BERRY is a doctoral candidate and recently-named Whiting Fellow at Yale University. KARL BRAUNSCHWEIG is Assistant Professor at Wayne State University. JOHN ROTHGEB is Associate Professor Emeritus, State University of New York at Binghamton. CARL SCHACHTER is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Queens College and CUNY Graduate School and is on the faculties of Mannes College and The Juilliard School. DON TRAUT is Assistant Professor of Music at University of North Carolina, Greensboro. ERIC WEN is Lecturer in music theory, analysis, and history at the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia.