Music Listening, Music Therapy, Phenomenology and Neuroscience

6 – Macrotemporal listening dimensions: Movement, Pulse, Rhythm and Melody

105

This music is characterized by tension and balance between pulse time and

the time of movement. Double bass, piano and percussion provide a stable

four-beat pulse. The bass accentuates the first and third beat, percussion

and piano the second and fourth beat. On this background of predictable

regularity, the soloist moves freely in melodic phrases of inventive varia-

bility.

Fig. 6.7 shows a transcription of the two first A sections, measures 1-8

and measures 9-16, and the final A section, measures 57-65. In the tran-

scription, the subtle and flexible timing of the live melodic line is reflected

in the complexity of notated rhythm.

The first A section is a rather close paraphrase of the original Body and

Soul tune. This is the beginning of the tune;

Fig. 6.8

In his improvisation, Hawkins shapes and reshapes the tune. In the

following description, correspondences between parts of the original

melody and Hawkins' reshaped melodic contours are indicated by the

numbering of phrases.

Body and Soul. First A section, measures 1-8. Fig. 6.8.

(1) Hawkins' phrase follows the contour of the tune.

(2) A turning note is transformed into a zig-zag shape.

(3) All the notes of the tune are played, with ornaments added. The

contour rises twice to the top tone Eb4 of the original tune.

(4) Hawkins imitates the falling motion of the tune, keeping the top

note Db and the two target notes F3 and Eb. A second peak is

added to the curve of the tune.

(5) The tune is transformed to a two-peak shape.

The Musical Timespace

106

In this A section, Hawkins stays close to the underlying melody, but

invents new melodic contours. He creates coherence by giving the

same shape, a two-peak curve, to the contours (2) (3) (4) (5), and he

keeps the two-peak shape in the transition (6) to the next section.

The second A section is an intensified variation of the first A section.

Body and Soul. Second A section, measures 9-16.

(7) The melodic range is expanded to F4-Bb2. These two tones, F and

Bb, are the tones accentuated in the original tune.

(8) The zig-zag shape of (2) is extended.

(9) The top tone Eb4 in (3) is doubled and emphasized by repetition

and ornamentation. This contour borrows zig-zag features from

the preceding contour.

(10) The two-peak curve of (4) is extended upwards.

(11) The closed two-peak curve of (5) is expanded to a large range.

In the second A section, Hawkins expands and elaborates the first A

section. He unfolds new melodic invention and intensifies the music by

extension and expansion, but maintains structural similarity between

the two A sections.

The succession of contour target tones in this section display an

underlying unity, as they are all Bb's and F's. Within the course of the

8-measure section, they form a large arch:

(9) Bb4 (10) Bb4

(8)F3 (11) F3

(7) Bb2

The melodic contours of the final section constitute the climax of the solo.

Body and Soul Final A section, measures 57-65.

At 2'35, three peaks of large leaps rise stepwise to the summit F5, sub-

sequently balanced by tension-releasing falling curves at 2'41 and

2'46. At 2'49 the pulse stops, and Hawkins rounds off the piece by a

series of related short melodic shapes.

In this section, coherence is created by the arch of top tones and the

falling line of bottom tones.