March 17, 2019 -- What I'm working on this weekend, part 2

Bass Wintley Phipps does a fabulous exposition on how the melodies of Negro Spirituals are playable all on the black notes of the piano -- that is because the black notes represent the best-known pentatonic scale in both its major and minor modes (start on F sharp/G flat for the major mode, D sharp/E flat for the minor). That best-known scale is best known because of the people in the United States that came from their homes with it: first, my African ancestors, who despite their chains and cruel enslavement managed to retain the scale patterns of West Africa, and later, Irish and Chinese immigrants who also made use of similar scale patterns in their folk music.

The challenge, however, comes when one gets to three- and four-part harmonies -- most of the time that is done with chord patterns and voice leading from Western European classical music, with its relationships between tonic and dominant, and the triad as the basis of harmony, with chords built out of thirds. Not that this is a PROBLEM, but just a challenge if one should want to stay entirely in the pentatonic space. Staying in the pentatonic space "limits" one's standard chord choices to two or three because certain notes are not available.

On the other hand, thank God a young jazz musician is my friend. He sat me down one day to explain that nowadays it is okay to write chords based on FOURTHS. The versatility of such chords is marvelous, and is part of what gives modern jazz its modern sound. They also work selected places in gospel music -- I've written them into the chant section of such songs to highlight what is said there.

A little after I started including fourths in my compositions for church music, I went back to Wintley Phipps, the black keys, and the Negro Spirituals -- sure enough, chords based on fourths bridge the "missing" chord gaps in terms of harmonic movement across all scale steps without at all disturbing the pentatonic space. Black-key harmony as well as black-key melody, with a fuller compliment of chord choices (two triads, three "tetrads," one seventh with a missing third) -- well, that was exciting! Not to say that "accidentals" that hark from the Western European classical major or minor scales would not be desired or welcome -- there IS something satisfying about tonic-subdominant-dominant-tonic. Dominant-ish, anyhow. It is not possible in the pentatonic space to fully realize the dominant chord.

However, the possibilities are marvelous! I am working on a setting for "Lord, I Want To Be a Christian In My Heart" with all this in mind, although if the baritone I will approach with it decides to sing it, it cannot be all the way up in G flat. I chose G flat for my working key because, of course, it is the easiest way to stay in the pentatonic space by just not leaving the black keys...