Creston Chunks: Measure 4

[This post is part of my Personal Practice Project: Creston Chunks.]

Paul Creston's Sonata for Eb Alto Saxophone and Piano is 123 measures of interesting stuff. With (almost) no single measure repeating itself anywhere in the piece, each measure has its own special stuff—something unique to study, analyze, and get under the fingers.

(Fortunately, there are a few motifs and harmonic ideas that show up with some frequency. For example, the piano accompaniment is comprised almost exclusively of seventh chords—primarily major-minor seventh chords.) 

With this "chunk" method, you become very well acquainted with each measure. It's almost as if each measure is its own little person with something unique to say.

Some have something interesting to say (m. 4), some have nothing to say (m. 35: a whole rest in both clefs), and some have a rather offensive message (m. 9: two sets of descending thirds, each a dissonant half step apart).

Meet measure 4 (and 5):

Essentially, measure 4 is an A7 chord. The 3rd (C#) and 7th (G) of the chord is maintained in the right hand, while the left hand covers the root (A) and the 5th (E).



In addition to featuring A7, the left hand hints at another chord. By moving a half step up from A and E, the left hand is playing Bb and Eb on beats 2 and 4. Combining these raised left hand pitches with the 3rd and 7th of the right hand, and by thinking enharmonically, we are able to derive another chord: Eb7.

So, in m. 4, both A7 and Eb7 appear. This is a great example of tritone substitution. A and Eb are separated by the interval of a tritone (an augmented 4th or a diminished 5th). The term tritone substitution refers to the fact that the two chords can easily substitute for one another. Why? Keep on reading!

When you have two dominant seventh chords whose roots are a tritone apart, something very cool happens: The 3rds and 7ths of their chords use the same pitches.

Let's look again at measure 4 to explore the tritone substitution. Thinking of A7, the 3rd of the chord is C# and the 7th is G. Now, thinking of Eb7 (beats 2 and 4, with Eb/D# being the root and Bb/A# being the 5th), Db (enharmonic to C#) is the 7th and G is the 3rd.

Put another way, the 3rd of the A7 is also the 7th of the Eb7, and the 7th of the A7 is also the 3rd of the Eb7.

This explains why the right hand is able to stay on the same notes despite the fact that two different chords are being created. Since the 3rd/7ths are shared between the two chords, it's up to the left hand to differentiate the chords by playing the root and 5th of the chords.

How exciting!

To summarize, measure 4 is pretty great. It exemplifies the tritone substitution beautifully (and it's quite fun to play).

Personal Practice Project: Creston Chunks

This summer I've been working on a rather difficult accompaniment, Paul Creston's Sonata for E-flat Alto Saxophone and Piano. Early on, I began the piece very methodically and thoroughly, but somewhere along the way, I got off track. My progress slowed, and I wasn't learning the music as well as I needed to.

Paul Creston

So, in the same vein as the "baby steps" method mentioned in my last post, I'm doing this "Creston Chunks" project. I'm giving myself the deadline of September 1 to learn every measure of the piece. But I'll only add a few measures each day, learning the music in chunks.

Chunking is a great way to bring focus to your practice routine. Instead of merely playing through pieces over and over (the same way every time), chunking helps you identify problematic areas and isolate them. I'm going to use this method, but apply it to the entire piece.

The reason I'm going with a chunk method for the entire piece is that there isn't a lot of recurring material throughout the whole thing. While there are recurring motifs and melodic ideas, it modulates so often that you never really play the same exact thing twice. For those reasons plus the fact that this project will give me some structure and accountability in my preparation of this piece, I shall chunk the whole thing.

The piece is 123 measures long, and from today to September 1, I have 37 days. According to the operation of division, that means I need to learn 3.32 measures a day. I'll round that up or down, depending on the difficulty of each chunk.

The goal here is to learn the piece thoroughly. So for each chunk—in particular the tougher chunks—I will analyze them and study them as closely as possible. Since the piece moves along briskly and since I'll be accompanying another musician, it's important that I know the music inside and out.

I'll give an update of my progress every once in a while, and I might even  occasionally post about my explication of a particular chunk. Stay tuned for updates on my Creston Chunks project!

What do you think about chunking? How do you use chunking in your own practice sessions?