Post 404: OCTAVE LEAPS AT THE START OF TUNES

Having greatly enjoyed the video of The Loose Marbles playing Take Me Out To The Ball Game, I decided I wanted to play the tune with my friends. So we learned it. What struck me was the octave leap in the first two notes. The melody starts on the tonic and then immediately the second note is exactly an octave higher.

I thought that was a very unusual way to begin a tune. I scratched my head and tried to think of more of our tunes that begin with such an upward leap of an octave from the tonic in the first two notes. All I could come up with was Somewhere Over The Rainbow. and Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire. There's also So Do I and It's Only a Paper Moon, Stranger on the Shore, and Let it Snow, and (as Bob Andersen from San Diego has just reminded me) The Love Nest; but those leap up an octave from the Dominant, not from the Tonic. You can see what I mean:

Surely there must be some more.

(Barrie Marshall has immediately offered me When You Wish Upon A Star. Robert Duis adds I'm Singing in the Rain. Thanks, gentlemen.)

The only other tune of this kind that I can think of is Bali Ha'i from South Pacific but I doubt whether any traditional jazz bands play that.

I must also mention Jelly Roll Morton's Kansas City Stomp. This famously begins with a series of syncopated rapid octave leaps, though in this case downwards - from the higher note to the octave below. It has proved to be a clever way of producing a dramatic and memorable start to a composition: whenever we hear the first dozen notes, even if the tune has not been announced, our brain responds with 'Ah! They're playing Kansas City Stomp!' (Willow, Weep for Me and You Are My Lucky Star also use the downward leap from tonic to tonic.)

By the way, you must watch the exciting video of The Loose Marbles (filmed by the gentleman codenamed WildBill) playing Take Me Out To The Ball Game, if you have not already done so: CLICK HERE.

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Post 266: LOVELY BUSKING IN MONTENEGRO

On holiday in the Autumn of 2014, I was strolling round the medieval walled city of Kotor in Montenegro. I heard a wonderful pure musical sound. I turned the corner into Flour Square and discovered the source. It was a young lady playing the French horn.

It was Dolores with her Yamaha. She was unaccompanied by other musicians or (mercifully) by a backing tape. She was proving what beauty a solo instrument can create, given fine melodies played with soul and impeccable phrasing. The acoustics provided by the stone walls were perfect for conveying the sound around the Square so that it could be enjoyed by tourists and locals seated at the outdoor cafeteria tables.

Dolores told me she plays there most days. She studied music at the local school but was then saving to pay for a music degree at a higher educational institution.

When reluctantly I had to leave, Somewhere Over The Rainbow with that rich full tone followed me right down the passageway leading away from the Square. It is hard to imagine the tune being played more beautifully.