16 February 2007

For someone with a tutored perspective on the theory and icons of the history of music, I have extraordinarily parochial tastes. Music capturing my interest requires both consonance and dissonance, and the resolution resulting from the temporal transition of the latter to the former.

Jazz music bores me because the resolutions are so slight. Within two seconds of recording time, we might very well see an improvised melody traverse the Bm - E7#9 - Amb6 sequence, stepping down a semitone and adding exceedingly complex extensions to that already familiar harmonic pattern for the next two seconds.

Very basic popular music bores me, too. A song with recycled G - C - D - G sequences will not sustain my interest for anything beyond a week, unless accompanied by stellar subtleties. No storm. No stress.