Who Wrote "Brasilia?"

"In conversations with Eric, Schoenberg is a name that will come up frequently." 

Robert Levin, quoted in Eric Dolphy: A Musical Biography and Discography by Vladimir Simosko and Barry Tepperman, p. 12.

 In the course of writing an analytical paper on the tune "Brasilia," I have begun to speculate on the possibility of an alternative provenance than that which is usually assumed. 

"Brasilia" (sometimes spelled "Brazilia") was first recorded live at the Village Vanguard by the John Coltrane Quartet featuring Eric Dolphy on November 1, 1961. It was initially released as "Untitled Original" (Impulse! AS 9325). Coltrane later recorded a quartet version of "Brasilia" (Imp A-85) at Rudy Van Gelder's studio on May 17, 1965. On all releases, John Coltrane is listed as the composer. The two performances can be heard below. 

Though perhaps not immediately apparent upon listening due to its strong tonal allusions, analysis of "Brasilia" reveals that the composition incorporates dodecaphonic elements. Below is a transcription with pitch-classes numbered 0 through e. (Pitch-class will hereafter be abbreviated "pc".) Parentheses indicate consecutively repeated pc's, and brackets indicate pc's repeated after the row has been exhausted.

The first phrase, labelled "A," consists of a complete statement of the twelve-tone row, (t 6 3 5 2 7 0 e 8 4 9 1). The concluding three notes of the phrase repeat the first three notes of the row and serve to establish an Eb-minor centricity. The row is quasi-derived from the subset set-class (0 3 7): note the prevalence of minor and major triads and their constituent interval-classes. 

The second phrase, labelled "B," does not exhibit full chromatic saturation. Eleven pc's are heard before any are repeated: (1 8 e t 7 9 0 5 4 3 6). Unlike the A-phrase, repeated pitches at the end of the phrase do not instantiate a repetition or another form of the row, but like the A-phrase they serve to establish triad-centricity---in this case, Db minor. 

Notably, the fourth and final subphrase of the B-phrase, (1 3 4 6), is a T7 transposition or an I2 inversion of the first subphrase, (8 t e 1). (The I2 operation is inversion about Db, which happens to be the first and last pitch of the B-phrase and the root of the minor triad on which the end of the phrase "cadences.") The third subphrase, (1 3 4 6 8), is an I1 inversion of the second subphrase, (5 7 9 t 0). The complete B-phrase, then, consists of a palindromic statement of two set-classes: (0 2 3 5) (0 2 4 5 7) (0 2 4 5 7) (0 2 3 5). This is illustrated below:

The nonstandard row at "B" is not a transformation of the row at "A." Notice, however, the ways in which the second phrase organically mirrors the first. Both feature a pair of shorter antecedent-consequent phrases. The first subphrase at "A" contains a leap up, a minor third down, and a step up---the first subphrase at "B" is roughly inverted, with a leap down, a minor third up, and a step down. Similar parallels obtain between the remainders of the two phrases as well.  The last subphrase at "A" exhibits a falling minor third, for instance, while the last subphrase at "B" embellishes the upward leap of a sixth; and so on.

Interestingly, the 11-member set (by definition) and the B-phrase overall are not dodecaphonic: pc (2), or (D), is missing. Here one can perhaps venture an apophatic interpretation: what is the significance of this absence? (D) is the leading tone in Eb minor, the key established melodically by the A-phrase and used as the basis for improvisations. The key areas manifested in the B-phrase strongly suggest the dominant of Eb. We hear Bb minor, F major, and Db minor, or Eb: v - V/v - vii. These key areas compose out the minor dominant triad in Eb (sc [0 3 7], again!). Db minor, or vii, receives special emphasis as the final harmony of the phrase. The triad on the seventh scale step is in many cases accepted as a kind of substitute for the dominant; note also that much folk music features a i - VII - i oscillation in place of the dominant-tonic polarity. Here the subtonic triad has a minor quality, however. Diminishing the expected major third changes F to Fb. I argue that, in addition to having expressive purposes, this harmonic alteration mimics the behavior of the first two long notes of the melody at "A": notated above as F and E, the latter an enharmonic spelling of what is actually a Phrygian II, or Fb in the key of Eb. At any rate, the leading tone, (D), would conflict with this minor dominant-minor subtonic harmony and is therefore left out; yet in the conspicuousness of its absence it nonetheless points the way back to the tonic Eb. 

It is clear that "Brasilia" applies twelve-tone techniques within the context of a quasi-tonal (because hierarchical and triadic) jazz composition. (Obviously the aesthetic goals of its composer are not those of Schoenberg.) In this respect, "Brasilia" is very similar to "The Red Planet," another rare piece in the jazz repertory that takes advantage of the dodecaphonic method. Coincidentally, both pieces were debuted at the same Village Vanguard performance in 1961 of the John Coltrane Quartet featuring Eric Dolphy (and both were later recorded by the Quartet without Dolphy). As the quotation that began this post indicates, Eric Dolphy's affinity for the music of Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School is often commented upon. His improvisations reflect the influence of the angular, atonal sonorities of that style. Indeed, we now know that it was Dolphy, not Coltrane, who composed "The Red Planet." 

Coltrane's style, on the other hand, does not readily suggest the influence of twelve-tone atonality. His improvisations, even in his most "experimental" later period, reveal smooth voice-leading, diatonic fragments, cyclic symmetries, dominant-tonic gravitation, and functional hierarchies. Coltrane's later compositions, too, belie any presumption of influence by Schoenberg or his followers. To the contrary, they are generally cellular or scalar in their construction. Even Joe Goldberg's tantalizing and unreferenced suggestion that Coltrane "expressed a desire to write in the twelve-tone system" is weakened by the rest of his discussion of Coltrane's influences at the time, which mostly involves Indian music, ragas, and modality. 


Considering all of the above, then, I would like to argue for the possibility that "Brasilia" was either co-written with Eric Dolphy, or that it is the work of Dolphy alone. As with "The Red Planet," Coltrane has perhaps been credited as its composer simply because he was the leader of the session in which it was first performed. 

I welcome any documentary or other evidence that either supports or contradicts this hypothesis. 


Update: 

I have included some additional thoughts on octatonicism, self-similarity, and the blues in "Brasilia" here. 

JMac's Vibrato

Speaking of the operatic impulse in jazz, listen to Jackie McLean's dramatic use of vibrato in this recording from 1973. Perhaps more than any other alto saxophonist, McLean was able to “widen” or “enlarge” the “size” of the instrument’s natural tone (these terms are all metaphorical, of course). The use of heavy vibrato is but one instance of this ability.

"Monk's Dance," Ode to Super (with Gary Bartz)

While McLean's approach to playing is undoubtedly singular, a general increase in the use of vibrato and other, more extreme timbral effects accompanied the reemergence of Dionysian energies in jazz after the end of a classicizing, Apollonian interim in the 1940s and 50s. 

Konitz's "Silent Improvisation"

Having played with the Claude Thornhill Orchestra in 1947-8, Lee Konitz can thus be added to the list of those---including Alphonse Allais, Erwin Schulhoff, and Yves Klein---who beat John Cage to the punch:

Wittgenstein's Music of the Future

"I shouldn't be surprised if the music of the future were in unison. Or is that only because I cannot clearly imagine several voices? Anyway I can't imagine that the old large forms (string quartet, symphony, oratorio etc.) will be able to play any role at all. If something comes it will have to be---I think---simple, transparent.  

In a certain sense, naked. 

Or will that hold only for a certain race, only for one kind of music(?)" 

Wittgenstein, 1930

John Coltrane, Interstellar Space (1967):

Monk and Pop

“…I suggest that [Monk’s] aesthetic was forged not in some idealized space, like the backroom of Minton’s, shielded from the corrupting influence of ‘commercial’ music, but through an engagement with popular song. One cannot approach this important jazz composer and improviser without acknowledging his deep affinity for the popular songs with which he grew up. That respect and affection, measured in part by fidelity to the original, is more nakedly exposed in Monk’s solo-piano performances than elsewhere, but I strongly suspect that it is shared by most other musicians of Monk’s generation and that it is more deeply embedded in jazz as a whole than its most ardent champions might care to admit.” 

Scott Deveaux, "'Nice Work If You Can Get It': Thelonious Monk and Popular Song," Black Music Research Journal 19/2 (1999): 183.

Thelonious Monk, "April in Paris," Thelonious Himself (1957):

Thelonious Monk, "Ruby, My Dear," Thelonious Monk with John Coltrane (1957):

Scruton on Hanslick, Absolute Music; Deutsch on Objectivity in Art

In light of the recent Klamauk...

"Tönend bewegte Formen sind einzig und allein Inhalt und Gegenstand der Musik. (Music consists entirely and exclusively of forms set in motion through sound.)" 

Eduard Hanslick, Vom Musikalisch-Schönen (On the Musically Beautiful)

Here Scruton summarizes Hanslick's argument, first published over a century and a half ago:

"Most forms of art which are said to express emotion are also representational. They describe, refer to, or depict the world. Moreover, it is difficult to see how emotions can be expressed in the absence of representation. Every emotion requires an object: fear is a fear of something, anger is anger about something. We can distinguish emotions and classify them only because we can distinguish and classify their (intentional) objects; and we can do this only because we can identify the thoughts through which those objects are defined. In this case, it is difficult to see how a nonrepresentational art such as music can really have a genuine expressive content. It would be impossible to describe that content, since its object could never be identified. Hence it is impossible to give substance to the claim (which might indeed be plausible in the case of poetry or painting) that music serves as a means for communicating emotion." 

Roger Scruton, "Analytical Philosophy and the Meaning of Music," The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 46 (1987): 172. 

Scruton goes on to proffer an answer to Hanslick in that article, and he constructs a comprehensive philosophy of music in his book, The Aesthetics of Music. In an article entitled "Aesthetic Amputations: Absolute Music and the Deleted Endings of Hanslick's Vom Musikalisch-Schönen," Mark Evan Bonds (whose translation I have borrowed for the quote above) discusses some apparent inconsistencies in Hanslick's thought, exemplified by text deleted from his treatise which shows signs of influence by the Naturphilosophen as well as a similarity to certain ideas of Schopenhauer. 

Scruton also discusses "absolute music" in an article for Grove Music Online (the book to read is Dahlhaus's The Idea of Absolute Music): 

"Attempts by the advocates of absolute music to answer those questions [regarding understanding in music] have centered on two ideas: objectivity and structure. Their arguments have been presented in this century most forcefully by the Austrian theorist Heinrich Schenker and by Stravinsky. Music becomes absolute by being an ‘objective’ art, and it acquires objectivity through its structure. To say of music that it is objective is to say that it is understood as an object in itself, without recourse to any semantic meaning, external purpose or subjective idea. It becomes objective through producing appropriate patterns and forms. These forms satisfy us because we have an understanding of the structural relations which they exemplify. The relations are grasped by the ear in an intuitive act of apprehension, but the satisfaction that springs therefrom is akin to the satisfaction derived from the pursuit of mathematics. It is not a satisfaction that is open to everyone. Like mathematics it depends on understanding, and understanding can be induced only by the establishment of a proper musical culture.”

A related view comes from a much different source. Physicist David Deutsch argues for objectivity in art in his recent book, The Beginning of Infinity:

"In some [art forms], it is especially hard to express in words the explanation of the beauty in a particular work of art, even if one knows it, because the relevant knowledge is itself not expressed in words---it is inexplicit. No one yet knows how to translate musical explanations into natural language. Yet when a piece of music has the attribute ‘displace one note and there would be diminishment’ there is an explanation: it was known to the composer, and it is known to the listeners who appreciate it. One day it will be expressible in words." (365-6)

“Expression is conveying something that is already there, while objective progress in art is about creating something new. Also, self-expression is about expressing something subjective, while pure art is objective. For the same reason, any kind of art that consists solely of spontaneous or mechanical acts, such as throwing paint on to a canvas, or of pickling sheep, lacks the means of making artistic progress, because real progress is difficult and involves many errors for every success.” (366-7)

Lennie Tristano, "Note To Note"

Here is a link to my transcription of Lennie Tristano's right hand on "Note To Note," recorded in 1964 or 1965. The chord changes, as Tristano lets on melodically in the first three measures, are those of Jerome Kern's "All The Things You Are."

While a transcription of Tristano's left hand would be illuminating, his harmonic substitutions are mostly apparent in the construction of the melodic line. His sophisticated and idiosyncratic rhythmic sense is also demonstrated to great effect.

As always with the transcription of jazz improvisations, "Caveat auditor."