Miranda McKellen: Good morning! My name is Miranda McKellen, and for you new listeners, this is the finest radio station where we talk about the greatest music! Today we have many special guests, starting with our first one: Tom Jenson. Tom has been on our station before, and he discusses musical links from two distinct musical cultures. Today Tom will be sharing the musical links that he has found between the cultures of German Baroque Music and American Cool Jazz. Good morning Tom!
Tom Jensen: Good morning Miranda, it feels great to be back!
Miranda McKellen: Would you mind telling us a little bit about the two cultures you will be analyzing today?
Tom Jensen: It would be my pleasure! Now what the majority of listeners will find hard to
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Even though not as evident as Cool Jazz, improvisation played an significant part in the early history of Baroque music.(2) The accompaniment part in Baroque music was written with figured bass symbols that were meant to be improvised over.(3) The use of improvised embellishment was also common in secular and sacred music.(4) The basso continuo also provided rhythmic spur which did more than just fulfill the role of the harmony.(6) Baroque music improvisation can be classified into 2 major classifications: embellishments with a sole unchangeable implementation (such as trills and grace notes) or improvisation directly on the melody utilizing passaggi (scalar patterns), arpeggios and imitation.(7)
Building on the idea of Baroque improvisation, let’s look at the role of it in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no. 5. In the first movement Allegro, Bach's ability as a keyboard performer is confirmed in the harpsichord solo. Similar to jazz, the soloist takes the primary focus of the piece except for the tutti segments.(8) Another example of improvisation can been seen in the beginning of the third movement. The flute and violin provide short melodic notions with the idea of imitation among the two
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In 'So What', the horn section plays the same role. In this piece, and in most Cool Jazz pieces, the homophony proves as evidence of the simple structure.(4) In 'So What', there is a bass motif that forms which can be compared to the many bass ostinatos found in Baroque music.(1) Also another comparison is that both Bach and Davis use the harpsicord/ piano as a means of improvisation, which is very common is both cultures.(2)
Another smaller musical link that I have realized is the instrumentation. In both Baroque and Cool Jazz, the compositions have structures which provide both rhythmic and harmony to the melody being played. In Jazz, the instruments used to fulfill this is called the ‘rhythm section’ which normally includes a drum kit, a stringed bass of some kind (often a guitar), and a piano. This can be equated to the continuo section in Baroque music which normally consisted of a string (normally a cello or bass), and a chordal instrument of some kind like a harpsichord or