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Rosebay Music Archive II

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Reflection

The harmonic reflection of a tonal composition leads to the creation of a new piece of music. It is a process somewhat similar to melodic inversion. By reflection, the harmony is inverted to create a new piece of music, consisting of the same raw information content, yet sounding different: effectively giving every piece of tonal music a matching 'harmonic reflection' or companion piece. Just as a mirror image to the right of a score reverses left and right to produce the retrograde form (temporal reflection), so an image from a mirror placed underneath a score reverses top and bottom, revealing a subtly different view of the original object. The process is related to 'harmonic dualism', a line of thought stretching back to the theorist Gioseffo Zarlino (1588) and chiefly developed by Arthur von Oettingen (1836-1920). Overall, treating chordal sequences upside down and backwards, can be viewed as analogous to the techniques of extension used in mathematics to broaden the scope of operations and processes.

Reflection is based on the supposition that chords are, in effect, incomplete harmonic and arithmetic series which link together via a common overtone (conjunctions) to form simple and intelligible whole number relationships between their fundamental tones. From this perspective, the chords of tonal music are viewed, more or less, as numbers in material form and musical phrases equate to mathematical statements - though generally of a limited and incompete character. These ideas are explored in the articles and essays Journey to the Heart of Music.

Overall, the process of reflection appears to turn simple harmonic compositions into pieces more 'complex' and 'interesting'; and pieces already complex and interesting, into something convoluted, lacking tonal focus, and on occasions, weird.



Preface to the Rosebay Music Archive

Below is small archive of examples of reflected music, arranged principally for a baroque-like trio/solo sonata ensemble. Scores are in PDF format and suitable for printing on both A4 and US letter paper sizes - an A4 score is centered left-right but not top to bottom and US letter vice versa. MIDI files are also provided with most scores.

The pieces here, as distinct from the examples of 'simple' reflection in Archive I, are 'elaborated' arrangements: with bells, whistles, airs and pretensions. For the most part the source material is drawn from chorales, English hymns and folk songs; which are treated as defacto ground basses, or rather harmonic scaffolds, and subjected to various reflections. That is, harmonic and/or temporal inversion(s). The logic underlying these experiments is that of applying mathematical operations: division, subtraction, etc.. to what are taken to be mathematical objects -- compositions viewed as successions of mutable numbers. These permutations of the original harmonic material are then arranged using a mixture of 17th century techniques of division melded with ideas derived from the chorale prelude and chorale variations genre. The keyboard 'continuo' parts, which admittedly do little more than fill out the harmonies, at least present the challenge of reverse symmetry (of left and right hands) between original and reflected sections, and should be played rather in the spirit of an improvised Romanesca or Passamezzo ground bass realization, perhaps with a judicious use of broken chords and other figuration. The instrumental and bass parts, which inevitably contain most of the interest, are cast in a traditional style and thus may be moulded and interpreted easily and freely. Following the style of older German editions of chorale preludes, the text associated with the source material is printed in the score. In some pieces I have extended this helpful tradition to include other texts where used as a 'program' underlying the variations.

The art of reflection is very much that of bringing out the light and shade inherent in the contrast between the 'normal' harmonic version of the composition's information content and the often strange (perhaps 'abnormal') twists of harmonic and melodic progression produced through reflection.

I wish you well and hope you find something interesting and perhaps even enjoyable, in the archive below.



No. 882 Reflections upon 'Bellamira' - Solomon Eccles
No.883 Tower Hamlets - John Ravenscroft
No.884 The Silver Swan - Orlando Gibbons, 1583-1625
No. 885 Never Weather-beaten Saile - Thomas Campian, 1567-1620
No. 886 Epiphany - Samuel Sebastian Wesley, 1810-11876
No. 887 Unde et Memores - W.H. Monk
No. 888 Laudate Dominum - Sir Hubert Parry, 1848-1918
No. 889 Chorale Variations based on J.S.Bach's setting of Nun komm' der Heiden Heiland
No. 890 Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g'mein, set by J.S.Bach
No. 891 Irby - H.J.Gauntlett, 1805-76
No. 892 Song 34 - Orlando Gibbons, 1583-1625
No. 893 Eventide - W. H. Monk
No. 894 Surrey - Henry Carey, c.1690-1743
No. 895 St. George's, Windsor - G.J. Elvey, 1816-1893
No. 896 Ach Bleib Bei Uns, Herr Jesu Christ - Seth Calvisius (1594) set by J.S.Bach
No. 897 Colchester - S.S. Wesley, 1810-1876
No. 898 Air from ballad opera: The Honest Yorkshireman - Henry Carey*, circa 1689-1743
No. 899 Christ, der du bist der helle Tag - set by J.S.Bach
No. 900 Hyfrydol - R.Prichard, 1811-1887

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Copyright Notice

While all material on this page is copyright © P.J.Perry it is intended that the scores may be freely downloaded, distributed, copied, printed and used in any non-commercial situation such as private study, education or amateur performance. Permission for professional live performance is also granted. However, the professional and/or commercial recording or printing of this music is not permitted without permission.

Created 10July2005.
Updated 10Dec.2007.