Miles Davis Quintet - Four (Opening)

Structure
1. An opening 'Head' followed by several improvised choruses
2. The same chord structure - changes - are used through the whole piece
Rhythm and Meter
1. Fast continuous crotchet walking bass
2. Triplets appear occasionally
3. The head is very syncopated
Melody
1. Fragmented with quaver rests
2. Played mainly conjunct
3. Lots of short repeated scalic phrases
4. Notes played are not functional with harmony - Davis plays 'off the chord'
5. Lots of chromaticism
Instrumentation
1. Piano, bass, drums, trumped and tenor saxophone
2. Walking bass
3. Piano comping
4. Virtuosic trumpet playing
  1. 'Fall offs' - a kind of glissando
  2. Ghost notes - very quiet notes
  3. Pitch bends
  4. Half valving
Texture
1. The head is melody dominated homophony
2. The break before 1.1 is monophonic solo for trumpet
3. Walking bass line provides a base for the whole piece
Tonality
1. The whole piece is in Eb major
2. The style is so chromatic in the choruses that tonality is not always evident
Harmony
1. The underlying chord progression is relatively simple
2. A circle of 5ths in bars 1.26-1.29
3. Almost every chord is an extended chord - 9ths and 7ths

Resource summary

	Created by Alec Hewstone over 11 years ago