Two handwritten sketch sketches with glimpse of the concept of music of modern jazz giant John Coltrane

In the activity from the 1950s to the 1960s, a solitary sax player who increased "jazz" from popular entertainment music to art music and "deepened" from modern jazz to free jazz in the later years,John ColtraneIt is said that music at times is in the world of chaos and meditation. Handwritten notes sent to musicians with such Coltrane are left, and they are approaching understanding music from the viewpoint of "number"Lucas GonzeHe is analyzing the memo.

Coltrane Pitch Diagrams - Lucas Gonze - Medium
https://medium.com/@lucas_gonze/coltrane-pitch-diagrams-e25b7d9f5093

In the mid-1990s, Mr. Gonze was a book shop at Berklee College of MusicNicholas Slonimuski"Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns"(The dictionary of the scale and the melodic pattern) was looking for. This book explained about the algorithmically generated scale (musical scale), Coltrane was one of the influenced musicians.


At that time, it was said that an eccentric book in the eyes of Mr. Gonze had jumped in. This book, which has a name similar to the book above, "Repository of Scales and Melodic Patterns" (a book of scales and melodic patterns), is a multiplayer player familiar with any instrumentYoussef LatiefIt is what it wrote.

Amazon | Repository of Scales and Melodic Patterns | Yusef A. Lateef | Jazz


When you open the book, two strange handwritten sketches are posted.


One ring is a ring of the scale starting from the vertex "C" (sound of "do") as shown below. In this figure consisting of two rings, it rotates clockwise around a semitone such as the inner sound next to the outer sound, and it has a structure to go around in 5 octaves. It is also a figure that makes you feel the abstract world that the star is completed by connecting five "C".


And the other one is supposed to be based on the above figure, it is one which extracted several sounds and gathered in three units.


And it was said that the following explanation was attached to these two figures.

Geometric Drawings: By John Coltrane, 1960. Gifts to Yusef from John.

(Geometric sketch: work by John Coltrane, 1960, the one that John gave to Youssef)

Mr. Gonze who gradually became interested in this sketch prepared a tracing paper so as not to compromise the original sketch and interpreted the meaning by using a protractor and a compass.


First of all, it is the one that pulled out only the note name from the sketch of Coltrane. You can see how C starts at the vertex and moves semitoneally clockwise in the pattern of "outside → inside → outside → inside". At this time, the arrangement of the sounds of the outer and inner rings is "full-pitch" orHaltone scaleIt is becoming.


When this double ring is simplified, it changes to the structure of such a single ring. At this time, course of course all semitones go up by semitone "chromatic scale" orChromatic scale.


"On the contrary, what will happen if you try triple ring?" By Gonze, this sketch is made. A spirally shaped pattern repeating the flow from the outside to the inside is born.


If you extract only the first octave, you will see "C → Eb → F #" according to the sequence of sounds of the three ringsReduced triad"(Diminished triad) is made. Also, when it is a double circle, "D" and "Eb" were arranged as adjacent sounds, but by becoming a triple ring, a distance is generated between the two sounds.


Mr. Gonzé looks at this state, cryptograph method which makes it difficult for enemies to know the contents by wrapping paper and cloth around sticks and writing sentence "Scutarery codeIt seems he has noticed that it is in the state of. This is also calledPythagora cipher stickThe same thing.


In this way, the original two-dimensional sketch changes to a three-dimensional one that wraps around the bar.


By strictly writing the pattern "go round a stick with three sounds", the triple ring changed to "a donut with semitones drawing a spiral at 120 degree intervals."


In addition, Mr. Gonze, the quadruple ring pattern ......


Pattern of quintuple ring


Then create a pattern of hexaploid ring. However, Mr. Gonze, who realized that figures showing the symmetrical structure of each ring up to the six ring, stopped creating.


Mr. Gonze, who dragged this flow, thought about the time of publishing the sketch I created, until the cover design called "topographic cycles 2/2/2000 LUCAS GONZE" (topographical cycle February 2, 2000 LUCAS GONZE) I have completed it.


After that, Mr. Gonzé went to the concert of Youssef Latif which was held locally. After the performance, Mr. Gonze who found Mr. Latif who was talking with other musicians got signed by Mr. Latief's book "Repository of Scales and Melodic Patterns" brought, introduced himself and introduced himself from Coltrane He said he asked questions about the sketch he got.


When talking with showing sketches of multiple rings created by himself, Mr. Latief told me that the sketch of that hand was painted by Coltrane frequently between concerts, that I got one of them It is said that. And it is not uncommon for Coltrane to draw such a sketch, "Mr. Latief said," I always painted. "

It was around 1960 that Coltrane drawn this sketch, which shifts from the style of Be Bop to musicality to its original style, including free jazz with a more spiritual world view It is time to try. In such a situation Coltrane touched on "Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns" by Sronymsky and may have incorporated the concept of understanding music as structure by number.

Mr. Gonze said that he deepened his friendship with Mr. Latief through this case, he subsequently sent it to Mr. Latief with the letter below which added his own idea to the summary of his theory. In addition, Mr. Latif who was active as multiplayer is leaving this world at the age of 93 in 2013.