Articles by Kurt Ellenberger
The Plaintive Sigh of a Sonic Doppelgänger: Why are Minor Chords Perceived as “Sad”? Part 3
by Kurt Ellenberger
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Sad Song Survey Why Minor Chords and Minor Keys are Sad: Meet the Sonic Phantoms in the EtherTo begin our investigation into the hidden cause of our peculiar perception of minor chords and keys, we will listen to a trombone quartet playing a C minor chord. We might describe the sound as “rich" or “full" or some other adjective, but what exactly is it rich with or full of? ...
Continue ReadingThe Plaintive Sigh of a Sonic Doppelgänger: Why are Minor Chords Perceived as “Sad”? Part 2
by Kurt Ellenberger
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Sad Song Survey IV. The Power of the Minor Chord and Minor Keys in Classical and JazzTo begin our discussion on what it is that makes minor chords sad, we will first listen to some examples of the use of minor chords and minor keys that demonstrate breathtaking power to convey deep emotional content. Here is “Siegfried's Funeral March" from Richard Wagner's Götterdämmerung, the fourth and final opera ...
Continue ReadingThe Plaintive Sigh of a Sonic Doppelgänger: Why are Minor Chords Perceived as “Sad”? Part 1
by Kurt Ellenberger
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Sad Song Survey PreambleDaniel Levitin, in his popular bestseller entitled This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession from 2006, characterizes the perception of the minor chord, which lowers the third of a major chord by a half-step, as follows: All of us, even without musical training, can tell the difference between these two [referring to a major and minor chord ...
Continue ReadingA Conversation with Quentin Walston on His Jazz Pedagogy Text: How to Teach Jazz and Improvisation
by Kurt Ellenberger
Quentin Walston, a distinguished jazz pianist and educator based in the Washington, D.C. area, has crafted an exceptional contribution to jazz pedagogy with his new text, How to Teach Jazz & Improvisation (This is Jazz, 2025). This concise yet effective 80-page text fills a gap in the jazz education landscape, offering an accessible, hands-on guide tailored specifically for young musicians and educators of private lessons and leading middle or high school jazz bands. Walston's work is helpful for those who ...
Continue ReadingHave A Holly, Jazzy Christmas
by Kurt Ellenberger
In my music history classes, particularly in November and December, students have often asked me about the relationship between jazz and Christmas: “Why are so many popular Christmas songs so jazzy?" It is a good question--indeed, many of the most popular secular Christmas music does have a jazz flavor, while a few are actually jazz. There is a direct connection between jazz and Christmas music, but to see what that connection is, we will first look at the history of ...
Continue ReadingRoots to Branches: Broadway, Jazz, and David Bowie?
by Kurt Ellenberger
In 10th grade, I had a classmate in my French class named Morvan, whom I didn't know at all (in fact, I doubt I ever ever talked to her). She was quiet and introverted but also somewhat defiant and aloof. She always dressed in what was quite outlandish fashion at the time. She was somewhere in between glam and punk, the latter of which was still largely undefined in 1975. One thing stood out to me--she often wore David Bowie ...
Continue ReadingTwin Sons from Different Mothers: Harmonic Convergence in Jazz and Classical Music, Part 4: "The Neapolitan 6th Chord in Jazz and Classical Music"
by Kurt Ellenberger
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 IV: The Neapolitan 6th Chord in Classical Music and Jazz The “Neapolitan 6th" chord (N6) is another sonority whose definition is based on the triad that it makes, which is a vertical perspective that glosses over its actual horizontal function. It is described in theory texts as the chord on the lowered supertonic (scale degree 2) in first inversion. Thus, in the key of C ...
Continue ReadingTwin Sons from Different Mothers: Harmonic Convergence in Jazz and Classical Music, Part 3: "Augmented 6th Chords in Classical And Jazz"
by Kurt Ellenberger
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 III. Augmented 6th Chords in Classical Music and Jazz Classical music has its own version of the tritone sub, which, of course, predated the jazz version. It results from the outer voices (usually soprano and bass) moving in contrary motion into the dominant chord, not the tonic, as it so often does in jazz. The interval between the bass and soprano before the dominant is ...
Continue ReadingTwin Sons from Different Mothers?: Harmonic Convergence in Jazz and Classical Music, Part 2: "Tritone Substitutions"
by Kurt Ellenberger
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 II. Twin Sons from Different Mothers: Tritone Substitutions There are two types of chords that feature dominant 7th sonorities--in jazz, they are called “tritone substitutions," and in classical, they are called “augmented 6th chords." We don't know who discovered the “tritone sub" (my guess would be Earl Hines or Duke Ellington, both of whom had an encyclopedic knowledge of harmony), but ...
Continue ReadingTwin Sons from Different Mothers?: Harmonic Convergence in Jazz and Classical Music, Part 1: "The Blues"
by Kurt Ellenberger
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 Introduction In my article about Harmony and the Harmonic Series, I suggest that the relationship and tension between the dominant and the tonic is the engine of all harmonic activity in tonal music. In that article, to keep it as clear and easy to understand as possible, I dealt only with triads. The dominant is most often, however, found as a four-note chord--the triad with ...
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