I was at the symphony on Saturday and in the description of the piece (some modern violin concerto crap), the composer described part of it as "A minor without the B flat"

WTF does that mean? A minor doesn't ANY flats in it, let alone a B flat in it. What am I missing?

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well it depends on how he meant "A minor scale". If he meant it as 'a minor' or 'C Major' key then hes just dumb.....he coulda meant like 'a minor scale' as in any minor without the b? in which he could mean a#.

only 3 major scales have a# those are B M, F# M, and C# M. most peices are written in it relative minor. But thats suggesting hes a smart ass.

However every Major in flat above C M (F, Bf, Ef, Af, Df, Gf, and Cf) has a Bf in it. So using the realtive minor he either accidentaled all the Bf's too B nautrals or wrote in A#'s

...dependin on which key he used and the appropriate steps he probably created an asceding melodic scale...

Its been so long since ive used Music Theory and i've prolly forgotten alot but thats what i can think of

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--Igz--

i was thinkin maybe it was a music pun, but i couldnt find one.

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Here's the context, from it, you can see that it's clear he's not using "a" as an article:


"The opening mode is a sort of six-note mode. Against that, the violins in the orchestra are playing A minor without the b-flat"


While it'd make sense if he was using his own mode (neither Major nor Minor), but you can't call a mode "A Minor" without it being the single definitive A Minor. There is only one A Minor.

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I just wrote the Milwaukee Symphony asking for clarification. I wonder what the response will be.

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im assuming that its a solo piece with orchestral back? then that he is playing b-flats and they are not.

edit: since they use the word AGAINST generally that means clashing in music. well not clashing just...yea.. someones playing the flats and someones not when it comes to their part of the melody.

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--Igz--

By the time i got to "I was at the symphony on Saturday and..." I got bored and stopped reading. So unless the next few lines were "I pulled out some ninja stars and began to slay musical dragons" :



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The best healer, ever...

Quote by Taadan

By the time i got to "I was at the symphony on Saturday and..." I got bored and stopped reading. So unless the next few lines were "I pulled out some ninja stars and began to slay musical dragons" :

lawl, pwnt

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--Igz--

Quote by Taadan

By the time i got to "I was at the symphony on Saturday and..." I got bored and stopped reading. So unless the next few lines were "I pulled out some ninja stars and began to slay musical dragons" :

Hahahaha, that was actually really clever.

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F'ed in the A.

Quote by Taadan

By the time i got to "I was at the symphony on Saturday and..." I got bored and stopped reading. So unless the next few lines were "I pulled out some ninja stars and began to slay musical dragons" :

Musical dragons? Like Puff?

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owned indeed.

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that's not very nice to chops

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Man.. I really don't get it

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I q'd in my soup

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Quote by Lamyra

Man.. I really don't get it

F

A

G

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Quote by Camera

Quote by Lamyra Man.. I really don't get it F A G

I think he was referring to the joke and not asking you to point out his lifestyle. OZLZOLZOL.

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I wrote the MSO asking for clarification and this is the response...

From the author of the program notes:

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Hi, In that area of the third movement, Adams was generally using what one might regard as an A-minor scale enhanced with added B-flats and F-sharps. At the point Adams refers to, he's stopped using the B-flats in the orchestral violins. By trying to keep technical data to a minimum in the program notes, I've contributed to the confusion of the informed. I apologize.

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"SHALOM!"
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