12 Counting - John Coltrane - '“Miles’ Mode” m.1-4

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For this lesson we are going to talk about serialism. Serialism is a technique that composers use where they take a series of pitches, often times 12, and utilize this order to create melody, harmony, and textures. In strict 12-tone serialism all 12 pitches of the chromatic scale are used only once without repeating, until some sort of transformation is used.  

Take this example made famous by John Coltrane “Miles’ Mode” probably composed by Eric Dolphy. Listen to these 4 measures, and see if you can figure out what transformation is being used.[Video excerpt no score]

Lets listen again but with music [video excerpt with score]

You probably noticed that the first 2 measures include 12 pitches, and the second 2 measures included the same 12 pitches but backwards. This is called a retrograde and is a common tool that composers use frequently in their work.

Our row here is e2416870t53 

When analyzing these pieces, we use a technique called 12-counting where we take stock of each pitch of the row. This can be done simply by annotating the score with the numbers 1-12 with the name of the row listed next to number 1. Since Miles’ Mode starts with a B-natural. We assign it P(e). When counting the retrograde, we also start at 1, but we assign it the label R(e) instead of R(3). This is because it helps us make the analytical claim that this row form is  purely P(e) backwards.

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Sources:

Coltrane, John. "Miles’ Mode" Transcribed by Matthew Meldon. January 20, 2014. Music video, 3:19.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw8J9_T4Kf8. [not PD will need permissions to publish publicly]