Written in the rural
reaches of central California, where I settled with my teenage son,
having recently returned from concertizing in Europe. We
lived next to the
Tuolumne River outside of Yosemite National Park. The lyric,
coming
after the music, is based upon an Australian legend, of a bird that
must
pierce itself to death in order to sing a song that stops the world to
listen.
It is used here as a metaphor for the Messianic sacrifice.
Thornbird is a
landmark piece for me, resulting from time to more carefully explore
the possibilities of the music I had been involved with throughout my
life - to somehow make workable some of the harmonic practices of 20th
century classical music
with the improvisating discipline of mainstream jazz. And
further,
to make it singable as well.
Thornbird
utilizes the oM (diminished major) chord. In classical music it
is identified as an inversion of a 9th chord, voiced from the major 3rd
and without its root - the dominant minor 9th with major and minor 3rds
- the “VII” chord, referred to with quotes in classical theory,
regarded as an incomplete V9 with major and minor thirds.
In jazz, the oM is also
a chord we know as a dominant seventh with flat and sharp 9th. It
is given various root names, depending on a tonal center being referred
to. It is the basis of quartal comping by many mainstream jazz
pianists. The reasons I have given the chord its new identity can
be found in my book, The 8-Tone Quarto-Modes
Concept.
NOTE
Each
note in the music is natural unless otherwise
indicated
by an accidental or tied to an accidental.
NOTE
The
symbol oM (diminished-major) is spelled-out in the Notated Piano
demonstration
of Thornbird, which version does not contain the
introductory
section of the Piano-Vocal lead below. See more about