Two Approaches to Tonal Space in the Music of Muddy Waters

Abstract

The music of Muddy Waters is steeped in the blues tradition of the early twentieth century but also plays a key role in the development of the rock music of the 1960s and '70s. The importance of Waters's music can be understood more fully by exploring its engagement with blues music's harmonic and melodic characteristics. This article posits two approaches to blues tonal space: the networked and the laddered. The first is underpinned by the cyclical potential of equal temperament and is characterised by descending chromatic motions. The second is underpinned by the harmonic series and is characterised by the microtonal shaping of pitch content within the framework of a ladder that approximates an equal-tempered major-minor seventh chord.After explaining the details of these approaches with reference to an early blues recording by Alberta Hunter and Fats Waller, the article examines the ways in which Muddy Waters favours the laddered approach but develops novel ways of referencing the networked system, often combining or synergising aspects of each. This analysis yields insight into the potential for interchange in blues between networked and laddered tonal space. This interchange exploits (1) the structural importance of the major-minor seventh chord, (2) the special weight afforded the sonority of the minor third and (3) the affinity between microtonal and chromatic step motion in this genre.

Microtonal Analysis of "Blue Notes" and the Blues Scale

“…Subsetting and clustering further dissected the three "blue note" clusters identifying individual note targets; these targets are most likely the just intonation minor third (319.1 ≈ 6/5 = 315.6 cents), tritone (582.8 ≈ 7/5 = 582.5 cents), and two forms of a minor seventh (most common 1037.9 ≈ 9/5 = 1017.8 cents, and 979.1 ≈ 7/4 = 968.8 cents). Just intonation blue note targets have been predicted previously by music theorists/ethnomusicologists van der Merwe (1989), Kubik (1999Kubik ( , 2005Kubik ( , 2008 and Curry (2015Curry ( , 2017. The common denominator of these frequency ratios suggests the "blue note chord" may be represented as the harmonic half diminished seventh chord (Wright, 2009), with integer multiples 5:6:7:9.…”

“…Music theorists van der Merwe (1989), Kubik (1999Kubik ( , 2005Kubik ( , 2008, and Curry (2015Curry ( , 2017 propose that the three blue notes are ranges surrounding acoustic targets of just intonation derived from the harmonic series. This study largely confirms this overarching hypothesis.…”

“…Inclusion of the fifth harmonic of I (386 cents) helps explain the large "margin of tolerance" for the flattedthird note of the scale, also called the "neutral third". Curry (2015Curry ( , 2017 provides an extensive synthesis of these conceptions and adds chromatic elements from ragtime styles which occur later in the eclectic progression of the blues. Curry also points out a likely close association of the blues with the early African American derived barbershop quartet tradition based in just intonation (2015, pp.…”