Modulation

It is unofficially traditional for an outgoing Choir President, in this case Jo Helland, to have me program a favorite anthem, in grateful thanksgiving for their leadership of the previous year… …and so, this morning, Jo has asked us to sing Gilbert Martin’s ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.’

It occurred to me that since the change of officers is a kind of modulation, and that the most striking feature of this anthem is its several kinds of musical modulation, that a discussion of same might be in order…

Gil (b. 1941) is a free-lance composer and editor of church music in Dayton, OH, though he is originally from Southbridge, MA – by way of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ.

Modulation, in music, is the process of moving from one key, or tonal center, to another. While there are an infinite number of ways move from key to key and categorizing them is both difficult and vain, modulations can be thought of as either:

· Diatonic [using common chords]
· Chromatic [using altered chords]
· Enharmonic [using the very same notes, but calling them by different names…]

Also, modulations can de described as:

o Prepared, or unprepared
o False, or passing
o Static [an extreme form or unprepared modulation wherein you ‘just go’ to the new key… much like most of the solos on ‘American Idol.’ This technique is used for heightened emotional effect…]

In this anthem, there are FOUR of them [this is a lot for a three minute piece], all of them ‘prepared,’ some more subtle than others. Listen for, and count them as they go by!

Listen also for changes of key in the other music this morning, and, in general, be thankful for the richness of harmonic color in all the music we use for worship!

Listen to the Bach – and marvel at how you can’t quite tell where they are…

Listen to Rob Landes’ Introit – at how he uses ‘parallel’ motion, whole chords moving up and down in lock step…

Listen to the Benediction Response – and realize that the whole blooming [literally] thing is one long and delicately drawn cadence…

And thanks, Jo, for leading us so beautifully and well!

-Keith Weber