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Blues music theory and the songs of Robert Johnson: ladder, level and chromatic cycle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2015

Ben Curry
Ben Curry*
Affiliation:
School of Music & Fine Art, University of Kent, Chatham Historic Dockyard, Kent ME4 4TZ E-mail: b.curry@kent.ac.uk
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Abstract

The blues is a complex and subtle musical language that warrants careful analysis and sustained debate. There are legitimate concerns with the application of music-theoretical paradigms to blues music, but we should not allow such concerns to undermine all attempts to address the blues as a serious and coherently structured music. This paper explores the notions of ladder, level and chromatic cycle as an insightful set of theoretical tools in analysing the music of Robert Johnson. Key sources in developing this analytical approach are the scholarship of Gerhard Kubik and the spatially oriented analytical methods of neo-Riemannian theory. The notions of ladder, level and chromatic cycle are explored with close reference to Johnson's ‘Kindhearted Woman’ and through a more general consideration of the scale-degree content of his vocal parts.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , May 2015 , pp. 245 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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