Abridged:

Hey Lee's Comet is part of a work-in-progress: Twinkle Twinkle Little Universe.

There are 7 notes in the major scale.

This piece is modeled after the numbers 0 thru 6.

As C possesses no sharps, G=1#, D=2#s, etc., it can be said that even cycles have at their root, a linear perspective, where the subsequent items of beauty, either linear of cyclic, are informed by zero.

I've harmonized a simple melody, inspired by Bach's suggestions on how to harmonize a simple descending C scale, and super-imposed it over a progression consisting of the modes of C Dom. b13.... and taken some liberties, such as making up some needed bridges.
The verses remain true to the simple fact of the linear/cyclic,stemming from zero, beauty in nature.

The long version.

There are 7 notes in the major scale.

Zero through six.

The number of sharps relating to keys in a C scale, when traveling along a cycle of 5ths, e.g. C has 0 sharps, G has one sharp, etc., it can be said, that even though we are skipping around in intervals of 5ths, from another perspective, these 7 tones, represented by a cycle, can be viewed as 0 thru 6, or 0 sharps, 1 sharp, etc. So even though we can see an organized pattern , alternation, or progression, there is still an element stemming from a linear nature, 1-6 being informed by 0. This tells me that there is a fundamental reason that the cycles are pleasing.

Melody.

When Bach suggested to his students ways in which to harmonize a C scale. he at first put forth the numbers 6 and 8, not as harmonic tones necessarily, but as intervalic distances, as in the mechanics of Figured Bass. If one descends incrementally, step-wise, to the octave below, with a C in the bass, and a C triad in the right hand, using 6 and 8 alternation, one result is this: C in the bass, C triad in the right hand, B in the bass, BDG (136, intervallically) in the right, A in the bass, ACF (136) in the right, G in the bass, GBEG (1368), in the right, etc. From a Figured Bass point of view, the top note in the right hand for this example is  then is: 56686868. From a solfedge point of view: 5545237(below)1. Not exactly the most inspired melody, but one in which students can learn to harmonize, filling in the alto and tenor, the inversions of which will depend on the top note, as well as being pre-determined by the suggested figures, thus moving away from "block" playing, and taking the first step toward voice leading.

The chords for this example: 5th mode of the Melodic Minor, aka the Dominant b13 scale.

This is a fairly commonly used modern scale: 12345b6b71. It can be described as utilizing the first half of the major scale (1234) and the last half of the Aeolian scale (5b6b71). If I were to use the C Dom. b13 scale as the root, the spring from which subsequent, alternated Dom. b13 scales arise, using the tones in the root scale, CDEFGAbBb as guides, the result could be this: C Dom. b13 scale, F Dom. b13, Bb Dom. b13, E Dom. b13, Ab Dom. 13, D Dom. 13, G Dom. 13. Why proceed in a cycle of 4ths, or pseudo 4ths you might ask? If we play through each of this scales, but from C to C, the 1st scale is C as ONE: CDEFGAbBb, the next is C as FIVE of the F Dom. b13: CDbEbFGABb, C as TWO of Bb Dm. 13, etc. Remember the #s in the various keys of the C scale tones? C has zero, G major has 1#, D has 2#s, etc. G is also the 5th tone in the C major scale, and D is the 2nd tone in the C scale. We are essentially going through the modes of C Dom. b13. This may be far reaching, but in essence is exactly modeled after the more simplified cycle of 5ths, and how it relates to linearity being informed by the void. 0123456.

This may seem advanced to some, and rudimentary to others, and I've skipped plenty of steps to go from a C scale to an "outside" seeming jazz progression.

Let your ear be the guide.

One thing that happens in the transition from math to beauty, or exercise to art, is that one may be inspired from the exercise and go, hmm, what if... so as I go sequentially through the modes oc C dom. b13, I naturally hear a different bass line, with a lot of Dominant sounding modalities, as well as other typically alternating modalities.

Adding "Melody 1"

Over these changes, what happens if I add the melody example (pure math, no divine intuition, it just happens to exemplify the possibility of beauty in simple nature) derived from the Bach exercise? I'll have to tweak it a tad to accommodate the harmonies: 554b52-37(below). By jove, it works! Not bad. Maybe harmonize one or two of those notes here and there for variety. It will also need a bridge. Ok, I made those up, but the verses themselves will remain true to the exercise. Also, the fact that this is in essentially a C major modality, with alternating cycles, it is no wonder that the simple melody does in fact work.

Add to all that some other devices, like spreading all the notes in the scale out in spreads of 4ths, or thereabouts, or super-imposing those into smooshed clusters, achieving a kind of Bill Evans effect either way, and... voila!

Implications:

Bach said no art should be without exercise, and no exercise should be without art. I am a huge fan of just playing from the heart, and playing for fun, playing by ear, etc. And for sure, Bach composed intuitionally, he channeled his stuff! Yet he provided us means of being in touch with the muse. Considering the vastness of beauty inherent in the muse itself, without any individual having to do a darn thing to it... I am certain this vast beauty of the muse existed long before I did, and will last long after I am gone. Nadia Boulanger suggested that there is no such thing as genius. Many debate this, but from her genius point of few, genius is just one who has touched the genie, or studied, and learned how to make use of, the craft.  The inexhaustible endless miraculous beauty and self-organization of the muse was here long before any of our personal and temporary stardust..


Hey, Lee's Comet!

Button (NY mix)

Coupla Roommates latest... Written and sung by Bill, Peter P on everything else...

Quit

Without You is a song that I wrote shortly after my 20 year marriage ended.  I was sitting on the living room floor one night in my new apartment, living by myself for the first time in my adult life.  I had a twin mattress, a painting by Jack Vettriano called "Elegy for a Dead Admiral" hanging on the wall and my grand piano.  That was it.  After a very difficult conversation on the phone with my ex-husband I hung up very emotional, angry.... broken.  I looked up at the painting on the wall, and remembered the day I purchased it for my dining room in my family's home.  The home I thought I would spend the rest of my life in.  The woman in the painting was alone...and now...so was I.  I sat down to my piano and wrote "Without You" from the emotions of that night.  I hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading.

Dianne Zellers - Without You Remixed

Written and arranged by Ray Bobo. Blii Wright: bass and vocals. Peter Penhallow: guitars, keys. Transcribed and recorded in 2015 by Coupla Roommates, at The Hub Studios, in homage to Ray and Jim Bobo, and the group Headlines, circa 1988.

Hey, Lee's Comet!

Peter Penhallow

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