KLEZMER EXPLAINED Using Classical Music Theory | Chords of the Phrygian Dominant (Freygish) Scale

[Music] klezmer is the exciting and dynamic genre of music native to the jews of eastern europe it has an archaic and sometimes esoteric aesthetic but what gives it this unique sound today you're gonna find out i'm alec wasserman and you're watching wasserman music [Music] in today's introduction to klezmer the first thing we're going to learn is the fregish scale as it's called in yiddish this scale which goes by several different names including phrygian dominant can be found in the music of various cultures both western and eastern the fregish scale's most defining feature is the augmented second interval between its second and third scale degrees which sounds like this [Music] the augmented second is n harmonically equivalent meaning that it sounds the same to a minor third but we will call it an augmented second because we're working with two consecutive notes within a scale which happened to be three half steps apart for today's video we'll be looking at the friggish scale starting on a but you can use any note as your starting pitch so long as you maintain the same intervallic structure from note to note let's take a listen [Music] there are effectively two ways to relate the freakish scale back to more commonly used minor scales the first is to think of it as a harmonic minor scale that starts and ends on the fifth scale degree notice how the d harmonic minor scale uses the same pitches as a fregish but it starts in a different place the second relationship is to say that the freakish scale is like a natural minor scale with a flat second and a sharp third the a natural minor scale starts in the same place as a fragis but uses b natural and c natural rather than b flat and c sharp respectively [Music] all right now that we've learned the scale we need to know how to harmonize it i'm mainly going to go through triads that are native to the fregish scale but i will say that it is not impossible to use seventh chords and chords that are not native to the scale but those chords would certainly be much more rare as you can see with all the chords together the placement of the augmented second between the second and third scale degrees creates some interesting chord qualities the one chord is a major chord and is relatively easy to work with and functions just like a one chord in many other scales it sounds like this the flat ii chord is where things get interesting in classical music we would call this a neapolitan chord and we'd reserve it for special situations as a predominant chord this means the neapolitan would go directly to a five chord as a sort of way of adding some extra color to a cadence in klezmer music however because of the prominence of the flat 2 in the second scale degree the flat two major chord takes on what i would argue is essentially a dominant function and it sounds like this here's an example of a flat two major chord in a dominant function from a piece of music that i wrote [Music] the sharp 3 diminished chord is a bit of a weird one first of all three chords are relatively rare in most music even when they have a major or minor chord quality and diminished chords typically have a predominant or dominant function which isn't the case here i'm not going to say that the sharp 3 diminished is impossible to use but it certainly wouldn't be as common here's what it sounds like [Music] the iv chord is pretty straightforward it's just a minor chord with a predominant function the only thing that's funky about it is that it exists here in a scale that has a major one chord but when you think about it that's really akin to any bach piece that ends on a picardy third here's the iv chord the five diminished chord maintains the dominant function that is characteristic of any v chord the difference is now we're working with a diminished chord when you think about it that's really not very different from using a seven diminished chord as a dominant function in classical music the v chord sounds like this and here's an example of the five diminished chord from the same piece of music as before only i've added a seventh to make it a five half diminished seventh chord the augmented six chord is not at all common in this style augmented chords have a special color to them that is honestly difficult to work into a chord progression without having it sound like kind of a special effect see what i mean and finally that brings us to our minor seven chord which renders a weaker dominant effect being only one pitch away from the aforementioned five half diminished seventh chord the seven chord functions very similarly five half diminished seventh chord [Applause] minor seven chord [Music] alright now you're ready to get started on your first piece of klezmer music be sure to like comment subscribe and share until next time shalom

Channel: Alek Wasserman

Views: 18,442

Keywords: klezmer explained, Jewish Music, Klezmer, Music, Music Theory, Jewish, Judaism, Piano, jewish music 2020, jewish music traditional, phrygian mode, Phrygian dominant scale, klezmer music theory, klezmer harmony, jewish folk music, klezmer music, freygish, freygish scale, ashkenazi music, ashkenazi, klezmer piano, klezmer scale piano, alek wasserman, phrygian dominant

Id: vao6TXvAWjI

Length: 7min 24sec (444 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 04 2020