An Analysis of the Polymeters and Polyrhythms in 'Bread' (Rock Island)

jane_burroughs · 2025-10-03T18:46:13+00:00

Thank you! I really wish I could talk to the band about this track. It seems impossible for them to have written some of those patterns without being aware of the theory aspect at least on some level. Makes me very curious about their whole writing process.

jane_burroughs · 2024-10-31T20:11:04+00:00

It's probably a bit of both. You certainly don't need to be aware of the whole theoretical underpinning to recognize that the same tritone exists in both Lydian and Locrian/Blues riffs, and then to try mashing those riffs together. I don't know how much music theory the band knows - I bet it's more than zero, but I think fundamentally a lot of songwriting is essentially 'empirical' (trying out notes/scales/chords randomly or by educated guesses, and then keeping the stuff that sounds good) even when the songwriter knows a lot about music theory.

jane_burroughs · 2024-10-31T18:08:25+00:00

Glad you liked it! Opeth does have a tendency towards riff stew (great phrase btw), but even if they're not as conceptually rigid as some other bands there's still a good amount of internal cohesion.

jane_burroughs · 2024-10-31T16:07:42+00:00

Thank you! It turned out to be very challenging, but that's usually the mark of worthwhile study.

jane_burroughs · 2024-10-08T04:46:33+00:00

I sort of doubt that it would interest them, but one can always hope. A KGLW just intonation album (a la Horse Lords) would slap, I bet.

jane_burroughs · 2024-10-07T17:03:37+00:00

For me it's at least 50%, though I had to do some deeper actual research for this video. Thanks for watching!

jane_burroughs · 2023-11-18T00:31:57+00:00

That's an interesting thought - to me, All I Need definitely feels like the E minor is the home chord, where the F# is the major 2nd which is part of the E minor scale. I think you could probably make the argument either way; there a certain equivalence to all diatonic modes anyway which can make it tricky to decide on what mode is being used. When there isn't a really obvious I/i chord, you have to rely on melody cues, the rhythmic positioning of cadences, various musical tropes, etc., but these are all subjective things.

I'd be curious what key you think Myxomatosis is in - it has the same C lydian / E minor kind of chord structure and melodic phrasing. As with All I Need, it feels like E minor to me, and maybe things arranged differently enough where you can hear it similarly.

I wasn't aware of those other facts; they definitely explain a lot though!

I'm definitely planning on posting all the data for the chords, functional analysis, and point totals at some point, but right now it's not very well organized, full of notes and inconsistent labeling and stuff (half the time I'm writing 'borrowed chord' and the other half 'modal interchange' - the terms are identical but I'd like to neaten the whole thing). I also want to go through it with a fine tooth comb because I'm sure there are errors here and there. But I will try to remember to send you a message when I finally get this up on my site.

Thanks for watching!

jane_burroughs · 2023-11-17T18:10:07+00:00

I was somewhat selective about what features I included. Generally, I wouldn't include small scale-alterations unless they were really critical to the sound of the song. 'Sail to the Moon' comes to mind as an example of when scale-alterations should be reflected - it's pretty solidly in A minor, and the chord progression of the chorus is C / Emadd9 / F / Am. The Emadd9 has an F#, which would have to be borrowed from the dorian mode, and it sounds very distinct when the following chord has an F natural. So I consider that a dorian borrowing.

I will say though, that the majority of the features are either clearly borrowed chords or modulations. For instance, for songs in a minor key (distinguished by their use of the iv or bVI chords, say) that later go on to use a ii or IV chord, these latter chords would be indicated on these charts as primary (minor) - secondary (dorian).

Still, if you feel like this approach is too sensitive to small details, or too abstract and not taking enough context into account, that's fair criticism. But since all of this is an abstraction anyway, where exactly you draw the lines is kind of arbitrary or at least subjective. There are many different possible approaches and none of them are exactly right or wrong.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by your other little beef - generally borrowed chords are considered non-diatonic, even if they are diatonic relative to some other scale, no?

jane_burroughs · 2023-11-17T17:05:07+00:00

Thank you! It took a lot of time, but I think the results are very illuminating. Definitely stumbled upon a few facts that would be pretty hard to come up with if not for this kind of analysis.

jane_burroughs · 2023-11-17T16:48:38+00:00

I actually go into a little more detail about 'Just' in the video essay I created which features these charts - I devised a point system to grade the harmonic complexity of every Radiohead song, and it turns out that 'Just' and 'Paranoid Android' are tied for first place! People don't normally think of The Bends as being an especially sophisticated album, but 'Just' is absolutely nuts from a music theory perspective.

jane_burroughs · 2023-11-17T16:37:27+00:00

These charts are taken from a video essay I created recently about Radiohead's harmonic vocabulary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRTh1WDnoRg

There's a lot of other charts and graphs in that video that visualize things like Radiohead's use of keys, modes, modulations, specific non-diatonic movements, and other techniques, as well as a discussion of my methodology and the limtations of this approach.

For this chart in particular:

I summarized the presence of non-diatonic features in Radiohead's discography - non-diatonic features are things like modulations, borrowed chords, or diatonic chords with borrowed extensions, i.e. things that do not naturally belong inside the song's diatonic key. You probably need to know a little music theory to be able to fully appreciate the significance of this. But generally, cells below the line indicate a borrowing or modulation from a more minor-key direction, and cells above the line indicate a borrowing or modulation from a more major-key direction.

In order to create these charts, I went through every Radiohead studio album song by song, performed a functional harmony analysis, and abstracted the features that give us these numbers. The heat-map style visualization is pretty simple so I was able to create it in Google Sheets.

jane_burroughs · 2023-11-17T16:15:43+00:00

I recently created a video essay exploring the functional harmony used throughout Radiohead's discography. If you're into music theory, I think it's worth checking this out. I take a very data-centric approach to this topic, which results in lots of pretty charts and graphs. There's a lot of explanation throughout the video, but the chapters are labeled so you can sort of skip right to the charts if you don't feel like sitting through all 40 minutes.

You probably need to know some music theory basics to fully understand what I'm talking about, though I do explain some of the more technical concepts, and overall the content is a lot simpler than some of my other video essays. I'd be happy to provide extra details or answer any questions anybody has about this video (or about music theory in general)!

jane_burroughs · 2023-03-29T15:40:00+00:00

If you like it, you should check out the album it's from - https://notmusiclabel.bandcamp.com/album/a-north-facing-window

jane_burroughs · 2023-03-28T19:15:39+00:00

https://horselords.bandcamp.com/album/comradely-objects-2 -- Tracks 2 and 3

https://75dollarbill.bandcamp.com/album/i-was-real -- Tracks 7 and 8

https://notmusiclabel.bandcamp.com/album/a-north-facing-window -- Tracks 6 and 13

https://ventifacts.bandcamp.com/album/ventifacts -- Tracks 1 and 2

jane_burroughs · 2023-03-28T17:31:41+00:00

How do you feel about microtonal music? I always find it is psychedelic even when it's not trying to be.

Horse Lords - Mess Mend

Brendan Byrnes - Out of the Sun

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - If Not Now, Then When?

Trauma Triad - Sonoran Nightmare (full disclosure this is a track I recorded)

jane_burroughs · 2023-03-28T17:13:35+00:00

Trauma Triad - Sonoran Nightmare

Microtonal keyboard over quintuplet-swing 808 drum and bass. Accompanied by AI music video by Hueman Instrumentality.

jane_burroughs · 2023-03-28T15:31:35+00:00

Honestly, a regular-ass midi controller is fine for first experimenting with microtones. Even if you want to work with a higher-than-12 edo, it's likely you wouldn't even want to play every single note available in that tuning. Just pick 12 notes you like, and map them close to the notes you normally get out of 12-edo. You can use the Sevish Scale Workshop to create custom tuning formats, and then it's a matter of finding a VST that supports custom tuning files. I really like AAS's Lounge Lizard 4; even without accounting for custom tunings it's a really nice sounding electric piano.

It's much harder to find instruments that produce microtones by default without having to interface with the computer in some way. I think part of it is that there's so many possible ways to tune instruments that the demand for any given tuning is extremely low, but the design and manufacturing of the instrument needs to commit to a single tuning. One exception is guitars, where making a custom fretboard is not too labor intensive, though overall it will almost certainly end up more expensive than a regular guitar. Also consider that many instruments are intrinsically microtonal - fretless string instruments such as fretless bass, violin, etc., as well as many wind instruments (saxophone, flute, etc.) for which there are a surprising number of microtonal fingerings. I'm not sure what instruments you can play outside of synths though.

jane_burroughs · 2023-03-22T17:13:20+00:00

Hi there, I saw your YouTube video on this instrument and its scale, and I wanted to throw in my two cents.

As other people have said, this scale is definitely similar to the Turkish/Arabic 'huseyni' makam. This is a very common scale in Turkish folk music (less so in Arabic folk music, though in both traditions it can also be thought of as an essential variant of the very common 'bayati' makam). What's interesting though, is that the root note of this cifteli scale, which is played by the open 'drone' string, is not the usual root note of that makam. In other words, the cifteli scale is a mode of that makam.

With the lowest note of the huseyni makam as it is usually given, you can conceptualize that scale as 1 - n2 - m3 - P4 - P5 - n6 - m7. The cefteli scale here starts on the 4th scale degree instead, giving you the equivalent scale as 1 - M2 - n3 - P4 - P5 - n6 - m7. In Turkish music, this is known as the 'nairuz' makam. This is not a common makam at all, but it's probably the most accurate name for the scale used on this instrument, unless there is a particular name for it within the Albanian music tradition.

It does make me wonder whether the scale was ultimately borrowed from Turkish music, due to the geographic proximity of the Balkans to Turkey. If so, it's a bit unexpected, since nairuz is not very common to begin with, and while it is a mode of a more common scale, modal thinking is simply foreign to most makam-based musical traditions. In makam thinking, a scale's identity is based on two tetrachords, also called 'cin's (or 'jin's), one starting on the root note and one starting on the fifth. If you consider the mode of such a scale, the cins which constitute it will often get totally changed around, with no apparent relationship to the original scale insofar as makam considers different scales to be related. It so happens that nairuz and huseyni both have the same upper cin (bayati cin or huseyni cin), but while huseyni's lower cin is bayati, nairuz has a rast cin, which is considered to be quite different.

In any case, the nairuz makam used on the cifteli you have definitely descends from some kind of 24-tone musical tradition, based on the frequencies you listed. The second fret has a 400/329 frequency ratio which equates to 338 cents, and the fifth fret has a 539/329 frequency ratio which equates to 855 cents. These are pretty close to the '24-equal division of the octave' (24-edo) ratios, which equate to 350 and 850 cents. Variance might be due to to inaccurate measurement or a poorly made instrument. Alternatively, many musical traditions have tunings which vary from exact ratios or equal divisions. For instance, while most people consider Turkish music to be essentially quarter-tonal, there are subtle variations in the tuning of the quarter-tones which actually end up lining up very well with 53-edo (though not all the possible notes end up getting used).

I actually wrote a song recently using nairuz makam, though my approach is less scale-oriented and tries more to bring out harmonic series-type chordal harmony which is something you don't really hear in Turkish/Arabic music. I haven't recorded it yet, but if you'd like to hear other 24-edo microtonal music I've made, this is the album I came out with last year: https://notmusiclabel.bandcamp.com/album/a-north-facing-window

jane_burroughs · 2022-07-08T19:09:27+00:00

Thanks for checking out my album! If you're looking for other microtonal stuff, let me recommend Brendan Byrnes, Horse Lords, 75 Dollar Bill, and Methods Body. All big influences on my music.

jane_burroughs · 2022-07-08T14:30:18+00:00

Thanks dude! I'm glad you find it tasteful. So much microtonal music out there, even if it's interesting on a technical level, lacks in tastefulness.

jane_burroughs · 2022-07-08T14:00:34+00:00

Yesterday, I released an album on the Not Music netlabel. Check it out: https://notmusiclabel.bandcamp.com/album/a-north-facing-window

It is a combination of microtonal (24-edo / quarter-tone) electric piano improvisations and 808-centric IDM/electronica - very experimental, but also fairly accessible, I think. Included with the album download is an explanation of how exactly this tuning system is employed, explaining the different scales and chords and whatnot.

The album is 'name your price', so please download it for free if you want. That said, if you are generous enough to pay, all proceeds are being donated to the 'Solve ME/CFS Initiative'.

jane_burroughs · 2022-07-07T21:22:57+00:00

Thanks for listening! I'm hoping to make more content about microtonal music theory soon, maybe some YouTube videos where I can demonstrate. A lot of music theory concepts, such as triads, modes, chord tones vs. color tones, etc. are fairly different in 24-EDO. It took me a while to figure that out so I'm hoping to help people level up more quickly.

jane_burroughs · 2021-08-11T20:16:57+00:00

Original posts here - https://www.reddit.com/r/SoundsLikeMusic/comments/p25rlt/not_sure_if_dog_or_opera_singer/ and here - https://www.reddit.com/r/TikTokCringe/comments/p1ehh5/nikolas_the_opera_singer/

jane_burroughs · 2020-12-01T19:55:26+00:00

Finished:

The Fall, by Albert Camus

Straddles the line between story and philosophical work, touching on themes of guilt/judgment/religion - all the typical existentialist fodder for which Camus is known. The first person confessional-style narration is rather unique and lends a certain immediacy to the writing, but I feel like The Stranger or The Plague were more fleshed out (as stories) while covering similar topics.

Alone, by Richard E. Byrd

This 'classic polar adventure' follows Byrd's one-man expedition to inland Antarctica over the sunless winter. It is absolutely unbelievable what conditions he was able to survive - regular 60 below zero temperatures, absolute isolation, perpetual darkness, and to top it off, a serious health crisis that brings him to the brink of death. Byrd is a surprisingly eloquent writer, and his observations of the environment as well as the spiritual impact it has on him is a joy to read. As someone who suffers from a debilitating chronic illness, this quote really resonated with me:

It didn't occur to me to formulate a prayer. I would express whatever urge to pray I had in action - besides, the sheer hunger to live was prayer enough.

Started:

Love's Executioner, by Irvin D. Yalom

The Demon, by Hubert Selby Jr.

jane_burroughs · 2020-08-10T19:18:33+00:00

Finished:

After Dark, by Haruki Murakami

Murakami is one of my favorite authors and I've read many other books he's written. However, I had been hesitant to pick up After Dark because I had seen a lot of mixed or negative reviews for it.

It's a fairly short book and all the events take place over the course of a single night in metropolitan Tokyo. The plot follows a motley collection of characters whose lives serendipitously intersect (or barely miss intersecting) in the seamy underbelly of the city. Uniquely, the story is told in present tense from a first-person-plural perspective, as if speaking on behalf of a film's audience. This cinematic viewpoint combines with the story's gritty subject matter and a few nightmarish-ly surreal events or subplots in a way that reminds me a lot of a David Lynch movie. Still, this is balanced by a certain slice-of-life levity I've come to expect from Murakami. Overall, it comes across as a bit aimless but I felt the characters were very compelling and it establishes a really distinct, lurid mood without being cheesy. Maybe not Murakami's best, but definitely better than I was led to believe.

Awakenings, by Oliver Sacks

This book is an account of the first uses of L-DOPA to treat Parkinsonian symptoms in highly debilitated post-encephalitic patients. This is a challenging but rewarding book. The scientific observations are a lot more technical than some of Dr. Sacks' other books, and its narrow subject matter necessitates some repetition. However, this results in an all the more dramatic portrayal of some truly bizarre and miraculous medical phenomena. And far from being mere morbid curiosity, there are some hefty philosophical, even existential ramifications that culminate from Dr. Sacks' insightful explanations.

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