Dave Meder | modern gothic | Single
Outside In Music is thrilled to announce pianist and composer Dave Meder’s latest single "modern gothic," from the upcoming album New American Hymnal due out September 8th, 2023 on Outside in Music.
Meder on the music:
The album begins by invoking the feeling of classic Americana in the hymn “modern gothic” (a reference to the classic Rockwell painting), but with a slight distortion.
I use three folk-like triadic harmonies as the motivic root of this piece (for the music literate, these are I, IV and V). Each one is paired with a triad from an unrelated key. The piece requires improvisors to utilize the new collection of notes arising from these three “triad pairs.”
The melody consists of five melodic phrases, each played with five bars in between, cutting against the normal four-bar organization of American folk and jazz. When taken together, these harmonic and structural variations on traditional American styles represent the expanding diversity of what constitutes American folklore, and the clashes that come along with such a change. Sometimes the triad pairs will be consonant with one another, but often (as in the exclamatory piano chords in the last melody statement) they will conflict.
Ultimately, the music tries to expand the definition of nostalgic American idealism.
Personnel:
Dave Meder - Piano, Philip Dizack - Trumpet, Marty Jaffe - Bass, Michael Piolet - Drums.
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