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Mozart... Jambands... Huh?
The Sonata Form in Jam Band music

by Tuck Gillett

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Throughout the century, classical music has diverged. Some like Stravinsky, Debussey and Beatles-inspirator Stockhausen have experimented with sounds beyond binding classical forms. Other classical musicians like Gershwin, Bernstein and Andrew Lloyd Weber have implemented the well-accepted classical forms into popular music. Movie and musicals marketing in the 40's and 50s paved the way for their younger sibling, Rock and Roll marketing. This continued marketing orientation has put increasingly less emphasis on the music's technical composition. Therefore, classical influences have dimmed in such made-to-sell-the-recordings genres.

The rise of musicianship among rock and roll performers and listeners has welcomed progressive rock in the 70's and today's jam band music. Funk, soul and bluegrass have their talented musicians represented in groove music as well. Today's live-oriented jam bands have begun to implement techniques of sound harking back through the past five centuries... back to when popular music meant is was put on a printing press for private performance and study. Intentionally or accidentally, jam bands have rediscovered tools and conventions which, when used, intensify the musical experience. Multiple key changes, alternating beats per measure, less emphasis on vocals, and the use of fugues are examples of musical tools seeing their renaissance in jam music. Another is the sonata form.

Mozart is recognized as solidifying the Sonata form after its genesis in Italy during the late 17th century. Jam bands, as we'll see with the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, Phish and Deep Banana Blackout, have used this form within single songs and also when adjoining multiple songs into a medley. The sonata idea means "something (A), then a different thing (B), then back to the original or something similar to it (A)." I'll explain where, how and possibly why this A-B-A format is being used. Both single songs and medleys can exhibit the sonata format, the former seems most appropriate for a simple explanation of sonata. The Allman Brothers Band's instrumental "Jessica" illustrates a song in sonata form. Two electric guitars play a melody at the beginning and end. These are the A sections. Between the two, Gregg plays a piano solo with a different melody and feel. We'll consider this the B section. The separations between the A and B section and then the B and the second A section are emphasized by a breakdown and key change respectively. When the guitars return upon silence, there is that fabulous feeling of "we're back!" That's the return to the "A" idea.

Phish's returns to the verses in "Golgi Apparatus" and "Guyute" mark two other returns to an A section from a separate B section (the instrumentals) within a single song. Tension releases at these points of resolve. Dancers glow a bit more, smile again, and think, "yea..." as if they themselves have understood the message and continuity the band meant to express. The dancing changes, the crowd unifies a bit.

The sonata form across a medley can be heard in Beethoven's sixth symphony, a favorite on "The Simpsons". Movements 3, 4 and 5 seemlessly connect a breezy pastoral scene, the interruption of a thunder storm and its passing. The Dead's Help on the way > Slipknot > Franklin's Tower is a modern example of sonata form Medley. Medleys create an experience beyond the level of a single song. Before the presence of one song's story leaves, it is matched with an adjacent song, somehow related. If they are separated and the band stops between the two, the relationship may not be made. Mozart, recognized for strong definition of the sonata, wrote such that the A and B sections differed in melody, key and mode. All these relate to notes and not rhythm. Jessica is an example of a difference in melody while Golgi and Guyute express changes in all three.

Today's bands expand the utility of the format to include use of rhythmic changes. They, in truth, follow the model given the father of sonatas Arcangelo Corelli. Predating Mozart by almost a century, Corelli wrote and organized groups of dances like allemandes, correntes and gavottes. His sonata form emphasized the types and speeds of dances and their ordering in groups of three. This was the first recognition of Sonata as a form. A recent concert by Deep Banana Blackout in Colorado demonstrated the sonata format by switching then reestablishing the emphasis of the beat, similar to Corelli. As one taps their foot to a tune, one finds that most music is played in groups of four beats. Bluegrass and Irish music are examples of genres where the first and third beats of the four are emphasized. In Blues and R&B, the second and fourth are emphasized. Where the emphasis lies determines how one dances and feels the music. With a thumping, driving beat on the first and third beats of their funk tune, "La Familia," Deep Banana animated the very ten toes of each audience member. After a solo, faster dancing and heightened musical zeal, they dropped swiftly into a slower, softer R&B tune ,"Mama's Boy" with a casual beat on the 2's and 4's. Quoted twice during "La Familia" was "Take the time and make it better," a signature of their song, "Rocker." Sure enough, their transition from "Mama's Boy" into "Rocker," with pounding 1's and 3's again, sent the audience reeling. Indeed, this medley in the sonata format had a profound effect on the Fox Theatre funk mob.

Dancers at DBB concerts may not dance the same steps, but they generally follow the same beats. The switch of the beats from 1&3 to 2&4 then back to 1&3 gives full-body reactions, as well as an entire audience reaction. Had the three songs been disconnected, the switches wouldn't have been emphasized. Played together, however, one can feel departure and return, adding a deeper musical element.

The Allmans change the melody and Deep Banana changes the rhythm. The Grateful Dead change both through Help on the Way > Slipknot > Franklin's Tower on "Blues for Allah." Help and Franklin's both have words and are melodic (meaning you can hum or whistle along). Their beats emphasized are the 2nd and 4th. The instrumental Slipknot separating them trips up both time and melody. It emphasizes the first and third beats. Jerry's arpeggios, the runs sweeping up and down, are played on a "diminished" chord which has historically been used to divorce the listener from previous melodies. The disruption of the melody and beat make Slipknot a formidable B section. At Franklin's introduction, that full-crowd feeling happens. Resolve, tension release, completion. Smiles. The listener knows and feels a return. It is Help and Franklin's separation by Slipknot that equates the medley to the sonata form. However, Help and Franklin's also share an added resolution: the same one heard when the first half of China Doll switches to the second half. China Doll lifts from minor to major, from a dark to a light atmosphere. Help is minor while Franklin's is major, strengthening the feeling of resolve. It strengthens the construction of the medley. So there's a renaissance in the sonata form, and it's mainly in jam band music. In what lies the natural partnership of this live-based genre of music to this A-B-A format? It could it be the level of mental and physical investment audience members attach.

Mentally a concert-goer slips silently into personal pondering among music. Mental dialog develops aided by the music's context. Belief that music speaks to people is as old as the ancient Grecian muses; "Sing in me Muse," sings Homer as he begins the Iliad and Odyssey. Mental attachment is a part of many people's concerts. Jam bands just tend to stretch the imagination a bit more.

Physically, dancing is a necessary element in most of these shows; be it catching grooves, letting your body dissipate sounds like light though chandeliers, or just feeling funky, dancing makes the music and experience better. Also, dancing can physically map-out songs and progressions. Sonatas play on your body's physical consciousness.

Sonata formats pull mental and physical interests into one story. Making one wait for a song or a part of a song creates tension in the listeners. The wait is worth it, too. Franklin's Tower alone is never as sweet as it is after Help on the Way and Slipknot.

Sonata-form medleys raise the awareness of time and presence. They assist that uncanny sense of the "timeless present tense" felt in concert - the one where you find yourself incapable of comprehending the world beyond the speakers, venue and crowd. The passing and reentry of musical ideas emphasizes the present over the past. In the final A section, the popping of the tension and the feeling of resolve feeling of resolve lands you very much in the present tense, there to finish the unfinished story. In its best cases, you land with your feet dancing and mind whirring.

This is Mozart, this is Corelli, this is Beethoven, as well as it is Phish, Deep Banana Blackout, The Allman Brothers Band, The Grateful Dead and many others today in the jam band scene. I believe the way people move and consider this music draws upon the inherent structures among these songs and medleys. Jewel doesn't do this to us, Sugar Ray doesn't, the La Vida Loca doesn't. The writers and performers of jam music have reconnected with a music convention that for centuries delivered a humanistic, personal message. Cheers to the bands who have made our concerts better by bringing it back.