The Joy of Pentatonic

HYMN PERFORMANCE IfI had to isolate one item in my music leader's bag of tricks to enable creative accompaniment for hymn singing, it would be the pentatonic scale. Early on in my piano lessons, my teacher showed me what she called Mickey Mouse on the keys. Side by side on the bench, with only a common pulse and metre as guides, our fingers danced on the keyboard. We could play any notes we pleased, so long as they were on black keys, and to my astonished ears it all sounded wonderful. Enchanted, I never forgot the simple rule that, with the fourth and seventh notes of the diatonic scale removed, the remaining notes will always sound harmonious. practical applications of this simple fact to song leadership became increasingly obvious to me, both in the elementary music classroom and in the music program of my church. Common ground common form of the pentatonic scale is the basis of indigenous tunes around the world. We associate it most readily with Asian music, but it is found in Celtic tunes (CANDLER), the American South (I come with joy, The lone wild bird), African American spirituals (Nobody knows the trouble seen ) , the Caribbean ( Daylight come ) , Eastern European chants, Canadian folk tunes (Land of the silver birch), even India: the familiar old hymn is a happy land is an Indian hill tribe melody.1 Childhood songs and nursery rhymes are often pentatonic: Mary had a little lamb; Jesus loves me. There is frequently a sense of grounded serenity in pentatonic hymns, as in the popular Come and find the quiet centre (BEACH SPRING). It is possible that an instinctive inclination toward the first three notes of the natural harmonic series (do-mi-so) account for this commonality in folk melodies, or it may be related to the greater difficulty of singing semitones; it is beyond the scope and intention of this article to explore this further. Suffice it to say that, once a tune is recognized as pentatonic (it makes for an interesting exercise to go through one's hymnbook and label each one), it can be performed in a variety of ways not always possible for a diatonic melody. Canonic treatment Canons, or rounds, can of course be sung with diatonic tunes, as long as the harmonic structure of each line remains identical and entries obey that pattern. Freed from this constraint, canons based on a pentatonic melody can have entries coming at any point, always with an aurally pleasing result. In a large assembly, this would make for a dense and colourful tapestry of sound as the layers of melody increase. Take, for instance, the spiritual I've got peace like a river (example 1). Imagine the effect if the first stanza (peace like a river) were to be sung by a soloist or the choir, the congregation joined in on stanza 2 (joy like a fountain), and on stanza 3 the magnitude of an ocean of love were illustrated by groups around the church coming in a measure at a time as the song leader pointed to them! (Unaccompanied, of course, to avoid muddying the waters with non-pentatonic notes.) This can be powerful stuff; for it to work best it is important that the congregation know the song well - a simple tune keeps everyone from getting lost in the tonal melee. Some rehearsing beforehand will make the process apparent, and let everyone know which group they belong to. It is also advisable to explain briefly, orally or in church bulletin notes, the reason for this departure from the accustomed mode of hymn singing. In my experience few people (including the clergy) will resist an occasional hymn treatment such as this if the intention and the expected result are laid out for them. corollary, of course, is the caveat: Don't do this just for novelty; know why you want to create a cumulative effect. Sometimes a two-part canon is more figuratively aligned with the text. In the hymn Into the unshaped silence (PRIMROSE) the last stanza begins God calls us all to join and sing the wonder of the earth. …

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