Introduction
On February 23rd, 1685, George Frideric Handel was born. To honor him, on every February 23 beginning in 2022, all of the 0xDJs in the 0xmusic collection will play in the style of 0xDJ Handel. As you surely suspected, this isn’t a coincidence; one of the most celebrated composers of the Baroque era, Handel created joyful music that has reverberated far beyond his lifetime and chosen genre.
Even Beethoven once said “Handel is the greatest composer that ever lived… I would uncover my head and kneel down on his tomb”.
Today, we’ll dive a little deeper into the style of 0xDJ Handel, and briefly explore why Handel the composer’s work continues to inspire music lovers today.
0xDJ Handel: Generative Polyphony
A musician of Europe’s Baroque era, Handel was distinguished by his distinctive style of counterpoint and overflowing sense of joy. He’s known for skillfully incorporating fugal techniques into several of his compositions. 0xDJ Handel was inspired by the joyful essence of Handel’s music, and spins his tunes in the counterpoint style.
When I was younger and listened to fugues by Bach and Handel, I wondered if they were better suited for machines to play because I felt the dexterity required challenged the limits of human ability. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about here, playing these fugues (or other kinds of counterpoint) on the piano is akin to trying to simultaneously write a different word with your left and right hands: the degree of independence required from both hands is difficult at best. My piano teacher wisely told me to quit while I was ahead. 0xDJ Handel explores this idea of two independent voices played together in a generative form to create a sum greater than the individual parts.
Echoing the arrangement of Baroque-era fugues, 0xDJ Handel is a polyphonic dialogue between two musical lines, a tenor and a bass. However, the DJ leans more toward a form of Generative Invention than that of a fugue, or other more traditional styles of counterpoint that incorporate deliberate imitation (although, give the DJ a few billion years, and it might inadvertently compose a fugue: the rule engine certainly does not disallow this).
Since music is best listened to before analyzing, have a listen below to the Invention by 0xDJ Handel. The second half of the video repeats the piece displayed with a piano score, so watching that will provide a little more context on the brief analysis below.
Here’s a link to the sheet music for the Invention.
One of the first things we can observe is that unlike a lot of the Inventions of past eras, the melodic lines of the tenor are allowed to leap arbitrary amounts within an octave, giving it its signature angular accents. This can sound like some “high” notes appearing seemingly out of nowhere.
Played in isolation, the tenor voice may sound disjunctive, but played together with the bass, it isn’t. The bass usually comes with sequences that establish stability, and a sense of grounding to the pieces. You can hear and see an example of this repeating line in Invention #1 starting around this point in the video.
The bass is both more sporadic and less likely to be playing with the same meter as the tenor, serving as a counterbalancing force biased towards consonant intervals. But unlike traditional counterpoint, strong beats needn’t always be consonant, and dissonances needn’t always be passing. The dissonances are key to providing tension to the pieces (though that may be more a matter of taste).
An interesting and perhaps even focal point in this piece is a sequence of parallel sixths (starting here).
Upon closer inspection of this sequence, we notice the rule engine inserted a “hard” dissonance in there as well. So subtle that it’s easy to wonder if it’s an auditory illusion, it’s admittedly pretty hard to catch by ear (even I tried and failed several times), so I’ll point it out here in red.
For those of you inclined, revisit the musescore link, fast forward to this section about 12 seconds in, and let me know if you’re able to pick that up by ear. Leave a comment here or find me on Discord or Twitter and let me know your thoughts.
Once a motif has been established, the piece dances around the motif, and always re-establishes itself in the tonic before forming the next part. This dance back to the tonic also effectively functions as a cadence within any piece. Cadence has also been programmed to emerge at other points within some of 0xDJ Handel’s pieces.
Can you point out any others in Invention #1? As always, leave a comment or DM me on Twitter or Discord if you did.
The 0xDJs with longer cycle lengths emphasize the motif more with increased repetition, which can also feel more satisfying to the listener.
Handel: a brief appreciation
Handel spent a lot of his early career in Italy, where his mastery of Italian opera earned him international fame. He would go on to become one of the most prolific and influential composers of the Baroque era, writing 42 operas, 29 oratorios, and more than 120 cantatas. Handel’s music influenced the work of Mozart, Beethoven, Hayden, and even Brahms.
So what is it about Handel’s music that has captivated the hearts of so many over the centuries?
First of all, if you’re not sure whether you’ve heard any of Handel’s music, there’s a decent chance it has crossed your mind in moments of rejoicing or relief. Does this sound familiar?
The famous Hallelujah Chorus is one of the 53 movements that make up Handel’s Messiah Oratorio. What’s perhaps one of the most impressive aspects of this feat is that all 259 pages of this oratorio were written in around three weeks (not including several tweaks over the subsequent years). Its original musical arrangement was pretty barebones, but subsequent renditions over time have made it a far more grandiose affair, incorporating instruments that weren’t scored in the original. Mozart’s rendition, for example, incorporated flutes.
So what is it that gives Hallelujah its anthemic and timeless feel? Let’s take a look under the hood.
The piece begins with a bang with the iconic line “Hallelujah!” Handel masterfully uses different musical textures here to maintain vibrancy of the piece for the first minute or so, alternating between homophony (shown in blue), monophony (shown in red), and polyphony (shown in green).
After a very bright intro, there is a sudden noticeable drop in volume and intensity with the line “the kingdom of this world is become”. The change in volume and intensity keeps the piece dynamic and moving forward. If you’re listening to this piece for the first time, there’s a good chance you look up at this point wondering what happened. From here, the track once again pivots to a polyphony in a fugue style. This refers to a form of polyphony where different voices “imitate” each other (marked in yellow below). This section also re-introduces a melodic complexity with this style of counterpoint that was very typical of music in this era.
From here, Handel once again reintroduces alternating musical textures to build suspense by having the sopranos singing “king of kings” in monophony, alternating the rest of the choir singing “forever, Hallelujah” in homophony. The sequence ramps up gradually in both pitch and intensity until it hits a point of fever pitch, when as a listener you are begging Handel to give you the sweet release of the original Hallelujah motif. When it comes, it is simply delightful. The piece ends triumphantly, but without being brash.
Handel: a final word for an immortal soul
Handel’s influence on western music is immense.
The Hallelujah Chorus finds itself among the likes of Beethoven’s Ninth and John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme as a shining beacon of musical achievement that has brought so many people joy.
Handel’s legacy extends far beyond this one piece. He has been an inspiration to many of his contemporaries.
Even after centuries, his music lives on to remind us that music is one of the great joys of the human experience.
Already immortalized in the minds and hearts of so many, Handel’s influence will now also be immortalized on the Ethereum blockchain: every year on February 23rd, all of the 0xDJs will pay tribute to him. Even with his genius, I doubt Handel could have imagined that.