@otfz72 said:

This is really fun to read and I think it's awesome that you've analyzed these jams so thoroughly. I do feel inclined to chime in and say that your description of "modulation vs. tonicization" is a bit inaccurate, however. You have the idea right, but in practice tonicization only refers to tonicizing a new pitch for literally as little as one bar, or in many cases even only one beat. For instance every 12 bar blues progression has a tonicization in it when we emphasize the dominant 7th on the one chord and feel that strong pull to the four chord. These moments, referred to as "secondary dominants", are when tonicizations occur. They would be labelled in a harmonic analysis as such "V7/IV" or "V/vi" and verbalized "five or four" or "five of six." These occur routinely in everything from Bach to Taylor Swift and thus the term "tonicization" has been created to give this a name without having to call it a "modulation." A true modulation, when analyzing a Bach fugue for instance, will regularly only last a couple of bars. The middle part of any Mozart movement in Sonata Allegro form functions solely to have fun with modulation and at that point will move from key to key in the course of a few bars. These short diversions would all be labelled as true "modulations" when doing a harmonic analysis, not tonicizations. You said yourself that picking 2 minutes was arbitrary, but I'll offer that it's actually lead to an inaccurate analysis. That Bowie on 8/16 for instance, ABSOLUTELY modulated. (and god it was fucking awesome!) Anyway, just wanted to chime in as phish discussion rarely allows for this level of theory nerdom. I appreciate the opportunity for discussion!

Thanks for your comments. It's so great to find readers/listeners who can discuss at this high level.

So, I think what you're saying is that I'm not using the terms "tonicization" and "modulation" in the same way you would when undertaking an analysis of Baroque or Classical music, and that's certainly a valid point. I understand what these terms represent in the analysis of classical music (secondary dominants, etc.). I've tried to adapt them as broad concepts that aid in the analysis of improvisational rock, and that turns out not to have a one-to-one relationship. But I think it's essential when you're mapping an interpretive framework onto a new repertoire.

I'm trying to use both terms, tonicization and modulation, in a way that represents "going somewhere else," with the distinction being how long they spend in another key. You could, in a sense, map the point you make about tonicization above (i.e. "tonicizing a new pitch for literally as little as one bar, or in many cases even only one beat" onto "being in a new key for a relatively short period of time," as I think is true of the examples I've given above.

"Modulation," then, becomes "being in a new key on a semi-permanent basis," which maps onto what you said about Bach fugues ("only last a few bars" or Mozart ("the course of a few bars" . Within what I've called modulation, I've determined there's a distinction between "structural modulation" (somewhat arbitrarily defined as lasting more than two minutes) and "last-minute swerves" (key changes at the end of jams that set up segues into new songs, and don't seem to serve any other purpose, i.e. new jamming spaces).

I'm not sure I agree that the two-minute time limit is misleading. I really do believe there's a difference between the two groups, structural MODs and last-minute swerves, and I think the jams in each group do share properties that are unique to the group. Practically speaking, it was also a way of narrowing a batch of about 50 jams down to the 37 that I discuss in this paper, which is a slightly more manageable serving size. But your point is well-taken, namely that using terms designed for the analysis of the classical music repertoire don't necessarily translate exactly to a new body of music.

My preference, really, is to never have to use the term "modulation." When I'm discussing this casually with friends or whatever, I usually just say, "That jam went from X to Y," rather than "that jam modulated from X to Y." Using tonicization versus modulation is me trying to account for how long the band spends time in the new key(s).