ANALYSIS FROM GARY BURTONS SOLO ON WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED LOVE

Written by Nstor Jaime Prez Garca

First week assignment
Subject: Improvisation Course(Coursera)
Teacher: Gary Burton
The song What is this thing called love, written by Cole Porter, is divided into four 8-bar
length sections, being a typical example of a 32 bar piece(AABA). The A's share the same
chord progression and B works as a bridge to add some variety with change of tonal
center for a couple of measures.
On the first A section, Mr. Burton works mostly with straight eigth notes, a couple of
quarter notes and a couple of triplets. The lines of this section are fluent and feature
second and third melodic intervals to outline the chord changes. The chord tones are
embellisehd with approach notes, enclosures and other chromatism to add some color and
surprise to the line.
On the second A's section first four bars, a new rhytmic figure is introduced to create some
contrast.The quarter notes triplet tied to the next quarter note create a nice time feel as
they anticipate the changes. The melodic intervals are mostly seconds and a distinctive
fifth(or fourth working as an inversion) at each micro section. Chromatism is widely used
on the triplets. The last 4 bars of this section are approached similar to the first A section,
but keeping the chord anticipation as a distinctive feature.
The bridge or B section ist approached in a whole different way, as it is needed to add
some strong contrast and variation. Mr. Burton works here with a characteristic sixth
melodic interval and a syncopated eight-quarter-eight note rhythmic figure with some slight
variations and keeping the chord anticipation and rhytmic displacement.
The final A section of the piece, features eight and quarter notes most of the time, with
some reference to previously used rhythmic figures as the eight-quarter-eight(from the B
section) syncope. The lines have a nice melodic contour. They change direction often and
the use of second melodic intervals with some leaps (fifth,sixths, sevenths)between them,
add interest to the melody. This final section works, in my opinion, as a summary of the
different resources that were used during the solo.
The style of the solo ist mostly bebop related with widespread use of chromatism and the
rhytimic displacements.