Dick de Graaf

Fourth Stream ahead: towards new directions in jazz harmony

I want to investigate how I can contribute to the development of new directions in jazz harmony by stimulating creative jazz musicians to integrate non-functional harmonic systems in their compositions and improvisations by importing concepts from landmarks created by impressionist and serial composers.
Besides analysing the works and ideas of these composers of classical music I will also evaluate compositions and arrangements written by third stream and avant-garde jazz musicians as they once wrote to incorporate similar ‘foreign' elements.
Third and most important part of my research will be to create an experimental model using non-functional harmony to generate new compositions and to design new improvisational patterns for a set of four ‘hybrid' chamber music ensembles. The experiments will be carried out by myself and by participating professional musicians and music students, all of them with different backgrounds in jazz and contemporary music and at different stages of their careers.

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