Spud Murphy Equal Interval System
I love Spud Murphy big band arrangements from the 30's, big fan. I have some materials from that equal interval system in a storage box somewhere in my garage. I think Quincy Jones was a big follower of the Murphy system. Here is a good CD of Spud Murphy arrangements done by Mora's Modern Rhythmists. Composer and arranger Lyle 'Spud' Murphy was best known for developing his pioneering 12-tone Equal Interval System, developed to liberate composers from the constraints of classical forms and Read Full Biography. Biography ↓ Discography ↓ Songs ↓ Credits ↓. In August of 2013 I completed Lyle “Spud” Murphy’s course, the System of Horizontal Composition based on Equal Intervals — or EIS (Equal Interval System). The course teaches composition and arranging in an unconventional way: the emphasis is on technique rather than style or history.
The Equal Interval System®, or EIS®, is an instructional course in music composition, arranging, and orchestration. The work is the expression of Lyle “Spud” Murphy’s® musical theory based on his observations of the harmonic series or “nature’s overtones” along with decades of applying his methods to film scores, television scores, arrangements, and original recordings. His method employs horizontal composition utilizing music intervals and many other unique concepts which also encompass traditional music thought and expand into a completely original unified theory. This system can be used to organize the sounds of any historical period of music while also providing a basis for finding new and unique sounds from the simplest to the most complex relationships possible with 12 equal intervals. Achieving success for over half a century, graduates of this course find they compose better, faster, with fewer mental blocks.
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The Equal Interval System of Horizontal Composition was developed to satisfy the working musician’s need for a theory method which would enable one to express, freely, their own musical ideas. It is a simplified and highly accurate method of counting, or spacing, all of the horizontal and vertical intervals used in modern music. Of greatest importance to the creative musician is the fact that it is designed to utilize, in every possible form, any or all of the intervals found in music including any of the structures employed in the regular systems. This makes it possible to write music in any accepted idiom or to deviate from it in any degree from slightly to completely. Therefore, it can be applied to any existing type of music or it can be the basis for complete originality… it is merely a question of musical architecture. A student of this system has a wide range for self-expression, from conforming to standard practices, or unhampered by the usual restrictions, to composing in extremely free forms.
Composing should be fun and with this method it is. We have no need of mental blocks of any kind. We are supposed to have complete freedom when we have finished the text. It will give us the most pleasure we’ll ever receive from any musical activity involving study.
A musical system, if it is to have any value to a composer, must have a unifying principal. The conventional system does this through the use of a “key” which stresses the strong intervals. But the patterns from which one has to work are limited and have been exploited to the point of exhaustion. Some modern writing is a mixture of diatonic patterns liberally sprinkled with experiments by the composer and these do not always gel, as there is no real unifying principle involved. The unifying principle of this system is the use of Equal Intervals plus upper partials and the patterns are therefore unlimited. This method is not experimental since it has proved completely successful on numerous recordings and in television and motion picture scores.
Whoever absorbs the knowledge available in the course and masters the method of producing patterns will evolve his or her own style of playing or writing music. The graduates of this system are creative individualists.
-Lyle “Spud” Murphy
Composer, Arranger, Musician, Author
“It’s a killer course. I highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to seriously study music.”
“You can look forward to developing your hands, your ears and your mind. An unstoppable combination when it comes to music.”
“A work of this nature can only serve to aid aspiring jazz pianists to achieve more harmonies and creative avenues.”
“I first came to Spud with the idea of learning some simple techniques for arranging and orchestrating. Five years later, I found that every aspect of my perception of music had transformed.”
“The course takes a lot of hard work and dedication, but you get twice as much out of it as what you put into it.” Robin hood: the legend of sherwood free download.
This work can only serve to facilitate and inspire journeys to new and uncharted musical terrain.”
“Spud is a music composition detective. He has discovered new ways to create core ideas that enable students to develop their own music composition language.”
“If you are a writer of words, you are limited if your vocabulary is weak and if you only know a few ways of combining those words. EIS® gives you a huge musical vocabulary.”
“EIS has increased my ability to hear, arrange and to improvise all kinds of music.”
“EIS is probably the only system that seamlessly incorporates jazz, classical and scoring into one succinct course.”
“Spud’s ideas shine like a brilliant spotlight on music of all kinds: classical, jazz, and pop. Far from posing a threat to traditional theory, Spud’s concepts expand and illuminate centuries-old musical doctrines.”
Miko Stefanovic (August 19, 1908 – August 5, 2005), better known as Lyle 'Spud' Murphy, was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, and arranger.
Early life[edit]
Mark of the ninja: remastered download torrent. Born Miko Stefanovic to Serbian émigré parents in Berlin, Germany, Murphy grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he took the name of a childhood friend.
Music career[edit]
Murphy studied clarinet and saxophone when young and took trumpet lessons from Red Nichols's father. He worked with Jimmy Joy in 1927–28 and with Ross Gorman and Slim Lamar (on oboe) in 1928. He worked in the early 1930s as saxophonist and arranger for Austin Wylie, Jan Garber, Mal Hallett, and Joe Haymes, then became a staff arranger for Benny Goodman from 1935–1937. At the same time he contributed arrangements for the Casa Loma Orchestra, Isham Jones, and Les Brown.
From 1937–1940 Murphy led a big band, and from 1938–39 recorded for Decca Records and Bluebird Records. In the 1940s he moved to Los Angeles, where worked in studios and film music, in addition to writing and teaching the 1200-page System of Horizontal Composition (a.k.a. 'Equal Interval System'). He recorded two jazz albums in the 1950s, but his later career was focused on classical and film music. In the film world, Murphy was staff composer and arranger for Columbia Pictures under Morris Stoloff. He worked on over 50 films, including The Tony Fontane Story, which won him the Neff Award for best music score.
In addition to being a talented composer, arranger, and musician, Murphy became a renowned educator, writing over 26 books on various topics in music, such as instrumental techniques and music theory. His crowning achievement was his 12-volume course in composing, arranging, and orchestration for the professional musician titled The Equal Interval System. He taught mostly in Los Angeles but also a special course at the Mount Royal Conservatory in Calgary, Canada. He was an instructor who was voted Educator of the Year in 1990 by the Los Angeles Jazz Society. Murphy died in Los Angeles two weeks short of his 97th birthday. In 2003, orchestra leader Dean Mora, a friend of Murphy, recorded some two dozen of his arrangements in a tribute CD, Goblin Market.
Equal Interval System (EIS)[edit]
The Equal Interval System (EIS) (also known as the System of Horizontal Composition based on Equal Intervals) is a modern system of music composition developed by Murphy over a lifetime of research. Several courses based upon the EIS system are taught at Pasadena City College. Many notable composers and arrangers have been students of the Equal Interval System, such as Tom Chase, Gerald Wiggins, Jimmie Haskell, Richard Firth, Mary Ekler, David Blumberg, Steve Marston, Clair Marlo, Dan Sawyer, Don Novello, Don Peake, Danny Pelfrey, Craig Sharmat, Scott Paige, James L. Venable, Marcos Valle and Oscar Peterson.
Discography[edit]
- Four Saxophones in Twelve Tones (GNP Crescendo, 1955)
- New Orbits in Sound (GNP Crescendo, 1955–57)
- Gone with the Woodwinds (Contemporary, 1955)
- Twelve-Tone Compositions and Arrangements by Lyle (Contemporary, 1955)
References[edit]
- Dean Mora's Modern Rhythmists, Goblin Market (Mr. Ace Records)
- Scott Yanow, Spud Murphy Allmusic
External links[edit]
Spud Murphy Equal Interval System Equation
- Spud Murphy at Find a Grave