When naming this improvisation, I was inspired by another myth. In Greek Orphic mythology, the White Cypress is a beautiful object placed at the crossroads between remembrance and forgetfulness in the Underworld. In this Greek Orphic tradition, the cypress is a signpost at a fork in the road where seekers choose between the waters of Lethe (Forgetfulness) and Mnemosyne (Remembrance). In another Greek myth, the cypress (sometimes white cypress) also symbolises grief, from the Greek tragedy of Cyparissus — a youth who was transformed into a cypress by Apollo after succumbing to grief because he accidentally killed his pet stag. The cypress tree image becomes a mournful landmark. I felt these myths represented the sorrow with glimmers of light and hope that I felt in the music, along with an uncertain and questioning quality. I didn’t feel the music was succumbing to tragedy though — for me there was brightness and searching alongside the heartache, as represented by the idea of the decision at the Orphic crossroads — choosing between revelation of our true nature, or losing our identity to oblivion. And so I named this piece “The Orphic Cypress”.
I started by alternating between the sorrowful C Aeolian mode and the more reaching-brightening of the C melodic minor. I use the term “C melodic minor” here in the jazz theory or modal sense of the ascending form (this piece is not jazz though, it is modal contemporary classical in style). Although the C Aeolian mode (natural minor) is like the descending part of the classical melodic minor (which is different ascending and descending), I used it more fully as the Aeolian mode due to using diatonic chords and Aeolian melody both ascending and descending. If I had used the Aeolian notes purely as a descending pattern and the melodic minor notes purely as an ascending pattern, then it could have been classified as the classical version of the melodic minor, but instead my use of it was more modal. This reflected the more ambiguous quality, like standing at the crossroads between remembrance and forgetting — and questioning — do we want to remember, or do we want to forget? Which direction do we choose?
Next I moved to C Dorian sharp 4 which has a darkness due to being a mode of the harmonic minor, and due to its minor 3rd degree; and brightness due to it’s sharp 4th and major 6th. Again, embodying that ambiguity and searching quality.
Then I modulated to the F Dorian sharp 4 mode. This time the texture largely consisted of a single-line melody in the right hand and a slightly simpler broken chord accompaniment in the left hand. That single-line melody felt more solitary — like the sorrowful, lonely, haunted cypress tree.
Then there was a brightening with a move to D flat Lydian. The Lydian mode is luminous, and otherworldly — apt for a portrait of an Otherworld like the Underworld.
Next I used diatonic chord planing in the form of descending fast broken chords/arpeggios in the right hand with a tonic pedal bass in the left hand: First in the mournful C Aeolian mode, then in the brighter A♭ Lydian mode; alternating between the two. This brightening felt a little like the clarity of remembrance, or is it more like the flash of a brief ungraspable melody that then fragments and floats away, thus being more like forgetting? The Lydian mode is ambiguous like that: sometimes clear and bright, sometimes ethereal and fragile. It’s an unstable mode, ungrounded, often feeling like it is on the verge of disintegrating. Or drifting away.
Then I played a slower and sparser-textured version of the opening theme in C minor as a coda.
To close, I preceded the final cadence with a Neapolitan 6th: a major chord in 1st inversion built on the flattened supertonic within a minor key. This is a very Romantic tradition (also found a lot in Beethoven’s music, and he was late Classical), and I frequently find myself influenced and inspired by Romantic era compositional features. Sometimes the deeply emotive style of Romantic tradition gestures is the best way to say what needs to be said.
Note names and parent scales
| Mode | Notes | Parent scale | Modal origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| C Aeolian | C D E♭ F G A♭ B♭ | E♭ major | 6th mode of major (natural minor) |
| C melodic minor (ascending) | C D E♭ F G A B | C melodic minor | 1st mode of melodic minor, i.e. root scale |
| C Dorian ♯4 | C D E♭ F♯ G A B♭ | G harmonic minor | 4th mode of harmonic minor |
| F Dorian ♯4 | F G A♭ B C D E♭ | C harmonic minor | 4th mode of harmonic minor |
| D♭ Lydian | D♭ E♭ F G A♭ B♭ C | A♭ major | 4th mode of major |
| A♭ Lydian | A♭ B♭ C D E♭ F G | E♭ major | 4th mode of major |
Interval formulas
Aeolian (natural minor)
1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7
Melodic minor (ascending form)
1 2 ♭3 4 5 6 7
Dorian ♯4
1 2 ♭3 ♯4 5 6 ♭7
Lydian
1 2 3 ♯4 5 6 7
Further reading and listening
Complete Guide to Modes of the Major, Melodic Minor, and Harmonic Minor Scales
Fantasia in E — Improvisation in E Aeolian, B♭ Lydian, A Mixolydian ♭6 & E Dorian
Asphodel Twilight — Improvisation in E Dorian, D Dorian ♯4, B♭ Lydian & D Mixolydian ♭6
Bluebell — Improvisation in F Dorian & Dorian ♯4, C Phrygian, G & C Mixolydian ♭6
