Pat Metheny Group The Way Up: What Is Modular Composition?

Harmony, motivic development, and the technique of 'Modular Composition' in The Way Up by Pat Metheny&Lyle Mays - Analysis

The music of Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays

First Circle by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays

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[HareBrand]

Great analysis. Over the years I've come to emotionally associate that snippet of the core melody, as kind of a life, and throughout the piece we are witnessing the life of this melody, through all the twists and turns, but yet it still perseveres and fights on, until, in the finale, it is old and weak, worn from it's journey, but still identifiable as it was "in the beginning." It's a beautiful profound composition.

[phunkfarm]

i was at this concert and cried like a baby during the performance. It was chilling.

[boatingnyc]

When I saw them played the way up live it literally stunned the audience of how intense and intelligent this piece was. True brilliance for 2 geniuses that are clearly defined by their body of works

[heavestlus]

Way up is a true master piece. If humankind is going to make to the next century this music will be studied in universities across with Well tempered piano and Mahler symphonies.

[sseltrekab]

"The Way Up" is simply a masterpiece, and witnessing it live was sublime...great analysis- absolutely love how PMG blew out the same motifs throughout the entire piece...Metheny is absolutely a modern-day Mozart...

[SeanFenlon]

I personally consider this recording to be the Apotheosis of Pat Metheny's recording career -- the intersection of jazz and classical -- the intersection of world-class improvisation and architectural composition. I believe this recording will go down in history as one of the most influential recordings of all time and will be analyzed in music text books 100-years from now. The only better example of the motivic development I can think of is the short-short-short-long + short-short-short-long motive as the opening notes of Beethoven's 5th and then developed throughout the Symphony. :-)

[misterfunnybones]

The first time I heard this was live & my first reaction after ~70 minutes was that I could not believe they began & ended the main theme of the composition with a kalimba. It reminds me of Morse code & I thought of Rush YYZ. As a drummer, it was also the first time I'd seen a drummer, Antonio Sanchez, play drums & bass guitar while seated at the kit. Plus the length of the composition is almost like a slap in the face to pop music culture & it's short, incessant, repetitive TR808 quarter note simplicity. I've listened to The Way Up hundreds of times since that first live concert.

[dwreck]

This album was my first experience of Metheny's work, I probably first heard it 8 years ago. It remains my favorite. Thank you for showing how they work with simple material in a sophisticated way - reminds me of Bach.

[eleetse]

I listened to TWU for first time 3 or so years ago. I thought it was new music, it was so fresh and original. When i heard it came out in 2005 i was stunned. My guess is that tWU and all of the Metheny/Mays compositions will live forever and always be new. Pat said in the Rick Beato interview that his biggest following will probably be people who haven’t been born yet. That’s deep — being categorized a jazz artist he knows many people today aren’t listening to jazz as their favorite form of music to pass the time and aren’t familiar with him, but he gets consolation in knowing that music lovers and students will be studying his music from now on forever and ever. Gives me chills.

[josephalvarnas]

An amazing piece of music. The last time that I saw the Pat Metheny Group, they placed this piece in its entirety. Perfectly. Brilliantly. Then after a 15 minute break, they came out and played a full show. Remarkable.

[AndrewColyerMusic]

This is ONE OF MY FAVORITE ALBUMS OF ALL TIME!!! Plus I saw the PMG performing this live on tour. So sad recently about Lyle's passing. But so happy to find your channel here on YouTube! I will be watching all of your videos here. Thank you so much! - Andrew Colyer, New York.

[hansley]

This album is a true masterpiece. A jazz fusion Symphony! The kind of work you have to listen dozens of times before starting to figure out what is happening. It's been almost 8 months now since I regularly listen to this 1st part and yet I have a whole new image of the piece now.
Thanks for this video Dr!

[DawnMcKenziePlus]

Loved this! It's odd that I believe we know this intuitively, but it's so deep inside we need someone like Dr. Shkolnik to peel the layers away for us and reveal those beautiful underpinnings that pull everything together. And we thought it was magic.

[kimberlyandersonamft]

PMG fan for 35 years. Music minor in college. Teach me more. I'm listening. xoxoxo

[The_Lincoln_Penny]

I love your analysis of TWU. THANK YOU. What has always amazed about this piece is it’s stark duplicity in terms of being both complex and simple at the same time. In other words you can listen to it and get hooked on its super simple thematic elements without getting overwhelmed by the complexity . Or you can listen to it from a standpoint of a very complex modern piece and still be moved by the almost pop-music simplicity that’s obvious throughout. Case in point... When TWU was released, my daughter and I listened to it non-stop. After about a month of listening to it, We went to see PMG on the second stop of the TWU tour. To the amazement of the people around us, my then 6 year old daughter was singing along throughout the entire piece during the concert (she sung the wordless vocal part in the “finale “ at the top of her lungs like a little girl at a Miley Cirus concert). There was a music professor who was sitting near us that marveled how a child could understand such complex music. I told him she didn’t understand the complexities of TWU, but she was captivated by its simplicity.

[dukeengine]

Since I discovered this channel I can't stay without it... Please consider to join Pat as I guess we would like each other (in a professional ald artistic way, I mean... 🙂). I have studied jazz piano for years, than moved to classical music to get the right "base", loving Rachmaninov Mozart Chopin Mompou Shostakovich a.s.o. and then gave up. Now that I am ending the rebuild of my piano I receive from you the right spark to get back to the music I really like... Thank you Doc!!!

[Xero]

It's an amazing album and it has a great nostalgic feeling to it. When I heard it for the first time it felt both new and old at the same time. Def among the best Lyle and Pat have ever written <3 (Also I really like the reverb on your keyboard here, gives it a haunting feeling)

[mikeo]

Fascinating presentation, that last note is so impactful.

[drcool-jazz]

These videos are so enjoyable... I listen to them while working... heaven (gan) ;) Thank you

[千葉一輝-hz]

Thank you for bringing up Japanese chord progressions. I always watch your channel from Japan. I really like your interpretation of Pat metheny and refer to it every time. Especially the middle part of "as it is" was very helpful. If you have another chance, I would like to see an analysis of 5-5-7 and other songs.