Titles as Metaphors for Structures in the Music of John Coltrane1

Kenneth William Cook

Abstract
Lakoff and Johnson (1980) have shown that we live by metaphors, i.e. we use metaphors to understand our physical,
emotional, and social worlds. Extending that analysis to music, we argue that jazz saxophonist John Coltrane (1926-1967)
used metaphors when he named his compositions. In particular, we propose that the titles Equinox, Fifth House, and Giant
Steps can be seen as metaphors for musical structures found in those pieces. This extended use of metaphor interconnects
verbal language and the language of music and has applicability in the realm of language learning and teaching.

Introduction
The idea of using music and songs to teach Coltrane pieces that we will analyze are
second languages is not new, naturally because Equinox (recorded in 1960 on the album
they appeal to learners.2 Often, song lyrics are Coltrane’s Sound), Fifth House (recorded in
used as language input to teach vocabulary, 1959 on Coltrane Jazz) and Giant Steps
grammar, pronunciation, or cultural (recorded in 1959 on Giant Steps). The three
references. Sometimes, music is also used to pieces belong to the period when Trane was
stimulate discussion (e.g., Helgesen & Brown, recording his own group on the Atlantic label.
2007, p. 48). What we explore in this paper is These recordings were made shortly after the
something rather different. Coming from recordings on Kind of Blue, the famous 1959
linguistic and music interdisciplinary Columbia album on which Trane plays tenor
perspectives, we suggest that music titles may sax as a member of the Miles Davis quintet.
connect intimately with the composer’s life Before analyzing the Coltrane pieces, we
history, contemporary culture, and the would like to note the following. Metaphors
structure of the music piece itself. As such, an are usually conceived of in a verbal language;
investigation into music titles may enable for example, the metaphor ‘love is war’ is
language learners to go beyond learning stated in one and the same verbal language, i.e.
language forms and to explore the target English.3 In this paper, we have extended the
language and culture more deeply, as well as concept of metaphor to involve two types of
to develop a more profound appreciation of language. A title is in a verbal language while
the music itself. what it corresponds to in a musical piece is in
In this paper, we propose that the titles of the language of music.
at least three works by the late jazz saxopho-
nist John Coltrane are metaphors for the Equinox
musical structures in the pieces themselves. The most obvious connection between the
Of course we cannot say that Trane title of this piece and the music Trane
(Coltrane’s nickname) necessarily named his composed for it is the fact that he was born
works using metaphors for structures in the on September 23rd (1926), the autumnal
pieces, but it is very likely that he did, given equinox, one of the two days during the year
that he was “always playing with words,” “had when the day and night are of equal length.
a subtle sense of humor,” and was “often One could just assume that he named a piece
forming jokes by varying words and phrases” after his birthday, but we think there is more
(Simpkins, 1989, p. 29, 32). He also had a to be said than that.
keen interest in musical structure and analysis First of all, as pointed out by Cole (1993),
of classical music as well as jazz. The three Trane was very familiar with astrology. “When
______________________

Cook, K. & Alfonso, R. (2013). Titles as metaphors for structures in the music of John Coltrane. Hawaii Pacific University
TESOL Working Paper Series 11, 52-58.
Website: http://www.hpu.edu. Authors’ emails: Ken Cook <[email protected]>, Russell Alfonso <[email protected]>
he started publishing his own music the the distance from the tonal center of the piece
names that he gave to specific pieces to the highest note is equal to the distance
acknowledged this fact: Fifth House (1959), from the tonal center to the lowest note. For
Equinox (1960), Crescent (1964), Sun Ship us, this is iconic for the night and day being of
(1965), Cosmos (1965), Leo (1966), Mars equal length on the equinox.
(1967), Venus (1967), Saturn (1967), and Example (1) is a transcription of Equinox
Jupiter (1967)" (p. 23). from the original in Db minor to C# minor,
Simpkins (1989) has this to say about which is the enharmonic equivalent of Db. In
Equinox. “Equinox is a moving [minor] blues this transcription, C# is the tonal center. G#
in which the note D-flat is at the center of the is the lowest note of the melody and F# is the
melody – equally distant from the lowest and highest note. G# and F# are both equidistant
the highest note of the melody. Speculation (exactly a perfect fourth away) from the tonal
leads to the idea that D-flat represented the center. These three notes can be seen in the
equinox” (p. 122). first two measures of the third line of the
We found this statement by Simpkins transcription.
after we had independently discovered that

Example 1: Equinox

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Fifth House
As mentioned above, Fifth House is one of in other cases of Coltrane numbers, it is very
the Coltrane titles that can be analyzed as likely that there was more than one motiva-
related to astrology. The fifth house is that of tion for the title. In our analysis of Fifth
the sun and Leo. Ratliff (2007) states that the House, we focus on the melody and interpret
piece “Fifth House is based on Tadd the title as relating to a “house of fifths,”
Dameron’s Hot House” (p. 4), and Hot more precisely to a piece of musical “architec-
House itself “borrows from the chord ture” in which the most basic component of
changes of the standard What is This Thing the melody is the perfect fifth. Example (2)
Called Love” (p. 52). Simpkins (1989) also presents our analysis of the melody, which
observes that the chord structure of Fifth begins with the primary musical idea, which
House is similar to that of What Is This Thing itself is followed by a melodic sequential
Called Love and relates that song to the repetition.
astrological fifth house by observing that the The harmonic implications of the melody
fifth house is the house of love, as well as show a compression of two perfect fifths: F –
other related phenomena (p. 105). C and Gb – Db and strong perceived linear
We do not reject the astrological explana- cadential motion from Gb to F and Db to C.
tion of Fifth House, but rather assert that, as

Example 2: Fifth House

Giant Steps
Simpkins (1989) claims that “…Giant Steps, Trane himself said that “…the bass line is
derived its name either from its bass line or kind of a loping one. It goes from minor
from the relationship of its chords” (p. 87). thirds to fourths, kind of a lop-sided pattern
In the liner notes of the Giant Steps album, in contrast to moving strictly in fourths or in
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half-steps” (as cited in Simpkins, 1989, p. 87). observations about harmony then proceed to
Simpkins also claims that Trane confided in our analysis of the melody.
his friend, trumpeter Calvin Massey, that a
particular feature about the house in which he The Harmonic Structure of Giant Steps
and his family were living in Queens had The distant key relations defining harmony
inspired the title. Simpkins (1989) states, explain how this work has taken on a
“Between the last step, on the front of the significant role among jazz players. Giant
house, and the street was a long distance Steps is still a test piece for jazz musicians
compared to the previous steps” (p. 87). (Byron & Saylor, 1991). The work poses a
Before discovering these observations by formidable challenge to improvise lines over
Simpkins, we had made our own observation harmonies that shift frequently and radically.
about Giant Steps. In this, perhaps Coltrane’s According to traditional principles of
greatest work, there are two kinds of musical harmony, ii – V progressions (a chord
structural features, melodic and harmonic, progression between chords built on the
which can be seen as having to do with “giant second and fifth degrees of the scale) establish
steps”: in musical terms: (1) the distant or implicate musical keys. The strongest
relations between keys (and this is tantamount harmonic motion is the V – I progression.
to Simpkin’s observation about the relation- Notice the harmonic progression underlying
ship of chords in the piece), and (2) the rising the opening notes of the melody of “Giant
extended sequential steps in the melody, Steps,” given in Example (3).
especially in mm 8 – 15. We begin with our

Example 3: Opening notes of Giant Steps

C#min7(ii) – F#7(V) [turn-around chords] leading to opening chord Bmaj7(I)

Now if one observes the key relations the key of C and the key of G is defined in
between Eb major and the other two keys terms of a difference of only one accidental,
implicated in the work, B major and G major, namely F#. In the classical music of Mozart
clearly the tonality of Eb is centered between and Haydn, the most typical kind of “close”
G, a major third above, and B [enharmonically modulation would be from tonic to dominant,
equivalent to Cb], a major third below. The which is a perfect fifth away from the tonic.
logical consequence of mediant key relations Another type of close modulation would
is that such keys are not closely related to the involve a major key and its relative minor, so,
home key. What the title Giant Steps refers for example, it would not be a great leap or
to for us, then, is the distant relations between step to modulate from the key of C major to
keys a major third from the tonal center Eb. the key of A minor; since their key signatures
According to traditional principles of are identical.
music theory, keys are closely related through The harmonic profile of Giant Steps has
the “cycle of fifths.” So the distance between been widely acknowledged in some of the

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musical literature. In an interview mentioned especially in light of Coltrane’s own remarks.
in Ratliff (2007), Coltrane himself remarked: However, we believe the significance of the
"Giant Steps, everything I did on that was melody is that it relates melodic structure to
harmonic exploration, harmonic sequences the song’s title.
that I wasn't familiar with prior to that. I was The first thing to notice is that the majori-
working strictly from a chordal-sequential ty of notes in the melody occur on strong
progression-pattern, and not melodically" (p. beats of the measure, i.e., beats 1 and 3.
53). Another property of the melody is that the
notes are of long duration: dotted quarter
The Melodic Structure of Giant Steps notes, half notes, whole notes, and tied whole
Despite Coltrane’s words, the work does notes. The musical metaphor relates the title’s
contain a melody, but it is unusual in the suggestion of heavy-footedness to the fact
sense that such a melody is not the focal that the melody consists of notes of long
center of the work, rather it is understated, duration occurring on strong beats.
consisting of melodic sequences that resemble The linear character of the melody also
more a sequential musical exercise than a exemplifies the giant “musical steps”
classical melody. (A melody in the classical suggested by the song’s title. The extended
sense is always the focus of attention with melodic sequence, mm. 8 – 15, builds to the
subordinate harmony used to support or climax, the last and highest note of the piece,
accompany the melody.) In short, the notes of Bb. See example 4.
the melody are apparently quite incidental,

Example 4: Giant Steps mm. 5 – 16:

The giant steps or leaps heard in this note G moving down by whole step to F and
passage are defined by the interval of a perfect then taking a leap or giant step up to Bb. The
fourth preceded by a major second interval. first repetition of the motif comes in measure
Measure 8 begins the sequence with a 10 where we see the note B moving down by
statement of the motif that starts with the whole step to A and then moving up to D.
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The genius of Coltrane can be observed in the C#. The same logic applies to the final
third and fourth repetitions of the motif. He repetition of the motif: beginning with the
avoids a literal repetition by altering the note G in the 14th measure, the 9th of the
second note by simply repeating the first note, Fmin9 chord, which is followed by a
thereby creating a non-chord or suspended repetition of that note instead of moving
tone: in the 12th measure the first note is a D#, down a whole step to F, which would be the
and instead of moving down by whole step to note of natural resolution, but which the ear
C#, the note the ear expects, the note D# is supplies. The climactic note of the work is the
repeated before moving up to F#. Since the note Bb, a perfect fourth from the note F.
note D# is a suspended note from the Schematically we see something, illustrat-
previous chord, C#min9, the ear picks up the ed in Example (5), which graphically
note of natural resolution, C#, before hearing resembles an ascension by “giant steps.”
the F# note, which is a perfect fourth from

Example 5: Ascension by “giant steps”

Incidentally, there are three YouTube in both the melody and the harmonic
videos of Giant Steps. One allows the viewer progression.
to see a transcription of the music come to While working on this project, we realized
life note-by-note as Trane plays the music; that there may also be relationships between
another has a robot playing the music, and a titles among the works of Coltrane. As
third projects the step by step construction pointed out above, Trane wrote several
and later decomposition of a Lego-type numbers that can be related to astrology.
building and city in step with Trane’s Equinox is among these, but this piece also
rendition of the piece.4 fits a category of time units. Trane wrote or
recorded several numbers that have to do
Conclusion with time units such as Summertime and My
We have shown that the titles of at least three Shining Hour. In fact, a couple days before
works by jazz saxophonist John Coltrane can recording Equinox, he recorded Mr. Knight
be understood as metaphors for musical (albeit with a k) and Mr. Day. Trane also
structures in the pieces themselves. Equinox recorded Night and Day and The Night We
exemplifies a symmetrical melodic framework Called it a Day.
that corresponds to a time of the year when There is also a recurring theme of build-
night and day are of equal length. In the case ing structures. Giant Steps (in a stairway) and
of Fifth House, the melodic structure together Fifth House both have to do with structures,
with its harmonic implications can be as do some other pieces that Trane recorded,
understood as exemplifying the concept of a namely Stairway to the Stars and Spiral (as in
“house” or a piece of musical architecture spiral stairway). There is also the possibility,
consisting of fifth intervals. Giant Steps, worth exploring, that the musical structures of
interpreted as referencing “distance” in a these pieces are related to each other in some
musical sense, namely, melodic intervals and way. For example, Equinox may be structural-
key relations, can be experienced in the music, ly related to Mr. Knight and Mr. Day. Such
possibilities lie in the realm of future research.

57
 The analysis above is largely a linguistic encourage students to investigate the possible
and music exercise. By bringing this analysis reasons why titles are used in certain ways. In
to TESOL readers, we hope to demonstrate doing so, students can practice reading,
how rich music titles are as a site for cultural, listening, and discussion skills as well as
music, and language explorations. In addition combining their knowledge of and interest in
to presenting music titles and song lyrics as music with language learning.
what they are, ESOL teachers can also

Notes
1 This paper was first presented with the title 2 Tim Murphey has written a great deal about
“Hidden Structures in the Music of John using music to teach language. See, for example,
Coltrane” at the Conference on Music, Lan- Murphey (1992).
guage, and the Mind, which was held at Tufts 3 See Lakoff and Johnson (1980, p. 49) for more
University July 10-13, 2008. We thank Merrill on the ‘love is war’ metaphor and others that
Barrett for finding several books on Coltrane have to do with love.
and the Coltrane CDs listed below for us at 4
For more on the life and music of John
branches of the Hawaii Public Library. We also Coltrane, see Byron and Saylor (1990), Coan
thank Hanh thi Nguyen for helping us connect (1995), Cole (2001), Kahn (2007), Nisenson
our musical analysis to language learning and (1993), Ratliff (2007), Simpkins (1989) and
teaching. Thomas (1976).

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