When sheâs not touring the world with the Decemberists, collaborating with an array of local musicians, or writing and recording her own solo works, Jenny Conlee teaches pianoâmostly via Zoom.
So she was fully prepared, when asked during an interview, to explain the seven ancient Greek musical scalesâor modesâthat form the foundation of about half of her new album Tides: Pieces for Accordion and Piano, which also happens to come out on Friday via Jealous Butcher Records.
âI've been wanting to write pieces in the modes for a long time,â she says, pulling her keyboard towards her with a practiced motion. âBecause Iâm a piano teacher and an accordion teacher, I wanted to write teaching pieces to explain how those [scales] sound.â
Most of the Greek scales have unique qualitiesâa sharp note here, a flat note thereâthat make them sound and feel exotic to our ears, which are accustomed to hearing music in the major and minor scales most commonly used in Western music.
Major and minor scales tend to provide our brains with a feeling of completion and stability by resolving from dissonance to consonance, Conlee explained. The Greek scales donât have the same intervals, so they donât really resolve in the same way.
âThey always seem kind of like theyâre floating because we canât feel the root note,â she said. âYou canât find âhome,â so it feels a little bit drifty.â
Thatâs why the first half of Tides: Pieces for Accordion and Piano evokes a sense of melancholy for many people. Conlee wrote its seven tracks for solo accordion using the Greek modes as a framework and the Washington coastline as inspiration.
âI submitted a proposal for an artistsâ residency at the SouâWester Lodge [in Seaview, Wash.] and the idea was that Iâd write songs in each of the Greek modes and theyâd be based on folk tales,â she said. âBut when I got out there, I decided Iâd just base them on what I was seeing, because I would get up in the morning, go to the beach and be like, âI want to try to make the sound of the sand. What mode would that be?ââ
The answer, it turns out, is the Aeolian mode, a minor scale that gives the song âSandâ a sort of wispy, slowly shifting feel. âWind,â on the other hand, was written in the Phrygian mode, Conlee said, so it would âsound like a whirling dervish kind of thing.â The suiteâs penultimate track, âShell,â is unmistakably somber, thanks to the Locrian modeâs dissonant tonic triad, while âDune Grassâ flutters playfully atop deeply rooted chords in the Lydian mode.Â
âThe classic Lydian song,â Conlee says, plunking out some familiar notes, âis the âSimpsonsâ theme song.â
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The second half of Tides features five entrancing, melodic ostinatos for piano, written by Conlee over the past few years. They're good companion pieces and nice palette cleansers, after 21 minutes of distinctive accordion sounds. All five are generally bright, beautiful and, in spots, heavily influenced by jazz giants Chick Corea and Bill Evans.
Conlee credits the SouâWester residency with giving her the time and space to finally complete her long-mulled project, and to stretch her classically trained musical muscles, which she tends to ignore when sheâs busy with Portland-based folk-rock heroes the Decemberists, for whom she has played keyboard and accordion for the past 23 years.
âI like getting to play a grand piano in front of a listening audience to indulge my classical side a little bit,â she said. âI got my degree in piano and then ended up in rock bands, and Iâm definitely happy that Iâm in rock bands because the classical world is very competitive, and Iâm not that kind of player. But I like the music and I like to compose in that way.â
At Sundayâs album-release show at the Old Church, Conlee will not only perform Tides in its entirety, she also plans to project video of coastal Washington to help take the audience back to the place where she wrote the music.
âI really like to think about that place and those things when Iâm playing it, because I want to bring it out so much,â she said. âItâs almost like I made a soundtrack to the ocean, and I want people to see that and feel that.â
Jenny Conlee plays the Tides album-release show at the Old Church, 1422 SW 11th, Sun, March 26, 7:30 pm, $20-25, tickets here, all ages