My medley of pentatonic melodies for high G ukulele has grown into 76 bars on four pages. This new length far exceeds the “short” pieces I had intended for the Chinese Zodiac set. Rather than reducing “Holy Cow” to two pages, I wrote a new piece for the Chinese Zodiac sign of the ox, bull, or cow. It’s called “Sacred Cow” for a good reason.
While “holy cow” refers to an expression of surprise, “sacred cow” means something entirely different altogether. “Sacred cow” refers to something so respected that it is free from criticism or question. This “something” could be an institution, person, or belief.
My “Holy Cow” pentatonic piece has grown into a medley of 12 pentatonic melodies in F major and C major pentatonic scales. It has become a project for Lent, as it begins with Largo, the slow movement from the New World Symphony. Get it? Lent = lente = slow = largo.
Intention
I consider writing “Sacred Cow” to be a second chance to write a new piece for the Chinese Zodiac Suite (yes! this is the new name and title for my project). I choose a time signature I have either not used or not exploited sufficiently. 3/4 and 6/8 time. I choose the D major pentatonic scale because it allows playing the main melodies on the first three frets.
Inspiration
“Sacred Cow” begins with the relaxed melody of Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite – Morning Moods.
And then it smoothly sails into the pentatonic melody of the second movement of Anton Dvorak’s New World Symphony. The famous Largo is originally in 4/4 time, but I change it to 3/4 time to make a seamless transition from 6/8 time.
I love the transition from G minor the D major chord on the same note. With the chords, it’s ideally played as a duet. One plays the melody (as written) and the other plays the chords.
Advanced players can also play chord melody from the chords and melody I indicated.
“Sacred Cow” ends as it begins, a return to Grieg’s pentatonic melody. D.C. al Coda means return to the beginning (of the piece) until you see “To Coda” then you skip to the Coda section.
Revisions and updates
In preparing these 12 pentatonic pieces for publication, I decided to change the title of “Year of the Snake” to “Snake Eyes” in line with naming each piece with two words that mean something. I will explain in my next blog post, for I have added chords to the melody.
Chinese Zodiac Suite
All 12 pieces are written for high G ukulele. All twelve are pentatonic. Each piece is dedicated to one of the 12 animals in the 12 Chinese Zodiac Cycle.
- Counting Sheep, Counting Sheep to Sleep
- Gift Horse
- Year of the Snake
- Dragon Born
- Rabbit Hole
- Two Tigers
- Holy Cow – Sacred Cow (this blog post)
- Rat Race
- Guinea Pig
- Doggy Bag
- Rooster – Chicken Feed
- Monkey Around
For other recent compositions and arrangements by Anne Ku, please visit the Daily Music Writing Project or scroll through the consecutive blog posts.
