Lyle 'Spud' Murphy's Equal Interval System. Personal Website. Report this profile; About. I'm a composer/arranger. I've had the pleasure to write and produce music for all types. Lyle Murphy's Horizontal Composition, the Equal Interval System: An Assessment by Michael Mitacek The following is a description of Mr. Lyle Murphy's music composition method, 'Horizontal Composition, the Equal Interval System,' or EIS, in historical context. Oct 22, 2012 Spud Murphy Equal Interval System Sign in to follow this. Spud Murphy Equal Interval System Started by Teasing the Korean, 11 Oct 2012. 13 posts in this topic. Teasing the Korean Super Bad; Members; 7,655 posts. LYLE ”SPUD” MURPHY’S EQUAL INTERVAL SYSTEM® and EIS® are registered trademarks and service marks of Lilith Murphy in the United States and other foreign jurisdictions. Search for: About EIS®paule2019-02-14T22:50:48+00:00. This course includes: Harmony, Melodic Development, Composition, Arranging and Orchestration. The Equal Interval System® is a complete method that proposes new relationships and techniques unique to Horizontal Composition, while encompassing Diatonic, Classical, Contemporary or Pop sounds, and approaches.
This course includes: Harmony, Melodic Development, Composition, Arranging and Orchestration. The Equal Interval System® is a complete method that proposes new relationships and techniques unique to Horizontal Composition, while encompassing Diatonic, Classical, Contemporary or Pop sounds, and approaches them from an original point of view having nothing in common with other known methods. The techniques learned can be used in any musical context.
HORIZONTAL COMPOSITION
Horizontal Composition refers to the creation of individual horizontal lines that will agree vertically in the same manner music is heard. All of this is accomplished with only half a dozen rules and practice. This allows for greater flexibility, melodic interest, and speed when composing or arranging.
COMPOSE MORE QUICKLY
Since EIS® has a simplified and highly accurate method of organizing all of the horizontal and vertical intervals used in modern music, musical decisions are made quickly and efficiently. New and fertile ideas are presented throughout over 1,200 pages of text that serve as not only a basis for instruction but a treasure trove of musical possibilities to inspire the creative individual. Each student finds their unique voice through the course work. Graduates find they have the ability to write better, faster, and with less mental blocks.
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1. BASIC EIS® THEORY
Introduction to equal intervals, progression, scales, chords and symbols.
2. EQUAL INTERVAL SYSTEM® OF PROGRESSIONS
Equal interval voice leading for all structures from triads to thirteenths plus application.
3. HARMONY IN THIRDS
Melodic theory based on two, three, four and five part harmony in thirds including related forms.
4. EXTENDED INTERVALS
Harmony in fourths, fifths, sixths, seconds, thirds and tenths.
![Spud murphy equal interval system size Spud murphy equal interval system size](/uploads/1/1/7/8/117877874/527857386.jpg)
5. THE MODERN DIATONIC SYSTEM
All modal melodies, harmonies and application from an EIS® perspective.
6. SYSTEM OF POLYTONALITY
An original and simplified EIS® approach.
7. COMPOSITION I
Spud Murphy Equal Interval System Reviews
Counterpoint, continuos imitation, fugue and equal interval form.
8. COMPOSITION II
Based on 12 equal root tones.
Spud Murphy Equal Interval System Training
9. BASIC ORCHESTRATION
Small groups to full orchestra with instrumental combinations.
10. ADVANCED ORCHESTRATION
Actual recorded scores with professional performance.
11. ADVANCED THEORY
The heart of the Equal Interval approach to originality. This includes the Composer at Work: actual film scores.
![Interval Interval](/uploads/1/1/7/8/117877874/704507195.jpg)
12. COORDINATION
Modern Arranging and re-harmonization of standard and popular music based on the complete material from Books I-XI.
Lyle Murphy’s Horizontal Composition, the Equal Interval System: An Assessment
by Michael Mitacek
The following is a description of Mr. Lyle Murphy’s music composition method, “Horizontal Composition, the Equal Interval System,” or EIS, in historical context. We will see evidences of the accidental, the serendipitous and the transcendent as we follow and observe Mr. Murphy’s historical journey.
Initially, it should be noted that Mr. Murphy’s method may have never come about but for a World War II veteran. This GI, just after the war ended, approached the famous Spud Murphy to ask him for music lessons. He was very surprised when an even more surprised Spud Murphy told him he did not teach, and to find somebody else. The veteran, however, was not to be deterred. He persisted and finally, after numerous refusals, was told by the new teacher to come back next week for his first lesson.
From that point on Lyle Murphy, the teacher and creator of the Equal Interval System, began taking students – almost all of them from the jazz and entertainment industry. EIS began with a single page, but it expanded greatly and rapidly. Each new page added to the text had to pass muster: every student had to be satisfied that there were no questions about the new page before it would be published into the final version. Interestingly, the method is still being revised and expanded to this day, and this will continue as long as Spud is alive to do so.
Spud was starting a new method of his own, a method remarkably unique. The highly original approach is apparent from the very beginning, yet how many students have I taught who said, “Finally, we have a theory method we can use in real life, in our everyday circumstances.” This originality was not for the sake of the ego of the author, but for the benefit of his students!
Since Spud had gained fame and fortune in the music industry, he wanted for his students the same or even greater success. Therefore his method relies heavily on examples by the author and by his numerous students.
Understandably it bears more than a little of the imprimatur of the music industry style of the day. However, the written text of the method continually reasserts the classical theoretical approach of objectivity and abstraction. Indeed, as Spud says in his Preface to Book I, EIS is the exposition of a pure theory of music. It does not teach a musical “style.” What you learn here can be applied to a church hymn, to a heavy metal song, to the symphony orchestra, and to the music of the past and the present – to any of the genres we encounter in every day life. A Juilliard graduate can just as easily benefit from it as the film composer or song arranger.
And the method, so much like its author, begins at the beginning and leaves nothing out; there is nothing for the student to wonder about or be unsure of. All material is painstakingly presented, explained in various ways with accompanying CD’s, and then validated with numerous examples by the author and his many students. Consisting of some 1200 pages, Mr. Murphy’s marvelous method brings with it the feeling of “flying high” in the course of this incredible musical journey.
For Spud and his students, the focus is always toward working in the music industry. The objective theory has to serve the practical needs of the students. The enormous reputation of Spud and his method among working musicians in today’s music business is a testimony to its effectiveness and its success.
In fact, the method is so “sure fire” for working in commercial venues that something very important is overlooked: in writing a “working musicians’ manual” for composing and arranging in the TV and movie studios of the late 20th century to the present in order to get jobs for his students, Mr. Murphy the Scholar and Visionary has written a huge method of universal interest and application for music students and musicians everywhere.
Describing Horizontal Composition, the Equal Interval System of Spud Murphy is a nearly impossible task. There are as many facets, embedded truths, brilliant theories, examples, and revelations about every known aspect of modern composition as one could only dream of. Furthermore, from page one everything presented by Spud logically supports and complements every other concept and practice. It is a totally non contradictory exposition of encyclopedic music text and examples. In my opinion, it is unparalleled in the history of music theory pedagogy. The only book I know that attempts so much is Rameau’s Treatise of Harmony.
Rameau is a kindred spirit to Spud Murphy: both are fearless in their examination of music as it exists. Both are tireless in endeavoring to understand it. And both are comprehensive in explaining it for the good of their students… but, really, Spud attempts and achieves so much more. And his theories do bring about new, original musical sounds, so captivating to the ear and yet so very scientifically conceived.
To set the cornerstone for this unparalleled composition method, Spud invented a new set of harmonic progressions, consisting entirely of equal divisions of the octave. These “equal interval” progressions immediately give a modern feel to the musical examples. He also introduces a new technique of voice leading, based on the numeric interval or distance between the highest voice and the lowest voice. This idea of the importance of the “outer voices” is certainly nothing new. Every music theory book on the market and from historical archives emphasizes the importance of the melody in the treble, and the second melody in the bass line. Generally, all of these methods emphasize contrary motion between the treble and the bass. Spud Murphy, however, is the one who discovered a numeric basis for this relationship.
When the bass ascends, the position* of the treble descends. When the bass descends, the position* of the treble ascends. *The intervallic distance between bass and treble, expressed by a number, such as “5.”
This is a simple formula, but one which has profound and far-reaching applications. It sets the tone for all that follows, and it makes composing easy and even enjoyable. The truth of these two statements can be easily validated by concrete, existing musical examples that everyone can understand.
Moreover, this new Change of Position voice leading, when complemented by his concept of Bracket Voice Leading for chords of higher dissonance, can be applied to the analysis and composition of all traditional and modern music, without exception.
This marvelous journey of musical delight and discovery is like a sight seeing trip of the musical universe with wonders of every kind on all sides. Ingenious solutions are also discussed, overcoming all obstacles; the student always comes out the winner.
The scope of the method is universal as far as today’s musical understanding is concerned. From triadic harmonies and fifteenth chords, through quartal, quintal and secondal harmony, Polytonality, interval relations, music with no chords and no scales, tropes – Spud’s version of serialism – and more… it’s all there.
The practicality of the method is its motto: “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it.” Everything in the method is to be used, and Spud teaches the student how to do that. The surplus of musical treasures is awesome to behold! But it never ceases to please and reward the many musicians who use it every day.
Spud’s humanity toward his students has extended into his work as a Member of the Board of Directors of Professional Musicians Local 47, where he has also helped write contracts that have benefited working musicians in the same way his theory method has benefited composers, arrangers and performers.
Our hope today is of great expansion of the familiarity of the Equal Interval System in music schools, conservatories, and the music classrooms of elementary, middle and high schools around the globe. This is an ever present goal. The universality of EIS, and the ease with which all students can learn it, is one of the great hopes for tomorrow. This theory method transcends cultural barriers, and will constitute a common ground among peoples of different races and backgrounds in something everyone holds so dear – the love of music. In so doing, Horizontal Composition, the Equal Interval System, constitutes potentially one of the greatest unifying inventions among mankind of this or any age.
Spud Murphy Equal Interval System Worksheet
Michael Mitacek © 2004