[Smt-talk] I - II- IV as a progression (counterpoint)

[JAY RAHN]

Although I have not been following this thread closely, I very much like Nicolas's notion of pc-leading. With pc-leading as a sort of baseline, one can go on to acknowledge degrees and kinds of salience for successions from tone to tone: e.g., registral, metrical, rhythmic, timbral, dynamic, or sonorous (i.e., with regard to simultaneities).

As well, I had not noticed until my recent work with Mesopotamian music that in a heptatonic setting, any immediate succession of 3rds/6ths and/or 4ths/5ths involves at least one of the two tones in each dyad proceeding by unison or step: 
e.g., CE to or from DF, EG, FA, GB, AC, or BD;
CF to or from DG, EA, FB, GC, AD, or BE;
CE to or from DG, EA, FB, GC, AD, or BE.

Accordingly, in heptatonic music there is always at least one 'pc-path' or (or more precisely, dc-path, i.e., degree-class path) of unisons and steps through the immediately successive of 3rds/6ths and 4ths/5ths. (In pentatonic music, there is always a 'dc-path' through the immediately successive 4ths/5ths, or more precisely, 3rds/4ths). How salient such paths might be is another matter.

Jay Rahn, York University (Toronto)




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