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

[Ildar Khannanov]

Dear Nicolas and the List,
 
there is a loop in logic of the statement below.
 
The note which is filling the tonal space delimited by the triad--means that the note is delimited and determined by the triad. The triad is tonal function by definition. Then, at the end of the statement, the leading tone happen to determine functional relationships. So, the note is determined by the triad, therefore the triad is determined by the note. 
 
Best,
 
 
Ildar Khannanov
Peabody Conservatory
Email: solfeggio7 at yahoo.com 

--- On Fri, 9/4/09, Nicolas Meeùs <nicolas.meeus at paris-sorbonne.fr> wrote:


From: Nicolas Meeùs <nicolas.meeus at paris-sorbonne.fr>
Subject: Re: [Smt-talk] I - II- IV as a progression (counterpoint)
To: "smt-talk smt" <smt-talk at societymusictheory.org>
Date: Friday, September 4, 2009, 5:38 PM


Schenker's idea of *Züge* (lines) is based on the fact that any note filling the 'tonal space' delimited by a triad (see his *Erläuterungen* in the two last volumes of *Tonwille* and the two first of *Meisterwerk*) necessarily is conjunct to at least one of the tones of the triad.

The present thread is about II-IV (or II-iv) progressions. Isn't it obvious that the main characteristic of these progressions is the chromatic semitone between the 3rd of II and the prime of IV or iv? Even if these two notes are not in the same contrapuntal part, even if they do not belong in the same register, the mind somehow links them to each other and understands them as forming a single chromatic pc-line at some higher level. 

Similarly, in a V-I or V-i progressions, there necessarily is a diatonic semitone between the 3rd of V and the prime of I or i, at least at the level of pc-leading, and this is, in my opinion, one of the main reasons why we identify these chords as evidencing a Dominant-Tonic relation. I would be tempted to say that all harmonic functions arise from such pc-leading relations (see http://www.plm.paris-sorbonne.fr/Textes/NMTransitivite.pdf).

Nicolas Meeùs
nicolas.meeus at paris-sorbonne.fr
http://www.plm.paris-sorbonne.fr



JAY RAHN a écrit : 




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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