[Smt-talk] Passing and Neighboring 6/4s

[Eytan Agmon]

Dmitri wrote:


"Music professors and textbook authors have strong, but not  
necessarily reliable intuitions about what happens in tonal music.   
For instance, Aldwell and Schachter write: "Of the various types of  
passing 6/4's the most important is V6/4 connecting I and I6."  This  
is false, at least if "important" is taken to mean "common" and if  
Mozart's Piano Sonatas are taken as representative.  To me it's a bit  
embarrassing that one of the leading textbooks can be so flatly wrong  
about such a basic matter."

However, although Aldwell and Schachter indeed make the statement that
Dmitri finds "embarrassing" on p. 310 (3rd ed.), on the facing page (311)
they state "A passing 6/4 between IV6 and II6/5 (less often II6) is *very
frequent*" (original italics). I think their musical intuitions are quite
reliable.

Eytan Agmon
Bar-Ilan University