[Smt-talk] Ongoing discussion on origins of harmonic concepts

[rjab]

I have been tracking the recent ongoing discussion of the origins of  
harmonic concepts with some interest and frustration.  Interest  
because the discussion is interesting. Frustration because I do not  
have the knowledge of the literature that would enable me to  
participate in its terms.

I was triggered to write this email by someone's comment about a  
relatively obscure (in my terms) relationship between minor seventh  
flat five chords and dominant seventh chords.  The  relationship is  
very simple and direct in the simple theory of keyboard harmony  
presented on my website. Generally, obscure relationships among chords  
become simple and direct in this theory because "chords" in the theory  
are derived quantities based on simpler ones.   See "Picturing  
Keyboard Harmony",  the introduction of which I have rewritten once  
again to try and help readers get past the unconventional notation.

I  know there have been many visits by this community to this website  
because large  spikes in the number of visits followed earlier  
messages to SMT-announce and SMT-talk,  but the return in actual  
comments to me has been small, although useful  (three people emailed  
me and followed this up by participating in useful email discussions).  
Perhaps members of the community have held back making comments  
because they think the theory is so naive as to be embarrassing.   
Perhaps they cannot get past the unconventional notation. It cannot be  
lack of interest in the possibility of a simple theory because of the  
large spikes in visits.  In any case, I would welcome more responses ,  
either on SMT-talk or directly to me. I cannot be embarrassed by  
negative comments because I have nothing to gain or lose either way.  
My only objective is to share something interesting I have discovered  
that does not seem to be widely known.

Email correspondents have suggested that the music theory community  
might not be the best one for my purposes, but I am targeting it  
because it is where the deep knowledge resides. I have found that  
other communities (e.g., jazz pianists) are too focused on performance  
to be interested in novel ways of thinking about things.

If anyone in a music department in the SF Bay area reads this and is  
interested, I would welcome an opportunity to visit and discuss the  
ideas.  I am away from SF until Sep but anytime after that would be  
great.

I hope the moderator will not think this is overstepping the purpose  
of the mailing list.

R.J.A. Buhr
1150 Lombard St., #21
San Fransisco CA 94109
rjabuhr at gmail.com
www.pianotheoryman.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.societymusictheory.org/pipermail/smt-talk-societymusictheory.org/attachments/20100711/381e1bd8/attachment-0002.htm>