[Smt-talk] BELGIAN +6

[Stephen Jablonsky]

Keith,

Your suggestions about Scriabin prompted me to investigate his Valse, Opus 1 where I discovered that, not surprisingly, Scriabin knew how to spell chords correctly according to function. The chord you refer to is an Ab7#5 and does resolve to Db. The reason I mention this is because those darned augmented sixth chords all have enharmonic equivalents. The Bel+6 (vii7b3) to which I referred may also be heard as a dominant 7#5 (in the third inversion!) but the spelling will be different.

The Opus 16, No. 1 is the real deal. Here Scriabin spells the chord E# - G- B -D# and resolves to a dominant chord (cadential 6/4) in B. It is not surprising, then, that the final cadence contains a viidim7b3 chord over a tonic pedal. Because the A# disappears several measures from the end we are left with many C major chords sitting on the tonic pedal (B). Dare I say it sounds like a Neapolitan cadence, a bastard form of plagal cadence?

Thanks for sending me in this direction. Looking for Bel+6 chords is sort of like looking for truffle mushrooms.

Steve


> 
> 
> 
> 2) Regarding the 'strange' augmented sixth chord that started this thread: Scriabin uses such a chord in at least a few early works.
> It occurs in his op. 1 (1885).  Measures 52-53 produce an odd case, where a sonority comprised of the tones Ab, C, E, and Gb functions like a dominant seventh on Ab (though the augmented sixth between Gb and E resolves properly). 
> See also m. 16 of op. 16 no. 1 (1895). Here, it really functions like an augmented sixth. 
> See also mm. 30-32 of his op. 8 no. 10 (1894). There, you'll hear the sonority 'inverted' with a diminished 3rd above the bass. The local key is Ab, and the tones are (D, Ab, C, and Fb). 
> Finally, see op. 23 (1898), mvt. IV, mm. 32-33. Here, the sonority is also 'inverted' the same way as above.
> When the harmony functions as it 'should' (i.e., leading to V), I like to think of it at the major-mode equivalent of the German (with 'mi' instead of 'me'). 
> 
> I believe you'll find references to this harmony as a 'Russian augmented sixth' in Bettsylyn Dunn Goldwire's (DMA)  nearly impossible-to-find dissertation. If I'm not mistaken, Rimsky-Korsakov used it before Scriabin did (but don't tell you-know-who). Here's the citation:
> 
> Goldwire, Bettsylynn Dunn. 1984. Harmonic Evolution in the Piano Poems of Alexander Scriabin. D.M.A. thesis, The University of Texas at Austin.
> 
> 
> 
> Hope this is helpful.
> 
> 
> 
> On Sat, Nov 19, 2011 at 7:58 PM, Stephen Jablonsky <jablonsky at optimum.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Keith Salley
> Coordinator of Music Theory
> the Shenandoah Conservatory
> Shenandoah University
> Winchester, VA
> 

Prof. Stephen Jablonsky, Ph.D.
Music Department Chair
The City College of New York
160 Convent Avenue S-72
New York NY 10031
(212) 650-7663



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