[Smt-talk] "Neighboring" 6/4 Chords

[Matt Bribitzer-Stull]

Dear Colleagues:

I find when instructing undergraduates in core harmony courses that students
accept the guidelines we provide for part-writing much better if they
understand the reasoning behind them. I'm at a loss, however, to explain why
common-practice composers rarely used a 6/4 chord above scale degree 2 as a
bass neighbor motion expanding tonic. V4/3 is most often a passing bass
gesture (in which, of course, there's a good reason why students need not
resolve the chordal seventh in the soprano - namely, it's not a dissonance
with the bass and often completes a pleasing parallel-tenths idiom) or part
of a collection of dominant-functioned chords, though it can and does
function as a bass neighbor expanding tonic; and vii 6 an vii 6/5 harmonize
bass neighbor notes with much more frequency than a 6/4 chord.

I'd be interested if there are any compelling contrapuntal or harmonic
reasons why composers tended not to harmonize neighbor motions in the bass
with unaccented 6/4 chords.

Best,

Matt

-- 
________________________________

Matthew Bribitzer-Stull
Associate Professor of Music Theory
University of Minnesota School of Music

*** Emails sent from this account are often personal in nature. Whether
personal or professional, emails sent from this account do not necessarily
reflect the views of the University of Minnesota or members of the
University community. ***
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.societymusictheory.org/pipermail/smt-talk-societymusictheory.org/attachments/20110929/4a02e871/attachment-0003.htm>