[Smt-talk] Scale degrees

Fri May 16 11:16:45 PDT 2014

Dear all, 

In terms of F. Campion writing out the rule of the octave in all 24 keys, I think it also pays to keep in mind that the very existence of twelve major and twelve minor keys was a rather new idea as late as the 1710s (as I have chronicled in "Between Modes and Keys"), even in those regions of Europe that no longer spoke about "modern music" in terms of the ecclesiastical modes (in any forms).  During the past 2-1/2 centuries, children first learning about music are taught that there are two types of keys and each can begin on any of the 12 notes of the chromatic octave.  But a generation before that, such a notion was quite new and un-tested in its practical utility.  (The acrimonious letter exchange between Fux and Mattheson written in 1717-18 is surely not the only such dispute that happened in that period; we know of it only because Mattheson published the letters in 1725.  We may think of Fux primarily as the author of "Gradus ad parnassum," but he was also a composer of operas and other music in the latest styles . . . making it even more astonishing that he denied the very existence of the major and minor keys in the late 1710s.) 

Remember also that F. Campion was a guitarist.  We should keep in mind that on the keyboard, the hands can just go up by half-steps as we transpose progressions in major or minor keys; but on the guitar, the hands will take quite different positions as different keys lie differently in relation to open strings, etc.  (This relates to the recent thread about using keyboards vs. other instruments when teaching theory.) 

Joel Lester
Bronx, New York

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Grazzini <steve.grazzini at gmail.com>
To: Nicolas Meeùs <nicolas.meeus at scarlet.be>
Cc: Vasili Byros <vasili.byros at aya.yale.edu>; smt-talk Talk <smt-talk at societymusictheory.org>
Sent: Fri, May 16, 2014 8:34 am
Subject: Re: [Smt-talk] Scale degrees

Dear all,

As Nicolas points out, it's interesting that Campion would have felt compelled to write out the rule of the octave in every key. Perhaps this even suggests that French musicians of the period weren't yet accustomed to thinking in terns of scale degrees. However, Campion does occasionally describe the bass in terms of ordinal scale degrees. For instance, he says that the #4 chord is only used on "la quatriéme du ton." At one point he gives the full rule of the octave in the same terms (1716, 20–21), saying that in a major key, "la premiere du ton" takes the major third, fifth, and octave; the "seconde" takes the minor third, fourth, and the major sixth; and so on, just as in the partimento rules that Nick mentioned in the original posting.

Similar rules appear in the manuscript "Règles d'acompagnement" of Clérambault, which are also dated 1716. Here Clérambault sometimes uses the expression "degré du mode" in roughly the same way that we are using "scale degree." And although Dandrieu seems to prefer to call the notes of the scale "finale," "sufinale," and so on, he defines those terms by referring to the "premiere note d'un mode," etc.

Even if the ordinal names for scale degrees were commonly used in France by 1720, it's worth noting that Gervais (1733) still hasn't quite caught on, and numbers the descending scale backwards, with 1 for the upper tonic, 2 for the leading tone -- all the way down to 8 for the lower tonic!

With best wishes,

Steve Grazzini
Bloomington, Indiana

On Thu, May 15, 2014 at 6:11 PM, Nicolas Meeùs <nicolas.meeus at scarlet.be> wrote:

    Dear Nick, Vasili, and all,

      Dandrieu indeed gives a figure where the degrees of the C scale      are numbered 1, b2 (or b9), n2 (or n9), b3 (or #2), n3, 4, #4 (or      b5), 5, b6 (or #5), 6 (or b7 [sic]), b7, n7 and 8 (where 'n'      stands for natural). This is an isolated and therefore most      interesting case in France at this time. It is not entirely clear,      however, whether these figures possibly refer to bass notes (b9,      n9 and #2, particularly, are somewhat troublesome in this      respect). 

      Dandrieu also appears one of the firsts, probably the first, to      use the term soudominante, which was not very common in      the first half of the 18th century and which even Fétis did not      use more than a century later (Fétis said "the 4th degree of the      scale"!).

      François Campion, describing the règle de l'octave, for which bass      numbers would have been quite convenient, fell compelled to notate      it in twelve transpositions, in major and in minor, i.e. two times      twelve almost identical staves (but for the transposition) and      never thought of numbering the degrees.

      Quirinus Van Blankenburg, who published his Elementa musica      in Dutch in 1739, derided French theory in general and François      Campion in particular, saying:

zal men de namen der schale nomberen en zeggen met          Campion blz. 22 dat N. 1 zal hebben een 3 en 5, N. 2 een 6,          enz.[?]
      Shall one number the degrees of the scales and say with      Campion p. 22 that n. 1 shall have a 3 and a 5, n. 2 a 6, etc.?

    This, to me, was until now the first clear European reference to a    numbering of the bass degrees. I did not pay enough attention to the    Kayser manuscript, as quoted by Lester, and I will do so as soon as    possible.

Le 15/05/2014 21:34, Vasili Byros a      écrit :

Dear Nick,

The following are just two examples from the first half of        the century, of French and German provenance respectively:

1) Dandrieu's Principes de l'accompagnement du clavecin from        1719 (also the first treatise, I believe, to use the term soudominante        for scale degree 4). 

2) The so-called Kayser copy of the Well-Tempered Clavier        (Book I), which features analytic annotations of a couple fugues        and a prelude; the annotations include scale-degree analyses of        the bass. For a discussion in English, see Lester, Compositional          Theory in the Eighteenth Century (1992), 82–85. The Kayser        manuscript dates from 1722–23.

Dandrieu uses names (for example, soufinale for the        leading tone). The Kayser uses numbers.

      All best,      
Vasili

••••••••••••••••••

                            Vasili Byros
                            Assistant Professor, Music Theory and                            Cognition
                            Northwestern University
                            Bienen School of Music
                            711 Elgin Road
                            Evanston, IL 60208
                            v-byros at northwestern.edu

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Steve Grazzini

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