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<div>Dear Matt, </div>
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<div>I wonder if the issue has more to do with the rarity of upper-neighbor motions in the bass than the question of how V4/3 is most typically used.</div>
<div>That is to say, V4/3 may more often be used with passing bass motions simply because those bass motions are more common when prolonging a tonic.</div>
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<div>Writers of our usual harmony textbooks do seem to gloss over the "neighboring V6/4" possibility, but I'd suspect the answer has to do with the fact that, in most cases where you'd want to use V6/4, some other chord is a better choice.</div>
<div>V4/3 is, in fact, a viable option (I believe Laitz gives it, at least), as are viio6 and viio6/5. All of these chords avoid the unresolved dissonant fourth (^5) against the bass tied into the second tonic.</div>
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<div>And it seems to me that oftentimes, what really "counts" isn't the neighboring figure in the bass, but rather a neighbor figure in some other voice (say, the soprano) in which choosing some other bass motion (such as by skip to V5/3) provides a better
sonority and better VL results.</div>
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<div>And more generally, the I-V6/4-I situation seems awfully static from a compositional perspective: </div>
<div>Using a PT ^1-^2-^3 or consonant skip ^1-^5-^1 in the bass, or some kind of voice exchange, allows *something* significant to happen while the NN in the upper voice plays out -- either a melodic motion or a strong harmonic gesture.</div>
<div>Similarly, with the other choices for the middle sonority (esp. V4/3 and viio6/5) you get a resolution of a dissonance in the inner voices (or at least the promise of one, even if it needs to be denied for VL reasons.)</div>
<div>I-V6/4-I just doesn't seem to accomplish very much. </div>
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<div>These are the type of things i'd tell a trusting class of undergraduates, but I'll admit I've thought little about whether these factors have any historical basis.</div>
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<div>--Bill</div>
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<div>----------------------------------------</div>
<div>William Guerin</div>
<div>Ph.D. Cand. in Music Theory, Indiana University</div>
<div>Editor, Indiana Theory Review</div>
<div>wguerin@indiana.edu</div>
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<span style="font-weight:bold">From: </span>Matt Bribitzer-Stull <<a href="mailto:mpbs@umn.edu">mpbs@umn.edu</a>><br>
<span style="font-weight:bold">Date: </span>Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:38:16 -0500<br>
<span style="font-weight:bold">To: </span>Society for Music Theory <<a href="mailto:smt-talk@societymusictheory.org">smt-talk@societymusictheory.org</a>><br>
<span style="font-weight:bold">Subject: </span>[Smt-talk] "Neighboring" 6/4 Chords<br>
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Dear Colleagues:<br>
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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.<br>
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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.<br>
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Best,<br>
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Matt<br clear="all">
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-- <br>
________________________________<br>
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Matthew Bribitzer-Stull<br>
Associate Professor of Music Theory<br>
University of Minnesota School of Music<br>
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