<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Dear Matt & Colleagues,<div><br></div><div>This is really a question for David Huron and some of his students/colleagues who have done empirical studies of musical corpuses, as the first question to be answered (aside from our anecdotal encounters with CPP idioms) is just how often neighboring 1-2-1 motions really do occur in the bass, and of those motions, what are he relative frequencies of various harmonization of 2(?).</div><div><br></div><div>I suspect that one reason is that you simply can't hear V6/4 as well as some of the other chords Matt metions. Again, David H. might have some ideas about this, but based on the propensity for auditory fusion amongst the elements of a chord (if and when they are properly voiced), a V6/4 chord, with 5 as a common tone, simply isn't terribly noticeable as a motion in the bass; in order to make the motion salient, <b>all</b> the voices have to move, changing the overall spectral imprint of the chord (hence the bias, if there is one, for vii6, vii6/5, or V43). Note also that consistency of motion in the bass (that is, a passing motion to 3 rather than a return to 2) makes the bass motion more salient--so one can have a passing V6/4. </div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div>Justin</div><div><br><div><div>On Sep 29, 2011, at 10:38 AM, Matt Bribitzer-Stull wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">Dear Colleagues:<br><br>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>
<br>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><br>Best,<br><br>Matt<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>________________________________<br><br>Matthew Bribitzer-Stull<br>Associate Professor of Music Theory<br>University of Minnesota School of Music<br>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-size: medium; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>*************************************************</div><div>Justin London</div><div>Affiliated Researcher, <i>Centre for Music and Science,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>University of Cambridge</div><div>Professor of Music (and other stuff), Carleton College</div><div>Department of Music</div><div>One North College St.</div><div>Northfield, MN 55057 USA</div><div>507-222-4397</div><div>fax 507-222-5561</div><div><a href="mailto:jlondon@carleton.edu">jlondon@carleton.edu</a></div><div><br></div></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
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