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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Dear Colleagues,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Matt makes an interesting point, which to my knowledge has so far escaped notice.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>For what it is worth, there seems to be something inherently unsatisfying, contrapuntally as it were, with a neighboring 10-8-10 or 6-8-6 progression, in the sense that the perfect consonance is supposed to sound less stable than the imperfect consonance on either side. Of course, the same is true of a passing 10-8-6 or 6-8-10 progression. However, in the neighboring case the reversal of melodic direction emphasizes rather than de-emphasizes the octave, thus accentuating the problem.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Eytan Agmon<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Bar-Ilan University <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> smt-talk-bounces@lists.societymusictheory.org [mailto:smt-talk-bounces@lists.societymusictheory.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Matt Bribitzer-Stull<br><b>Sent:</b> Thursday, September 29, 2011 6:38 PM<br><b>To:</b> Society for Music Theory<br><b>Subject:</b> [Smt-talk] "Neighboring" 6/4 Chords<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'>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><br>*** 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. ***<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>