<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Dear all,<div><br></div><div>I'm glad Deborah brought up the Op. 2/3 trio; I immediately thought of this example when reading Scott Murphy's message, which stated that: "Putting a bare V above a bass ^2, thus forming the 6/4, can be a clear and even potent signal that the music is modulating to the dominant" since (in major keys) a second-inversion dominant chord sounds like the cadential 6/4 of the dominant.</div><div><br></div><div>But the passing progression I V 6/4 I6 is extremely common and idiomatic (as in the first three measures of the Op. 2/3 trio and many similar examples). Scott, do I understand correctly that your point is that adding a chordal seventh (thus I V 4/3 I6) eliminates any ambiguity as to the function of the dominant chord?</div><div><br></div><div>To me, a stronger consideration than the presence or absence of a chordal seventh is the metrical placement of the chord in question. A passing 6/4 (like a passing tone) normatively is placed in a weaker position that the chords that flank it. In contrast, a cadential 6/4 is placed in a metrically stronger position than the dominant to which it resolves.</div><div><br></div><div>As for Op. 2/3: there isn't any real ambiguity in this case, since it's in minor (meaning that a passing V 6/4 is an E major harmony, whereas the cadential 6/4 of the dominant key would be an E minor harmony). Nevertheless, even if it were changed to A major, the second measure is clearly a passing V 6/4 chord because of its weak hypermetrical position, passing between the tonic in m. 1 and the first-inversion tonic in m. 3</div><div><br></div><div>But, a propos Scott's point about modulating to the dominant, the 6/4 chord in m. 6 is a cadential 6/4 chord in E minor, helping to establish a modulation to that key. This 6/4 harmony effects a subtle shift in the hypermeter. That is, the prevailing hypermeter establishes odd bars as strong, but the cadential 6/4 in m. 6 establishes a two-bar span within which m. 6 is stronger than m. 7 (as per MPR 8, the suspension rule), which infers a quasi-hyperdownbeat status on the first ending. </div><div><br></div><div>This situation is very common in waltzes, where the final three measures of each strain are often V 6/4, V(7), and I -- such that the cadential 6/4 is in a weak position in the prevailing hypermeter, but it also effects a syncopated span within which the cadential 6/4 is stronger than the root-position dominant, and therefore places some some emphasis on the final measure. It seems to me that this must bear some relation with the traditional pre-cadential hemiola of the baroque and classical minuet, which similarly establishes a syncopated two-bar span, comprising the antepenultimate and penultimate measures. (The idea of a "syncopated time span" is discussed in Carl Schachter's article "Aspects of Meter"; see p. 93 on <i>Unfoldings</i>.)</div><div><br></div><div>Of course, none of this answers Matt's original query regarding why a second-inversion dominant appears commonly as a passing chord but rarely as an upper neighbor to I (with bass ^1-^2-^1) or, for that matter, as a lower neighbor to I6 (with bass ^3-^2-^3). My best instinct, which is not at all rigorous, would appeal to a the Gestalt principle of "good continuation" and to an idea of musical momentum or inertia. That is, a bass motion of ^1 to ^2 would most naturally continue on to ^3 (as in the passing progression I V 6/4 I6). In contrast, in a neighbor progression such as I V 6/5 I, the bass goes from ^1 to ^7, but the strong pull from leading tone up to tonic forces the bass to change direction; the tendency-tone principle presents the bass from continuing downward. The same principle explains I6 V 4/2 I6 (with bass of ^3 ^4 ^3, where ^4 is pulled back to ^3 because it is a tendency tone). Perhaps the status of V 6/4 has to do with the neutral state of ^2, which is not a tendency tone and therefore has no particular pull either up to ^3 or down to ^1. Might this be a reason why the bass most normally passes through ^2 and continues in the same direction (as in I V6/4 I6 or the opposite, I6 V6/4 I)?</div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div><br></div><div>Edward</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">===============================</span></div><div><div apple-content-edited="true"><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-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: 12px; 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: 12px; 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>Edward Klorman</div><div>The Juilliard School</div><div><br></div><div>Associate Chair and Director of Core Curriculum, L&M Department</div><div>Chair, Pre-College Theory Department</div></div></div></div></span></div></span></div></span></div> </div><br></div></body></html>