<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-western"> <font face="Calibri">Ildar,
Dimitar,</font><br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:1337198941.48366.YahooMailClassic@web45011.mail.sp1.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="font: inherit;" valign="top">
<div>1) Nobody, neither in the 19th, nor in the 18th
century, used the term "predominant" or used the idea
of scale step 4, the triad on scale step 4,
any modified chords on scale step 4 in the function of
"predominant."</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</blockquote>
I think that Rameau's idea of the chain of dominants leading (as
sevenths and their resolution) to the "dominante-tonique", as
distinct from the subdominant leading (as 6/5 and its resolution)
to the tonic, anticipates the distinction between "predominant"
and "subdominant".<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:1337198941.48366.YahooMailClassic@web45011.mail.sp1.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="font: inherit;" valign="top">
<div>2) The theory of Heinrich Schenker is filled with
major inconsistencies and crude errors of judgement.</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</blockquote>
This may be so, it is your judgment, about which I won't argue
here. Note however that the idea of the "predominant" never is
mentioned, either directly or indirectly, in Schenker's own
writings, and that nothing indicates that its American origin is
to be found in Schenkerian circles. If you can produce evidence
for a Schenkerian origin, I'd be much interested.<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:1337198941.48366.YahooMailClassic@web45011.mail.sp1.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="font: inherit;" valign="top">
<div>The subdominant is not the only problem in this
theory. The next topic for discussion can be the
leading tone. Apparently, Nicolas does not like the
idea of the leading tone as such, as the source of
attraction to tonic.</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</blockquote>
It is not that I "do not like the idea", rather that I came, at
one point in my reflexion on tonality, to the conclusion that it
may be wise to consider the situation of tonal music without
presupposing the tonal center (and the attractions it is supposed
to cause). To state that a composition is tonal because of the
attractions leading to the tonic is to beg the answer and my
explicit concern was how we could decide that a composition was
tonal without presupposing that it was. <br>
I therefore took the methodological stance of supposing that
there were no a priori attractions, and it resulted in my theory
of harmonic vectors, which claims that tonal harmony may be
directed primarily by such algorithmic principles as the
descending fifth progression. I am perfectly aware of the
shortcomings of this theory, especially in explaining the tonal
centricity, because descending fifths inexorably lead away from
their starting point. I suggested that the centricity resulted
from a necessary substitution, more specifically from a "parallel"
neo-Riemannian relation from minor to major, which appears
necessary in any tonal phrase.<br>
This is a rather complex theory, but it has nothing to do with
Schenker, and I began writing about it at a time when I knew
nothing of Schenker
<blockquote
cite="mid:1337198941.48366.YahooMailClassic@web45011.mail.sp1.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="font: inherit;" valign="top">
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;" lang="en-US">And the
Master Himself: "The new confusing world of “leading
tones” and “doublings” is fabricated, a world of which
the true theory of voice-leading and scale-degrees can
know nothing."</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</blockquote>
Can you provide the reference of this quotation? I'd be
interested.<br>
Thanks in advance,<br>
<br>
Nicolas<br>
<br>
<br>
</div>
</body>
</html>