Klarinet Archive - Posting 000115.txt from 2001/06

From: "Lacy, Edwin" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] ....more about harmony
Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2001 10:40:24 -0400

<<<In the dozen or so measures of Bach's piece that I'm trying to
understand, I have labelled the chords in the normal method of Roman
numerals (I ii iii IV V etc). I have thought about inversions, and I
have identified which note is the root of each triad, and I have
identified which note is the "7" in a four-note chord, and so forth.

In the key of Eb major, and I'm spelling each note chromatically:

E-natural G-natural Bb D-natural>>>

A diminished triad with a minor seventh is called a "half-diminished seventh
chord." (In jazz, it's called a "minor seventh with flat fifth." Such a
chord type normally appears as the leading-tone seventh chord in major keys.
In the key of Eb, the best analysis is as a secondary diminished seventh
chord - in other words (dim)vii7/ii. The thing that is just a little bit
exceptional about the case you mention is that the supertonic triad in a
major key is normally a minor triad, and therefore would take a fully
diminished seventh chord as a secondary leading tone triad - E, G, Bb, Db.
If in the Bach example the chord which follows this one is a major triad,
then that one would be a secondary dominant of the dominant, and the
progression would be completely explainable by "normal rules" of harmony.
However, Bach didn't know the "normal rules" of harmony. In fact, most of
those rules were developed and established by studying the music of Bach to
see how he handled various situations. This gets at the last rule that we
learn in theory classes: you can write music in any way you want to, so
long as it sounds right to your ear, and you know why you are doing it.

Ed Lacy
University of Evansville
EL2@-----.edu

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