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Structural and Ornamental Diatonic Harmony in Western Music, c.1700 – 1880 Structural and Ornamental Diatonic Harmony in Western Music, c.1700 – 1880 By Zelda Potgieter Structural and Ornamental Diatonic Harmony in Western Music, c.1700 – 1880 By Zelda Potgieter This book first published 2021 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2021 by Zelda Potgieter All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-6084-8 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-6084-0 For my students TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Preface xii Chapter 1 – Introduction 1 1.1 Theories of tonal music 1 1.1.1 Heinrich Schenker 2 1.1.2 Hugo Riemann 3 1.1.3 Arnold Schoenberg 4 1.1.4 Tension Spans 4 1.2 The Basic Tonal Sentence and an Introduction to Composing- Out Techniques 5 1.3 Assignments: Aural Development and Revision of Key Signatures 11 Chapter 2 – Structural Harmony 13 2.1 Primary and Secondary Triads: Structural Progression 13 2.2 Chord Nomenclature 18 2.2.1 Root Positions and Inversions of Triads 18 2.2.2 The Roman Numeral Scale-Degree System and Chord Character 21 2.3 Movement versus Closure: Phrase Endings and Cadences 22 2.3.1 The Authentic Cadence 23 2.3.2 The Half Cadence 29 2.3.3 The Deceptive Cadence 32 2.3.4 The Plagal Cadence 34 2.4 Principles of Voice Leading 36 2.4.1 Spacing 36 2.4.2 Doubling 36 2.4.3 Inversions 36 2.4.4 Harmonic Rhythm 37 viii Table of Contents 2.4.5 Parallel Octaves and Fifths 39 2.4.6 Exposed/Direct Octaves and Fifths 39 2.4.7 Overlapping 40 2.4.8 Individual Melodic Lines 40 2.5 Progression Types and Voice Leading 43 2.5.1 The Ascending Fourth Progression or Authentic Progression 43 2.5.2 The Descending Third Progression 45 2.5.3 Neighbour Chords 46 2.6 Assignments 48 2.6.1 Harmonic Analysis 48 2.6.2 Creative Writing 49 2.6.3 Aural Development 51 2.6.4 Keyboard Harmony 52 Chapter 3 – Melody 53 3.1 Introduction 53 3.2 Melodies that Compose Out a Fundamental Melodic Line 53 3.3 Melodies that Compose Out Chords by the Addition of Non- Chordal Notes 55 3.3.1 Passing Notes 56 3.3.2 Auxiliary Notes or Neighbour Notes 57 3.3.3 Appoggiatura 58 3.3.4 Suspensions and Retardations 59 3.3.5 Anticipation 60 3.3.6 Échappée or Escape Tone 61 3.3.7 Cambiata 62 3.3.8 Pedal 63 3.4 Melodies that Compose Out Chords 64 3.5 Melody and Musical Form 68 3.6 Assignments 73 3.6.1 Naming Non-Chordal Notes 73 3.6.2 Composing Out a Melody 78 3.6.3 Reduction: The Fundamental Line 79 3.6.4 Harmonic Reduction 80 3.6.5 Analysis of Melodic Form 81 3.6.6 Aural Development 82 Structural and Ornamental Diatonic Harmony in Western Music, ix c.1700 – 1880 Chapter 4 – Composing Out the Dominant Chord [A] 83 4.1 Emancipation of the Dissonance: The Dominant Quartad 83 4.1.1 Where and How the Dominant Quartad is Used 85 4.1.2 Figuring and Inversions of the Dominant Quartad 86 4.1.3 Resolving the Dominant Quartad to the Tonic Chord 86 4.1.4 Resolving the Dominant Quartad to the Submediant Chord 91 4.2 The Leading-Tone Triad as Dominant Substitute 94 4.3 Assignments 98 4.3.1 Harmonic Analysis 98 4.3.2 Creative Writing 100 4.3.3 Aural Development 102 4.3.4 Keyboard Harmony 103 Chapter 5 – Composing Out the Structural Tonal Sentence: Ornamental Chords [A] 104 5.1 Ornamental Fourth Progressions 105 5 5.1.1 Auxiliary 3 Ornamental Fourth Progressions 106 6 5.1.2 Auxiliary 4 Ornamental Fourth Progressions 110 6 5.1.3 Appoggiatura 4 Ornamental Fourth Progressions 113 5.2 Ornamental Sixth Progressions 115 5 5.2.1 Auxiliary 3 Ornamental Sixth Progressions 116 6 5.2.2 Auxiliary 3 Ornamental Sixth Progressions 118 6 5.2.3 Appoggiatura 3 Ornamental Sixth Progressions 121 5.3 Ornamental Fifth Progressions 123 5 6 5.3.1 Auxiliary 3 and Auxiliary 3 Ornamental Fifth Progressions 124 6 5.3.2 Passing 4 Ornamental Fifth Progressions 127 5.3.3 Ornamental Fifth Chords Connecting a Sequence of Predominant Structural Chords with Root Movements in Descending Thirds 131 5.4 Ornamental Third Progressions 134 5.5 Conclusion: Why Should I Know Whether a Chord is Structural or Ornamental? 139 5.6 Assignments 140 5.6.1 Harmonic Analysis 140 x Table of Contents 5.6.2 Creative Writing 145 5.6.3 Aural Development 147 5.6.4 Keyboard Harmony 147 Chapter 6 – Composing Out the Dominant Chord [B]: Ornamental Chords [B] 151 13 6.1 The Emancipation of the Dissonance: iii6 as V 151 6.2 Composing Out the Dominant Chord with Passing Chords 154 6.3 Assignments 159 6.3.1 Harmonic Analysis 159 6.3.2 Creative Writing 161 6.3.3 Aural Development 163 6.3.4 Keyboard Harmony 163 Chapter 7 – Emancipation of the Dissonance: Quartads, Quintads, Sextads and Septads 165 7.1 Introduction 165 7.2 The Supertonic Quartad 166 7.3 The Leading-Tone Quartad 174 7.3.1 (Full) Diminished Leading-Tone Quartads in Minor Keys 176 7.3.2 Half-Diminished Leading-Tone Quartads in Major Keys 179 7.4 The Subdominant Quartad 180 7.5 Other Diatonic Quartads 182 7.6 The Quintad, Sextad and Septad 182 7.6.1 The Dominant Quintad 182 7.6.2 Other Quintads 188 7.6.3 Dominant Sextads and Septads 189 7.7 Assignments 191 7.7.1 Harmonic Analysis 191 7.7.2 Creative Writing 193 7.7.3 Aural Development 194 7.7.4 Keyboard Harmony 195 Structural and Ornamental Diatonic Harmony in Western Music, xi c.1700 – 1880 Chapter 8 – Patterns and Sequences 197 8.1 Introduction 197 8.2 Root Movements in Ascending or Descending Seconds: A Sequence of First Inversion Chords 198 8.3 Root Movements in Ascending Fourths or Descending Fifths: Triads and Quartads 201 8.4 Root Movements in Descending Fourths and Ascending Seconds: A Composing Out of Underlying Predominant Structural Chords in Descending Thirds 207 8.5 Root Movements in Ascending Fourths and Descending Thirds 209 8.6 Assignments 211 8.6.1 Harmonic Analysis 211 8.6.2 Creative Writing 213 8.6.3 Aural Development 214 8.6.4 Keyboard Harmony 215 Index of Figures 216 Index of Citations from Musical Compositions 220 Subject Index 225 PREFACE I have taught various courses in music theory, analysis and aural development at Nelson Mandela University, South Africa since the early 1980s. From this experience, two things served as motivation for the writing of this book. First, as my retirement date looms ever closer, one might say that this book represents some part of what my life’s work has been, and that is to teach the subject of diatonic tonal harmony of the Common Practice Period to first-year music students. It is my admittedly somewhat self-serving hope, therefore, that when I am long gone, this book may in some small way be found useful and so continue to do my work for me. In the 1990s I completed my doctoral thesis on the subject of meta-discursive music theoretical systems. At a time when musicologists the world over were loudly calling for the abandonment of theory altogether, I argued instead for the integration of traditional theoretical approaches within a post-structuralist, “new”-musicological paradigm. I did this because I believed then, as I do now, that, notwithstanding their outdated political agendas, there remain many wisdoms in the legacy of the founding fathers of tonal theory of the late 1800s and early 1900s from which we all can and should continue to benefit. Those who choose to read this book, or implement it in their teaching and learning, will find that its key concepts are drawn from a number of these founding fathers, in particular Heinrich Schenker, Hugo Riemann, Arnold Schoenberg, and Leonard B. Meyer. It also consistently integrates the learning and teaching of tonal concepts with their auditory experience and tonal function, represented here in the form of their translation into tonic sol-fa, a system of learning and teaching that is almost as old as that of Western music itself. The degree to which we choose to engage with these theories must be suited to its purpose of course. And its purpose here is to teach first- year music students about diatonic tonal harmony. For this reason, the level of its engagement with these theories in this context remains understandably somewhat rudimentary. Together with conceptual development goes tactile-auditory learning through keyboard harmony, and through the discipline of aural development itself. The latter are Structural and Ornamental Diatonic Harmony in Western Music, xiii c.1700 – 1880 therefore integral to the activities and assessments suggested throughout each chapter. Second, in my more-than-30-years of teaching experience in this field, I have yet to find a single textbook that covers what I believe to be the entirety of the subject of diatonic tonal harmony.
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