88CET #22: Wandering Tonics and #Parts

"Relativistic voice-leading" has an important consequence: wandering tonics.
Here is a traditional-harmony chord progression in 88CET:

B B
A A A#
(2nd-line treble) G
D D
C#
B B
A
F
E
D D
(2nd-space Bass) C C

Func. Harmony: I IV64 ii V7/V V43 I6


The equivalent progression in 12-tone notation is:

G G
F F F#
(1st-line treble) E
C C
B
A A
G
F
E
D D
(2nd-space Bass) C C

("IV64" is an attempt at an ASCII-text rendition of a roman-numeral IV with
the usual harmony-text 6-over-4 figured-bass notation for the chord inversion.
"64" denotes a second-inversion chord, "6" a first inversion, and "43" a third
inversion seventh chord.)

Because 88CET has no octave, each inversion of what you convince your
audience is a tonic triad, places the tonic at a different pitch. So the tonic
wanders over the course of this progression from (in the 88CET notation) the
second-space bass-clef C of the opening I chord, to the pitch-class of the D
(somewhat less than an octave above the C) of the final chord. That even though
our ears "calculate" the tonics to be the same based upon how the parts move.

Wandering tonics have a very surprising effect if accomplished over a short
progression - short enough that the audience can remember the new and old tonic.
The harmony says that you've gone full-circle back to where you started, but you
mysteriously ended up somewhere else. If the progression is too long,
especially if it has a lot of temporary tonicization, the audience will probably
not notice the effect at all.

Traditional harmony in 88CET poses another difficulty: lack of octave
doubling makes it very difficult to sustain more than three-part traditional
harmony. The possibilities for smooth voice-movement when voices can't move
through octave-doubles of other chord tones, dwindles rapidly. Even in
three-part harmony, you end up having to use lots of chords with fifths below
their roots, or ninth chords (fifths above their fifths). Secondary dominants
become more common than usual solely so to take advantage of the additional
chord tone!


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> Topic No. 14
>
> Date: Tue, 1 Jul 1997 23:07:23 -0500 (CDT)
> From: mr88cet@texas.net (Gary Morrison)
> To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
> Subject: Re: Get Charlie off the MTA
> Message-ID:
>
> >In my efforts to un-subscribe from THIS list, I have sent (without result)
> >the following FOUR messages to listproc@eartha.mills.edu
> >UNSUBSCRIBE
> >UNSUBSCRIBE tuning
> >UNSUBSCRIBE *
> >UNSUBSCRIBE ALL
>
> Interesting... You definitely have the address correct, which is
> probably the most common mistake I'm told. The other common mistake
> putting the command in the title line rather than the message-content.

Actually, the most common mistake (Part 1) is to try to put some word
like "unsubscribe" in the subject, (the second option, above). This is
rejected by the listprocessor to avoid mail loops (which is necessary -
think it through if you must). The most common mistake (Part 2) is to
then ignore the very clear "suspicious subject" message that the
listprocessor sends back and to continue to assume that you are sending
the wrong message to the wrong address or something. I don't know how
many times my mailbox has been muddled with people simply ignoring the
"suspicious subject" message and trying various addresses and messages
and then finally sending me some possibly rude message about how
nothing works.

Dave

Dave Madole
Technical Director, Center for Contemporary Music
Listserv Administrator

Mills College
Oakland, CA 94613
510-430-2336

madole@mills.edu

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Dear Tuning,

just to say - this is my last day at work before my trip to USA and Europe. I've
been picking up the list digest here, and am unsubscribing for now.

If for some reason the unsubscribe message fails and dumps itself in the digest
- apologies in advance - I hope someone will unsubscribe me.

If I can obtain a laptop on the trip I'll pick it up again later - otherwise when I
return in late December.

Also - sorry that I've been extremely busy recently and unable to sustain as
many contacts off-list as I would like.

You can find me at pol@c21-orch-instrs.demon.co.uk until October 4 (I leave
for New York on the 5th). After that I don't know yet, but I'll at least try to post
any new address on my website:

http://www.c21-orch-instrs.demon.co.uk

Patrick O-L