88CET #23: Traditional/Nontraditional Bridges

Finding chords to bridge smoothly between traditional and nontraditional
chords by stepwise movement of parts proves more difficult than at first meets
the eye. The reason is that the basic building blocks of 88CET traditional
harmony, such as sixths and tenths, are far away from the building blocks of
nontraditional harmony, notably subminor, neutral, and supramajor thirds.

Adding a part to the harmony can sometimes help. For example, consider a
wide-voiced major chord, like what in traditional notation would be E up to C up
to G. An equivalent-sonority chord in 88CET would be notated D up to C up to A.
You can immediately create a nontraditional sound by injecting an additional
note between chord tones to form supramajor or neutral thirds with the original
parts. For example, adding an G and an Eb to form D G C Eb A produces a very
nontraditional chord to say the least.

But there are some nontraditional intervals within a stepwise-motion's
distance of traditional intervals. For example, consider tritone resolution,
one of the most basic cadential effects in traditional harmony. Diminished
fifths traditionally either resolve inward to thirds, and augmented forths
outward to sixths. In 88CET, tritones do resolve outward to traditional sixths,
but to nontraditional thirds. Here are some examples of how this can be
exploited:
Traditional Nontraditional
Resolution: Progression:

A G
G F# (SM3)
(TT) (m6) (TT) C#
C C
B (sm7)
(sm7) (M6) (sm7) C#
C C C

dom7 major dom7 new

Of course leaps are always an option, especially since in transitioning to
nontraditional harmony, you're beginning to toss traditional part-writing
notions out the window. But as in traditional music, too much leaping breaks
the flow of the counterpoint and harmony. Although there's nothing inherently
wrong with breaking that flow, it can obscure the surprise or oddness of a
transition to nontraditional harmony. This harkens back to the notion of
"relativistic voice-leading": When everything seems "normal" and your
progression all flow normally, people expect all of the chords you play to sound
normal. When they turn out unusual, you have a powerful effect. When the flow
breaks, all bets are off, so there's less surprise. But when a seemingly normal
collapsing tritone produces something strange, you'll get your audience's
attention!

There are many other possible smooth transitions from traditional to
nontraditional. Your best bet in locating them is through experimentation. In
particular, start with a traditional chord structure, and then resolve one or
more of the tendency tones in the wrong direction. Many of these also work
great in retrograde as transitions from nontraditional to traditional.


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