RE: No Scales!

Harold,

You wrote:

>IMPORTANT: I am NOT proposing a way to integrate the 7LIAs into any
particular
>scale. I believe many xenharmonicists are too obsessed with scales, and the
>correlating melodic-harmonic consistency. Recall those irascible 2nd, 3rd,

>6th,
>and 7th degrees of the minor scale, and remember how JS Bach, that titan of
>tonality, handled them! In any case, the style contexts I am considering
are
>those which could be described in their most extreme state as tonal
>chromaticism
>a la Wagner or Richard Strauss.

OK, I don't think there's anything wrong with this, although my particular
work does propose a way to integrate the 7LIA, or more accurately the
7-limit chord approximations, into a scale. However, I believe this approach
has more validity that you may give it credit for. The "correlating
melodic-harmonic consistency" is what makes polyphonic music as we know it
possible.

In analyzing Bach, we use a heptatonic framework, i.e., the intervals are
described not in terms of the tuning system but in terms of a scale, however
ficticious this scale may be in practice. The reason is that the
preponderance of heptatonic (diatonic) melodic patterns, out of which the
harmony materializes, causes the listener to conceptualize harmonic as well
as melodic relationships in those terms. Motivically, a major second can be
re-interpreted as an augmented second, but never as a minor third, even
though the latter two intervals may sound the same. The reason is the
overarching heptatonic framework; moreover, whatever coloristic alterations
may occur to the "canonical" scale formation will preserve or enhance the
harmonic consonance-dissonance relationships embodied in the scale. When
these relationships are not preserved, e.g., when a perfect fifth becomes a
diminished fifth, we upset the prevailing heptatonic hierarchy. Thankfully,
because of the special place of the diminished fifth within the "canonical"
heptatonic scale, a new hierarchy, i.e., a new key center, is immediately
established.

Of course, it wouldn't be if Bach's music didn't follow through with this
logic. Wagner's music, although based on (almost) the same tuning system,
may not observe this heptatonic logic, and so it is not always useful for
analyzing his music. A framework such as Vogel's may then be more
appropriate (he analyses some Wagner in terms of 7LCAs), and/or a framework
which recognizes 12 distinct pitch-classes. If your music leans more towards
microtonal Wagner than microtonal Bach, then I would agree that talk of
scales may not be too relevant.

-Paul


Received: from eartha.mills.edu [144.91.3.20] by vbv40.ezh.nl
with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Thu, 18 Jul 1996 23:32 +0100
Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI)
for id OAA20888; Thu, 18 Jul 1996 14:32:00 -0700
Date: Thu, 18 Jul 1996 14:32:00 -0700
Message-Id:
Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu
Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu
Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu