Re: Future of Close Harmony singing (was: Digest Number 3944)

Gene wrote:

"> For example, why should it be limited to the
> two-to-four-minute-long song format, or to repertoire that has dropped
> out of copyright, or to seven limit harmonies?

The extension I find most intriguing is to get away from the chain of
fifths."

Gene:

I suspect that if you want to achieve this -- progressions that reinforce particular harmonic patterns and are robust enough to be improvised -- you're going to have to come up with a structure that parallel the tritone-descending-by-semitones (actually alternating augmented fourth - diminished fifth-descending-by-semitones) voice leading that makes chain of fifths progressions work so well.

(BTW, the single fact about voice leading that impresses me the most is that, in four voices, it's impossible to follow any of the standard rules sets and have two complete 7th chords in a row).

Does anyone know of any similar voice leading patterns associated with chains of other intervals?

DJW

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Daniel Wolf <djwolf@...> wrote:

> I suspect that if you want to achieve this -- progressions that
> reinforce particular harmonic patterns and are robust enough to be
> improvised -- you're going to have to come up with a structure that
> parallel the tritone-descending-by-semitones (actually alternating
> augmented fourth - diminished fifth-descending-by-semitones) voice
> leading that makes chain of fifths progressions work so well.

You can break that up into steps. If we start from 9/8-21/16-3/2-15/8,
then we can move to either 15/14-5/4-3/2-15/8, preserving the 5/4-3/2
interval, or 21/20-21/16-3/2-7/4, preserving the 3/2-7/4 interval. The
first involves a parallel 7/6 interval dropping by 21/20, and the
second a parallel 5/3 interval dropping by 15/14. Then from these
intermediate steps to 1-5/4-3/2-7/4, we have a parallel 7/4 interval
dropping by 15/14 from 15/14-5/4-3/2-15/8, or a parallel 5/4 interval
dropping by 21/20 from 21/20-21/16-3/2-7/4. In no cases are parallel
fifths involved.

Similar chord progressions can be similarly analyzed. From
35/32-5/4-25/16-15/8, we can move to either 35/32-5/4-35/24-7/4,
dropping a 6/5 interval 25/16-15/8 by 15/14 to 35/24-7/4, or to
15/14-5/4-3/2-15/8, dropping a 10/7 interval 35/32-25/16 to a 7/5
interval 15/14-3/2. The second one progresses to the tonic as before,
and the first has the interval 35/32-35/24, of a fourth, proceed by
contrary motion to 1-3/2.

> (BTW, the single fact about voice leading that impresses me the most is
> that, in four voices, it's impossible to follow any of the standard
> rules sets and have two complete 7th chords in a row).

Why is this a good idea?

On Wed, 08 Mar 2006, Daniel Wolf wrote:
>
> Gene wrote:
>
> "> For example, why should it be limited to the
> > two-to-four-minute-long song format, or to repertoire that has dropped
> > out of copyright, or to seven limit harmonies?
>
> The extension I find most intriguing is to get away from the chain of
> fifths."
>
>
> Gene:
>
> I suspect that if you want to achieve this -- progressions that
> reinforce particular harmonic patterns and are robust enough to be
> improvised -- you're going to have to come up with a structure that
> parallel the tritone-descending-by-semitones (actually alternating
> augmented fourth - diminished fifth-descending-by-semitones) voice
> leading that makes chain of fifths progressions work so well.
>
> (BTW, the single fact about voice leading that impresses me the most is
> that, in four voices, it's impossible to follow any of the standard
> rules sets and have two complete 7th chords in a row).
>
> Does anyone know of any similar voice leading patterns associated with
> chains of other intervals?

Daniel,

Of course, one can have a two-voice chromatic
progression in which alternately -

step 1. minor thirds expand by semitones to perfect fourths,

step 2. fourths contract obliquely by one part only moving up
or down by a whole tone.

eg illustrating both up and downwards motion -

F F# | E .... F | Eb E | D Eb | Eb E | E .. F# | F
D C# | C# C | C .. B | B Bb | C .. B | C# C# | D

The alternation need not be strict, of course.
Where this might lead in more voices, I haven't
tried out. What kinds of bass progressions,
other than purely chromatic, make sense here?

Minor thirds have something less than the
tension of tritones, so such progressions may
be ineluctably blander ...

Adding a third voice:
1. Stacking an extra minor third on top of these
dyads again gives us tritone progressions.

2. Stacking an extra major third on top of these
dyads gives us progressions of inverted minor
triads.

3. Stacking an extra perfect fourth on top of
these dyads gives us progressions of inverted
major triads.

In each of these cases, an appropriate bass
note will of coure harmonise the triad, usually on
the root or fifth. Which goes some way to
answering my own question ...

Regards,
Yahya

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Hi Daniel,

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Daniel Wolf <djwolf@...> wrote:

> (BTW, the single fact about voice leading that impresses
> me the most is that, in four voices, it's impossible to
> follow any of the standard rules sets and have two
> complete 7th chords in a row).

Hmm, that's interesting. I wonder which is the chicken
and which is the egg?

And once again, i will mention one of my favorite
"most radically new" compositions: Erik Satie's
_Sarabande No. 1_. It strings all manner of
major-7th and dominant-9th chords together,
one after another ... thus, breaking all the rules.
And most importantly, it sounds beautiful.

-monz
http://tonalsoft.com
Tonescape microtonal music software