MARK ALBURGER, 2018: April 5 - Do Re Mi... Sol?

[Fa to go for Quiz 11 (Chord Cycles), to be given sometime after 8am, Thursday, April 12, Diablo Valley College Music Building, Pleasant Hill, CA]

Four-Part Harmony

S - Soprano
A - Alto
T - Tenor
B - Bass

The four voices above, highest-to-lowest, can be literal voices, four tones in a keyboard chord,
four instruments, etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-part_harmony

Voicing of Root-Position Triads in Four-Part Harmony

With 3 tones, and 4 voices, one tone will be doubled (stated twice in the chord)

Typical voicing is "Root-Root-Third-Fifth,"
with one Root as Bass and the other found in one of the Upper Voices (Soprano, Alto, Tenor)

Keyboard-Style Voicing

S
Treble Clef will contain A
T

Bass Clef will contain B

Closed-Spacing Realizaton of Root-Position Chords

Over a given Bass-Clef Root,
in Treble Clef, choose a Soprano Chord-Tone,
Alto and Tenor will be the next available Chord Tones downward.

(Note the 2nd and 3rd Treble-Clef Measures look like Inversions,
but they are still Root-Position Triads, given the Root Bass Notes)

The space between Tenor and Bass can be as much as two octaves,
or as little as a Unison

Voice-Leading

The smooth connection of adjacent chords

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_leading

Common Tone(s)

Note(s) shared by two different Chords

Examples
   D
                                         B
                G       G Chord G
                E
C Chord C                       C
                                         A
                         F Chord   F

G is the Common Tone shared by the C and G Chords

C is the Common Tone shared by the C and F Chords

                                                B
               G                              G
               E     E Minor Chord E      E
C Chord C                                       C
                              A Minor Chord A

C Chord shares two Common Tones (E and G) with E Minor Chord

C Chord shares two Common Tones (A and C) with A Minor Chord

Root Movement    Number of Common Tones      Examples

4th (or 5th)                        1                                   C to G, or C to F
3rd (or 6th)                        2                                   C to Em, or C to Am
2nd (or 7th)                       0                                    F to G (no Common Tones)

Two Guidelines for Traditional Common-Practice Voice-Leading of Root-Position Triads

1. If there's a Common Tone, and it makes sense to keep it, do so,
move other Upper Voices as smoothly as possible.

2. If no Common Tone,
move all Upper Voices in Contrary Motion with respect to the Bass.

Traditional Limits of Voice Movement

Upper Voices - most movement is by Step or 3rd, occasionally 4th

Bass - no more than a 5th (but Octave leaps OK) -- i.e. no 6ths or 7ths

Doubling in Inversions

Either Root or Bass may be Doubled - in First Semester Theory, often Bass Doubling is easier

Another Unusual Interval

Diminished 3rd = d3 = 1 step notated with 3 letter names
(ex. F# Ab) - Enharmonic equivalent of M2 (ex. F# G#, or Gb Ab)

Dominant 9th Chord - ex D9

Dominant 7th Chord + Major 9th (between Root and 9th)

Octatonic and Blues Scales; Richard Berry's Louie-Louie (1955) I-IV-V-IV Rhythmic Pattern

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octatonic_scale

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blues_scale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-2CKsaq5r8

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Berry_(musician)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Louie

Keyboard-Solfege - Richard Rodgers - The Sound of Music (1959): Do-Re-Mi (Melody)

The

high

plummets

down 14 to 61,

on the 72nd day of

spring

(Pleasant Hill, 65),

meeting with the Music Theoreticians earlier, to introduce material for Week 11, continue work on Quiz 9 and

begin that of 10 (this crazy catch-up all still due to the campus-wide gun-scare before Spring Break).

5th page score-study re Igor Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, as part of The Opus Project presents Opus 64 (8pm, Saturday, April 28, 2018, Diablo Valley College Music Building, Viking Drive),

and

homeward on the

680 /

errand

way to edit the next segment (72) , new-edition Mice and Men, Op. 45...