Re: Music theory and the harmonization of melodies

>>>>> "CC" == Choubi Chouba <choubichouba@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

CC> My idee fixe as you like to say is that I don't feel compelled
CC> to think that a covering of music theory with say 10 books
CC> left to be set, constitutes, for me, a coherent way for to
CC> respond to basic musicianship questions like this.

The question under discussion, as I recall, is: given a particular
note, what chords can go under it? I have a harmony book on my shelf
from 1910 or so; if memory serves, it's by one Percy Goetschius, and
the front endpaper is a compendium of all the chords you can harmonize
the note C5 with. Given that and a rudimentary knowledge of
transposition, you have your answer. Unfortunately, it doesn't really
help; by the time you have enough knowledge to make use of the chart,
you also have enough knowledge that you no longer need it.

There are a multitude of reasons for choosing any given chord. The
two basic reasons are because it fits the function you want at that
point in the phrase or the larger work and because it arises naturally
out of the fundamental bass-soprano counterpoint. There is no magic
formula. There is no simple recipe. There are a variety of options;
as a result, on one level studying music theory is like studying
classical rhetoric, in that no technique is correct or incorrect in
itself, but is only better or worse with a given goal in mind.

Further, there is no royal road to knowledge. Understanding music is
like becoming fluent in a foreign language: you can't just read a book
and know French; what you're asking is akin to asking for a simple set
of rules that will allow someone who doesn't speak French to
communicate coherently in French. It's probably possible to formulate a
set of rules that will let an ignoramus (or a computer) harmonize
Lutheran hymn tunes in the style of Bach; the problem is that the set
of rules would be so extensive and so complicated that it's simpler to
just teach the student harmony.

Charlton




--
cwilbur at chromatico dot net
cwilbur at mac dot com
.

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