Re: Let's cut Rameau some slack

On May 11, 10:56 pm, paramu...@xxxxxxxxxxx (paramucho) wrote:
On Mon, 11 May 2009 14:28:31 -0400, Joey Goldstein



<nos...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
The point that should be taken from thorough-bass notation is not that

it serves to label chords but that it reflects how musicians were
beginning to think about music in terms of harmonic entities and
relationships, i.e. as progressions of independent, but connected
sonorities. That's the revolution which takes place at the time.
That's where the new theoretical approachs are needed, it's this
thinking, which develops as thorough-bass theory, that Rameau takes as
his point of departure.

Ian

Fine. It's obviously true that figured bass played a role in what can be
called the development of chord-based music.
But the figured bass itself is not part of the analysis above. The
analysis here is his discussion of the music and he's using abstract
terms like "tonic" etc. to describe how the chords are moving. As far as
I can see he only mentions figured bass once when referring to a 6/4
chord and that's only for the purpose of identifying it.

There's a difference between "Figured-bass notation" and "figured-bass
theory."

"Figured bass notation" is, of course, just a set of chord signatures
which describe chords. It's a notation which dominated performance of
many types of music the period 1600-1750 (roughly).

"Figured bass theory", is the musical theory which evolves in that
period. Perhaps a better expression would be "early chordal theory",
but the historical term I am familiar with is "thorough-bass theory".
The theory evolves out of a revolutionary new way of looking at music
and that is as harmonic progressions of vertical chord units.

When I look at the passage I come up with the following list which I'd
associate with "figured bass theory" (or "early chordal theory"):

  Tonic harmony
  Modulation
  D minor
  chord of the second
  interchange of chordal tones
  bass being omitted
  seventh chord
  six-four chord
  chord of the second
  chord seems to point at C minor
  as if the plan were to move on to the F major chord
  dissonant relationships leading back to the principal tonality
  principal tonality

Aren't these concepts that you have learned by studying theory? Would
you have said the same things if you had not studied theory? You can
come to all of these same conclusions with the printed score with or
without a figured bass! you look at the bass part and you look at the
other notes and you decide which figures to put on the bass line! You
need theory to even construct a figured bass!


Regarding the initial term "tonic harmony", I'd need to see the German
original (which I have on order) for that particular term.

Finally, the idea of "analysis", as we understand it, is almost
non-existent in the period. Concepts form and "tonality", which
emerged in the early 1800s, were required before the kinds of
structural analysis that we now expect could be carried out. Theory
isn't just about analysis.

Your paste of "Figure 479" didn't work so well. It's unintelligible. I
think you need to use a mono-spaced font.

I used a mono-spaced font, but it probably line-wrapped. Here's the
example split up.

Figure 479
Allegro
                                                                                               7
                6 7       7             #        
            6   4 5   2 6 #        4 3 67        
<C       A   E F G G C B A D        G   EAA        
(1)                     (2)            (x)        

7

(continued)
 6n   7              b7   6        7 65    648
2n n 2n#  2  6         5 b 5 2 5 b  5 43 8b7423
A  GFA G  B  A         F     F E  F F G  C       >  Bass line
(3)    (4)(5)(6)                         (1)

Ian

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Theory Versus Composition Part One
    ... My "analysis" (a bass note F with a figured bass 6) conveys ... Roman numerals with Arabic numbers beneath ... them convey chord function within a key as well as inversion. ... Here, jazz harmony can help. ...
    (rec.music.theory)
  • Re: Theory Versus Composition Part One
    ... Roman numerals with Arabic numbers beneath ... them convey chord function within a key as well as inversion. ... Here, jazz harmony can help. ... Using figured bass, the student would have ...
    (rec.music.theory)
  • Re: Lets cut Rameau some slack
    ... Figured bass is a notational method that spells ... Functional harmony theory and Roman Number theory did not exist in the ... anything about a chord other than its vertical intervallic qualities. ... Riemann was still refining his model in the early ...
    (rec.music.theory)
  • Re: Lets cut Rameau some slack
    ... music and that is as harmonic progressions of vertical chord units. ... TB notation were a sign that the times were changing. ... this whole thing is about your use of Figured Bass as Music ... teaching harmony. ...
    (rec.music.theory)
  • Re: Pauls Pre-Beatles Beatles Songs
    ... various early versions of "Georgia" plus the songs we've mentioned. ... underlying F#m7 chord. ...   C# B ... between melody and harmony. ...
    (rec.music.beatles)