[jazz_guitar] The origin of the Major Minor system
Dave Woods
your thoughts on when the major/minor system was/is a complete self
referencing entity.
I liked The "Truth About The Three Wise Men", and sent him a post asking
some questions about the instrumentation.
KEY OF C,
C D E (F) G A (B) C The Tritone interval between (F) and (B), is
totally unstable. Because of this, it creates all feelings of unrest within
the Key. Only two Triads in the key DO NOT contain one of the notes of the
Tritone, C major (C E G) the Ionian Triad, and A minor (A C E) the
Aeolian Triad. All of the others do. D minor (D (F) A), the Dorian Triad.
E minor (E G (B) the Phrygian Triad. Do. The Locrian Triad B diminished
contains both (B) D (F).
The two other major triads F major (F) A C) the Lydian Triad, and G major
(G (B) D), each contain one note of the Tritone (B) or (F). This makes C
major (C E G) and A minor (A C E) the most stable triads in the Key of
C.
Bare in mind also that when you hear and feel yourself within the context of
a Key, you're hearing and feeling all seven of its notes at the same time.
This is what gives your ear its sense of direction, and suggests to the ear
that the chords of the Key feel like they naturally go together. Therefore
the chords of the Key are not isolated entities. They all react to,
interact with, and affect each other.
Because C major and A minor are the most stable Triads in the Key of C, they
became the basis of the Major / Minor System. The Key of C major, and its
Relative Minor Key, The Key of A minor.
However, this is misleading because they're actually both part of the same
Key. They're NOT two separate keys. They both share the same key
signature.
OK, but historically, what happened to the other Modes. In C major, the
Tritone is in a position to resolve to the Tonal Center Chord. The
Diminished 5th, (B) C D E (F) contracts to resolve to the major 3rd. C
and E. The augmented 4th E (F) G A (B) C expands to resolve to E and C,
the Major 6th. From here, The Five One Chord progression G7 ( G (B) D
(F) resolving to C major (C E G) was born. In the 1600's this was a
revolutionary development, and they applied it to the other modes of the
Key.
The only way to get a Tritone in a resolving position in Lydian Mode (F G
A B C D E F) was to lower the B to Bb (F G A Bb C D E F). This
changed it to an F Ionian Mode. The only way to get a Tritone in the
resolving position in Mixolydian Mode (G A B C D E F G) was to raise
F to F#. This changed it to a G Ionian Mode (G A B C D E F# ). As a
result, the Mixolydian and Lydian Modes disappeared from Classical
Composition from about the mid 1600's until the 1890's when they were
revived by the French Impressionist Composers.
Minor actually never ceased to be modal. Those who hammered on the Major /
Minor System got around it by literally inventing the Harmonic Minor (A B
C D E F G# A) and the so called Melodic Minor (A B C D E F# G#
A) ascending, (A B C D E F G A) descending. Theorists are those who
follow in the wake of the composers, hanging on to a fixed system of
analysis for dear life that can never explain away what they felt, or what
they heard. Too bad they had to sick it on us.
In Folk Music, the Modes have always remained alive to this very day. In my
opinion, such as it is, this is where the uncontaminated truth of the
origins of music remains alive. As Louie Armstrong said, "All music
is folk music, I never heard no horse sing a song".
Dave Woods
http://www.jazzguitarstartingright.com
<http://www.jazzguitarstartingright.com/>
http://www.jazzguitarstartingright.com/1)%20The%20Overtone%20Series.pdf
http://www.jazzguitarstartingright.com/2)%20The%20evolution%20of%20key%20str
ucture.pdf
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jazz_guitar/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jazz_guitar/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
jazz_guit...@yahoogroups.com
jazz_guitar-...@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
jazz_guitar...@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
JamesM
"when you hear and feel yourself within the context of a Key, you're hearing and feeling all seven of its notes at the same time."
Yes, It's like honey to the bee, Baby.
Thanks, you are too much, David.
Jim
I have the last two blued and tatooed. You are good and i ca' dig it.
It is well worth the $5,000 that i paid to join this forum.
Can't resist the humor: you mean you didn't have to pay?
What?
akmbirch
with regard to this discussion:
A Biological Rationale for Musical Scales
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0008144#pone.0008144-Atcherson1
Abstract: Compositions in Western classical, folk and popular music as well as in many other musical traditions are based on a relatively small number of scales that typically comprise only five to seven tones . Why humans employ only a few of the enormous number of possible tone combinations to create music is not known. Here we show that the component intervals of the most widely used scales throughout history and across cultures are those with the greatest overall spectral similarity to a harmonic series. These findings suggest that humans prefer tone combinations that reflect the spectral characteristics of conspecific vocalizations. The analysis also highlights the spectral similarity among the scales used by different cultures.
For those of you who would like to research more about this topic. I recommend:
Key and Mode in Seventeenth-Century Music Theory Books
by Walter Atcherson
Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Autumn, 1973)
http://www.jstor.org/stable/843342
"The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory"
Edited by Thomas Christensen
http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521686983
--
Alisdair MacRae Birch
Guitarist/Bassist/Educator/Arranger
http://www.alisdair.com