EMUSIC-L Digest Volume 63, Issue 03 This issue's topics: Brian Good's comments on harmony Chord Name Gone Astray Chord Naming chord solution (2 messages) quick theory question: chord name (28 messages) Wait a sec (was Re: quick theory...) (2 messages) Your EMUSIC-L Digest moderator is Joe McMahon . You may subscribe to EMUSIC-L by sending mail to listserv@american.edu with the line "SUB EMUSIC-L your name" as the text. The EMUSIC-L archive is a service of SunSite (sunsite.unc.edu) at the University of North Carolina. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 07:16:43 -0400 From: "Joseph D. McMahon" Subject: Brian Good's comments on harmony Brian is speaking from the same general point I meant to be speaking from and has done a better job. I would like to comment only that if a combination of notes makes musical sense in the context where you use it, spell it any way you like, but use it, and don't worry that you're not being totally rigorous. My guess is that the original poster probably just wanted to put a chord symbol next to it and had no idea that all this was going to happen. :-) --- Joe M. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 12:00:56 EDT From: "william.b.fox" Subject: Chord Name Gone Astray Dr. Kirk Corey said: > For g-c-f, the words which spring to my mind are "Space, the final > frontier...." Dammit, Kirk! I'm a musician, not a TV critic!! (or something like that.) :-} Bill Fox wbf@aloft.att.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 09:47:09 PDT From: "m.c. schraefel" Subject: thanks to those of you who responded to my chord question... > say you're playing an f chord > f-a-c > what's it called if you play > f-g-c?? just drop the third a tone? The consensus is Csus4, first inversion. thanks again m.c. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 09:53:15 PDT From: "m.c. schraefel" Subject: chord solution i'd like to correct my assesment of chord name responses: general responses to me are a) Csus4, first inversion b) ambiguous thanks again ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 21:05:50 -0500 From: "J. Michael Roach" Subject: Re: chord solution I'd like to add, as a final note (no pun intended) to this thread, that any and all chords are subject to ambiguity. The name is not a nomenclature of contents, but one of function. Please call it whatever you want. On Wed, 20 Apr 1994, m.c. schraefel wrote: > i'd like to correct my assesment of chord name responses: > > general responses to me are > a) Csus4, first inversion > b) ambiguous > > thanks again > ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 09:23:06 +2565300 From: "Dr. Kirk Corey" Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name On Wed, 20 Apr 1994, william.b.fox wrote: > Also, instead of f-g-c (a close harmony), try g-c-f (an open harmony). > The tones are all a perfect fourth apart. (For some reason "quartal > harmony" springs to mind. Is that a real term and does it apply to this > configuration?) > > Bill Fox wbf@aloft.att.com For g-c-f, the words which spring to my mind are "Space, the final frontier...." Kirk -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Dr. Kirk Corey [insert Electronic Systems Administrator kirk-corey@uiowa.edu disclaimer School of Music here] The University of Iowa "Msdos? MSDOS? I've seen CALCULATORS with a better operating system!" ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 17:35:11 PDT From: "m.c. schraefel" Subject: quick theory question: chord name say you're playing an f chord f-a-c what's it called if you play f-g-c?? just drop the third a tone? thanks m.c. mschrae@uvvm.uvic.ca ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 20:48:32 -0400 From: Joe McMahon Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name >say you're playing an f chord >f-a-c >what's it called if you play >f-g-c?? just drop the third a tone? > Ambiguous. Put an F in the bass, it's an inversion of the F9 chord. Put a C in the bass, it's a Csus4. Put a G in the bass, it's a Gsus4. Put a Bb in the bass, it's a Bb6/9 (with an implied third of D). And on, and on, and on... Seriously, you can get some interesting things out of it. Try all 12 combinations of root. See which ones you like. This particular structure has been illustrated and fiddled around with for a while in Dave Stewart's "Inside the Music" column in Keyboard. --- Joe M. -- "We also have means to convey sounds in trunks and pipes, in strange lines and distances." - F. Bacon, The New Atlantis (1624) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 19 Apr 1994 23:05:30 EST From: Today must be your lucky day! Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name I'd say calling anything an f chord is ambiguous in itself. F Major Triad. And you could call f-g-c an Fsus2 but I'd say calling it an F9 is incorrect since you're implying a Major 3rd and a Minor 7th that aren't there. Maybe Fadd9 (which implies Major). Hard to call it much of anything without a 3rd. I think Fsus2 is the only title that covers the Root, 2nd (9), and the 5th and ONLY those notes. Eric Kuehnl Kenyon College ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 09:35:34 -0400 From: "J. M. Macknik" Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name On Tue, 19 Apr 1994, m.c. schraefel wrote: > say you're playing an f chord > f-a-c > what's it called if you play > f-g-c?? just drop the third a tone? > > Jazz. (tee hee) James M. Macknik Data Management Assistant Senior - Connecticut College Dept. of Academic Computing Major - Music & Technology Connecticut College VoiceMail:(203)/439-3333 x5542 Office:(203)/439-2923 E-Mail Address: jmmac@conncoll.edu Internet Address: jmmac@dsys.cc.conncoll.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 09:51:22 -0400 From: William Matthews Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name Notice how the "quick" theory question has a very protracted answer? The only taxonomy that doesn't imply an interpretation of function & a context for this chord is that of pitch-class (pc) set labels, in which it's the [5,7,0] trichord with normal order [0,2,7]. Trichord 3-9 in Forte's taxonomy, with an <010020> interval vector. And so *begins* an education... and the ice is out of the rivers in Maine and spring has come again. (Snow flurries forecast for this afternoon). Bill Matthews wmatthew@abacus.bates.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 09:57:46 EDT From: "william.b.fox" Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name m.c. schraefel asks: > say you're playing an f chord > f-a-c > what's it called if you play > f-g-c?? just drop the third a tone? Joe McMahon gives four examples and then says: > Seriously, you can get some interesting things out of it. Try all 12 > combinations of root. See which ones you like. This particular structure > has been illustrated and fiddled around with for a while in Dave Stewart's > "Inside the Music" column in Keyboard. Then Eric Kuehnl commented further on how he'd name chords. I find that it is common that people will passionately debate how to correctly name a chord. The only wisdom I can add is to look at the chord's context and call it whatever conveys meaning to you and/or the musician to whom you're trying to convey information. Also, instead of f-g-c (a close harmony), try g-c-f (an open harmony). The tones are all a perfect fourth apart. (For some reason "quartal harmony" springs to mind. Is that a real term and does it apply to this configuration?) Bill Fox wbf@aloft.att.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 10:40:55 -0400 From: William Matthews Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name > The tones are all a perfect fourth apart. (For some reason "quartal > harmony" springs to mind. Is that a real term and does it apply to this > configuration?) > > Bill Fox wbf@aloft.att.com > yes. yes. yet another context-dependent label! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 10:06:21 -0500 From: DAVID BAGSBY - SQUID PRO QUO Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name Hello In response to the FGA chord - wouldn't it be easier to call it F5/sus2 or F2add5 ? This would at least let me know what to play from a chart. I think the harmonic climate it resides in is beside the point. (I'm assuming the original questioner wasn't concerned with inversional nomenclature). Just a thought. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 11:37:26 -0400 From: Mark G Simon Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name > > The only taxonomy that doesn't imply an interpretation of function & a > context for this chord is that of pitch-class (pc) set labels, in which > it's the [5,7,0] trichord with normal order [0,2,7]. Trichord 3-9 in > Forte's taxonomy, with an <010020> interval vector. The chord in question is such a handy triad substitute that it really ought to have its own name. The great thing about Forte's system is that it allows you to put a label on any combination of notes. I admit that 3-9 is kind of dry for something so widely used, and sus2 or sus4 is too cumbersome and implies a function which may not be relevant. There should be a special name for this chord since it pops up so much. Scriabin had his "mystic" chord; I suppose we could just call this the "sus" chord since it can be either sus2 or sus4 depending on its inversion. Anybody have any better names? Mark Simon mgs2@cornell.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 10:54:23 -0500 From: Brian Good Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name > >say you're playing an f chord > >f-a-c > >what's it called if you play > >f-g-c?? just drop the third a tone? Joe M responds: > Ambiguous. > > Put an F in the bass, it's an inversion of the F9 chord. Not to pick nits, Joe, but even this is ambiguous. Without the third and/or seventh, this can function in a number of ways-- fmaj9 or fmin9 are equally plausible. And, to my ears, at least, it becomes a little more ambiguous if you use a more open inversion like f-c-g. This ambiguity can be musically useful--you can use this 5ths-based structure (one based on 4ths works well, too) over just about any bass note. (Digs out jazz library...) "Seriously Deep," from Eberhard Weber's "Silent Feet" album, does this in a simple way. The 5ths structure is used repeatedly as a minor, then a dominant (transposed up a whole step) in consecutive measures. Or listen to any number of McCoy Tyner's modal works--lots of examples of rigid 4th structures transposed all over the place, often non-diatonically, building and releasing tension via contrast with relatively simple root movement in the bass. Brian Good NASA LeRC ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 11:18:58 -0500 From: "Diane Y. Hennessy" Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name Chord is a Csus4. Diane Y. Hennessy Hennessy Music 1729 W. Broadway 65203 dhenness@bigcat.missouri.edu On Tue, 19 Apr 1994, m.c. schraefel wrote: > say you're playing an f chord > f-a-c > what's it called if you play > f-g-c?? just drop the third a tone? > > thanks > m.c. > mschrae@uvvm.uvic.ca > ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 18:28:15 +0100 From: "Steven D. Bramson" Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name m.c. schraefel" wrote: say you're playing an f chord f-a-c what's it called if you play f-g-c?? just drop the third a tone? ---- Joe M replied: Ambiguous. Put an F in the bass, it's an inversion of the F9 chord. Put a C in the bass, it's a Csus4. Put a G in the bass, it's a Gsus4. Put a Bb in the bass, it's a Bb6/9 (with an implied third of D). And on, and on, and on... ---- Eric Kuehnl responded: I'd say calling anything an f chord is ambiguous in itself. F Major Triad. And you could call f-g-c an Fsus2 but I'd say calling it an F9 is incorrect since you're implying a Major 3rd and a Minor 7th that aren't there. Maybe Fadd9 (which implies Major). Hard to call it much of anything without a 3rd. I think Fsus2 is the only title that covers the Root, 2nd (9), and the 5th and ONLY those notes. ---- I would agree with Eric here. Certainly if you play it as suggested, ie F G C in the same octave, it "feels" like a softer version of a Fsus4 ie F Bb C and not much like a jazzy 9th chord. Here are a couple of follow up questions: 1. If I play (eg Guitar Strum) Fsus4 followed by F (sounds like "Pinball Wizard") is the suspended Bb truly a suspension in the technical sense of the word, or does the Bb have to carry over a bar line? 2. Does a ninth chord have to contain a 7th? Further more, sometimes I see a song with a 11th or 13th chord in it. Are these truly (whatever that means) distinguishable from a sus4 or 6th chord. Is it a question of which octave the 4th/11th note appears in and is there an implication with an 11th chord that a 7th and 9th must also appear? 3. Not so much a question, more a recommendation - For a long time I thought G7-9 meant G B D F A so -9 means add a (major) ninth. Then I discovered that -9 means a flattened 9th and so found G B D F Ab. This is a highly cool chord and is great in a two bar intro, so eg in C major Dm7 G7-9 Cmaj7 Keep Groovin' Steven Bramson sdb@jet.uk ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 13:49:49 -0400 From: William Matthews Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name > Anybody > have any better names? > > Mark Simon > mgs2@cornell.edu > !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ** The "McMAHON" ** !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bill Matthews wmatthew@abacus.bates.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 13:53:32 -0400 From: Alan Greenberg Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name > say you're playing an f chord > f-a-c > what's it called if you play > f-g-c?? just drop the third a tone? Assuming the first chord you mentioned is an F major tonic chord and not an inversion of a chord in another key, the second chord you mentioned is an F 9th chord. (The G is the ninth note in the F scale). ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 15:01:03 EDT From: "Trythall, Harry G" Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name Three notes. F, G, C implies, probably, a C Major triad with a sus fourth. The F G second resolves to the E G third, a 2-3 suspension that dates to the sixtee nth century (and before). Of course, additional notes, especially in the bass, produce other meanings. Gil Trythall, Music West Virginia University ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 17:10:18 -0500 From: Brian Good Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name Steven Bramson wrote: > > 2. Does a ninth chord have to contain a 7th? In the jazz/popular vernacular, which I assume you're talking about here, calling something a ninth chord (as opposed to a major or minor ninth) implies a dominant function, and a flatted seventh. Of course, you don't have to put the seventh in any particular voicing, but you will want to use the appropriate scale (usually mixolydian mode) when soloing. >Further more, sometimes I see > a song with a 11th or 13th chord in it. Are these truly > (whatever that means) distinguishable from a sus4 or 6th chord. Is it a > question of which octave the 4th/11th note appears in and is there an > implication with an 11th chord that a 7th and 9th must also appear? Again, unless a chord (other than a triad) is specifically notated as major or minor, it's assumed to be dominant. Practically speaking, jazzers tend not to distinguish between 4th and 11, etc, since the important thing is to determine which scale is used for soloing. Further, alterations like +/-9,11,13 can give suggestions about what different dominant scales, e.g. lydian flat 7, or altered, might be appropriate. > 3. Not so much a question, more a recommendation - For a long time I > thought G7-9 meant G B D F A so -9 means add a (major) ninth. Then I > discovered that -9 means a flattened 9th and so found G B D F Ab. This is > a highly cool chord and is great in a two bar intro, so eg in C major You might try extending this further--play a 3- or 4-note voicing, then add "upper structures"--major, minor or dimished triads on top, perhaps in a different key. Simple example: d major triad on top of c major 7, solo on c lydian and avoid the fifth. Adds a degree of bitonality or tonal ambiguity--nice in the right context. Anyone seriously interested in this stuff ought to look a Mark Levine's "The Jazz Piano Book." Oh, yeah. Somebody was flaming about lack of emusic content in this thread. So everybody please append "when played on an Xpander" to every sentence above. :-) Brian Good NASA LeRC ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 16:27:52 -0700 From: Doug Wellington Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name Brian Good wrote: >Anyone seriously interested in this stuff ought to look a Mark Levine's >"The Jazz Piano Book." Yes, this is a great book! There are also several related books by David Baker, Jerry Coker, Dan Haerle and Ramon Ricker, as well as lots of material distributed by Jamey Aebersold. If you really want to get into some deep stuff, check out Russell's _The Lydian Chromatic Concept_ as well. -Doug Doug Wellington doug@sun1paztcn.wr.usgs.gov US Geological Survey Tucson, AZ Project Office They want me to include a disclaimer, but the only thing I can disclaim is the knowledge of WHAT they want me to disclaim... "Stay away from them, they ain't nothin' but trouble..." -Baloo ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 20:46:31 -0500 From: "J. Michael Roach" Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name This would be considered an Fadd2(no third) or Fsus2 depending on how it is used. On Tue, 19 Apr 1994, m.c. schraefel wrote: > say you're playing an f chord > f-a-c > what's it called if you play > f-g-c?? just drop the third a tone? > > thanks > m.c. > mschrae@uvvm.uvic.ca > ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 06:54:14 -0400 From: "Joseph D. McMahon" Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name > > !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! > ** The "McMAHON" ** > !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! > > Bill Matthews > wmatthew@abacus.bates.edu > Hmm. Ambiguous, useful in many contexts, flexible, causes great debate. Works for me. :-) --- Joe M. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 14:10:01 +0200 From: Sjoerd Bijleveld Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name Dear chord dancers, I'm *not* opposed to any discussion on this list (even about chord names, although as an improvising amateur musician I don't give a .... as long as it sounds good in the context), I would like to point out that the reason I subscribed to this list is that: "EMUSIC is a complementary pair of lists (EMUSIC-L for undigested mail, EMUSIC-D for the moderately edited digest) devoted to the discussion of Electronic Music. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): synthesis methods, algorithmic composition, psychoacoustics, timbral research, instrument design, MIDI troubleshooting, new tricks for old machines, musique concrete, pedagogic methods, performance techniques, reviews of current and historical musical and technical trends, announcements of events, papers, homegrown sounds and software". (quoted from a description of E-music in the interest group list) I would like to see more discussion (preferably by professionals) about these topics. Sjoerd Bijleveld ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 08:47:03 -0400 From: Bob Ceely Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name It is called a "7-4 of Musical Composition by Paul Hindemith. Actually you could call it ROVER. What kind of music courses are you taking to major in MUSIC & Tech??? A very depressing situation. Warm egrets ROPC ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 10:59:51 -0400 From: Joe McMahon Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name >"Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): i.e., arbitrary ruling by listowner (c'est moi). :-) > >I would like to see more discussion (preferably by professionals) about >these topics. Okay. Get us started on a preferable topic. EMUSIC-L only can go in the direction in which the contributing members take it. --- Joe M. -- "We also have means to convey sounds in trunks and pipes, in strange lines and distances." - F. Bacon, The New Atlantis (1624) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 11:08:58 -0400 From: Joe McMahon Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name Okay, okay. We don't need to abuse Bob's typing skills. I freely admit (again) that my chord definitions were loose, pragmatic, and totally unsupported by tradtional music theory, I can't write figured bass, my four-voice leading sucks, I am a ham-handed dilettante who couldn't play Hanon to save my life. And I'm not terribly concerned. They sound nice, and that's what I want. If I'm getting what I want, I'll settle for that. --- Joe M. -- "We also have means to convey sounds in trunks and pipes, in strange lines and distances." - F. Bacon, The New Atlantis (1624) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 11:16:57 -0400 From: Joe McMahon Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name >The only taxonomy that doesn't imply an interpretation of function & a >context for this chord is that of pitch-class (pc) set labels, in which >it's the [5,7,0] trichord with normal order [0,2,7]. Trichord 3-9 in >Forte's taxonomy, with an <010020> interval vector. Very interesting. Could you give me a reference on this? >And so *begins* an education... and the ice is out of the rivers in Maine >and spring has come again. (Snow flurries forecast for this afternoon). The longest education begins with a single "Duh". :-) Sorry to hear about the snow -- we were lucky enough to have shirt-sleeve weather for the last few days. --- Joe M. -- "We also have means to convey sounds in trunks and pipes, in strange lines and distances." - F. Bacon, The New Atlantis (1624) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 14:45:06 -0400 From: William Matthews Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name Joe McMahon asks for more info on pc set theory. Here goes (corrections & amendments welcome): Pitch-class (pc) set theory is well introduced in Joseph N. Straus: INTRODUCTION TO POST-TONAL THEORY (Prentice Hall, 1990) and in a primer by John Rahn (?) the citation for which I cannot find at the moment. Their work stems from that of Allen Forte: THE STRUCTURE OF ATONAL MUSIC (Yale, 1977). there have been lots of refinements and improvements made in the conceptualization and methodology of the taxonomy since Forte's original book. The theory is quite useful even to explain some things in tonal music, but essential to any adequate description of non-tonal ("post-tonal," "atonal") harmony. Mandatory e-music content: One uses base 12 (mod 12) arithmetic to deal with musical intervals in pc set theory; ie: c=0, c#=1, d=2 ... b=11, c=0... Getting comfortable with thinking of pitches in this way leads to a lot of useful insights into how harmony can be generated algorithmically. (UH OH!) And is *real easy* to convert to MIDI note numbers. Example: harmony F - G - C (to take a wildly rare chord) is pc set 5,7,0. In order to compare this to other trichords, it's transposed to the 0 level, which in this system means add or subtract in mod 12. So add 7 or subtract 5 to get 0,2,7. It is useful to consider inversion as a permutation like transposition that does not fundamentally alter identity between two chords, so F - Bb - C also boils down to so-called "normal order" 0,2,7. The so-called "interval vector" for these two chords lists the total interval contents of the harmony: <010020>, which means: "0 semitones, 1 whole tone, 0 minor thirds, 0 major thirds, 2 perfect fourths, and no tritones." (The perfect fifth is considered the same as a perfect fourth because of invariability under inversion.) These vectors are useful in indicating roughly how 'dissonant' or 'consonant' a chord will be, how similar it is to another chord, when it's a subset or superset of other chords, etc. In Forte's original publication, there's a list of all possible harmonies. F-G-C is the ninth trichord on this list, thus it's "3-9." Which is just another label, but one that doesn't imply a function, an inversion, etc. Despite the initial awkwardness of the jargon, the theory isn't at all hard to grasp and offers clear and useful insights into 20th c. harmony, including varieties of tonal music that don't always work in traditional functional ways, like jazz. Once you start thinking of intervals as numbers, all sorts of analytical and compositional doors are opened that remain closed if F,G,C inescapably seems like a distorted triad (FsusN, F9, etc.) Yrs for education, but not snow. Bill Matthews wmatthew@abacus.bates.edu ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 19:57:40 -0400 From: Elissa Brill Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name > Pitch-class (pc) set theory is well introduced in Joseph N. Straus: > INTRODUCTION TO POST-TONAL THEORY (Prentice Hall, 1990) and in a primer by > John Rahn (?) the citation for which I cannot find at the moment. John Rahn, BASIC ATONAL THEORY, I believe. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 22 Apr 1994 09:03:19 -0400 From: Bob Ceely Subject: Re: quick theory question: chord name BASIC ATONAL THEORY by John Rahn published by Longman. Be sure to consult the periodical:"Perspectives of New Music" vol. 22 #2 (pp 549-555) to correct all the publisher's miss prionts.... CHEERS, RPC ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 10:26:45 -0500 From: Ken Fansler Subject: Wait a sec (was Re: quick theory...) Wait a second, here. I hate to ruin such an informative and entertaining discussion, and I'm sure I'll get flamed for this, but I've been flamed before... Why wasn't this topic *immediately* directed towards an "alt.music.theory" discussion group? There have been many topics (which sequencer to buy; which keyboard is best; etc.) introduced to this discussion that were *much* closer to what I have been led to believe is the intended content of this group. I have watched these poor authors receive much bashing and such, and, out of fear, many of them never return to our informative discussions. I would just like to see a little more consistency in the filtering system. Or maybe I'm just in a bad mood today... \ / O O --------------UUU--U--UUU-------------------------------------------------- Ken Fansler "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... West and wewaxation at wast!" email: kwfansle@ilstu.edu Elmer J. Fudd --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Apr 1994 06:51:07 -0400 From: "Joseph D. McMahon" Subject: Re: Wait a sec (was Re: quick theory...) > Why wasn't this topic *immediately* directed towards an "alt.music.theory" > discussion group? There have been many topics (which sequencer to > buy; which keyboard is best; etc.) introduced to this discussion that > were *much* closer to what I have been led to believe is the intended content > of this group. Stop! You're both right. Actally, if I remember it right, the little blurb that LISTSERV sends out when you subscribe says that we want to discuss "all aspects" of electronic music. Cetainly chordal harmony is an aspect, and a useful one to understand. I certainly don't pretend to be a music theorist; I'm interested in it, but then I'm interested in nearly anything. :-) My answer was meant to show more that the chord we were talking about was ambiguous and therefore could be used in many different and musically exciting and interesting ways. What little theory I know is based on independent reading and a grounding in jazz; it *definitely* is not traditional music theory. I still find it useful though. I personally would rather be dragged through the electronic streets at the tail of a theorist cart than spend every waking hour discussing hardware and software. Other things are important and deserve their share of time in the limelight as well. --- Joe M. ------------------------------ End of the EMUSIC-L Digest ******************************