Aural Harmony

W. Robinson Franklin

Description

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. Upon these two laws depend all the tonal relationships possible in music. In the training of the ear in music, the tonal relationships determining the harmonic law, being basic, are discerned first; the tonal relationships determining the melodic law, being de pendent upon the harmonic law, are discerned next. All tones in music are related to each other through the medium of activity and rest. The degree of any scale is either a rest tone or an active tone; any chord of the scale is either a rest chord, or one of many active chords. Play the scale of C and perceive the active quality of the tone B, the rest quality Of the tone C or the tone G. The musical ear is quickly affected by these qualities; and, com mensurable with the power of the ear to discern the active and rest qualities which tones possess, is a person considered musi cal. The ear is therefore trained (i) to listen to related tones and not to isolated tones; (2) to listen in the ensemble, and not to single tones; (3) to listen to tonal relationship through the medium Of activity and rest as setting up two laws (harmonic and melodic) which make those tonal relationships purposeful and not merely pleasant sounding concords or melodies. In formulating a method for the study Of aural theory all of these points will be taken into consideration.

Informations

• Publié par: Forgotten Books
• Date de parution: 27 novembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780243644308
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

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of experience in the teaching har mony the lines followed in p resenting the subfeel an intense need for athe author has come to j ect presentation that would meet the demands of the lesser tal ent as well as the great talent a presentation which wou ld seek to edify the stu dent by appealing to his mu sical con through the ear andbthat experiencey means of to equip him with the power to hear what he rites The opportunity presented itself when theInstitute Musical Art in ork City came into existence it is therefore with warmest gratitude that author edges not only the kindness but the unqu alified tru st whi ch the director of theInstituteDr FrankDamrosch h as shown in permitting the initial presentation aural har mony The high standard of mu si cal stu dy as carried on at theInstitute ofMa great s been Art ha usi cal stimulu s in working out and i nbringing to fru tion this new subj ect The author also wishes to extend his thanks toMr Thomas Tapper forhis kindness in reviewing and criticising the subthe fomatter and j ect rpresentatio thi m of sbook Ibe accepted in t is hoped that the treatise will the spirit in which it h as been written namely a sincere e ort pre sent the subharmony in j ect angi bleseful and a more u fortherem and bcable and ad aptabley to make it more appli to all thefields of musical experience F N I N W B I N N

treatise on harmony should include three large divi sions or aspects laws governing the vibration of any sound ingbodies the science of acoustics P H I O Lan inquiry into the action of the ear in O discerning sounds the use Of the ear in music P C H Lects that resoundingthe mental e O O bodies have upon the mind to impres the mind with the emotional qualities which chords and keys possess

Concerning thefirst of these divisions physics much has been done in thisfiTo thield of tonal relationships source the theorist of music should revert in order not to resort to arbitrary and didactic statements with regard to the of chords the formation of scales There is much in the science of acoustics which is irrelevant to the task of writing a treatise harmonyDiscussions have arisen with regarwithle versus the natural scale d to the tempered sc regard to the size of intervals as constant or varying etc Such discussions are irrelevant the subj ect of harmony The wisest course to pursue is to take that which is useful and discard that which does not apply Acoustical law shouldbe utilizestablished to prove the formation of the scale and certaibtherebtonal relationship and principles Of asic laws y avoiding arbitrary rules and laws Music as an art form is science idealiza tonal eed not xpo sitio of exlawact acoustical It is at this point that the in its inconsistency in apprehending tonal relationship deter mines that all intervals shall not necessari ybe exactly ically perfect and that the temperedfifth shall be

idealized interva l which will make possible the interrelation thefiprocess of modulathrough the erent scales fteen di t on All art takes into account the instability of the sense which it appealsIf the art of music not take into account the universal instability present in every human ear which hears all perfectfifth intervals as a little less than absolutely acoustically pe fectfimusic would simplyfths then be the tonal exposition of a branch of physics called acoustics The idealization of the perfectfiofect the accuracy fth does not a the acoustical law in determining the relationship of tones or the construction of scales no interval of afifth is heard as perfect in music if such afifth in music were produced absolutely perfect satisfy the value of in the following equation

all normal musical ears would determine such an interval of a fithe upper tone of the perfectfth as being out of tune fifth becoming a little sharp in sound Therefore the science Of acoustics willbe used to determine basic laws for all tonal relationships relating to scale tion and chord constructionbeyond these limits it will be employed

Concerning the second of the divisions physiology as it relates to the action of the ear in discerning sounds human ear is so constituted as to take in many sounds at ame moment it was meant to hear in the multiple singly herefore in listening to music the ear sho ld apprehend large asses O fsound the ear should act in other words in the nsembleIf a certain instrument is tobe discernedby the ear hen pla y a deed in an orchestra finite mental state is necessary in order that the ear shall act to discern that particular ment allowed to follow its own normal trend the ear will always act in the ensemble it will act generically and not pecificall y This fact makes abmethod in preasis all enting aural harmony Tones in music are e er li te ed l edne

other words as unrelated tones the y are always degrees a scale of a melody of a chord A chord is not discernedby hearing all the single tones which it is composedbut is heard in the ensemble as an entitybuilt up upon a root tone in a uccession of thirds and related to the scale of which it is a servant The great fallacy in the use of the in music is the tendency to train it to hear isolated tones and isolated chords Music is tonal relationshipblawsuilt upon ablawnamely the asic law a law d rived from the harmonic law namely the law pon these two laws depend all the tonal relationships ssible in music Iof the ear in music n the training the tonal relationships determining the harmonic law beingbare discerneda ic first the tonal relationships determining the melodic lawbeing de pendent upon the harmonic law are discerned next All tones in music are related each other through the medium of activity and rest The degree of any scale is either a rest tone or an active tone any chord the scale is either a r st chord or one of many active chords lay the scale of C and perceive the active quality of the tone the rest quality of the tone C or the tone G The musical ear is quickly a ected by these qualities and com mensurable with the power of the ear to discern the active and rest qualities which tones possess is a person considered musi cal The ear is therefore trained to listen to related tones and not to isolated tones to listen in the ensemble and not single tones to listen to tonal relationship through the medium of activity and rest as setting up two laws harmonic and melodic which make those tonal relationships purposeful and not merely pleasant sounding concords or melodies In formulating a method for the study of aural theory all of these points willbe taken into consideration

Concerning the third division psycholog y nder this heading willberent emotional attributes ofe discussed the di ajor and minor scales perfect and imperfect intervals con

sonant and dissonant intervals and chords and diatonic and chromatic harmonies The psychological aspect of aural harmony is therefore side that gathers all the submatter acousticallyj ect built and physiolog cally discerned and strives to make its use a pur useby reflecting upon the emotional aspects Of musical phenomena and making thereby a language of music example a chromatic chord may be verybeautiful and stillbe entirely inadequate represent the subtle emotional meanin hich is required of it It would therefore seem imperative that all scales melodies and chorwhich roughly speakingds diatonic and chromatic is the subject matter concerned in aural harmony shouldbe discussed with regard to heir meaning in order that their use may become purposeful andfilled with sense The psychological side of the study of aural harmony should bect as it ise presented along with every phase of the subj folded enters into the understanding of melodyInter vals mustbcharacteristic qualitiese aurally determined by the hich they possess for exbrightness of the majorample the third versus the sombrthe staticeness of the minor third quality a consonance versus the dynamic quality of a dis sonance the naturthe diatonic choral purity and strength versus the artificial emotional quality of the chromatic chord The psychological phase of the subj ect harmony is there fore the naturalrit developsesultant phase of the whole work the power of the mind to think a conclusion there fore a purposeful use concerning all the phenomena of tonal relationships employed in music Goethe once said We name everything under the sun but know so little about any thingIn order that the student aural theory shall not at the end of his study become classified as one of those who can name all the scale degrees intervals and chords and still kno nothing about them it is sincerely hoped that this all important phase of aural theory willbe vigorously sought out and sorbed The power to concentrate through the use of the ear another phase in the presentation of aural theory about which is ver necessary to be careful the ear Of the a erage musical