Book 1 - Elementary & Intermediate Harmony

Chapters:
1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 20, 26, 27

Edited by:
Hamidreza Dibazar
 Contents
Preface to the Fifth Edition I xi
Introduction to the First Edition (1941) I xv

I
TONAL HARMONY IN COMMON PRACTICE

I. Materials of Music: Scales. and Intervals / 3

IntPrvals Measured by Scales. Scale Degrees. Classification of Intervals.
Compound Intervals. Inversion of Intervals. Enharmonic Intervals.

2. Triads / I3
Chord Factors. Triads on the Scale Degrees. Kinds of Triads. Inversions.
Consonant and Dissonant Intervals. Triads of the Major Mode. Four-Part
Writing. Doubling. The Leading-Tone Triad. Spacing. Close and Open
Position. Notation.

3. Harmonic Progression in the Major Mode:

Principles of Voice Leading / 22
Table of Usual Root Progressions. Connection of Chords: Two Rules of
Thumb. Improving the Exercise: Beyond the Rules of Thumb. Conjunct
andDisjunct Melodic Motion. Rules of Motion. The Direct Octave and
Fifth. Treatment of the Leading Tone. Overlapping and Crossing. Similar
Motion of Four Voices. Quick Summary of Motion Rules. Working on the
Exercises.

4. The Minor Mode / 43

Scale Differences. Triads in the Minor Mode. Harmonic Progression. Voice
Leading.
VI CONTENTS

6. The First Inversion-The Figured Bass / 71

Arabic-Numeral Notation. Doubling. General Effect of the First Inversion.
Voice Leading. Consecutive First-Inversion Triads. Usage of the Various
Triads. Keyboard Harmony and Figured Bass.

8. Nonharmonic Tones I r r 5
Melodic Dissonance. The Passing Tone. The Neighbor Note. The Anticipa­
tion. The Appoggintura. The Suspension. Escape Tone and Reaching Tone.
Successive Nonharmonic Tones. The Pedal. Application.

9. Harmonization of a Me lody / 140

Analysis of the Melody. Melodic Skips. Sustained Tones. Available Chords.
Contrapuntal Approach: Melody and Bass. Use of Formulae. Harmonization
and Nonharmonic Tones.

IO. The Six-Four Chord / r 58

The Cadential Six-Four Chord. The Auxiliary Six-Four Chord. The Pass­
ing Six-Four Chord. The Arpeggiating Six-Four Chord and Other Forms.

14. Modulation / 222

Psychological Necessity for Change ofKey. Elementary Relationships: Three
Stages. Examples of Modulating Phrases. Levels of Tonality: Tonicization
and Intermediate Modulation. The Modulation Chain. Related Keys.
Interchange ofModes. Exploration ofMeans. Enharmonic Changes.
Abrupt Modulations. Pivot Tones.

I 5. The Dominant Seventh Chord I 243

Origin ofthe Harmonic Dissonance. Regular Resolution. The First
Inversion. The Second Inversion. The Third Inversion.

�� The Sequence / 315

The Initial Pattern. Hami'a,t1ic Rhythm. Length of the Sequence. Degree of
Transposition. The Nonmodulating Sequence. Secondary Dominants in the
Sequence. The Modulating Sequence. The Sequence in Harmonization.
Keyboard Practice.
 CONTENTS Vil

� The Neapolitan Sixth / 407

Definition, Resolution, Preparation, and Doubling. Secondary Relationships.
V of the Neapolitan. Intermediate Modulation. Modulatio,i with the
Neapolitan.

�ugmented Sixth Chords / 419

Origin as Secondary Dominants. Definitions. Resolution. Inversions.
Irregular Resolutions. Modulation. Exceptional Forms.
 1

Materials of Music:
Scales and Intervals

Music is indigenous to virtually every culture and every civilization.

This aJone suggests that the instinct for making music is fundamental
to human nature. We can identify music as a ceremonial art back through
three millennia or further; but music as we know it today is the young­
est of the arts, essentially less than a thousand years old. In this book
we will be concerned mainly with the traditions of Western art music.
Western art music is the richest of all musical traditions for several rea­
sons: its identifiable and unified historical evolution, its enduring mas­
terworks of every type, and the endless variety of accomplishments and
personalities that characterize its development. Even twentieth-century
popular music, with its huge and broadly based appeal, owes more to
Western art music than to any other.
In the study of music theory we are concerned with what music is
made up of-what things go into a piece of music, and how they are
put together. From the very beginning we will work with raw mate­
rials and with matters of form and structure. In srudying these, we are
aided by the fact that most music deals in precise quantities. The tones
of music, after all, are carefully defined: they have exact frequencies
(pitch), and in a composition they are notated with precise specifica­
tions as to duration, loudness, and other qualities.

3
4 TONAL HARMONY IN COMMON PRACTICE

Intervals Measured by Scales

The basic unit of harmony is the interval. The term describes the dis­
tance between two tones.* When the tones are sounded simultaneously
the distance is a harmonic interval. If the two tones are heard consecu­
tively, the distance is a melodic interval.

EXAMPLE I-I

11 r@ II
harmonic interval melodic interval

The tones that form the interval are drawn from scales. The most
familiar of these are the two diatonic scales of seven notes each, called
the major scale and the minor scale. Tonal music, which includes most
music written between 1700 and 1900, is based on diatonic scales.
The difference between the major and minor scales is found in the
distribution of whole steps and half steps above a given starting point.
The major scale that starts on C is called the C-major scale.

EXAMPLE I-2
half half
st ep s!._ep

II
_
/ s,<
� o....____...... e.Z «�e....
«.::::=>- :::>''<=>- 8,Z S8;t

whole whole whole whole whole

step step step step step
r n m N v VI vn (I)

There are three different forms of the minor scale. The natural minor
scale has three tones that are different from corresponding tones in the
major scale. Some of these same tones are also found in the other forms,
as shown here.

\
*The term note has historically been used interchangeably with tone. Many writers now
prefer co reserve the word tone to mean an actual sound, and to use note to mean a symbol written
on music paper as a representation of the sound. This book will not always be so fastidious about
this distiMtion.
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