On Apr 18, 2005, at 5:50 PM, Darcy James Argue wrote:
On 18 Apr 2005, at 5:14 PM, Christopher Smith wrote:
But back at you, in the key of C would YOU spell the bII7 chord as Db-F-Ab-Cb
On a piano or guitar part, absolutely -- no hesitation, no question. On chordal parts, I spell dominant 7th chords as dominant 7th chords, regardless of function. I think it's needlessly confusing to the player to do otherwise.
On a horn part, probably not -- if the progression is Db7 - CMA7 I wouldn't write the voice in question as Cb-B.
It doesn't bother me in the slightest if the spelling for the horn lines doesn't exactly match the spelling in the piano part. It's all about what makes the most sense for each individual player.
I think that gets to the heart of it. For a piano player, there is no tuning advantage, and a considerable reading advantage. For a horn voicing, he NEEDS to see the leading tone (at least!) spelled correctly.
It depends on the resolutions, too. It often makes more sense to show a downward resolution as a flat. I wouldn't alter a third to do that (like D7 to G7 I wouldn't use Gb-F but F#-Fnat, but I might if the progressions was Ab7 G7, even though it isn't strictly correct by my book.)
Well, yeah. I think it's kind of silly and confusing to spell the Ab7 in the Ab7-G7 progression as "Ab-C-Eb-F#." It would be equally silly to spell the D7 in Dy-G7 as "D-Gb-A-C." But these are both silly for *exactly the same reason*. I think you'll find the policy of spelling dominant seventh chords as dominant seventh chords -- at least for chordal instruments -- has a lot to recommend it.
Yet the note in question should be tuned as an F#, that is, slightly lower as a major third, not slightly higher as a Gb minor seventh would be. That's why I would tend to try to preserve the correct spelling wherever possible. The F# SHOULD be tuned the same way whether the bass note is D or Ab. I know this makes no difference on a piano, which is why I don't object to respelling in that instance. But the tuning (theoretically anyway) of a strong functional note like the F# needs to be clear.
I would spell them with Ab and Gb because it's almost always preferable to spell dominant seventh chords "properly," instead of forcing them to obey 19th century rules about enharmonic spelling, at the expense of readability and common sense.
For a pianist, yes. In a voicing for separate instruments, though, when I see an F# in the key of C on an inner part it tells me exactly how it has to be tuned. Gb tells me a different story. So I try to let the player know which one it is.
For fast lines, it won't be as much of an issue, for sure, but I think we already agree on best melodic spellings.
Christopher]
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