On Jun 30, 2005, at 1:36 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
On Jun 29, 2005, at 9:14 PM, Christopher Smith wrote:
Subdominant (used to mean the 4th of the scale, or the chord built
on it. Now means ANY chord that can lead to a dominant
If this is true, then do you call the 7th a sub-tonic ?
If it is a tone below the tonic, yes. A semitone below would be a
leading tone. I'm not sure why this point leads from subdominant
discussions, though.
Call me aa A-retentive tradionalist, but I believe that by changing
the meaning of the term obfuscates it's meaning and makes subsequent
discussions between musicians/composers/arrangers much more difficult
than it already is.
If someone says to me "sub-dominant" within a music discussion, I will
take that to mean the pitch just BELOW the Dominant or the 4th pitch
in the scale.
I was unclear in my original comment. Some people say "a subdominant
chord" or "a predominant chord" interchangeably, to mean "a predominant
FUNCTION chord" or "a predominant AREA chord". So he might say, "the
iim7 and the IV are both predominants" interchangeably with "the iim7
and the IV are both SUBdominants" when he might have MEANT to say
"subdominant FUNCTION or AREA."
In jazz, the predominant function extends to a whole bunch of other
chords, too, from borrowed modes and extended chords. But THEY aren't
REALLY predominant all the time either, so the name is kind of
misleading, which is my original point. These chords don't have to go
to a dominant, so they aren't really PREdominant. We don't have a
really good and descriptive name that avoids confusion.
PS - Does a sub-dominatrix lead to a dominatrix, or is that anyone who
is submissive to a dominantrix ? <LOL>
Heh, heh! It's obvious to me that the dominatrix is simply the feminine
version of the dominant. So, in music as in poetry, a resolving
dominatrix is a dominant that is stressed (though usually it is the
submissive who is more stressed! He might need resolution, too, for all
I know - I have no intimate knowledge of these matters.)
8-)
Christopher
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