On Feb 5, 2007, at 3:06 AM, Daniel Wolf wrote:
At 08:11 PM 2/4/2007 -0500, A-NO-NE Music wrote:
I remember, in traditional harmony, you are not supposed to
double the
3rd, but I don't remember what is the reason for this.
Voice leading (specifically, to avoid parallel octaves), and to
some extent intonation (the precise intonation of the third is less
clear than that of the root and fifth, if the third is doubled at
the octave it risks creating a tuning conflict).
Daniel Wolf
On Feb 5, 2007, at 1:49 AM, Aaron Rabushka wrote:
The "no doubling of the leading note" comes from the necessity of the
leading tone to go straight up to the tonic. Therefor, a doubled
leading
tone would result in parallel octaves.
Neither of these reasons holds much water, as far as I can see. In
the first case, tuning is as touchy on a minor third as it is on a
major third, yet it can still be doubled. In the second case, inner
voices CAN deny resolution of the leading tone (say, an alto voice
can drop to the fifth of the key after a leading tone) but you still
can't double the LT, not even at the unison.
However, if you don't adhere to modern orchestra tuning procedures
(listening to whoever has the root and tuning the fifth so it doesn't
beat, then fitting the third in) but rather assume that the major
scale will more or less preserve the same tuning, then Daniel's
answer starts looking better. The 1,4 and 5 of the key don't move
much, which means that the thirds of the minor triads in a major key
are the stable notes.
I tried to test this theory with a brass quartet I played in once,
(keeping the 1,4 and 5 stable and adjusting the other notes,
regardless of harmony) but the other players were so attached to the
"tune to the root" procedure that we couldn't make it work.
Christopher
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