Re: Quicky about naming a chord

Tom K. wrote:

>> Ah, sorry, I thought you were interested in the music before 12-ET -
you 
>> had some formulations giving that impression.

> Well, is Bach's WTC before 12TET, that is are you differentiating
between 
> 12TET and "Well Temperament"?  

I suggest you open a new thread about that, for some very long 
discussions. In brief, formerly one simply assumed 12-ET came into use 
fairly early but nowadays experts seem to agree it was rather late, like 
in the 19th century perhaps, and that WTC definitely does not refer to 
12-ET.

> If so, how does the Urtext manage a D# minor 
> Fugue where the Czerny Edition notates the very same fugue in Eb minor?

You will have to consult experts on that. Manuscripts are usually edited 
for the convenience of the musicians of the time it is published. And it 
is easy to transpose: Western key signatures works well with any 
diatonic scale.

>  And 
> hasn't (Western) piano music always assumed F#-Gb equivalency?

You might check out Für Elise <http://forelise.com>.
It seems to be 
written relative diatonic scale, not assuming enharmonic equivalence.

>>> As all 12 possible roots and key centers are covered, there are only 3

>>> possible o7 chords, each one having 4 normal resolutions.
>> If those keys are all harmonic minor, then I see it,
> 
> There is no such thing as an "harmonic minor" key.  

That is how Hindemith writes it.

> Minor keys use 9 tones 
> diatonically (^6 and ^7) are variable and 3 chromatically.  As composers

> think in these terms, the 3 forms of the minor scale are merely
theoretical 
> abstractions.

Sure, historically, there is a minor key with variable scale degrees. 
And Swedish folk also has the minor-major 3rd scale degree variable. But 
there are also formalized forms which do no use the variable scale
degrees.

>> but how is the dim7 fit into a major key, as you have written above?
> 
> You're kidding, right?

No.

> The fully diminished 7th has been freely employed in the major mode
since 
> the Baroque.  See, for example Prelude #1 in C major, WTC1, measure 14, 
> where Bach writes a fully diminished viio4/3 resolving to a (major) I in
bar 
> 15; or the fully diminished viio7/V in measures 22 and 28;  or the Bb
major 
> viio7-I in bar 25 of Schubert's Erlkonig.

In Hindemiths book, he always applies key signatures so that major/minor 
alterations need not be indicated.

   Hans