On Mar 20, 7:34 am, "Fiona Abrahami"
<fiona@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Much of my harmonic thinking these days seems to revolve around higher
> tensions, and I rarely build a diatonic chord in a composition without
> including a ninth and thirteenth (and 11th where appropriate) -
non-diatonic
> intervallic structures are another thing, but even then I'm into big
chords
> these days.
>
> Generally, having decided my melody and bass notes I'm taking the mode
of
> the moment, re-arranging it as a stack of thirds to get my 13th chord
and
> then deciding how to voice it - which includes whether it will be
rootless
> and whether to include the 5th and 11th.
>
> My question to you guys is simply one of terminology, what is the
easiest,
> most understandable name for a stack of thirds up to the 13th? Is there
an
> existing term? Or do we have to invent one, Septachord, perhaps? Urgh,
that
> sounds like a disease. A Septad? Like triad, that sounds a bit better.
>
> Fiona
Doesn't a "13th chord" says exactly that. Why complicate it. This also
lets you just as easily refer to "11th chord" or a "9th chord".
However, if you don't mind, I was wondering about the music that you
are talking about and the need to notate these chords in a
conventional manner at all. Let me try to explain what I mean..
You describe writing the bass and the melody first and then filling in
the harmony with notes from the mode of the moment. This sounds like a
lot of the new music that comes, at least as I can see, largely from
some of the European avant guarde schools of Modal Music. If I am
understanding you correctly, you may want to look into the various
means that they approach this concept. It may not be exactly what you
are doing, but it does have a lot of the same elements as shown by
your statements.
I have a very good book that sorts through many of the approaches to
this music and the various methods of notation that has come out of
the various approaches and that may be of use to you if you are
looking for the best ways of notating the chords that are products of
the specific style used by various composers. Some are instrument
specific and some are more general. Traditional Functional Harmony
will not work for these contem****ary compositions even though they
sometimes do use conventional chord symbols.
I don't know if you are looking beyond simply finding a substitute
name for "13th chord" or if that is all that you are seeking. I only
noticed that you describe a process that is of interest to me and thus
I am curious as to what kind of music you are working with. You are
describing (maybe among other things) writing music that may not be
functional in the traditional sense, but rather more of a contrapuntal
approach to the inner voices that will define the modes of the moment.
(BTW, I like that term, it really does say a lot!) There is a section
in Ron Miller's book on Modal Jazz that addresses this specific
approach. If you are interested, I will send you some of his thoughts
to see if they will be of any interest to you.
LJS
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