You may notice great discrepancy between the ordinary notation of chromatic passing-notes and the chromatic scale as I have explained it. You must remember, however, that I alluded to the prevalent custom of deviating occasionally from the true nomenclature of chromatic notes, upon grounds of expediency. This custom applies greatly to passing notes, and the expediency that prompts it is to economize the trouble of the reader, and perhaps also of the writer, by reducing the number of accidentals. If, for instance, the note between D and E be named bE, there will need an accidental natural to contradict the b that indicates it; but, if this note be named #D, there will need no second accidental for the following E. Whatever licence be current in this respect, composers of every school-we must distinguish these from persons who write music of no school whatever-never miscall the augmented 4th of the key, incorrectly writing it a diminished 5th,

even though it cost an accidental the more for its contradiction. The reason of this is, that, in the key

of C for example, bG would suggest so extraneous a tonality, that most players might pause to consider the propriety of any harmony, peculiar to the key of C, which might accompany or follow it.

The knowledge is, however, by no means futile of the true notation of the chromatic scale, notwithstanding the frequent derelictions from its use; since, to know the name of a note is to know its relationship to other notes, and hence, to know the rules for its treatment. This will become more and more evident from an insight into the derivation and resolution of chromatic fundamental discords, into whose examination I shall have the pleasure to enter at our next meeting.

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LECTURE IV.

THE MODERN STYLE-continued.

IN continuing the examination of the modern or chromatic style of harmony, I must repeatedly

remind you of the natural origin of Fundamental Chords the chords I mean, that are composed of the harmonic notes generated, according to the eternal laws of sound, by the fundamental roots which are available in each key. I have offered you a technical analysis of a combination of notes that must be familiar in the daily experience of every person conversant with music, forming the eminently rich chord known as the dominant 7th ; and I have now to show that this natural harmony may be imitated, by means of chromatic modifications of the diatonic scale, upon the supertonic and also upon the tonic without involving any change of tonality. As no single chord can determine a key, and as every chord belongs to the key either of the foregoing or of the following passage, if what goes before and what comes after any particular chord be both in the same key, this chord induces no modulation, but, should it comprise accidentals, is a chromatic chord in the key that is common to the preceding and succeeding passages. You have had ample proof of the integrity to their key of the several chromatic concords; you will now perceive that chromatic discords derived from the roots I have

named, however they colour the effect, disturb not the certainty of the prevailing tonic.

supertonic

The chromatic common chord of the supertonic- Chromatic which comprises the augmented 4th of the key, and 7th. which gives this note to the chromatic scale—is identical in its intervals with the common chord of the dominant, which chord it much resembles in its treatment, so far at least as regards its chromatic major 3rd, whose exigences are as stringent as those of the leading-note. The addition of a 7th to this chord forms the same combination of intervals that composes the chord of the dominant 7th, the root and perfect 5th being free in their progression, the major 3rd and minor 7th needing to be resolved.

To identify this chord with its key, to show that it is a chromatic supertonic harmony effecting no modulation, and not the dominant harmony of another key, it must be followed by some chord peculiar to, or characteristic of, the original and permanent tonic. Two resolutions of this chord are so much more frequent than others, that they may be particularized as the characteristic or natural resolutions of the supertonic discord; and these let us separately examine.

One of these natural resolutions is when the chromatic chord of the supertonic 7th proceeds to a domi

nant discord. Were the chord with which the last example ended followed by a common chord of G, our impression would be, in most cases, that the passage closed in the key of G, and that #F was the leadingnote which proceeded to G, its tonic.

If, instead of this progression, #F were to fall chromatically to F the 7th of G, the chord of the resolution would then be the dominant, and that which preceded it, consequently, the chromatic supertonic chord in the key of C.

0000

The difference between the dominant and supertonic discords is, that the former may be followed by the final note of a phrase; whereas, the supertonic, being followed by an inconclusive harmony, more commonly occurs as at least the third chord from the end, so leading us earlier to expect the cadence, which it thus may be said to extend backwards, towards the beginning of the phrase.