191 LECTURE VI. THE MODERN STYLE-concluded. Dominant THE chord of the major 13th may be registered as Door 1st the sister of the minor 13th described last week; and a fair parallel may be drawn between these two harmonies, with one source but with diverse characters, and the two sisters in Scott's romance, Minna, whose life and whose love are coloured with sadness, and Brenda, whose gay and truthful existence sparkles in the sunshine of her own creation; this, a carcanet of smiles, the other, a rosary of tears. You will recollect the resemblance, the almost sameness of treatment, and the great disparity of effect between the minor and the major 9th; and a comparison of those chords with these of the 13th will help to a clear conception of the nature of both. major 13th. Like the interval of the minor 13th, the major is Resolved on sometimes resolved with charming effect upon own 7th. QUARTET IN B, Op. 130.-Beethoven. its a note of the same chord. D The interval of the major 13th, again like the minor, is also resolved, and far more frequently than on any other note, upon its own 5th. VIOLIN SONATA IN A, Op. 12.-Beethoven. D Here, the chord being in its first inversion, how tender, yet how exquisitely bright is the large full meaning of the dissonant note; it seems a tear of joy through which the lustre of the eye shines with tenfold radiance. Here, the chord having once its 7th, and once its root in the bass, the melodious context gives another expression to the harmony we are considering, all of which it takes back into itself, being enriched by its own liberality. SYMPHONY IN D MINOR, Op. 49.-Spohr. &c. Here, the chords of the minor and of the major 13th occur in alternate phrases, the first three in the keys of B, C minor and bE, being taken on tonic pedals, the fourth, in the key of C minor, having its root in the bass; and the passage illustrates, and I think justifies, the different character of expression I have ascribed to the two chords. A more complete form of the chord, including the 11th, the 9th, the root in place of the 7th (as it was employed with the 9th only, and with the 9th and 11th), together with the 5th as the bass note, occurs with admirable effect in the following phrase, where it proceeds to the more simple chord of the 7th derived from its own root. No satisfactory, no plausible account can be given of this remarkable yet truly beautiful combination and progression, other than the explanation I have offered; but whoever hears and feels the powerful significance of the harmony, must honour the theorist whose principles prove its derivation. Supertonic major 13th. The examples already given are of the dominant major 13th. Much more rarely but, possibly on this account, with even more intensity, is the supertonic major 13th employed; let me instance a prominent passage in Schumann's pianoforte trio in D minor, where the note in question appears to quiver for its moment of life with a rapture so keen, while so delicate, that nothing else could give it utterance. * |