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Posted by Eric
on 9/2/2009, 2:48 pm
164.165.237.20
I have a question which has been bugging me a long time.
I realize that Jean Pierre Rameau published his treatise on harmony sometime in the mid 18th century. He described music that can be looked at in terms of harmonic "units," I guess you could call them.
So thanks to him, university music students all over the planet put little roman numerals and intervals under Bach chorale bass notes to indicate the harmony.
But did Bach himself think of these "units?"
Okay too polyphic? What about Haydn. Haydn did not study Rameau and he probably studied counterpoint from the Fux Gradus ad Parnassum. What else did he study?
If Haydn wrote a completely homophonic piece, one where a fiddle was singing away while the rest of the ensemble were merely chunking out static eighth notes and he supposadly "wasn't thinking of counterpoint," then what DID he think?
Did he think of triads at all or "chord progressions" or some variation of Rameau?
In other words, did Rameau CODIFY what everyone was thinking and doing (when they weren't doing counterpoint), or did he come up with something completely revolutionary in musical thought?
I hope these questions are not too vague. Thanks for your helpful replies. Eric
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