Re: Levine and dominant resolutions
Bert Ligon ( BLigon@mozart.music.sc.edu )
Mon, 14 Jul 1997 10:48:56 -0400
>I'm glad to say, that after almost a 2 month wait, I have my copy of Mark
>Levine's books. They truly are GREAT, and I must thank Reed first hand,
>because if it wasn't for him, I'd probably never found out about them. (and
>what a miss that would be)
>This list sure is great, but I needed a book contemplating all this subjects
>in a systematic manner. Also being about 60% of musical examples by jazz
>masters, I think the overall package is a must.
>Now I'll have plenty of study material! As Levine says, you must think a lot
>about theory, before you reach the state of grace of don't having to think
>about theory.
>
>There would be so much to talk about, but I'll just pick on a little
>subject, because its related to recent discussions:
>When analysing melodic minor harmony, and the interchangeability of its
>modes, and taking advantage of the fact that we have two dominant chord in
>the melodic minor, a tritone apart, Levine outlines the strongest dominant
>resolutions (paired because these dominant chords are the tritone sub of
>each other):
>1) 7alt descend a perfect 5th = 7(#11) decend a half step
>2) 7alt descend a major 3rd = 7(#11) up a whole step
>3) 7alt up a half step = 7(#11) descend a perfect 4th
>
>The first resolution is the usual urge of the dominant V 7th chord to go
>down a 5th, or conversely its subV7 to go down a half step.
>The second I don't see it explained by Levine,(maybe I overlooked), but in
>the light of plagal cadences discussions (another thing to thank Reed for),
>this can only be explained by the IVm6 -> I move, here using the backdoor
>dominant (using Bert Ligon's term) bVII7(9) instead. The major 3rd descent
>of 7alt is then the result of tritone sub.
>The third resolution I'm not really sure, but seems the 7alt up a half-step
>is the source, because VII is largely used as a diatonic sub to V, retaining
>the dominant function, thus resolving nicely to I.
>
>Anyone care to coment on this?
>Pedro
The backdoor dominant term, I believe, came from Jerry Coker.
_______________________________________
Bert Ligon
Director of Jazz Studies
_______________________________________
School of Music
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
Voice: (803) 777-6565
Fax: (803) 777-2151
http://www.music.sc.edu/Departments/Jazz/
bligon@mozart.sc.edu
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