>
> 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
I've heard that the dominants subbing for each other is sometimes based
on the related diminished chords. In C we have G7 resolving to C, which is
related to Bdim7 resolving to C (Bdim7 is G7b9 without the root.) Bdim7
has the same notes as Ddim7, Fdim7, and Abdim7. The dominant chords
related to these are Bb7, Db7, and E7. Bb7 is, of course, the "backdoor
dominant," and Db7 is the tritone sub of G7. The E7 is for some reason
a little more exotic than the other three, as it wasn't used all that
much before the sixties but it is there and it works if your ears can dig
it.
>
> 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
>
>