>> Now back to Laura. The second measure is labelled D9- which I assume
>> means D7b9. But the melody starts on B natural (held over from the first
>> measure, and then goes A# B A# F# G.. Adding a G, G# Bb or B to the basic
>
>> 3-7 voicing of F# and C yields a fair amount of dissonance in either the
>> first or second half of the measure, when played with the melody.
>> It seems to me there's a strong feeling of the harmony changing from
>> diminished in the first half of the measure to harmonic minor in the
>> second half. So I would have expected it to be labelled:
>>
>> | Am7 | D7(b9,13) D7(b9,b13) |
>>
>> First question: Would a working accompanist analyze to this level when
>> learning a tune, or instinctively stick to voicings without upper
>> extensions, or instinctively hear this harmonic change, or just go with
>> the dissonance?
>
>I'm not sure I follow your question. It is certainly true that for the
>first half of the measure, there is a prominent B, and for the second half,
>there is a Bb or A#. I think perhaps you are saying you don't think
>harmonic minor (which includes the G and Bb) works over the first half of
>the bar, but you don't think the diminished scale (which includes the G#
>and B) works over the second, so there must be a change going on? That is,
>I suppose, how I hear it as well.
>
>When learning the tune, though, I just think of that measure as D7. Of
>course, when playing it, I might want to add alterations, and the b9 is the
>first thing I'll think of. When the melody note changes from B to Bb, that
>creates the sort of resolution you talked about, and I don't feel the need
>to do anything further with it. I might choose to do something anyhow,
>particularly when soloing, but then, I'm as likely to make it a ii-V, or
>II-V, or bVI-V, or Vsus-V, or V-bII - any standard way of elaborating a V
>chord. All that I consider essential here is the fact that it is a V
>chord. When accompanying the melody, a basic b9 voicing is all you need,
>and the melody will take care of expressing the diminished->harmonic minor
>resolution.
>
You understood me well, but I guess I was wondering how accompanists
would know to steer clear of a voicing with further extensions above the
b9. I imagine they might have ruled out such extensions because they've
learned the tune, and detected the harmonic change I noticed,
or perhaps simply because the chord symbol stopped at b9.
On the other hand when the soloist is not playing the melody, I wonder
whether the accompanist might want to include the harmonic change in the
voicings. Would that be something that would have to be arranged
beforehand? How much reharmonization typically goes on in real-time?
Thanks
Richard