Bass line

[Les Smith]

On Mon, 14 Jul 1997 rmartin21@juno.com wrote:

> Rich

> The chord structure, no matter whether the original change or a
> substituted structure, isn't really anything until the bass tone is used.
> 
> For instance, a simple C chord voiced in three parts in the left hand
> (G-C-E) is a C major chord Only with a C pedal tone.

>Ralph

With apologies to Ralph, this is not only misleading, but totally false.
The notes C-E-G remain a C chord regardless of whether a C, an E or a
G are in the bass. ANY note of the chord can be in the bass and the chord
remains the same, only its POSITION varies. Further, notes which are NOT
part of the underlying harmony or chord can be in the bass and the chord
can still remain C. The lowest, or bass tone can sometimes be a non-har-
monic tone, such as an organ or pedal point. In fact the bass tone, alone,
very rarely defines the harmony or chord structure. Very little music--
and then only very basic, rudimentary music at that--is written with a
series of chord ROOTS as its bass line. To think that everytime you see
and F in the bass that the harmony is some kind of F chord, or every time
you see a C in the bass, that the underlying harmony is some variation
of a C chord is TOTALLY AND UTTERLY FALSE!!!!! Harmony, or chord struc-
ture is defined by taking ALL THE NOTES TOGETHER, that is soprano, alto,
tenor and bass PLUS the chord which proceeds and the one that follows
the one in question. The bass tone, by itself, emphatically DOES NOT
define the tonality. 

One brief example. In the first measure of the second movement of
Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique, on the second count, the bass note is
Db. Is the harmony a Db chord? NO WAY! The harmony is Eb7, the dominant
7th in the key of Ab, which is the underlying key of the entire move-
ment. So the bass note, in fact, is the 7th of the underlying harmony,
which, incidentally, is connecting two Ab chords. The first which has
Ab, the chord root, as the bass note and the second, which has C, the
chord 3rd as the bass note. Clearly, the bass notes do NOT define that
harmony, either here, or in a ZILLION other places in well-written
music. Sorry.

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net