from Bill Bremmer: > When the differences in key color are removed by the use of ET, the only > remaining effect of modulation is a change of pitch. Bill, I'm guessing that several centuries of composers would disagree, or at least call it an understatement. Permit me an example: When I was an undergraduate at the U. of Texas, four of us musicians shared a large two-story house. One night the roommate who lived downstairs came in VERY late. He sat down at the piano and played a chord progression -- I - vi - ii6/5 - V - V7 ----- and went to bed. Well, it wasn't long before there was thumping on the stairs, and a sleepy, grumpy upstairs roommate trundled down to the living room, played "I", and went back up to bed. That's Functional Harmony -- the relationship between chords setting up certain expectations. The same is true of modulation. The excursion to a distant key center sets up a tension independent of the tuning, for those well-versed in the language of harmony. Bob Davis
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