Acoustics & Sound For Musicians - Online Book
The Theory Of Sound Which Constitutes The Physical Basis Of The Art Of Music.
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IX. § 104.] MAJOR AND MINOR EFFECTS. 197
The remaining members of each group are not
 Common-chords of more than three constituent sounds can only be formed by adding to the consonant triads notes which are exact Octaves above or below those of the triads.
104. The marked distinction existing, for every musical ear, between the bright open character of Major, and the gloomy veiled effect of Minor chords, is connected by Helmholtz with the different ways in which combination-tones enter in the two cases. The positions of the first-order combination-tones for each of the six consonant triads are shown in crotchets in the appended stave, the primaries being indicated by minims. Each interval gives rise to its own combination-tone, but, in the cases of the fundamental position and second inversion of the C-Major triad, two combination-tones happen to coincide. The reader will at once notice that in the Major group no note extraneous to the harmony is brought in by the combination-tones. In the Minor group this is no longer the case. The fundamental position and the first inversion of the triad both bring in -an Ab which is foreign to the harmony, and the second |
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