QcCowboy

LESSON ONE (continued):

RESONANCE (cont.)

Another important aspect when considering notes to assign as resonance, and here it gets boring and technical, is the directional implication of the notes being chosen from your harmony.

By this I mean that some notes within a single chord have a strong sense of "wanting to go somewhere". In the previous example, I chose a single "common note" treated in octaves as the resonance. As I said, this wasn't the ONLY solution to that particular orchestration problem.

Let's see what else might have worked.

Working from the same example, we still have only two harmonies: C and G7.

We should examine every note of each harmony to see how "directional" it is.

The C major chord:
The root (C) would have been an acceptable choice. It requires no resolution and is modally neutral - in other words that note does not identify the chord as major or minor or anything else except "C".

The median (E) is problematic. Not a major problem (excuse the pun), but it clearly identifies the modal quality of the chord as being "major". For that simple reason there is considerably more risk of it coming into conflict with potential passing notes in our melodic material. Obviously, this depends heavily on the particular idiom in which you are composing, or the particular harmonic language of the extract you are orchestrating.

The 5th (G) is also an acceptable choice, since it is modally neutral - it does not identify the chord as either major or minor, nor does it really clearly identify it as "C". In this particular case it had the added advantage of also being a note in common with the subsequant harmony.

The G 7th chord:
The root of the chord (G) has the same qualities as that of the preceding chord.

The median (B) is problematic. It is the leading tone in C major, and as such it has a very strong upwards pull. Being a median, it also has a role as a modal identifier - major or minor. So it has two strikes against it, and two more reasons it could conflict with passing notes in the melody.

The 5th (D), like that of the preceding chord, is neutral for mode. However, having no commonality with the subsequant chord (C major), it will require movement (or "resolution"), which is something we are trying to avoid as much as possible when creating a resonance plane.

The 7th (F) is a note that requires resolution and stands out in any texture. If your goal is an unobtrusive background place of resonance, then this note is not a good choice. However!!! Properly used, for example in a long cadential passage where there is a pedal of dominant 7th, without interfering with the melodic material it would act as a stronger resonance. In a strictly tonal context, this note would require resolution in the normal manner. that resolution would however, make it lose a bit of its "background" role, bringing it into the foreground as a quazi-melodic element. Something to consider if the case should pop up.


So what we end up with is a simple concept:

Resonance works well with "open intervals" (ie: 5ths and octaves) that have a certain modal neutrality to them.