Help with Theory of Harmony

[theholygideons]

In Arnold Schoenberg's Theory of Harmony, page 186, the author lists ways of generating secondary dominants chromatically. However, for parts 4 and 5, he omits progressions, for some reason. For those of you who have read this book, can you explain why he chooses not to show these at this stage?

[perfect_pitch]

Sorry... but I read the thread up to the words 'Arnold Schoenberg', and thought...

F@#$ it.

Never liked his music. Sorry I can't help.

[theholygideons]

Sorry... but I read the thread up to the words 'Arnold Schoenberg', and thought...

F@#$ it.

Never liked his music. Sorry I can't help.

?? what are you talking about. His book has nothing to do with his own compositional language - it's only a book on traditional harmony.

[mdecks]

True, Schoenberg was a master at tonal harmony before going into atonal music

[piulento]

Strange...
Maybe he's using examples from actual pieces to demonstrate the use of secondary dominant, and that's why it's not classical "text book" examples.
In example 4 I guess the F7 is used as an unresolved secondary dominant, and in example 5 the composer uses single notes to represnt the harmonic progression instead of actual chords. Schoenberg's just using actual examples, so they might sometimes look wrong/cut half way through.

[louispodesta]

In Arnold Schoenberg's Theory of Harmony, page 186, the author lists ways of generating secondary dominants chromatically. However, for parts 4 and 5, he omits progressions, for some reason. For those of you who have read this book, can you explain why he chooses not to show these at this stage?

With my limited knowledge of theory/harmony (and I do have this book), the question should be broached as to what composer did a young Schoenberg study, in regards secondary dominants?

Duh!  His name was Beethoven, who was obsessed with the concept of continual secondary dominants.

So, step one is to do what Schoenberg did.

Secondly, the best way to metaphorically build the house yourself, (after studying all of the house plans in the world) is to "walk the walk" and do it yourself.  In my opinion, there is no substitute for composition based harmony/theory study.

Good luck to you.