Law of Resolving Tendencies, Autumn Leaves and CMGs (long)

chespernevins · Post by **chespernevins** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 9:18 am

If anyone could add to this or clarify, Iâ€™d be grateful. If this is too involved, please just skip and forgive me for writing such an essay.

Hereâ€™s what I recall of â€œThe Law of Resolving Tendenciesâ€

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:03 pm

That is really interesting! (and eloquently explained, as usual) I hadn't heard of this before you mentioned it. If Vol 2 turns out to be an edited collection of essays by Mr. Russell and others, this ought be among the contributions. Given my obsession with Autumn Leaves in D minor, I can't wait to get home from daygigia to sort this through at the piano. My first (unconscious) solution to bar 6, was to keep E-7b5>A7b9>D minor and change the melody to A Bb Cnat.

Post by **sandywilliams** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 3:24 pm

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 4:25 pm

So, would it be accurate to refer to Bb as the Lydian tonic of the piece?

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 4:55 pm

What is the advantage of saying | F Maj7 [Bb Vh] rather than F Major
or | D- [Bb LYD IIIh] rather than D natural minor? Perhaps to demonstrate Bb as the lydian center of gravity.

chespernevins · Post by **chespernevins** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:24 pm

So, would it be accurate to refer to Bb as the Lydian tonic of the piece?

No, I donâ€™t think so.

Take the first 3 bars as a microcosm of the tune.

Although Bb is listed as the Lydian tonic, forget that for a sec.

Just look at the progression:

| G- | C7 | F |

This progression really resolves to an F chord. The melody is in F. If we played horizontally, weâ€™d probably choose F as our first and most basic horizontal tonic. Iâ€™d say the overall tonic of the progression is F.

So in a way, when we choose an overall tonic for the piece, we might be looking at a horizontal viewpoint.

I think you want to look at the major tonic stations of the tune to get your clues as to what the overall key of the piece is.

That's the best I got

chespernevins · Post by **chespernevins** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:33 pm

What is the advantage of saying | F Maj7 [Bb Vh] rather than F Major
or | D- [Bb LYD IIIh] rather than D natural minor? Perhaps to demonstrate Bb as the lydian center of gravity.

Bob,

Yes, I think you're on the right track. Iâ€™m thinking that the BbVh encapsulates the idea of the simultaneous tonics â€“ the vertical Bb and the horizontal F, which makes F Major resolve like it does.

The term â€œF Majorâ€

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:49 pm

Aarrrg! So we come full circle. In your chord by chord analysis, most every chord is related to Bb Lydian. However, the Lydian tonic is F because that's the overall key of the music (or D minor) It's time to go back to the beginning of the book and examine every brick in the path. It's an Escher sketch, a bit like 'Being and Time.' Terms like root and tonic and key seem to have contextual meanings. Remember the 'what is the root of a minor third discussion? Time for me to "come to terms" Thanks

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 3:52 pm

chespernevins wrote:
What is the advantage of saying | F Maj7 [Bb Vh] rather than F Major
or | D- [Bb LYD IIIh] rather than D natural minor? Perhaps to demonstrate Bb as the lydian center of gravity.

Bob,

Yes, I think you're on the right track. Iâ€™m thinking that the BbVh encapsulates the idea of the simultaneous tonics â€“ the vertical Bb and the horizontal F, which makes F Major resolve like it does.

The term â€œF Majorâ€

chespernevins · Post by **chespernevins** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:43 am

It's an Escher sketch, a bit like 'Being and Time.' Terms like root and tonic and key seem to have contextual meanings.

Great image, Bb.

Sometimes it helps me to think that an F major scale can be seen in two different contexts. One, as BbVh, and one as F lydian 11 tone order.

The first gives us a picture of a vertical state (Bb lyd) being asked to resolve to something foreign to it (an F chord) - a chord that implies a sharp lying vertical state.

The second gives us the image of playing a very "out" note (Bb) in the pool of available lydian chromatic notes. Hence the term "avoid" note in other theories.

The overall lydian chromatic scale is F (which encompasses F lyd AND F maj), but it makes sense that there will be a number of other lydian keys in the piece - that's what makes music go round

And if the overall key is F, and LCSs tend to resolve from flat to sharp, then it makes sense if there is a lot of Bb in the tune. In A.L., we get Bb -> F many times over.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Wed Feb 20, 2008 11:01 pm

-

a chord that implies a sharp lying vertical state.

Could you flesh that out a bit more?

Post by **sandywilliams** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:53 pm

F lydian being a vertical scale( and thus an F major chord) and is one fifth sharp of Bb.

Bob · Post by **Bob** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 11:12 pm

So " sharp lying vertical state. " means going up the cycle.

Post by **sandywilliams** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 6:58 am

Yes, their relationship to one another on the wheel.

dogbite · Post by **dogbite** » Fri Feb 22, 2008 9:08 am

"we come full circle"
[i]bob[/i]

"the wheel of destiny"
[i]jimmy kimmel[/i]

"the cycle of doom"
[i]philoxenos[/i]

i'm saddened that bob edited the word "obfuscation" from his post. it made me laugh. i really like the direction this thread is going. it's kind of like a primer for what is expected from volume 2. whether or not this turns out to be the case is, well you know - we just don't know...

i think that the the circle as shown on page 217 will be "key" to our understanding of the relationships between VTG, HTG, and ultimately SVTG. the circle of fifths is one of those things that many of us were introduced to early on in our musical studies, but perhaps we didn't realize just how important this simple visualization would be in the context of tonal gravity - not merely a tool to memorize key sigs and chord progs.

i am reluctant to comment on the evolution of my understanding of exactly how the circle relates to VTG, HTG, the law of resolving tendencies, and all that because i feel like a barely conscious creature or perhaps a small child grasping for clear, concise, consistent definitions and descriptions of terms and concepts applied in the LCC. i am going to study the comments of this thread as well as the text in the book before i go off rambling as i often do. i certainly don't mean to imply that the clear and concise definitions i speak of aren't in the text for all to see, but as i stated early on in dogbite's thread at aaj, "the crumbs are laid out all over the table for all to see and it has come to my attention that it is all a matter of perspective. if you see a cloud go by, one person says it looks like an angel, another says, "it looks like a spleen", and yet to another, its a frog."

how's that for obfuscation? what i am trying to point out is that i can look, but it doesn't necessarily mean that i can [i]see[/i]. i am hoping that others will post everything they know and understand about the circle, the law of resolving tendencies (is this even mentioned in volume one?), and the relationships between VTG, HTG, and SVTG in order to help me to bring it all together, as i feel that i'm on the verge of greater understanding of Russell's Concept and may need just a little help. either that or i'm deceiving myself again :)

db