Tone of Voice and Mind : The Connections between Intonation ...

56 Chapter 3
Root
First
Inversion
Second
Inversion
4–3
3–5
5–4
RESOLVED CHORDS UNRESOLVED CHORDS
Major Minor Diminished Augmented
3–4
4–5
5–3
Figure 3-7. The three inversions of the four types of “triad.” The musical effects of the
inversions are relatively subtle, but the distinction between the resolved major and minor
chords versus the unresolved augmented and diminished chords is unambiguous,
and perceptible to the ear of the non-musician. Numbers denote the size of the intervals
(in semitones) in each chord.
tively simple (two- and three-tone) pitch phenomena. Of course, as additional
tones and larger time segments are brought into consideration, treating music
as “simply” the summation of these small units becomes more and more
dubious. Nevertheless, the argument to be developed in this chapter is that
consideration of the structure of three-tone combinations is a necessary (if not
sufficient) basis for discussing all higher-level pitch phenomena, particularly as
related to musical mode.
Again, the assertion that basic harmony theory must be understood in order
to understand music will strike the musician as little more than common
sense, but the importance of three-tone musical effects must be stated and defended
because there are some theoreticians who would argue that the psychoacoustics
of pitch phenomena can be explained solely on the basis of combinations
of interval (two-tone) effects. That argument is manifestly false with
regard to music (as discussed below), and is also untrue with regard to the
pitch phenomena of speech, so that anyone with an interest in speech intonation
and prosody simply must come to grips with the basic phenomena of
harmony theory (three-tone effects).
3–3
3–6
6–3
4–4
4–4
4–4