The Connection of the Triads of the major scale

• Tchaikovsky wants us to write our harmony exercises in a four voice, choral format rather than block chords
• outer voices – soprano and bass
• inner [intermediate] voices – alto and tenor
• there are three positions that a chord can be in
  • with the fundamental tone as the soprano – [position of the octave]
  • with the third as the soprano – [position of the third]
  • with the fifth as the soprano – [position of the fifth]
• at the moment we are only going to be dealing with what we now call closed voicings or keyboard voicings of chords
• another thing to keep in mind is that we will only be doubling the fundamental of the chord at the moment
  • this is because we are not doing truly free voice leading
    • we need to the voices to be as close as possible at the moment
      • later, different chord tones can be doubled
  • doubling the fundamental in a chord, however, is the most natural and should be the aim
• chords will have external connections with one another in the form of common tones
  • the diagram that Tchaikovsky gives for this is beneficial if one is to understand it; for a beginner in harmony this is difficult*
  • to make triads connect as smoothly as possible, their common tones must be connected in the same voice
    • the connections of common tones here are shown through the ties**
    • meanwhile the bass is able to move freely, but the motion should be smaller rather than larger
      • such as moving by a third rather than by a sixth
  • Tchaikovsky’s Remarks:
    1. connect all the chords
    2. start on a lower voices tonic triad as it is easy to lead the voices too high