The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #145574 Message #3369047
Posted By: GUEST,Grishka
28-Jun-12 - 09:06 AM
Thread Name: Finding the 'right' chord
Subject: RE: Finding the 'right' chord
Phil, I was not suggesting that you play my arrangement as-is on your concertina; it may not even be possible. I rather wanted to illustrate my "mantra" that part of the sense any harmonization makes depends on its melodic interpretation, aka "voicing". Thus, if I only listed the chord names, my point would be missed.
The most ticklish part seems to be the beginning. Since you asked: In my ears, your "G | Am" progression does not reflect the intention of the melody. Also, I feel that D should be established as the central note right in the beginning, so that the mode does not come as a surprise at the end. My sketch therefore features "Dsus4 D | Am"; there may be better solutions.
Greg, you are of course right that 19th century harmony theory cannot be applied to modal tunes without undue violence. But there is a large historical corpus of genuine multi-voiced modal music. 16th century English madrigals may come closest to what we are looking for here. Nowadays the study of that style is called "counterpoint", and if in the corresponding exercises we wrote an "unprepared" Dsus4, the professor would mark it as an error. No problem for those Graingers, of course. Folkies may justify it by imagining D and A as drones.