Comments:

rs536-2000 - 2006-10-05 12:36:01
Yeah, it sounded like a fact to me, too. Huh.
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elgan - 2006-10-05 14:32:39
He totally left out whole-tone and octatonic scales, not to mention the Saint-Saens construction (2 minor scale bottoms stacked on each other) from Samson & Delilah. I wouldn't trust the guy at all. He sounds like a disgruntled medievalist.
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lemming - 2006-10-05 18:33:32
I blame the authors, but even more, I blame the editors. Some of the crap I deal with was inflicted upon us by the editors who "know" more or are concerned about meeting certain agendas. I just assigned an article written by a prof whom I know very well and he did not (wopuld not) have spouted some of the crap sentences that are now in it. How do I know? Because he told me and believe him.
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Harriet - 2006-10-06 10:30:41
He's actually a scholar of the 17th century, so he's stuck in that middle zone between modes and keys. I guess we know where his allegiances lie. I think whole-tone and octatonics, etc. were left out mainly because the excerpt was from a chapter on the Medieval period. My student quite reasonably asked me why it was richer. He thought he was missing something. And yes, lemming, I'm sure you're right about the editorial thing. I think a lot of these goofy things wind up in textbooks in an effort to make the language more "user friendly." But it inevitably backfires. The students know what to do with facts. They don't know what to do with opinions.
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