What is the origin and original meaning of tonic, supertonic . . . UPDATE Wikipedia's "Submediant" entry contains this interesting tidbit: In French and Italian, a conception with two centres, subtonic (sous-tonique, sotto-tonica) and supertonic (sustonique, sopra-tonica) on both sides of the tonic, subdominant (sous-dominante, sotto-dominante) and "superdominant" (sus-dominante, sopra-dominante) on both sides of the dominant – and the mediant left alone
scales - What is the lowered supertonic note called, especially in . . . I know most scales modes like Ionian (major), Dorian, Lydian, Mixolydian and Aeolian (natural minor) have a major second note called the supertonic, but some scales modes like Phrygian and Locrian have minor seconds above tonic making me wonder if there is a specific name for a lowered supertonic note
Raised leading tones in Phrygian mode counterpoint In the other minor modes, i e , Dorian and Aeolian, the leading note may or may not be raised This creates a melodic interval with the supertonic In Phrygian,raising the leading note gives an odd sounding interval with the supertonic I'm only guessing
How to make a plagal cadence sound convincing as an ending? I am nearing the end of composing the first movement of my suite And I plan to end the movement using a plagal cadence But I know that a plagal cadence can be hard to make sound convincing I mean
Chord symbols for inversions of 7th chords It's probably worth stating explicitly that each pair of numbers is the only pair in the set that occurs in specific type of chord (E g 6 5 is used because 5 3 occurs in root-position triads; 4 3 and 4 2 are used because 6 4 occurs in 2nd-inversion triads and in 2nd- and 3rd-inversion 7th chords ) And of course 7 only occurs in root-position 7th chords (until you consider 9ths, etc)