# Harmonic Expansion



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

After listening to the reduction of Reger's Romantic Suite (Linos Ensemble, Capricco), reduced by Schoenberg & Co. for his Society for Private Music series, one reason becomes obvious why this piece, as well as the Debussy reduction, were included:

The whole tone scale, a small interval division of the octave (major second), which is recursive, or repeats within the octave when "cycled" or stacked. The other small intervals which do this: the minor second, minor third, and major second. It's heard to great effect in this piece as well as Debussy's well-known use of it.

Unlike its tertial counterpart, the minor third, the major third was not as overused in common harmonic practice, the augmented chord being only rarely appearing in minor keys as a iii aug.

More on this later.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

But neither the dim 7, nor the aug 7 can properly stand alone as chords; they are "passing tone" entities, until Liszt & Wagner started using them in parallel, and in series, with no resolution. There are interesting uses of augmented chords in Holst' Mars, from The Planets. I always get a sense of vertigo when I hear that.

What is "harmonic expansion?" It's the same thing that happens when you over-inflate a balloon; an explosion is imminent, and the system becomes entropic.


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