140 THE NATURE OF MUSIC 



complete or incomplete. A second voice always 

 implies a first voice to which a second voice is added 

 and this second or added voice is always selective. 

 The original guide in the selection of one or more 

 added voices is the concomitant harmony or harmonic 

 thread of each tone in the first voice, and this first 

 voice is always the dominating voice* or melody to 

 which all added voices are subordinate. In short, the 

 dominating voice is the melody the concomitant 

 harmonies of which in every concrete case are this 

 or that series as generated by the specific relations of 

 its tones. When Wagner states that his melodies and 

 their harmonies arise in his mind simultaneously he 

 calls our attention to a great truth, namely, the 

 indissoluble unity of melody and harmony. Had 

 Wagner developed this idea theoretically his psycho- 

 logy would doubtless have led him to discover original 

 self-assertive harmony in one voice. The influence 

 of the dominating voice not alone on the selection of 

 harmony, but also upon conception and expression, 

 will be more fully dealt with in the chapters on poly- 

 phony and chords. The three one-voice harmonies 

 I, Vy and V9 have given us the complete triad, com- 

 plete seventh-chord and complete ninth-chord. These , 

 three are the prototypes of all like chords. From 

 common feeling of harmony in one voice we have 

 derived the principle of chord-building which is to 

 superadd a third, fifth, seventh and ninth to a 

 fundamental tone which is the chord-root. We have 

 seen that I, V and IV are the only three-tone diatonic 

 harmonies which assert themselves in one voice in 

 Major. But in chord-building, triads, seventh-chords 



