CHORDS IN THE LIGHT OF THEIR ORIGIN 249 

 In Major In Minor 



$ 



^ 



«§- 



-(&- 



W^ 



In short, these triads are heard as compound in all 

 relations excepting ffth-relations, in which case they 

 are heard as simple chords, that is, chords whose com- 

 ponents all report a common root. The structural 

 description of the two triads is as follows: the major 

 mediant (iii) is a minor triad its chord-intervals being 

 root, small third, pure fifth; the minor mediant (Hi) 

 is an augmented triad its chord-intervals being root, 

 large third, augmented fifth. This type of augmented 

 triad is supposed by Richter and others to have arisen 

 in minor on the third degree of the scale. This would 

 mean that our example presents the original aug- 

 mented chord. We shall see that this is not so, since 

 the harmonic percept of the augmented fifth first 

 arose in homophony on the major dominant, and we 

 shall further see that the augmented triad of the 

 major dominant is a simple chord. 



Since the above mediant-triads are compounds of 

 the tonic and dominant harmonies of their respective 

 modes it follows that there are other secondary triads, 

 namely, those which are compounds of tonic and sub- 

 dominant and those which are compounds of domi- 

 nant and subdominant. These are the submediant- 

 triads vi in major and VI in minor, and the super- 



