semitone. 
On Perfect Musical Intonation. 79 
and 25:42), making altogether not very harmonious “har- 
mony.” Indeed, the difficulty of treating the chord in this 
manner has caused considerable discussion, which some have 
endeavored to surmount, by calling it a ‘dissonant chord,” or 
“dissonant harmony!” It is stated, (and with reason,) that 
“this root E must not be heard in the chord, as it is discord- 
ant.” It is certainly remarkable if, in this chord alone, the root 
does not happen to be in harmony with the other members of the 
chord. But if G¥ be considered as a passing note, we shall at 
once be sure as to what the chord is. The root will be G, and every 
note (with the exception of G#, the passing note, which must 
be thrown out when we reckon the harmony,) is in perfect 
tune with it, in a simple and harmonious chord, viz., 4:5:6:7. 
And this G# appears to us as plainly to be a passing note, through 
which the melody of the lowest part passes from G to A, (for 
after this note we always have A,) as that D¥ is a passing note 
from D to KE, in the example given in(19.) In this example, in 
the chord at a, it would 
h 
: a rj 
probably be admitted (> 4 6 ff 
without dispute that G# ee mae dad se oad eG 
was merely a_ passi sa PEA e—=r-|— —f 
ng 
note ; and why it should 
be considered as any & . 
@ | [wwe 
eq 
manifest. Weshall there- 
fore consider that there is no different harmony, in what has 
been called the “chord of the diminished seventh,” than exists 
in the “chord of the seventh ;” and for this reason, that all the 
harmony it contains is derived from, and found in, the chord of 
the seventh. : 
21. Among the many mistakes and incongruities into which 
the theorists have been led by the temperament of the scale, and 
their constant habit of referring all combinations to the key-boar 
of the piano-forte or organ, is the following idea in regard to this 
“diminished seventh.” . It is supposed that a chord of the di- 
minished seventh contains the sounds which belong to four dif- 
ferent and remote scales, and thus connects them together. Here 
are examples of four of these chords in the keys of C, Eb, A, 
and F'4; they are, as will be seen, the chords of the dominant 
Sevenths of those keys, with the lowest notes raised a chromatic 
a> aS a 
ee 
Rae 2 a | ta 5 
6 ore Ere ety 
ne 2 ee 
Lis 
