CREEK :\ICSIC.) COMIRIring this disc, adiag minor with the ascending major scale. we find each to be the exact opposite of the other. thus establishing the polarity of major and minor already known to Zirlino and Tartini. but fully developed only in 1853 by 11auptinann. Where the ascending major has the major third ton third diTrPe) and ,einkteps (34. 7-s) the de scending minor ha=. the MOW in the same place: c. d. g. a. e, d, c. b, a, g.
For practical composition, however, the scale always begins with the tonic. In the progression a, b. c. d. e, I, g. a, the whole step from 7 to 8 was found unsatisfactory to the ear, which im peratively demanded a semistep. By raking g a semistep this leading tone was obtained, but the step from 6 to 7 was augmented. It was only during the nineteenth century that this form of the minor scale a, b. c. a, e, f. a, which is known as the harmonic Minor was pro claimed as the normal form. Before that the
orists had been afraid of the augmented sec ond from 6 to 7 (a dissonance) and had over come the difficulty by also raking the sixth de gree a semitone, so that ascending the minor scale had this form: a, b. e, d. e, a, while drseending the 7th and 6th degrees were restored to their original pitch. Thus what is known as the melodic minor scale has two forms, one when ascending the other when descending. Now, con sidering the harmonic form as the normal minor scale, modern musieal theory establishes the dom inant chord of both the major and minor modes as a major triad. Th..: the three fundamental chords of the modern minor node present them selves as two triad:. (tonic and subdom inant) and one major triad (dominant ). See I NTERVAL ; (ODES.