Mediant

Mediant (Latin medius " The Middle " ) originally referred to the third stage ( third) of a scale as between mid tone ( tonic) and fifth ( dominant). Today in harmony, it refers to a triad that is terzverwandt with another triad. A distinction is made between upper and lower mediant (also submediant ), depending on whether the root of the terzverwandten triad is above or below the root of the reference triad.

Each triad whose root in the interval of a third is the keynote of another triad, can be seen as the mediant. A distinction is made between minor third and Großterzverwandtschaft.

Kleinterzverwandt are all major and minor triads whose root is a minor third above or below the root of the output triad. It is immaterial whether the required triad tones contained in the original key (leader owned) are.

For C major are:

Großterzverwandt therefore are all those triads whose root a major third above or below the root of the output triad. Again, all possible variants in major and minor.

Particular importance is attached to those mediant, which consist exclusively of the material of the output scale:

• The (major or minor ) is the parallel sound kleinterzverwandte mediant; at major is a minor third below, in minor a minor third above the root. Examples: C ↔ A minor; F minor ↔ A flat major; E Major ↔ C sharp minor; B minor ↔ D major
• The Gegenklang ( = counter parallel: see chart below) is a großterzverwandte mediant; major in a major third above, in a minor key a major third below the root. Examples: C ↔ E minor; F minor ↔ D flat major; E Major ↔ G sharp minor; B minor ↔ G major

History

In the Middle Ages mediant was next Mediatio and Pausa another name for the middle cadence in the psalmody.

In the newer music theory found the term input by Charles Masson, the ( the third in the middle between the root and fifth ) used it in his Nouveau traité of règles pour la composition ( 1694 ) for the 3rd degree of the scale. The term mediant was taken over by other theorists and was widely used in the 18th century. The mediant was considered the decisive tone on the scale type ( Rousseau: " ... qui le déterminé mode" ). Rameau uses the term - of equal importance tonique note, dominant note, and sensitive - only in his Traité de l' harmonie (1722).

Mediant originally referred to the 3rd stage as single tone, but has been used more recently for the built up over this tone triad and transferred to all terzverwandten to a main function side triads at the same time.

In the 19th century, the term mediant, who had initially rather based on diatonic triads was also extended to those chiefs strange sounds in it (for example, E major as a senior, A-flat major as a mediant of C major ). The term was then on increasingly on this ladder strange chords ( and keys ) specialize so that one hardly spoke, for example, of a minor as a sub- mediant to C major, but this simply Tonikaparallele called, while the term sub- mediant, the head of foreign as- major ( A flat minor ) was reserved.

In the classical period the Terzverwandtschaft played compared to the fifth relationship a subordinate role and is mainly confined to the terzverwandten parallel sounds / keys. The sound stimulus of the ladder foreign mediant was increasingly discovered and savored by the romantics what Ernst Kurth led to speak of the romance as the "age of thirds ". First movement of the Piano Sonata Op 31.1 and the first sentence of: One of the first (if not the first) that the page set rather than in the conventional dominant key presented in the exposition of a standing in major sonata in Obermedianttonart, was Beethoven ( examples Waldstein Sonata ).

Mediant function from a theoretical perspective

" Mediant " is not a concept of function in the real sense. Most often applied chords that contain ladder foreign sounds, in connection of evasions and modulations before, so they can usually relate to a temporary " new " tonal center. For example, the mediant A- major triad usually the function of a secondary dominant to Subdominantparallele D minor has a C major context (function symbol: ( D) Sp). Or the Mediantklang flat major as appears functionally as a parallel of vermollten subdominant (symbol: sP ). Only if the chord to be determined (eg E flat minor C major ) appears as a pure color change and is not functional to interpret, can be used in place of a function name, the term " mediant ".

For function-theoretic interpretation of großterzverwandten and chords kleinterzverwandten an overview on the example of C major:

The term variant denotes the conversion of Tongeschlechts ( the variant of A- flat major is thus a minor and vice versa).

In this example is

• A flat major Tonikavariant the - counter parallel (also called " Tonikavariant - Gegenklang " ) of C major,
• A major variant of the Tonikaparallel C major,
• C major the tonic,
• E-flat major, the Tonikavariant - parallel of C major,
• E major Tonikagegenparallel the variant (also called " Tonikagegenklang variant" ) of C major.

Using the example of A Major, this is to be explained: the parallel of the tonic C major is A minor. The variant of A minor is A major. Thus in A major is the Tonikaparallel variant of C major.

Is accordingly

• A flat minor Tonikavariant the - counter parallel version of C major;
• It minor Tonikavariant the parallel variant of C major.

One way of classifying mediant, dividing it by the number of common with the reference sound tones into three grades:

• Mediant first degree burns are therefore chords with two equal tones, which are parallel and opposite sound of C major so in A minor and E minor.
• Mediant 2nd degree are chords with only one common tone, which on the one hand, the variants of parallel and counter sound of C major is A major and E major, as well as other, parallel and counter sound of the minor variant of C major so A flat major and E flat major.
• Mediant 3rd degree chords with no common tone of C major so -flat minor and E flat minor.