Ave Maria round concerns
  • veromaryveromary
    Posts: 170
    The last round on this PDF attached has been bugging me. This last one is how I saw this written. I tried singing it with family, but there's this discord on 2nd beat of the 3rd bar. Then I found another video which is different again, still discordant there though the kids are young, so it's very cute to make up for it.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C5BoUofXSQ

    So what do you think? Am I thinking too hard about this?
    ave-maria-round.pdf
    97K
  • The discordant variant (Bb D F) is what I was taught, being taught by hearing and no written music. As far as which is "correct", that is harder to say.

    I think that having the D there makes it easier to sing, melody-wise, but the C works better harmonically. This probably makes the C variant correct, at least from a theoretical perspective where you want decent harmony throughout the whole of the singing. But if pilgrims not extremely skilled in singing were messing up the Bb C F, they might have just started singing Bb D F, not minding the dissonance much so long as they could continue singing on the right note once they reached the G. And that variant may have become more popular, because when people are learning a round, they must first learn (and then first remember when they mentally dig it up later) the melody, the harmony results secondarily, from a temporal perspective. So you're most likely to remember a melody which is more intuitive.

    That's my uninformed two cents.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen veromary
  • veromaryveromary
    Posts: 170
    That makes sense. The attachment didn't attach - sorry. I'm glad you knew what I was talking about.
    here's the PDF
  • The pdf is there in your original post, but I find that I can't see attachments when on my phone, so perhaps something similar is why you can't see it now.
  • francis
    Posts: 11,175
    I think the funky one has a problem... it should be a C where there is a D. Otherwise you have a major 2nd dissonance. There are actually two places where you have the m7 or its inversion a M2, but the first one has an eighth note and resolves quickly which I guess makes it sound less funky.

    Here is the vertical harmonic structure analysis which shows where and what causes your funkinesses.
    vertHarStruc.pdf
    108K