A Change in Direction

Many of you might notice that I am shifting gears a little. Originally I was going to go through a series of harmonic devices used in the era which we are studying, but those of you who know me know that I will never say something when someone else has said it better. This post was supposed to be on augmented-sixth chords used in Classical/Romantic music, however; the University of Texas has a really worthwhile website for all of you to check out for everything you ever wanted to know about augmented sixth chords: http://www.utexas.edu/courses/mus612b/fmain/fdocs/notes/augsixth.html#top

Now to talk about regional and ethnic influences in western art composition, we will begin with the Romany people and then discuss the music of African American slaves.