Beschreibung:
This article attempts to establish a systematic categorization of tonal sequences since 1600 based on historical practice and theoretical sources. Canonic sequences and variants of »gemelli« (sequential phrases based on parallel »imperfect consonances«) from the renaissance era are being related to the bass line in the baroque era around 1600. This presupposes a basic outer-voice-setting which is conceived intervallically and provides a framework for diminutions and chromaticized versions. The models emerging from this practice can be systematically categorized according to the movements of the bass, the intervals between the outer voices and the numbers of the thorough-bass. Important sources for such systems can be found in treatises by Spiridionis a Monte Carmelo (1670), Georg Muffat (1699), Fedele Fenaroli (1775) und Luigi Cherubini (1847). The centralist systems of 19th-century »Harmonielehre«, in contrast, are generally ill-suited to explain sequential structures. Whereas combinatorial thinking plays an important role in the development of sequences in the 17th century, the musical language after 1700 tends to become more idiomatic, which implies a reduction of sequence types. Handel, in his didactic writings, presents only the most commonly used sequence types. In the 19th century, tendencies towards the building of multiple-part-sequences and increasingly chromaticized variants can be observed that, however, usually still elaborate on baroque outer-voice-settings. Since sequences are omnipresent in tonal music, they acquire semantic meaning and therefore function as topoi only in concurrence with their historical and stylistic contexts.