A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Harmonic Minor

HARMONIC MINOR is the name applied to that version of the minor scale which contains the minor sixth together with the major seventh, and in which no alteration is made in ascending and descending. Its introduction as a substitute for the old-fashioned or 'Arbitrary' minor scale was strongly advocated by Dr. Day and others [see Day, vol. i. p. 436a], and of late years it has been very generally adopted. It is true that its use is calculated to impress the learner with a sense of the real characteristics of the minor mode, but its merits are counterbalanced by the awkwardness arising from the augmented second between the sixth and seventh notes, while it is difficult to regard it as a diatonic scale at all, in spite of its theoretical correctness.

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