Arnold Schoenberg · section 28 of 30

B. In Minor

The conditions of the turning points also apply, together with attention to the two regions: the ascending scale with raised notes, and the descending scale with unaltered notes.

1. a) The turning points must already be considered when planning the roots, so that the notes concerned can take the prescribed course.

b) Triads often need to be inverted when preparing or resolving dissonances, especially when a turning point lies in the bass.

c) The same considerations apply to seventh chords as to triads.

d) The diminished triad and seventh chord on degree II without raised notes are generally better followed by V with a major third than with a minor third, because that degree has a conventional significance in the cadence, as will become clear later.

e) All diminished triads—II, VI and VII—and the seventh chords built upon them serve the same purposes as the diminished chord in major: their dissonance gives them a definite direction.

f) The augmented triad can both precede and follow the regions of the ascending and descending minor scale; its dissonant character further promotes this capacity. It is therefore particularly suitable for moving from one region to the other.

2. One cannot remain exclusively in either region for a long time without endangering the minor character. This is best established through appropriate alternation and connection of the two regions. A transition from one region to the other can occur only after all turning-point obligations have been fulfilled. It takes place:
a) Directly:
α) from the ascending to the descending region when raised III, V, and—as will be shown later—VII are followed by I or unraised IV or VI. No unraised chord can follow a chord containing the raised sixth note;
β) from the descending to the ascending region when unraised II, IV, and VI are followed by raised III, V, or—as will be shown later—VII. All raised chords can follow I, but raised chords cannot follow chords containing the unraised seventh note.
b) Indirectly:
α) from the ascending to the descending region when chords containing the raised sixth note—II, IV, VI—are first followed by chords permitting the step to the raised seventh;
β) from the descending to the ascending region when chords containing the unraised seventh note—III, V, VII—are first followed by chords permitting the unraised sixth.