Hughes
THE term "key" will now be employed in the ordinary sense of the musician, as a note which keeps all those other notes under subjection which do not belong to its harmony. A good ear requires that the first note struck should govern and regulate the rest, carrying on the intricacies of the key through the seven octaves ascending and descending. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Diagram IV - The Development of the Twelve Major Scales, page 26a]
The twelve key-notes, with the six notes of each as they veer round in trinities, are again written in musical clef, and the scales added. The key-note leads the scale, and, after striking the two next highest notes of the seven of the harmony, goes forward, with its four lowest, an octave higher. The seven of each harmony have been traced as the three lowest, thus meeting the three highest in three pairs, the fourth note being isolated. Notwithstanding the curious reversal of the three and four of the scale, the three lowest pair with the three highest, and the fourth with its octave. The four pairs are written at the end of each line, and it will be seen how exactly they all agree in their mode of development. Keys with sharps and keys with flats are all mingled in twelve successive notes. If we strike the twelve scales ascending as they follow each other, each thirteenth note being octave of the first note of the twelve that have developed, and first of the rising series, the seventh time the scales gradually rise into the higher series of seven octaves beyond the power of the instrument. Descending is ascending reversed. After the seven and octave of a scale have been sounded ascending, the ear seems to lead to the descending; but ten notes of any scale may be struck without the necessity of modulation; at the seventh note we find that the eleventh note in the progression of harmonics rises to meet the seventh. For instance, B, the seventh note in the scale of C, must have F#. This point will be fully entered into when examining the meeting of fifths. To trace the scale of C veering round as an example for all, we may begin with C in Diagram II., and go forward with F, G, A, and B an octave higher. If the twelve scales were traced veering round, they would be found to correspond with the twelve as written in musical clef. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Diagram IV - The Development of the Twelve Major Scales, page 26a]
TO recapitulate from the beginning, observe, firstly, the twelve major key-notes as they have developed from within themselves in succession, six tones in trinities seven times through seven octaves, each thirteenth note being the octave of the first note of the twelve that have developed, and being also the first of the higher series. We may retrace all as still sounding their tones, the key-notes leading the ear to the six notes of each harmony, the keys with sharps and those with flats being mingled. The ascending and descending scales always agree in their harmonies with the key-notes and their trinities. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Diagram XV - The Twelve Major and the Twelve Minor Keys, page 42a]
Thirdly, the twelve minor keys as they develope in succession seven times through seven octaves, always sounding their major harmony in trinities, and, as with the majors, each thirteenth note being the octave of the first note of the twelve, and first of the following series, the keys all mingled. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Diagram XV - The Twelve Major and the Twelve Minor Keys, page 42a]
sixth note, which would be Creation perfected, without entering upon the fifth higher key; and it cannot sound the seventh falling into the octave without discord. Therefore the eighth note is not the octave of the first, as it is the fourth note of the fifth higher key. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Supplementary Remarks, page 54]
The Major Scales are the type of Creation perfected—man being created, and the Almighty resting—every Major Scale developing the sixth and seventh notes, and the eighth the octave of the first. Therefore, every Major Scale includes the Sabbath, or Rest. [Harmonies of Tones and Colours, Supplementary Remarks, page 54]
See Also
eighth
eighth note
fundamental
keynote
thirteenth note
thirteenth note octave