Hexatonic thirds from Schubert to Schoenberg: Voice-leading, Harmonic Congruence, Prolongation
David Pacun (Ithaca College)

This paper investigates the role of a voice-leading pattern termed hexatonic thirds across a one hundred year span of music, c. 1820-1920. The paper divides into three parts. Part I briefly defines and explicates hexatonic thirds-a transpositional sequence of parallel major thirds moving by alternating minor seconds and minor thirds, for instance B/D# - C/E - Eb/G - E/G#. Parts II and III trace the function of this pattern in works from the tonal and atonal repertoire respectively, including Schubert's Piano Sonata in A major, Berg's opus 2 no. 4, and Schoenberg's opus 6 no. 3, opus 15 no. 7, and opus 19 no. 2. Hexatonic thirds not only provide an addition means to analyze hexatonic content, but also allow us to better understand the hexatonic's overall role in both tonal and atonal music.