On 8 Jul 2009 at 12:25, David McKay wrote:

> But I did read about the Circle of Fifths being first described by Heinichen
> in 1728, who called it Quintenzirkel. I would not have realised it was
> spoken about as long ago as that.

Rameau is another crucial figure here in being the first to 
systematically identify the fundamental of a chord, the first step 
towards functional harmony as opposed to voice leading. That is, in 
regular figured bass theory, a 6/3 was just a bass note with a 6th 
and 3rd above it. Rameau was the first to systematize a description 
of this as a first inversion of the triad based on the note that is a 
6th above the bass.

-- 
David W. Fenton                    http://dfenton.com
David Fenton Associates       http://dfenton.com/DFA/

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