Corelli Clash

Ok, so I'm going through reading and taking notes on Walter Piston's Harmony and I came across a part where he mentions the Corelli Clash.

"The anticipation in the cadence shown below, with the tonic sounding simultaneously with its own leading tone, is an example of the so-called Corelli Clash"

But what is the Corelli Clash? In the index that was the only example given and the only page mentioning it. I did a google search and came up with several definitions. At first I only got extremely general terms like "a bold harmonic suspension" but even then Harmony listed the example under the Anticipation section, not the Suspension section. Then I searched further and found two definitions, one "a form of 2-3 suspension in the minor mode that results in some interesting dissonances" and two, "going from V7 (root position) to I6 (first inversion)"

So what is it exactly?

Thanks,

-Landon

The usual meaning of the term is the kind of figure shown in the attached image. The clash is between the first part's anticipation of the tonic and the second part's resolution of its dominant 4-3 suspension, just like Piston describes. It's fairly common in 17th century music (not just Corelli).

Interpretations differ I suppose, but I wouldn't agree with those who call it a bold harmonic move of some sort: as I see it, it's merely the result of two parts simultaneously playing two very common and natural cadential figures. Since both are perfectly sensible and natural in themselves (and in relation to the bass) the clash is not perceived as particularly harsh.

Robert Donington (The Interpretation of Early Music, 1989, p. 250) suggests that the clash of the consecutive seconds might be avoided if the upper part (with the anticipation) plays, as it certainly would in almost every case by convention, a cadential trill, delaying and shortening the anticipation.

There seem to be a bunch of other definitions, though: your V7-I6 thing is completely unknown to me (and seems particularly odd in that there's no clash of any sort, as far as I can see); the other one is fairly vague, but might just be an odd description of the real Corelli clash; googling also found this page, which uses the term to describe a series of 2-3 suspensions. I'd never heard of any of these until today, though, and they are probably simply misunderstandings.

Thanks! that clears a lot of things up. I'm pretty sure I understand the concept now.

-Landon

I'd most likely put it at the second one, a series of suspensions... If you look at Corelli's trio sonatas, the suspension technique takes place at least once in each sonata (ok, maybe there are one or two exceptions, but the downward suspension series is classic corelli).

I think that V7-I6 is usually a bad progression because of implied parallel octaves between the fifth degree moving to the third degree and the 7th of V moving to the third degree (and producing a doubled third degree). Some people might perceive that as a "clash," but the other definition is much more likely.

I love parallel fifths!