Anyway, my impression is that diminished 7ths are much more common in organ music than in piano music.
I don’t share this impression at all. How much piano music do you know? There’s probably a lot more of it than there is of organ music. This is certainly the case in the nineteenth century, which was probably the heyday of the diminished seventh (while being the low point of the organ repertory).
And if you look up diminished 7th in the same music database that komponisto linked to above, you’ll see it has a much higher fraction of baroque entries than any of the other items on that list.
Eh? Among a combined total of 70-80 examples on this page and this one, I count about 7-8 Baroque examples, so about 10%. I’m not going to count through all the other 24 pages for comparison, but I don’t think this supports the thesis that the diminished seventh is particularly characteristic of the Baroque as opposed to the Classical or Romantic; indeed, it is the Romantic which dominates the examples, as I predicted above. (And note by the way that not one of the Baroque examples that I could find was specifically an organ piece!)
I think Bach does more weird chords than Mozart does.
What data is this based on? And for what definition of “weird”? Did you see the Mozart example I cited in my other comment? Do you have any reason to think that example is particularly uncharacteristic (in a way that your Bach example isn’t)?
Or consider Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata—it’s chock full of different chords juxtaposed in unusual ways, but they’re almost all common chords.
This a piece with plenty of diminished sevenths! (And what do you mean by “juxtaposed in unusual ways”?)
Phil, in all seriousness, you really ought to look at the Westergaard book. You would like it, and it would really help clarify your thinking about music. (I believe I have already directed you to an electronic copy via e-mail.)
I don’t share this impression at all. How much piano music do you know? There’s probably a lot more of it than there is of organ music. This is certainly the case in the nineteenth century, which was probably the heyday of the diminished seventh (while being the low point of the organ repertory).
Eh? Among a combined total of 70-80 examples on this page and this one, I count about 7-8 Baroque examples, so about 10%. I’m not going to count through all the other 24 pages for comparison, but I don’t think this supports the thesis that the diminished seventh is particularly characteristic of the Baroque as opposed to the Classical or Romantic; indeed, it is the Romantic which dominates the examples, as I predicted above. (And note by the way that not one of the Baroque examples that I could find was specifically an organ piece!)
What data is this based on? And for what definition of “weird”? Did you see the Mozart example I cited in my other comment? Do you have any reason to think that example is particularly uncharacteristic (in a way that your Bach example isn’t)?
This a piece with plenty of diminished sevenths! (And what do you mean by “juxtaposed in unusual ways”?)
Phil, in all seriousness, you really ought to look at the Westergaard book. You would like it, and it would really help clarify your thinking about music. (I believe I have already directed you to an electronic copy via e-mail.)