Parallel 5ths and Octaves
It is a well known fact that parallel 5ths and Octaves are to be avoided at all costs. This rule has been made very clear yet, when writing music I find myself using them. Why is this a rule? After playing a composition, I had written quite some time ago, I noticed several parallel 5ths. What perplexed me was that, for the most part, the piece sounded just fine. Also, while looking up scores of a few songs I heard on the radio I saw that there were many cases of this rule being very much broken. What has happened to this rule? Has modern music corrupted our ears so much that we have come accustomed to listening to parallel fifths and Octaves? Or was Bach just a mad man?
Times have changed, and this is shown in our culture through music. Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Early Romantic, Middle Romantic, Late Romantic, Modern... As much as I think many of the taught music theory rules are timeless... there are some rules that only apply to the way the wrote music in other music eras. Although Bach was mad man, he was not concerning the rule of Parallel 5ths and Octaves, but that was back then and this is now.
your thoughts?
