Cross Relation
A cross or false relation in BWV 40.6?
A cross or false relation may exist between the alto and the soprano between measures 8 and 9 in a chorale from BWV 40.
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Definitions:
False relation: In harmony, the appearance of a note with the same letter-name in different parts (or 'voices') of contiguous or the same chords, in one case inflected with a sharp or flat and in the other uninflected; e.g. E natural and E flat in the same chord or adjacent chords. American term is 'cross relation'. Partly from The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music, 1980, edited by Michael Kennedy.
False relations may exist (a) between two notes of the same chord; (b) between different parts of adjacent chords; (c) of a tritone between two notes in adjacent chords.
Wikipedia definition
Everything definition
The F sharp in the alto part followed by an F natural in the soprano part in the illustration above would seem to fit all the criteria for a false or cross relation. But, I ask, does it?
The soprano voice has the structure A A B B. Though the soprano exactly repeats the A and B, the harmonization of the repeated phrases is completely different. The alto F sharp is at the end of a phrase, and the soprano F natural is at the beginning of a new phrase, and in fact, measure 8 is the end of the part A and measure 9 is the beginning of the next part B. Thus, though the notes appear in adjacent chords on the paper, musically they seem as separated from one another as the two sides of a river. So I am not sure that these notes really stand in a false relation to one another.
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