Editing Submediant (section)

==Name==
The term ''mediant'' appeared in English in 1753 to refer to the note "midway between the tonic and the dominant".<ref>[http://www.etymonline.com|Online Etymology Dictionary], s.v. "Mediant".</ref> The term ''submediant'' must have appeared soon after to similarly denote the note midway between the tonic and the subdominant.<ref>The term can be found in John W. Calcott, ''A Musical Grammar in Four Parts'', London, 3d edition, 1817, p. 137. (1st edition 1806.)</ref> The German word ''Untermediante'' is found in 1771.<ref>[[Johann Georg Sulzer]], ''Allgemeine Theorie der schönen Künste'', 1771, s.v. "Sexte".</ref> In France, on the other hand, the sixth degree of the scale was more often called the ''sus-dominante'', as the degree above the dominant. This reflects a different conception of the [[diatonic scale]] and its degrees:<ref>See Nicolas Meeùs, "Scale, polifomia, armonia", in [[Jean-Jacques Nattiez|J. J. Nattiez]] (ed), ''Enciclopedia della musica'', vol. II, ''Il sapere musicale'', Torino, Einaudi, 2002, p. 84.</ref>
* In English as in German, the tonic is flanked on both sides by [[subtonic]]&nbsp;/&nbsp;[[supertonic]], submediant&nbsp;/&nbsp;[[mediant]] and [[dominant (music)|dominant]]&nbsp;/&nbsp;[[subdominant]] – the 7th degree being more usually known as the [[leading tone]] (or leading note) if it is a semitone under the tonic. (See the figure in [[Degree (music)#Major and minor scales]]);
* In French and Italian, a conception with two centres, [[subtonic]] (''sous-tonique'', ''sotto-tonica'') and [[supertonic]] (''sustonique'', ''sopra-tonica'') on both sides of the tonic, subdominant (''sous-dominante'', ''sotto-dominante'') and "superdominant" (''sus-dominante'', ''sopra-dominante'') on both sides of the dominant – and the mediant left alone between the two.

In the German theory derived from [[Hugo Riemann]], the minor submediant in a major key is considered the ''Tonikaparallele'' (minor relative of the major tonic), labeled Tp, and the major submediant in a minor key is the ''Subdominantparallele'' (major relative of the minor subdominant), labeled sP.