Functional Harmony
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Functional Harmony
In music, function (also referred to as harmonic function) is a term used to denote the relationship of a chord"Function", unsigned article, ''Grove Music Online'', . or a scale degree to a tonal centre. Two main theories of tonal functions exist today: * The German theory created by Hugo Riemann in his ''Vereinfachte Harmonielehre'' of 1893, which soon became an international success (English and Russian translations in 1896, French translation in 1899), and which is the theory of functions properly speaking."It was Riemann who coined the term 'function' in ''Vereinfachte Harmonielehre'' (1893) to describe relations between the dominant and subdominant harmonies and the referential tonic: he borrowed the word from mathematics, where it was used to designate the correlation of two variables, an 'argument' and a 'value'". Brian Hyer, "Tonality", ''Grove Music Online'', . Riemann described three abstract tonal "functions", tonic, dominant and subdominant, denoted by the letters T ...
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Chord (music)
A chord, in music, is any harmonic set of pitches/frequencies consisting of multiple notes (also called "pitches") that are heard as if sounding simultaneously. For many practical and theoretical purposes, arpeggios and broken chords (in which the notes of the chord are sounded one after the other, rather than simultaneously), or sequences of chord tones, may also be considered as chords in the right musical context. In tonal Western classical music (music with a tonic key or "home key"), the most frequently encountered chords are triads, so called because they consist of three distinct notes: the root note, and intervals of a third and a fifth above the root note. Chords with more than three notes include added tone chords, extended chords and tone clusters, which are used in contemporary classical music, jazz and almost any other genre. A series of chords is called a chord progression. One example of a widely used chord progression in Western traditional music and blu ...
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Mediant
In music, the mediant (''Latin'': to be in the middle) is the third scale degree () of a diatonic scale, being the note halfway between the tonic and the dominant.Benward & Saker (2003), p.32. In the movable do solfège system, the mediant note is sung as ''mi''. While the fifth scale degree is almost always a perfect fifth, the mediant can be a major or minor third. Schenkerian analysts consider this scale degree as expansion of the tonic since they have two common tones. On the other hand, in German theory derived from Hugo Riemann the mediant in major is considered the dominant parallel, Dp, and in minor the tonic parallel, tP. In Roman numeral analysis, the mediant chord can take several forms. In major scales, the mediant chord is a minor triad and is symbolized with the Roman numeral iii. In natural minor scales, the mediant is a major triad and is symbolized with the Roman numeral III. In harmonic minor scales and ascending melodic minor scales, the seventh scale d ...
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Roman Numeral Analysis
In music theory, Roman numeral analysis is a type of musical analysis in which chords are represented by Roman numerals (I, II, III, IV, …). In some cases, Roman numerals denote scale degrees themselves. More commonly, however, they represent the chord whose root note is that scale degree. For instance, III denotes either the third scale degree or, more commonly, the chord built on it. Typically, uppercase Roman numerals (such as I, IV, V) are used to represent major chords, while lowercase Roman numerals (such as ii, iii, vi) are used to represent minor chords (see Major and Minor below for alternative notations). However, some music theorists use upper-case Roman numerals for all chords, regardless of chord quality.Roger Sessions (1951). ''Harmonic Practice''. New York: Harcourt, Brace. . p. 7. In Western classical music in the 2000s, some music students and theorists use Roman numeral analysis to analyze the harmony of a composition. In pop, rock, traditional music, and jaz ...
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Subsidiary Chord
In music and musical analysis, a subsidiary chord is an elaboration of a principal harmonic chord in a chord progression. If the principal chord (''X'') is partially replaced by the subsidiary (''Y''), there are three possible positions - beginning, middle, and end - for the subsidiary: van der Merwe, Peter (2005). ''Roots of the Classical: The Popular Origins of Western Music'', p.501. . :''X–Y''a :''Y–X'' :''X–Y–X'' For example, a subsidiary chord in a modulation. A subsidiary chord may be a chord with related function and/or sharing pitches, for example in E major, Cm (C-E-G) as a subsidiary for E (E-G-B), which share two of three pitches and are related as tonic parallel (vi) and tonic (I). See also *Parallel key *Primary triad In music, a primary triad is one of the three triads, or three-note chords built from major or minor thirds, most important in tonal and diatonic music, as opposed to an auxiliary triad or secondary triad. Each triad found in a diat ...
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Secondary Dominant
A secondary chord is an analytical label for a specific harmonic device that is prevalent in the tonal idiom of Western music beginning in the common practice period: the use of diatonic functions for tonicization. Secondary chords are a type of altered or borrowed chord, chords that are not part of the music piece's key. They are the most common sort of altered chord in tonal music. Secondary chords are referred to by the function they have and the key or chord in which they function. Conventionally, they are written with the notation "''function''/''key''". Thus, the most common secondary chord, the dominant of the dominant, is written "V/V" and read as "five of five" or "the dominant of the dominant". The major or minor triad on any diatonic scale degree may have any secondary function applied to it; secondary functions may even be applied to diminished triads in some special circumstances. Secondary chords were not used until the Baroque period and are found more freque ...
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Nondominant Seventh Chord
In music theory, a nondominant seventh chord is both a diatonic chord and a seventh chord, but it does not possess dominant function, and thus it is ''not'' a dominant seventh chord. Since the V and vii chords are the dominant function chords, the "major minor seventh" V7 and "half-diminished seventh" vii7 are the dominant seventh chords. Since the nondominant function chords are I, i, ii, ii, iii, III, IV, iv, vi, and VI, the nondominant seventh chord qualities include the augmented major seventh chord, major seventh chord, minor major seventh chord, minor seventh chord, and major minor seventh chords that do not possess dominant function, such as, in melodic minor, IV. To analyze seventh chords indicate the quality of the triad; major: I, minor: ii, half-diminished: vii, or augmented: III+; and the quality of the seventh; same: 7, or different: or . With chord letters used to indicate the root and chord quality, and add 7, thus a seventh chord on ii in C major (mino ...
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Diatonic And Chromatic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, especially when applied to contrasting features of the common practice music of the period 1600–1900. These terms may mean different things in different contexts. Very often, ''diatonic'' refers to musical elements derived from the modes and transpositions of the "white note scale" C–D–E–F–G–A–B. In some usages it includes all forms of heptatonic scale that are in common use in Western music (the major, and all forms of the minor). ''Chromatic'' most often refers to structures derived from the twelve-note chromatic scale, which consists of all semitones. Historically, however, it had other senses, referring in Ancient Greek music theory to a particular tuning of the tetrachord, and to a rhythmic notational convention in me ...
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Constant Structure
In jazz, a constant structure is a chord progression consisting of three or more chords of the same type or quality.Rawlins, Robert (2005). ''Jazzology: The Encyclopedia of Jazz Theory for All Musicians'', p.131. . Popularized by pianists Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock, the combination of functional and nonfunctional chords provides cohesiveness while producing a free and shifting tonal center. For example, the progression Fmaj7–Amaj7–Dmaj7–Gmaj7–C13sus4 contains four major seventh chords (and one thirteenth chord), none of which are diatonic to the key of F major except the first. In contrast, the vi–ii–V–I or circle progression from classical theory contains four chords of two or three different qualities: major, minor, and possibly a dominant seventh chord; all of which, however, are diatonic to the key. Thus diversity is achieved within a stable and fixed tonal center. See also *Parallel harmony *Side-slipping In jazz improvisation, outside playing descri ...
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Common Practice Period
In European art music, the common-practice period is the era of the tonal system. Most of its features persisted from the mid- Baroque period through the Classical and Romantic periods, roughly from 1650 to 1900. There was much stylistic evolution during these centuries, with patterns and conventions flourishing and then declining, such as the sonata form. The most prominent, unifying feature throughout the period is a harmonic language to which music theorists can today apply Roman numeral chord analysis. Technical features Harmony The harmonic language of this period is known as "common-practice tonality", or sometimes the "tonal system" (though whether tonality implies common-practice idioms is a question of debate). Common-practice tonality represents a union between harmonic function and counterpoint. In other words, individual melodic lines, when taken together, express harmonic unity and goal-oriented progression. In tonal music, each tone in the diatonic scale func ...
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Augmented Sixth Chord
In music theory, an augmented sixth chord contains the interval of an augmented sixth, usually above its bass tone. This chord has its origins in the Renaissance, was further developed in the Baroque, and became a distinctive part of the musical style of the Classical and Romantic periods. Conventionally used with a predominant function ( resolving to the dominant), the three most common types of augmented sixth chords are usually called the ''Italian sixth'', the ''French sixth'', and the ''German sixth''. Augmented sixth interval The augmented sixth interval is typically between the sixth degree of the minor scale, , and the raised fourth degree, . With standard voice leading, the chord is followed directly or indirectly by some form of the dominant chord, in which both and have resolved to the fifth scale degree, . This tendency to resolve outwards to is why the interval is spelled as an augmented sixth, rather than enharmonically as a minor seventh ( and ). Alt ...
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Leading Tone
In music theory, a leading-tone (also called a subsemitone, and a leading-note in the UK) is a note or pitch which resolves or "leads" to a note one semitone higher or lower, being a lower and upper leading-tone, respectively. Typically, ''the'' leading tone refers to the seventh scale degree of a major scale (), a major seventh above the tonic. In the movable do solfège system, the leading-tone is sung as ''ti''. A leading-tone triad is a triad built on the seventh scale degree in a major key (vii in Roman numeral analysis), while a leading-tone seventh chord is a seventh chord built on the seventh scale degree (vii7). Walter Piston considers and notates vii as V, an incomplete dominant seventh chord. (For the Roman numeral notation of these chords, see Roman numeral analysis.) Note Seventh scale degree (or lower leading tone) Typically, when people speak of ''the'' leading tone, they mean the seventh scale degree () of the major scale, which has a strong affinity for ...
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Submediant
In music, the submediant is the sixth degree () of a diatonic scale. The submediant ("lower mediant") is named thus because it is halfway between tonic and subdominant ("lower dominant") or because its position below the tonic is symmetrical to that of the mediant above. (See the figure in the Degree (music) article.) In the movable do solfège system, the submediant is sung as ''la'' in a major mode and ''fa'' in a minor mode. It is occasionally called superdominant, as the degree above the dominant. This is its normal name (''sus-dominante'') in French. In Roman numeral analysis, the triad formed on the submediant is typically symbolized by "VI" if it is a major triad (the default in a minor mode) and by "vi" if it is a minor triad (the default in a major mode). The term ''submediant'' may also refer to a relationship of musical keys. For example, relative to the key of C major, the key of A minor is the submediant. In a major key, the submediant key is the relative mino ...
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