A double tonic is a chord progression, melodic motion, or

shift of level A level, van der Merwe, Peter (1989). ''Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music''. Oxford: Clarendon Press. . also "tonality level", Gerhard Kubik's "tonal step," "tonal block," and John Blacking's " root p ...

consisting of a, "regular back-and-forth motion," in

melody A melody (from Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most literal sense, a melody is a combina ...

similar to Bruno Nettl's pendulum type though it uses small intervals, most often a whole tone though may be almost a semitone to a minor third (see pendular thirds). van der Merwe, Peter (1989). ''Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music'', p.205. Oxford: Clarendon Press. . It is extremely common in

African music Given the vastness of the African continent, its music is diverse, with regions and nations having many distinct musical traditions. African music includes the genres amapiano, Jùjú, Fuji, Afrobeat, Highlife, Makossa, Kizomba, and othe ...

("Mkwaze mmodzi"), Asian music, and European music, including:van der Merwe (1989), p.206 * European Middle Ages music such as " Sumer is Icumen in" * Elizabethan popular music such as " The Woods so Wild" and " Dargason" *

Classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" al ...

featuring the regular alternation of tonic-dominant *Alternating ' discords' such as in

Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most infl ...

or Stravinsky *Gustav Mahler has also used this kind of musical pendulum motion *" Scottish" and European music such as " Donald MacGillavry" *

Sea shanties A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large merchant sailing vessels. The term ''shanty'' most accurately refers to a specific ...

and other work songs such as " Drunken Sailor", "Roun' de Corn, Sally", and "Shallow Brown", and in * Football chants such as: In American music, a rare example of a double-tonic is the spiritual "Rock my Soul" though American popular music began to use the double tonic commonly in the last half of the 1900s, including

Beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his experimental and lo-fi style, and became known for creating musical colla ...

's " Puttin It Down".Beck - Puttin It Down tab
, ''GuitareTab.com''. Double tonic patterns may be classified as beginning on the lower ("Sumer is Icumen in", "The Woods so Wild", "

The Irish Washerwoman "The Irish Washerwoman" is a traditional jig known to have been played throughout Britain and Ireland and in North America. Although usually considered an Irish tune, some scholars claim that it is English in origin, derived from the seventeenth-c ...

") or upper (most Scottish tunes, passamezzo antico, "Roun' de Corn, Sally", "Shallow Brown", "Mkwaze mmodzi") note and may repeat open endedly, though they are often closed through a tonic close, as in :van der Merwe (1989), p.207 Am, G, Am-G, Am, , They are also often varied through a binary scheme ending on the dominant then tonic, as in: Am, G, Am, E, , Am, G, Am-G, Am, , or, Am, G, Am, E, , Am, G, Am-E, Am, , A variation of this last progression is the passamezzo antico.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Double Tonic Chord progressions Melodic motion

See also

References