Excessive sixth fifth chord
The expression excessive fifth sixth chord denotes a chord that consists of an excessive sixth , a perfect fifth and a major third (each in any octave position ) above its bass note . In English-language music theory , it has been referred to as German sixth ( chord ) since the early 19th century :
The chord was widely used from the middle of the 18th century. In music this time the bass note of the chord is the sixth stage of a minor scale (in the above example, as in C minor). The excessive sixth is a chief foreign tone that as a leading tone is used for the fifth tone of the scale. With an immediate dissolution into the triad of the fifth degree ( dominant ) so-called Mozart fifths arise . These are usually avoided by first following a leading fourth chord , as in this example (Ludwig van Beethoven, Variations in C minor WoO 80 , theme):
Function-theoretical interpretation
If it is used as described above, the functional theory interprets the chord as the inversion of a dominant seventh chord with a concealed root note and a lower fifth and with the function of a double dominant :
Enharmonic reinterpretation
The excessive sixth can be reinterpreted enharmonically to a minor seventh (and vice versa). Therefore, the excessive fifth sixth chord can be reinterpreted enharmonically to a dominant seventh chord (and vice versa):
This possibility of reinterpretation is based on the concept of tritone substitution in jazz harmonic .
example
Franz Schubert : Piano Sonata in A minor, D 845 (1825), 1st movement, m. 18 f.
Other uses
The chord also arises when a sixth ajoutée , which is added to a major triad, is altered upward. In addition, in the 19th century the chord was increasingly used as an altered dominant or intermediate dominant, thus breaking away from its original function as a predominant .
literature
- John Callcott: A Musical Grammar . Manning & Loring, Boston 1810 ( archive.org ).
- Mark Ellis: A Chord in Time: The Evolution of the Augmented Sixth from Monteverdi to Mahler . Farnham, Ashgate 2010, ISBN 978-0-7546-6385-0 .
- Daniel Harrison: Supplement to the Theory of Augmented Sixth Chords . In: Music Theory Spectrum . 17, No. 2, 1995, pp. 170-195.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Callcott 1810, p. 239; Harrison 1995, pp. 181f.
- ↑ z. B. Johannes Brahms : Im Herbst , op.104 No. 5 (1888), T. 10.
- ↑ z. B. Franz Schubert : Piano Sonata in A major, D 959 (1828), 1st movement, end.