How Harmony Works

Intro To Harmonic Functions

Music is greater than the sum of its parts


Understanding Harmony= Simple chord progressions


3 Main Harmonic Functions:

  1. Tonic

  2. Dominant

  3. Pre-dominant


3 Types of Harmonic Progressions:

  1. Prolongation

  2. Cadential

  3. Sequential


Harmonic Function

  • Describes the role a chord plays in relation to a tonal center or key

  • The Pattern in which harmony is being used

  • Signals somethign


Tonic Function

  • Name of the first scale degree and triad

  • Considered point of rest; “home base”

  • Where the music starts from/ where it is going


*** Music does not have rules, just expectations


Dominant Function

  • Polar opposite to tonic function

  • seen in times of tension

  • cadences

  • Contains Five (V) and seven (vii0) chord

  • Share leading tone and supertonic


Dominant Embellishment

  • Sounds tonic but us dominant

  • Looks like I chord in second inversion


Pre-Dominant Function

  • Chord built over the 4th scale degree

    • ii6

    • IV

    • iv (Modal borrowing)

    • bII6 (modal borrowing)

  • Dominant of the dominant chords (applied dominants) (all have raised #4SD)

    • V/V

    • V7/V

    • vii0/v


Intro to Harmonic Progressions

Order of Functions

  1. Tonic

  2. Pre-dominant

  3. Dominant

  4. Tonic


Harmonic Progressions

  1. Prolongation

  2. Cadential

  3. Sequential


Prolongation Progressions- Technique that extends a single harmony or key center over time, keeping music sounding stable as notes change; sustain in time an individual harmony

  • Pedal Points: Keeps sustained note under changing harmonies (usually root of chord); starts as a chord tone before becoming non-chord tone

  • Neighboring Chords: Moving from one harmony to another, but staying in the same inversion

  • Passing Chords: Start on one inversion of a chord, and end on another

  • Substitute Chords: Using chords within the same function

    • ex- tonic can be prolonged by submediant chord, since they are bother grouped within the same function

    • Can be used as a passing chord themselves, or you can use passing chord to go to substitute chord


Prolongation

  • Limited Marcoharmony: music remains within specific tonalities in order to allow the listener to grasp what is going on

    • Music that does not use this can be harder to understand

    • Prolongation is key to macroharmony- If you prolong a key like GMaj, you are probably going to stick with the notes in G maj scale until you move to a new key

  • Signals a beginning function


Cadential Progression

  • Sequence of chords that creates a sense of musical closure or ending

  • Confirm a tonal center

  • Primary key or new key

  • Deceptive Cadence: Cadential progression fails its one job

  • Modulate


Complete Cadential Progression

  • Standard series of chords used to create a strong satisfying ending to a musical phrase

  • Incomplete if missing any steps

Tonic → Pre-dominant → Dominant → Tonic


Authentic Cadential Progression

  • Fundamental, tension resolving chord that leads to a strong sense of completion, moving from Dominant Chord (V) to the Tonic (I)

  • Ends in root position tonic chords

  • Can substitute ii6 for IV, V7/V


Perfect Authentic Cadence

  • Strongest most conclusive chord progression in theory

  • Requirements:

    • Progression must move from the Dominant to Tonic

    • Both V and I must be in root position

    • Tonic SD1 in the highest voice of the tonic chord


SD1= Perfect Authentic Cadence (PAC)

SD3= Imperfect Authentic Cadence (IAC)

SD5= Imperfect Authentic Cadence (IAC)

*** SD3&5 can still confirm a key, but not as forcefully


Half-Cadence

  • Root progression dominant triad

  • If not root position or seventh, you don’t get enough of an arrival

  • Phrase ending on V chord


Deceptive Cadence

  • Musical progression where a chord build on the fifth (V) resolves to unexpected chord instead of home chord

  • Harmony ends on tonic substitution

  • Instead of ending on I in root position, it ends on some other chord

    • Could be vi, bVI, vii06/V, V7/IV


Sequential Progressions

  • Meant to destabilize a key instead of prolonging or confirming it

  • Six types of sequential progressions designated by their root movements

    • Descending- 5th, 3rd, 2nd

    • Ascending- 5th, 3rd, 2nd


Descending 5th: I - IV - Vii0 - iii- vi - ii - V - I

                            I - IV5/6 - vii04/2 - vii6/5 - vi4/2 - ii6/5 - V - I

                            I - IV - V/III - V/VI - V/II - V/V - V - I

Ascending 5th: I - V - ii - vi - IV


Descending 3rd: I vi - IV - ii - vii0 - V - iii I

Ascending 3rd: I - V/iii - iii - V/V - V - V/vii - vii

  • Place in between rising thirds the dominant of those thirds to prevent voice leading issues


Descending 2nd: I - vi6 - V6 - IV6 - iii6 - ii6 - I6

Ascending 2nd: I - vii06 - I6 - ii6 - iii6 - IV6 - V6 - I


Functional Harmony

  • System of theory where chords within a key are categorized by their specific “role” or “behavior”, creating a predictable cycle of tension and resolution


Tonic= Beginning or end (I, vi)

Pre-dominant= Middle (IV, ii)

Dominant= Just before the end (vii0, V)


Concepts of Tonal harmony

  • Limited voice leading

  • Common tones

  • Resolution of tendency tones

  • Root absorption


I - vi - IV - ii - vii - V7 - I


**Foundations of functional harmony can be summed up with common tones or downward root absorption by thirds


V7 or V9 is good for confirming key since you hear almost every note in two chords


Minor Tonality    

  • The minor tonality system encompasses three different scales

    • Natural minor

    • Harmonic minor

    • Melodic minor


Aeolian Mode (natural minor)

  • All white keys A-A

  • W H W W H W W

  • SD7 is an entire step below the tonic- causes no leading tone


Harmonic Minor scale

  • Raises SD 7 of natural minor by a half step to create leading tone

  • In turn creates augmented triad on SD3

  • Creates Aug2 between SD 6 & 7


Melodic Minor Scale

  • Raises or lowers the six and seventh scale degrees

  • Using these scales melodically depends on the harmony being used


**Go with least clashing melodic tones first, then which way it is traveling


Minor Functional harmony

i - iio - III - iv - v - VI - viio - i


**The minor functional harmony chart is no different than major functional harmony


Modulation

  • The act of changing from one tonal center to another

    • Short: Temporary Tonicization- The process of making a non-tonic chord sound like. temporary tonal center

    • Longer: Intermediate Modulation

    • Extended or Permanent: True modulation


Modulation Techniques

  • Pivot chord with applied dominant

  • Common tone modulation- Two chords are connected through a single note to bridge distance between two keys

  • Enharmonic modulation- Key change where a chord is respelled enharmonically

  • Parallel key modulation- Technique where a song shifts between major and minor key that shares the same root1

  • Secondary parameters


Pivot Chord Modulation

  • Pivot chord

  • Applied dominant

  • New tonic


Cadences and establishing keys

  • Cadential progression

  • Complete Cadential Progression = T - P - D -T

  • Incomplete Cadential Progression = ? - D - T

  • Half-Cadential progression = ? - D … T

  • Dominant → Tonic (this is what leads you to feeling established in a particular tonal center)


Applied Dominnat- Major or dominant seventh chord used to temporary make a diatonic chord sound like tonic

  • We are not modulating to a new key, but pretending that the chord within the current key is a new tonic chord


Pivot Chords

  • A chord that is shared between two different keys

  • Musical bridge used to smoothly modulate; chord belongs to both old and new keys

  • To get them naturally in the original key, and leave them naturally in the new key


Moduation ground rules

  • Establish the original key with cadence

  • Confirm new key

  • Smooth modulation (pivot chord)


Closley related keys- Key signature only has 1 accidental different from the original key