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In bar 8 there is a chromatic chord which is essentially an Eb7 chord but I know from classical music harmony that an augmented german 6th has the same sonority. So How should I write this chord? It resolves neither to Ab nor does it resolve to D as it would if it were in the key of Gbm

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    not me counting eight bars from the start of the extract :eyeroll: Commented 2 days ago

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In line with Lazy's answer: this isn't a functional harmony in the classical sense, but rather more of a blues-influenced iv7 resolving to a temporary tonic of B-flat.

But despite that interpretation, I think spelling the chord with C-sharp makes more sense. While spelling it as a D-flat would really clarify the iv7 interpretation, having a C-sharp in the melody more cleanly resolves to the following D-natural, and the C-sharp fits the overall key of D minor much better, as well.

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Well, this is in some sense neither a dom7 or an aug. 6th, as these chords are defined by their resolution behaviour, and your chord is resolved as neither.

Harmonically you are shifting tonality from D minor to B major here (although you immediately go back to D minor then), but you are doing this without any typical cadence.

That being said, the progression you have (with the upper leading tone in bass and the lower leading tone in descant) really suggests an aug. 6th chord, but of course an aug. 6th has predominant function and should in this case resolve to a dominant D maj of G. To me your chord progression really sounds like it wants to be something like

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But of course this stops making sense once you go the Bb-maj. The voice leading here sounds to me like a plagal cadence, so we can also interpret this particular chord as a sub-dominant 7th chord with minor 7th, which is a bit of an uncommon chord, but technically possible.

So one could argue that this chord suggests an aug. 6th chord, which is then enharmonically interpreted as a IV7 chord and resolved plagally to Bb.

Thus my suggestion: Write as is better readable.

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  • "as these chords are defined by their resolution behaviour": not really. It is certainly possible to describe both chords without reference to harmonic context nor function. I haven't looked at the passage in detail yet, but the point about enharmonic reinterpretation at the end of this answer suggests that rather than being "neither," it is in fact "both." Commented 2 days ago
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    @phoog How can dominant 7 not reference a haromonic function? Commented 2 days ago
  • @phoog isn’t saying it’s not a harmonic reference, only that it doesn’t have to be. It’s a technicality being pointed out, as opposed to an error. Commented 2 days ago
  • In the case of a non-functional dominant chord, the definition is simply the interval structure bass M3 P5 m7. Commented 2 days ago
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    @Lazy "dominant 7th" does not refer to harmonic function when it is used to denote the chord that comprises a major third, perfect fifth, and minor seventh above the root. This is the standard term for that chord. The term derives from the chord´s origin as the seventh chord on the dominant, but it is routinely taught without reference to that. (Also, going back rather farther, "dominant" originated from melodic theory, not harmonic, before harmony even existed, which suggests that a chord comprising degrees 5/7/2/4 deserves the name regardless of function.) Commented 2 days ago
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If you look at just the upper Bb C# G resolving to Bb D F part, it's similar to a common tone diminished seventh chord resolution.

The way you spelled it is like an augmented sixth chord resolution, because of the outward resolution to the octave, but with the inner tone resolutions tweaked.

It's like a mutated form of either of the two above, but either way the spelling with C# makes sense, because of the direction of the voice movement by step up. In terms of reading difficulty, I don't think a C# is too hard to read there, and using D♭ D♮ would make me stop to think "why?" even more.

I think you're right to go with the A6 spelling.

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