[Smt-talk] Mozart harmonic progression

[Stephen Jablonsky]

Eric,

As a point of information: "It+6" is neither a chord name or chord number, although it is treated as such in so many best-selling textbooks. In lead sheet notation we indicate that chord in Dm as Bb7. The number is vii#6/V.


Dr. Stephen Jablonsky, Ph.D.
Music Department Chair
The City College of New York
Shepard Hall Room 72
New York NY 10031
(212) 650-7663
music at ccny.cuny.edu




On Apr 22, 2013, at 12:59 PM, Eric Knechtges <eric.t.knechtges at gmail.com> wrote:

> Colleagues,
> 
> Point of curiosity -- those of you with corpus studies of Mozart at hand may have a ready answer to this.
> 
> There is a certain harmonic progression that seems to pop up in Mozart's music in minor keys, and I have yet to find an example of this exact progression in any other composer.  Arguments of counterpoint vs. harmony aside, here is the basic idea:
> 
> i - v6 - #viø7 - +6 - V (or cadential 6/4)
> 
> So, in d minor, for instance:
> 
> Dm - Am/C - Bø7 - It+6 - A
> 
> While I know that chromatic and diatonic descents to the dominant are commonplace and have a rich history, it is this precise sequence of harmonies that I haven't found in any other composer with nearly the frequency that I've seen it in Mozart.  Does anyone have examples of this from another composer?  Is it more common in Mozart than his contemporaries?
> 
> 
> -- 
> Eric Knechtges, DM
> Assistant Professor, Coordinator of Composition/Theory
> Northern Kentucky University
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