Asecondary chord is ananalytical label for a specificharmonic device that is prevalent in thetonal idiom ofWestern music beginning in thecommon practice period: the use ofdiatonicfunctions fortonicization.
Secondary chords are a type ofaltered orborrowed chord, chords that are not part of the music piece'skey. They are the most common sort of altered chord in tonal music.[2] Secondary chords are referred to by the function they have and the key or chord in which they function. Conventionally, they are written with the notation "function/key". Thus, one of the most common secondary chords, the dominant of the dominant, is written "V/V" and read as "five of five" or "the dominant of the dominant". Themajor orminor triad on any diatonicscale degree may have any secondary function applied to it; secondary functions may even be applied todiminished triads in some special circumstances.
Secondary chords were not used until theBaroque period and are found more frequently and freely in theClassical period, even more so in theRomantic period. Composers began to use them less frequently with the breakdown of conventional harmony inmodern classical music—but secondary dominants are a cornerstone ofpopular music andjazz in the 20th century.[3]
Asecondary dominant (alsoapplied dominant,artificial dominant, orborrowed dominant) is a majortriad or dominantseventh chord built and set toresolve to ascale degree other than thetonic. The dominant (seventh) of the dominant (written as V7/V or V7 of V) is the most frequently encountered.[5] The chord that the secondary dominant is the dominant of is said to be a temporarilytonicized chord. The secondary dominant is normally, though not always, followed by the tonicized chord. Tonicizations that last longer than aphrase are generally regarded asmodulations to a new key (or new tonic).
According to music theorists David Beach and Ryan C. McClelland, "[t]he purpose of the secondary dominant is to place emphasis on a chord within the diatonic progression."[6] The secondary-dominant terminology is still usually applied even if the chord resolution isnonfunctional. For example, the V/ii label is still used even if the V/ii chord is not followed by ii.[7]
Themajor scale contains seven basic chords, which are named withRoman numeral analysis in ascending order. Because tonic triads are either major or minor, one would not expect to find diminished chords (either the viio in major or the iio in minor) tonicized by a secondary dominant.[2] It would also not make sense for the tonic of the key itself to be tonicized.
In thekey of C major, the five remaining chords are:
Of these chords, the V chord (G major) is said to be thedominant of C major. However, each of the chords from ii to vi also has its own dominant. For example, V (G major) has a D major triad as its dominant. These extra dominant chords are not part of the key of C major as such because they include notes that are not part of the C major scale. Instead, they are secondary dominants.
The notation below shows the secondary-dominant chords for C major. Each chord is accompanied by its standard number in harmonic notation. In this notation, a secondary dominant is usually labeled with the formula "V of ..." (dominant chord of); thus "V of ii" stands for the dominant of the ii chord, "V of iii" for the dominant of iii, and so on. A shorter notation, used below, is "V/ii", "V/iii", etc.
Like most chords, secondary dominants may beseventh chords or chords with other upperextensions.[a]Dominant seventh chords are commonly used as secondary dominants. The notation below shows the same secondary dominants as above but with dominant seventh chords.
Note that the triad V/IV is the same as the I triad. When aseventh is added (V7/IV), it becomes an altered chord because the seventh is not a diatonic pitch.Beethoven'sSymphony No. 1 begins with a V7/IV chord:[8]
According to the principles exposed above, in fact, V7/IV, which means the C7 chord, i.e. the dominant seventh chord on theF major scale (C–E–G–B♭), does not represent the tonic because it contains a B♭, which isn't included in the main key, as Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 is written in the key of C major. The chord then resolves on the natural IV (F major) and in the following bar the V7, i.e. G7 (dominant seventh chord on the C major key), is presented.
Chromatic mediants, for example VI is also a secondary dominant of ii (V/ii) and III is V/vi, are distinguished from secondary dominants with context andanalysis revealing the distinction.[9]
Before the 20th century, in the music ofJ.S. Bach,Mozart,Beethoven, andBrahms, a secondary dominant, along with its chord of resolution, was considered a modulation.[citation needed] Since this was a rather self-contradictory description, theorists in the early 1900s, such asHugo Riemann (who used the term "Zwischendominante"—"intermediary dominant", still the usual German term for a secondary dominant), searched for a better description of the phenomenon.[citation needed]
Walter Piston first used the analysis "V7 of IV" in a monograph entitledPrinciples of Harmonic Analysis.[11][b] In his 1941 bookHarmony, Piston used the term "secondary dominant".[12] At around the same time (1946–48),Arnold Schoenberg created the expression "artificial dominant" to describe the same phenomenon, in his posthumously published bookStructural Functions of Harmony.[13]
In the fifth edition of Walter Piston'sHarmony, a passage from the last movement ofMozart'sPiano Sonata K. 283 in G major serves as one illustration of secondary dominants.[14] This passage has three secondary dominants. The final four chords form acircle of fifths progression, ending in a standard dominant-toniccadence, which concludes thephrase.
Injazz harmony, a secondary dominant is any dominant seventh chord on a weak beat[citation needed] and resolves downward by a perfect fifth. Thus, a chord is a secondary dominant when it functions as the dominant of some harmonic element other than the key's tonic and resolves to that element. This is slightly different from the traditional use of the term, where a secondary dominant does not have to be a seventh chord, occur on a weak beat, or resolve downward. If a non-diatonic dominant chord is used on a strong beat, it is considered anextended dominant. If it doesn't resolve downward, it may be aborrowed chord.[citation needed]
Secondary dominants are used in jazz harmony in thebebop blues and otherblues progression variations, as aresubstitute dominants andturnarounds.[15] In some jazz tunes, all or almost all of the chords that are used are dominant chords. For example, in the standard jazz chord progressionii–V–I, which would normally be Dm–G7–C in the key of C major, some tunes will use D7–G7–C7. Since jazz tunes are often based on the circle of fifths, this creates long sequences of secondary dominants.[citation needed]
Secondary dominants are also used in popular music. Examples include II7 (V7/V) inBob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and III7 (V7/vi) inBetty Everett's "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)".[17] "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue" features chains of secondary dominants.[18] "Sweet Georgia Brown" opens with V/V/V–V/V–V–I.Playⓘ
Anextended dominant chord is a secondary dominant seventh chord thatresolves down by a fifth to another dominant seventh chord. A series of extended dominant chords continues to resolve downwards by the circle of fifths until it reaches thetonic chord. The most common extended dominant chord is thetertiary dominant,[citation needed] which resolves to a secondary dominant. For example, V/V/V (in C major, A(7)) resolves to V/V (D(7)), which resolves to V (G(7)), which resolves to I. Note that V/V/V is the same chord as V/ii, but differs in its resolution to a major dominant rather than a minor chord.
Quaternary dominants are rarer, but an example is the bridge section of therhythm changes, which starts from V/V/V/V (in C major, E(7)). The example below fromChopin'sPolonaises, Op. 26, No. 1 (1835)[20] has a quaternary dominant in the second beat (V/ii = V/V/V, V/vi = V/V/V/V).
Inmusic theory, asecondary leading-tone chord is a secondary chord that isrooted on a tone that is aleading-tone of (in short, has a strong affinity toresolve to) a tone just 1 semitone from that root (typically 1 semitone above, thoughcan be below).[22] Like thesecondarydominant it can be used astonicization of only one subsequent chord (which will be rooted in the resolution tone), or the music can continue with other chords/notes in the key of that chord's root for a phrase, or even longer to be considered amodulation to that key. This one-semitone-apart resolution of the secondaryleading-tone is in contrast to the secondarydominant whichresolves through a wider distance of perfect fifth below or perfect fourth above the chord's root (as per the two distances betweendominant and tonic).
While the root of a secondary leading-tone chord needs to be the leading-tone, the other notes may vary and form with it one of: thetriad[23] or one of thediminished sevenths (as in seventhscale degree[23] orleading-tone, not necessarily seventh chord) where the type of the diminished seventh is typically related to the type of tonicized triad:
Because of their symmetry, secondary leading-tone diminished seventh chords are also useful formodulation; all four notes may be considered theroot of any diminished seventh chord. They mayresolve to thesemajor orminor diatonic triads:[22]
Especially infour-part writing, theseventh should resolve downwards bystep and if possible the lowertritone should resolve appropriately, inwards if adiminished fifth and outwards if anaugmented fourth,[25] as the example below[26] shows.
Secondary leading-tone chords were not used until theBaroque period and are found more frequently and less conventionally in theClassical period. They are found even more frequently and freely in theRomantic period, but they began to be used less frequently with the breakdown of conventional harmony.
The chord progression viio7/V–V–I is quite common inragtime music.[22]
Thesecondary supertonic chord, orsecondary second, is a secondary chord that is on thesupertonicscale degree. Rather thantonicizing a degree other than thetonic, as does a secondary dominant, it creates a temporary dominant.[23] Examples include ii7/III (F♯min.7, in C major), ii7/II (Amin.7, in F major), ii7/V (Emin.7, in G major), and ii7/IV (Bmin.7, in E major).[27]
Thesecondary subdominant is thesubdominant (IV) of the tonicized chord. For example, in G major, the supertonic chord is A minor and the IV of ii chord is D major.
The other secondary functions are the secondary mediant, the secondary submediant, and the secondary subtonic.
![{
#(set-global-staff-size 16)
\new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff <<
\new Voice \relative c''' {
\set Score.currentBarNumber = #62
\bar ""
\key des \major \time 3/4
\voiceOne ges8 des16 es f8 c f c 16 d
es8 bes es bes16 c \tuplet 3/2 { des16\prall[ c des] } f16[ r32\fermata es](
aes,4)
}
\new Voice \relative c'' {
\key des \major \time 3/4
\voiceTwo bes!8 bes a a aes aes
g[ g ges ges f <es bes'>16] r\fermata
r8
}
>>
\new Staff <<
\new Voice \relative c' {
\clef F \key des \major \time 3/4
<es ges>8_\markup { \concat { \translate #'(-6 . 0) { "D♭: ii" \raise #1 \small "7" \hspace #8.5 "V" \raise #1 \small "7" "/vi" \hspace #5 "V" \raise #1 \small "7" "/ii" \hspace #10 "V" \raise #1 \small "7" "/V" \hspace #6 "V" \raise #1 \small "7" \hspace #10 "I" \hspace #6.5 "V" \combine \raise #1 \small 6 \lower #1 \small 5 "/V" \hspace #6.7 "V" } } }
<es ges> <f, f'> <f es'> <bes d> <bes d>
<es, des'!>[ <es des'> <aes c> <aes c> <des, aes' des> <g des'>16] r\fermata
aes,8-.
}
>>
>> }](/image.pl?url=https%3a%2f%2fwikipedia.org%2f%2fupload.wikimedia.org%2fscore%2fp%2fv%2fpvwhqkezm0kinzwdk6qahltlq5imk18%2fpvwhqkez.png&f=jpg&w=240)
