fwd: re: minstrel: re: I - IV - V7 - I progressions

[yarrowp at mscd.edu]

Sorry - keep forgetting that the reply to function doesn't work for this 
list.
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Original Text
From: Patricia Yarrow at HSP@MSCD-SCOPS, on 9/23/98 9:54 AM:
To: Incognito_SMTP at InfoTech@MSCD[<owner-minstrel at rt.com>]

>From: "Robin" <rhayes at powerup.com.au>, on 9/23/98 1:47 AM:

>BTW, the statement that the Vth chord usually has the 7th flattened is 
only
>always true if the V(7th) precedes the Tonic (I), usually at the end of a
>tune or musical phrase. It usually sounds better in the middle of a phrase
>if you don't flatten it all the time. 

Sorry, but you're getting even further from period practice if you use a M7 
chord on the dominant.  Here's the reason:

A V chord is built in thirds, starting from the fifth scale degree.  Using 
the key of C major (no sharps or flats, so it's easy to work with), a V 
chord plus seventh contains G B D F, a V7 (dominant seventh) chord.  If you 
play it as a M7, you have G B D F# - in other words, you're going *outside* 
the key of C major with a chromatic accidental.  While chromaticism is 
certainly known in the SCA period - check out the works of Gesualdo, or the 
practice known as "musica ficta," the first type of added seventh chord to 
be widely used was the dominant seventh, followed by the diminished 
seventh.  The M7 doesn't come into wide use until much later - I want to 
say Romantic period, but I'll have to double check.  The use of added 
sevenths on most chords is a jazz convention which has migrated into folk 
music.

>The theory says that the V(7th) chord needs to "resolve" to another chord,
>usually the Tonic (I), as it is a dissonant type chord. The V chord sounds
>less disonant.

Yes.  The V7 chord contains an embedded tritone from the third to the 
seventh (B to F in the example above).  In a strict resolution the seventh 
moves downward to the third of the I chord, and the third moves up to the 
tonic.  However, the V chord is still perceived as tending toward the tonic,
 even without the presence of the added seventh - it has to do with root 
movement down a perfect fifth or up a perfect fourth.

>Thus V(7th) -> I is one of the common "final" type resolutions, there also
>being the familar "Amen" which is the IV -> I.

Yes, those are some of the more common tonal cadences.  There are also 
chord progressions which are common in the modes, such as VII -> I in 
mixolydian.

Incidentally, apropos of an earlier post, it's usual to capitalize major 
chords, use lower case for minor ones, and indicate a diminished chord with 
a superscript o, like a degree sign.  In ASCII it's easier just to say viio 
and assume people will understand.  Thus, for a major key, the chords are
I ii iii IV V vi viio I

>Ah, I wish I could remember more of the theory...

>Robin

Are you sure?  It may make you cranky like me.  ;^)

Vivien
yarrowp at mscd.edu
http://clem.mscd.edu/~yarrowp/
Mode chart:  http://clem.mscd.edu/~yarrowp/MODEXh.html
This includes primary chords for the modes, for those inclined in that 
direction.


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