6

I am doing an exercise in which I was asked to write a part of the descending 5th sequence in a progression. I wanted to start the 5th progression on a chord other than I and this is what I came up with.

enter image description here

Both phrases are almost the same except for the end. It sounds to me like the progression ends in D#m instead of F# major the second time. I am trying to understand why this is the case.. yes sure the strong metric position of the vi chord makes it sound like a goal and so does the fact that the progression ends there does but I never used any accidentals to shift from the major key and I could keep the progression going in minor without any problem. Usually the raised ^5 gets me into minor from a major key but I never had to do this here. I have not altered any notes.

It seems like the progression IV iii vi just doesnt exist in a major key and really the ear hears a VI v i progression in minor. Have I made sense of this or can anyone share their thoughts please.

  • 1
    One way to almost certainly toncize the vi chord is with III7 (dominant seventh chord). Tonicization can be more of a relative thing instead of a clear yes/no answer. That said, a secondary dominant 7th chord is about the strongest way to tonicize a chord. – Todd Wilcox Feb 15 '22 at 16:12
  • Yes but my point was that even without that d#m here sounds like the home chord and I have not used a chromatic note anywhere so I wanted to know why –  Feb 16 '22 at 08:20

2 Answers2

5

While, normally, a IV iii vi chord progression (in a major key) would mean that the vi chord is not being tonicized, you just wrote a iii-vi chord progression in a place where a cadence is expected. Although iii-vi is neither a perfect cadence nor a plagal, imperfect, or deceptive cadence, someone too used to listening to cadences at this point has a fair chance of fudging iii-vi into sounding like a cadence. In this case, that'll be v/vi-vi, so your analysis is correct.

If this is for exams (at least Royal Conservatory of Music exams), I advise that you steer clear of that ending iii-vi chord progression since it fits none of the cadence types mentioned above, yet the ear may fudge it until it almost but never completely matches.

Dekkadeci
  • 14,111
  • 2
  • 28
  • 58
  • Thank you and I see what you mean about it not being a traditional cadence. For that I would have had to raise the 3rd of iii but my point was that even not doing this still makes vi feel like home. Maybe it is the root motion of a descending 5th? The point is that this progression sounds like minor from that point on and I have not used any chromatic notes. My own conclusion at this point is that certain diatonic chord progressions in major seem to sound more like they are in minor depending on the context. I definitely hear D#m as the new tonic from that point on. –  Feb 16 '22 at 08:12
  • @armani - It's possible that the sheer rarity of the iii chord in major keys is contributing to your interpretation. (To my awareness, next to none of the examples in my music theory books (classical music excerpts or not) displayed use of the iii chord, not even the many-measure ones, and by far the most common chord progression using it is the Pachelbel's Canon one.) – Dekkadeci Feb 16 '22 at 13:08
3

I think you are 'flipping' between hearing tonal and modal harmony, which I feel it perfectly understandable, because we are living in a multicultural 21st century, not in an 18th century aristocratic court.

With a few adjustments to the voice leading of the ending passage, to highlight what potentially could become the tonal leading tone, this is how I would contrast the difference in a modal or tonal handling...

enter image description here

I hope this doesn't change your progression too much, I am just trying to avoid some voice leading problems to treat the C♯/Cx as either a modal subtonic or a tonal leading tone.

The first example shows the ambiguity of progressing through the secondary modal chords iii and vi of F# major, or regarding them as progressing to a tonic as ♭VII to i in a modal style.

The second example raises the C♯ to Cx to form a proper, tonal leading tone, which would emphatically tonicize the D♯ minor chord as a tonal-style tonic.

To be clear, this isn't a choice or contrast between bad or good choices. It's just the difference between a modal or tonal harmonic style.

Michael Curtis
  • 56,724
  • 2
  • 49
  • 154
  • Hii Michael. Why have you used bVII instead of v in your first option? In aeolian mode the progression would be bVI v i –  Feb 16 '22 at 08:18
  • @armani - Looking at the chord progression, it looks like either a mistake (note the bass note and the similarity to the 2nd chord progression) or a reinterpretation of A#m7 as C#6no3/A# (thus, v7 as bVII13 in last inversion). – Dekkadeci Feb 16 '22 at 13:01
  • 1
    @armani, oops, you're right. I've corrected it. – Michael Curtis Feb 16 '22 at 16:39