Announcements

1
Announcements

• Mini-Homework 11 due Friday
• Turn this one in to your AI
• Quiz 4 NEXT Wednesday, November 6
• Online Dictation Exercises?

2
Chordal Reduction

• Open Spacing chords members spread over several
  octaves
• Chords in open spacing often employ chordal
  doublings (same note name in two or more octaves)
• Close(d) Spacing all notes of the chord within
  an octave above the bass, no doublings
• Often it is beneficial to reduce chords to close
  spacing to identify root, inversion, etc.

3
Chordal Reduction

• Step 1 identify the bass of the chord (lowest
  sounding note)
• Step 2 rewrite every note of the chord within
  the same octave above the bass note
• Eliminate doublings
• Step 3 identify the chord, usually by Roman
  numerals and figured bass symbols

4
Chordal Reduction

• Special Problems
• Lowest voice vs. bass note (lowest sounding note)
• What is the bass note of this chord?

5
Harmonic Function

• Harmonic Function describes the relationship
  between the various harmonies within a phrase
• A phrase is a melodic musical statement of about
  4-8 measures in length (we will discuss phrases
  in greater detail later in this course)
• In most tonal music we typically discuss three
  basic harmonic functions tonic, pre-dominant,
  and dominant (labeled T, P, and D)

6
Harmonic Function

• Tonic (T) usually implies I, but can
  occasionally imply the vi chord (in very rare
  circumstances)
• Pre-dominant (P) can imply IV, ii, or vi
• Dominant (D) usually implies V or V7, but can
  also imply viio
• These harmonies usually appear in a sequence,
  beginning with Tonic, moving to Pre-dominant,
  which moves to Dominant, which precedes Tonic
• We refer to this sequence as the T-P-D-T pattern

7
Harmonic Function

• Important points to remember
• Melodies (or entire pieces, for that matter) will
  usually begin and end on the Tonic chord
• Pre-dominant chords will usually be followed by
  Dominant chords
• Dominant chords do not necessarily need to be
  prepared by a Pre-dominant chord
• Dominant chords will usually move to the Tonic
  chord or another Dominant chord rarely (if at
  all) will a Dominant chord be followed by a
  Pre-dominant chord!

8
Harmonic Function

• It is helpful to think of the various harmonic
  functions in terms of planets in orbit around a
  given tonic

9
Harmonic Function

• Within this harmonic solar system, the tonic
  chord can move freely to any other chord, but the
  path back to tonic usually follows a progression
• Pre-dominant chords usually move to Dominant
  chords or other Pre-dominants Dominant chords
  usually move to Tonic or other Dominants
• Harmonic movement other than that described above
  is often referred to as retrogression
• Pre-dominant back to Tonic, Dominant back to
  Pre-dominant, etc.

10
Melodic Harmonization

• Given a melody of 4-5 measures, identify
• A likely key (specify major or minor)
• Implied harmonies in each measure (specify Roman
  numeral, but not figured bass symbols)
• Each chords harmonic function (assign labels of
  T, P, or D)
• Consider the following melody

11
Melodic Harmonization

• Step 1 verticalize each chord
• Step 2 reduce to root-position to determine root
  of each chord

12
Melodic Harmonization

• Step 3 determine the implied key of the melody
• When determining the implied key, always check
  the key signature. With a key signature of 1
  flat, the implied key can be either F major or d
  minor
• It was stated earlier that melodies usually begin
  and end on the Tonic chord. This melody begins
  and ends on an F major chord. Therefore, the
  implied key is F major

13
Melodic Harmonization

• Step 4 assign Roman numerals to each chord
• Step 5 assign harmonic function symbols to each
  chord
• I T
• IV P
• V D

14
Aural Skills Harmonic Intervals

• In unit 3 we will begin to identify intervals
  between two notes played simultaneously, which we
  will refer to as harmonic intervals
• For this skill it is very important to be able to
  identify each of the notes aurally, which we will
  refer to (quite fittingly) as the lower note and
  the upper note
• Once this is accomplished, treat as a regular
  interval as we have done earlier in this course

15
Announcements

• Mini-Homework 11 due Friday
• Turn this one in to your AI
• Quiz 4 NEXT Wednesday, November 6
• Online Dictation Exercises?