Augmented Sixths: The Chords that Broke Theory

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0:00 Introduction
0:42 What is an Augmented Sixth?
2:28 International Chords
6:30 Musica Ficta and the Phrygian Cadence
12:00 In Search of a Root
16:12 The Diminished Gambit
19:44 A Cog in the Sonata Machine
26:37 Towards Tristan, and Beyond
29:52 DIY Chords
31:51 The Tritone Substitution
33:39 Conclusion
📚 Sources/further reading:
“A Chord in Time: The Evolution of the Augmented Sixth from Monteverdi to Mahler” by Mark Ellis (Ashgate, 2010)
“Theory of Harmony” by Arnold Schoenberg, trans. Roy Carter (University of California Press, 1978)
“Harmony and Voice Leading” by Edward Aldwell, Carl Schachter, and Allen Cadwallader (4th Edition, Cengage, 2011)
“Harmonic Practice in Tonal Music” by Robert Gauldin (1st Edition, Norton, 1997)
“Harmonic Materials and Treatment of Dissonance in the Pianoforte Music of Frederic Chopin” by Betty Jean Thomas (PhD dissertation, Eastman School of Music, 1963): hdl.handle.net/1802/5429
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Classical Nerd is a video series covering music history, theoretical concepts, and techniques, hosted by composer, pianist, and music history aficionado Thomas Little.
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Music:
- Richard Wagner: Prelude to Tristan und Isolde, performed by the Fulda Symphonic Orchestra conducted by Simon Schindler and available on IMSLP: tinyurl.com/k7dk35af
- William Byrd: Ne Irascaris Domine and Civitas Sancti Tui (double motet), performed by Ensemble Plus Ultra [original upload: 3vBCSPHZnnA]
- Marc-Antoine Charpentier: “O sors! sors infelix et acerb” from Mors Saülis et Jonathae, H. 403, performed by Il Seminario Musicale conducted by Gérard Lesne [original upload: p_kYMqWbOYM]
- Johann Sebastian Bach: “Et Incarnatus Est” from the Mass in B Minor, BWV 232, performed by the English Concert conducted by Harry Bicket [original upload: QNGzJnqdCnY]
- Robert Schumann: Novelletten, Op. 21 No. 4, performed by Dino Ciani [original upload: Zfe-UbT6G58]
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 39, K. 543, Mvt. 1, performers unknown [original upload: H0x_dCrKd4w]
- Joseph Haydn: String Quartet Op. 54 No. 2, Mvt. 2, performed by the Danish String Quartet [original upload: dGgmFFMFICc]
- Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 24 “à Thérèse,” Op. 78, Mvt. 2, performed by Peter Bradley-Fulgoni and available on IMSLP: tinyurl.com/uddakysj
- Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C# minor, Op. 131, Mvt. 1, performed by the Orion String Quartet and available on IMSLP: tinyurl.com/3pjmnw3y
- Robert Schumann: “Am Leuchtenden Sommermorgen” from Dichterliebe, Op. 48, performed by Anton Belov and Lydia Brown and available on IMSLP: tinyurl.com/45r9dm3w
- Frédéric Chopin: Mazurka in B Major, Op. 63 No. 1, performed by Christoph Zbinden and available on IMSLP: tinyurl.com/yxujsp95
- Thomas Little: Dance! #2, performed by Rachel Fellows, Michael King, and Bruce Tippette
The other background music consists of procedurally generated chains of augmented sixth chords, representing each of the 12 transpositions of the three major varieties of augmented sixth equally.
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Contact Information:
Questions and comments can be directed to:
nerdofclassical [at] gmail.com
Facebook:
/ classicalnerd
Instagram:
/ the_classical_nerd
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All images and audio in this video are for educational purposes only and are not intended as copyright infringement. If you have a copyright concern, please contact me using the above information.

[@olebirgerpedersen]

As a student I used to ask if we could not have theorie combined with musichistorie. At last 62 years later you are doing it. Thank you in behalf of every new student.

[@jasonkruppa2655]

A lot of this was over my head but I picked up a few things and will be coming back to this as I learn more. Thanks for doing all this hard work too. Excellent presentation!

[@urgenyonzon3822]

All the words that I thought I'd comment are right here.. Thank you mate ..,''over the head" thing was all I needed to read actually😅😂 ✌🏼✌🏼

[@darrelldourte9455]

As an English major tries to comfort you - sez There Their They're

[@cgibbard]

In 31 equal or quarter comma meantone, {F, A, D#} has a clear F root because that becomes a very good approximation for the just ratios {1, 5/4, 7/4}, or 4:5:7 which is directly a bunch of harmonics over an F two octaves down. At least to my ear, this does almost as good a job at suggesting its root as the 4:5:6 major triad. Also, the minor 7th, with Eb in place of the D# sounds different and functions differently -- the Eb being a couple of perfect fourths over the F, so a ratio of (4/3)^2 = 16/9 rather than 7/4, carries a lot more tension and helps dominant function. All the points about meaning and spellings make a mind-exploding amount more sense if you ever get your hands on an instrument that can play in a larger meantone tuning and so distinguishes sharps and flats. Especially quarter comma or 31 equal which both have really solid approximations to the 7th harmonic that lie just sharpward on the circle of fifths, as three whole tones gives you a 7/5 tritone, and when you line that up with your 5/4 major third, you get (7/5)*(5/4) = 7/4, which is an octave of the 7th harmonic. This means you get all kinds of ratios with 7 in the numerator when reaching sharpward out of key, or 7 in the denominator when going flatward. For example, C to D#, becomes a septimal minor third, 7/6, a beautiful interval a bit narrower than a minor third that's quite characteristic of Middle Eastern music, where C to Eb is our familiar minor third, 6/5. The parsimonious impact all these additional strange consonances contribute to key changes is quite magical. Both the septimal and ordinary minor third occur in the German +6 example at around 4:30 with {C, E, Fx, A#}, the E to Fx would be a 7/6 in order to allow Fx to A# to be a 6/5. There's a good bit more dissonance using Fx than using G, with the Fx/C interval perhaps functioning as 35/24 (awkwardly close to 3/2 of course), but since it's not unrelated to the other chord tones, it's not entirely out of place, and by comparison, {C, E, G, A#} would be a very stable C harmonic seventh chord, and wouldn't feel as much like it needed a resolution. There's a kind of fundamental tension in the fact that our music notation and a lot of theory comes from a time when people often *did* use larger tuning systems like quarter or fifth comma meantone (or at least subsets of those), and so makes distinctions that are inaudible in 12 equal, but would be immediately crystal clear in 31 or 43 equal or one of these meantone temperaments. As someone who recently got a Lumatone MIDI controller, with enough keys to play all these extra notes, I'm grateful people have so diligently preserved these distinctions that perhaps haven't mattered quite as much for a long while.

[@mm-dn6oe]

Thank you SO much for writing out this explanation!

[@cgibbard]

@@mm-dn6oe No problem! I've been so excited about all this stuff over the past year or so. :)

[@brendanward2991]

I can tell that you put a lot of work into this video. It is appreciated.

[@mr.fantasee]

a lot of overthinking as well lol

[@virtualpilgrim8645]

Are you implying that the person who made this video had to struggle to accomplish it because it pushed the limits of his intelligence? Maybe it was not that hard for him to make this video because he's smarter than you think.

[@moth5799]

@@virtualpilgrim8645 "A lot of work" tends to refer to putting a lot of time and effort into something. It doesn't imply lack of intelligence. It's more the production value and the well-researched nature of the video.

[@helgar791]

For those interested, jazz has long been in love with such tritone subs, and if you have any interest in jazz improvisation you'll find their study and usage pivotal.

[@stephenweigel]

Great video! The “your/you’re” analogy is awesome, I’m going to be using that more. There’s lots of microtonal augmented sixths that are distinguished from minor sevenths too, for people who are interested in that stuff.

[@SlyHikari03]

Ayy

[@Pteradactylist]

Loved learning about them in school and enjoyed this history of 500 years of confusion even more. Maybe the best lesson here is the old adage: “Theory follows practice”. Not only does it follow but, in the case of aug 6ths, it may never really catch up!

[@carbonmonoxide5052]

I love these explanations of the augmented sixths. My personal favorite explanation is that they’re just weird predominant chords. In my own writing, I’ve found that predominant chords can be very chromatic or unusual as long as they lead nicely into the dominant chord. The German sixth as the tritone substitution of the V/V is the way I personally analyze it.

[@maxwellbrown4049]

Hindemith’s Craft of Musical Composition lays out a cool, handy system for determining the root of any chord, regardless of most context, and no matter how crazy it is. The rule is essentially “lowest, best interval”. Basically, perfect 5ths (or 12ths, etc) are the best guide, followed by perfect 4ths, then 3rds (maj>min), then 6ths (min>min), then 2nds and 7ths. If there are multiple perfect 5ths or other intervals, whichever is lower “breaks the tie”. This is mainly interpreted in a 12TET context, and gets tricky with augmented or diminished intervals that Hindemith likely avoided by writing with enharmonic equivalents except for tritones which he considers to not really have a root, but the root-substitute is determined by which notes most smoothly leads to the root of the next chord. So, the root of the italian 6th shown at 12:40 would be Ab, as the M3 between Ab and C is the most harmonically stable interval present. The root of the french 6th at 13:00 would be Ab also, as the M3 between Ab and C is lower than the one between D and F#. The German 6ths’ root is also Ab, and less ambiguous because there’s a P5 between Ab and Eb. Also it’s essentially just a dominant 7th chord if you respell f# to Gb. I like this system because it focuses on actual acoustic relationships and not somewhat arbitrary name-games (say between F# and Gb) or appeals to tradition.

[@brendanward2991]

Interesting. Hindemith is one of my favourite composers and I have been meaning to read his Craft of Musical Composition.

[@maxwellbrown4049]

It is dense and ultimately has some strange takes but fascinating and comes with such useful frameworks to analyze music with, that can applied to any style of music. Harmonic fluctuation (the flow between more and less stable chords), root progression, ranking the relationship of all intervals to a given root note, his chord categorization system, and the notion of melodic step-progressions as a significant contribution to the theory of melody are all concepts that should be taught in conservatories. A neglected masterpiece for real. My favorite music theory text ever.

[@karlpoppins]

I was taught theory using Hindemith's writings but I don't recall this particular system, which otherwise seems both interesting and rather utilitarian.

[@oneeyemonster3262]

I get them confuse because people COMPLICATED the living shiet out of it. From the KEY of C MAJOR....I do know I can INSERT b2........b3.........b5.........b6........b7 chord degree as ANY TYPE of chords if I simply VAMP these modes over any of those chord degree as GUIDE lyd #6....Lyd #5, #6....Lyd #2, #6..or even Ion #6. well...if you can play A aeo , maj7 = A harmonic min A dor maj7 = Melodic minor A phry maj7 = Harmonic min b2 = Bb lyd #6 A dor b2, nmaj7 = melodic min b2 = Bb lyd #5, #6 D double harmonic min = = B lyd #2 #6 i also KNOW...you CAN play Maj, min. dominant or diminished every b3 intervals G7........Bb................Db.............E7 C Harmonic MAJOR D dor b5............F lyd b3........ Ab lyd #2, #5 B loc bb7 A Harmonic min D dor #4 F lyd #2 G# loc b4, bb7 B loc maj6 D dim/Bb....... F dim/Db.........G# dim/E..............B dim/G well... I know I can play C Maj7 F min G7 into C Maj ( C Harmonic MAJOR) I guess C Maj7 F min Db maj7 G7 into C Maj.....sounds cool I could C Maj7 F min Db maj7 Gb min G7 into C MAJOR ...............A min G#7 into C# min F# min G7 into C MAJOR There;s a million other things I could do..aside from worrying about the French....German or Italian The price of gas is $8 p/gallon...F#@K that. AMERICA FIRST !!!!!! well..... .A harmonic MAJOR B dor b5, D lyd b3 F lyd #2, #5 G# loc bb7 F# harmonic min.........G# loc maj6 B dor #4 D lyd #2 F loc b4, bb7 C Harmonic min..........D loc maj6 F dor #4 G# lyd #2 B loc b4 bb7 Gb Harmonic MAJ Ab dor b5 B lyd b3 D lyd #2, #5 F loc bb7 Eb Harmonic min F loc maj6.....ect................ect......................ect

[@NicWeaverMusic]

I’ve been studying theory for the past few years and most of the things in this video still went over my head 😂

[@bdellovibrioo5242]

Wow, I am not even totally through the video but the connection to modal harmonies of Renaissance music is like a bolt from the blue! I'm just imagining a Renaissance singer being tut-tutted for a realization in the Phrygian that would, centuries later, become a commonplace and beloved harmonic device!!

[@brendaboykin3281]

Thanx, Maestro. Totally up my alley as a Jazzer. Glad you're back (with us).🌹🌹🌹

[@sergeirachmaninoff4467]

Cool new editing style! You definitely put a lot of work in this video. Thank you so much!❤

[@antoniomolinagarcia]

MAN, this is so insparing!! Incredible work. I don't habe thw words to tell you how amazing is this.

[@armandogiordano1226]

I want more of these!! Superb and insightful explanations, so interesting.

[@Kesekuchaen]

The your/you're comparison is incredible, also for explaining enharmonic equivalents! I'm definitely going to use that going forward!

[@garygimmestad4272]

This is by far the most comprehensive survey of the augmented 6 I’ve encountered. Even in grad school, we didn’t dig this deep. In musicology we talked about how it worked narratively, how it plays on our expectations. We spent more debating the labeling of the cadential 6/4 chord (is it, in reality, already the dominant?). Thanks (a year later) for doing this. KZbin videos are great but I often find myself either abandoning something I missed or having to stop. I’m a pretty good sight-reader but with several of the examples you were off and running before I had the lay of the land. It sometimes felt like a speed analysis marathon. It’s a minor quibble over an excellent presentation. Cheers!

[@ClassicalNerd]

The way I see it, folks can always pause if they need to!

[@garygimmestad4272]

@@ClassicalNerd Yeah - which is what I did a few times. I just finished watching your sonata video - also a great survey. I studied with Hepokoski in grad school in the 80s at the University of MN. I wrote the best paper of my college career in his class - on Mahler’s 2nd. When you said ‘medial caesura’ I knew where it came from and was glad to hear you speak well of their book. I just discovered your channel and I’m really enjoying it. Thanks for producing really good pieces in classical music. Cheers!

[@Ivan_1791]

This was such an awesome video. Thank you for your contribution to the music community.

[@unnamed_boi]

i think this is your best video. it does take quite a bit of time to make but man the result is really great i am sure you're going places

[@cameronhughes9707]

You have a real skill for conveying this stuff in just the right amount of detail.

[@danielthonk7481]

I’m so grateful for this channel, such high quality content, so frequently, for free. I have a lot of respect for you!

[@qalaphyll]

thonk

[@DavidA-ps1qr]

When I was composing, my music was all based upon chords. This brings back happy memories Tom. Brilliantly described and superbly explained. An excellent masterclass.

[@charleshudson5330]

You're video was entertaining, and in graphic representation your clear and informative. Enjoyed it.

[@downpatmusic]

Love the subtle soft Aug 6th orchestral sound samples playing under you dialog! That's pretty slick. Jazz players call the Aug 6th chord a Dominant 7th chord a half step above the destination chord. So a C Aug 6th chord to B would be called a C7 (C Dom 7th chord!) to say a B Major 7 target. It wasn't until I understood the origin of the voice leading of the outer voices of the properly spelled and named Aug 6th chord di this common chord progression in Jazz make sense.

[@hcab14]

Jazz theory is just a bad version of classical theory

[@yunusgencer]

Great video! Wonderful research! Thanks!

[@WilliamCarterII]

"The parallel 5th's are jarring." - giggles in Jazz major

[@REALsandwitchlotter]

Many thanks! that’s a lot to take in, superb work👍

[@JohnathandosSantos]

Great content! Don't give up on these style of vids

[@danielh3668]

There's a beautiful German 6th in the 2nd movement of Schubert's Unfinished, where he writes it out in a very closed position and "resolves" downwards everything, including the sharp 6, so it goes directly into V7.

[@avantagonist]

Great video, always fascinating to see how old theories were formed and what held up over time. I've never been able to shake the reductionist jazz take that all those aug.6 chords at 30:38 are just Ab7 with different extensions. For example to me the Italian is a "shell" voicing, just root/3rd/b7. The German adds a natural 5th, the French has a #4( or #11), and the others add various 9ths, 13ths, etc That doesn't respect the spelling, inversion, or voice leading which definitely matters a lot in a classical context but I feel like it's the most intuitive harmonic reduction: just a bVI7 chord preceding V7, with whatever extensions you want! The fact that the tritone sub is so closely related is more evidence to me that aug6 chords were kind of early glimpses of blues/jazz non-functional harmony.

[@avantagonist]

Also the Bru+6 chord in that list is absolutely the weirdest chord, like Ab7 with an additional natural 7? No thanks lol

[@rewindcat7927]

For me, coming from jazz, every dang chord is a V7 😂

[@GrumpyOldGuy777]

Just found this channel and love your insights. Subbed!

[@MakinMusicSchool]

Thank you very much for this excellent tutorial about augmented sixths! Probably no one did it so extensively.

[@rogueart7706]

Great video. You’ve obviously been to school. This was a great refresher from my school days thanks a bunch.

[@michaelowens5394]

This was fun. I studied harmony 25 years ago, hoping to be a symphonic composer, but life interrupted and I never got past 7th chords. Augmented 6ths were literally the next chapter when I had to stop. And I never became a symphonic composer, though I can write a fine SATB harmony. And I can tune a mean piano.

[@tahutoa]

Nothing's stopping you from becoming a symphonic composer if you still have that desire

[@michaelowens5394]

@@tahutoa Just the need to earn a living, lol.

[@axelbla5624]

@@michaelowens5394 what does SATB mean??

[@michaelowens5394]

@@axelbla5624 Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass. Shorthand for four-part mixed vocal music.

[@axelbla5624]

@@michaelowens5394 oh thank you

[@ajhigginscomposer]

This was amazing! Though a departure from your usual style, it was neat.

[@RedMeansRecording]

This was awesome. Learned so much.

[@classicallyaware2087]

Half a minute in and I can easily tell this will be a fantastic video

[@Yilver]

Notwithstanding this excellent presentation of the history of the use and analysis of these chords, the centuries-old debate reminds me of that scene in The Matrix where a young candidate explains that to bend a spoon one must not "try" to bend it, but rather realise the truth: that there is no spoon. This moment by moment vertical analysis - giving labels and finding roots for each new aggregate of notes - is a longstanding obsession of European theorists and IMO one of the worst ways to analyse European tonal music in a meaningful way. The analytic layer that it creates does little to convey the harmonic meaning and directionality of a piece, instead forming a kind of an opaque 'scientific' list of components, like trying to analyse a story by giving different labels to various combinations of letters. This is one of the downsides of having a notation-based music: now there's all this lovely stuff to analyse AWAY from the actual music, regardless of how it sounds... Having been brought up on this kind of vertical analysis, the Schenkerian approach was a revelation to me. I felt like there was now a clear representation for the harmonic-melodic vectors in the music, and I could actually HEAR the music through the analysis. My two cents...

[@johanwarenmark]

I apologize for repeating what everyone has already said: Really great video!

[@billsequins1490]

The editing is 🔥

[@bencurmusicproductions9677]

Great video. It's funny that the discussion of these chords take up so much space in modern theory books. When I taught theory at a University some forty years ago, I came across several texts from the 19th century which only devoted a single a paragraph on the topic (maybe Ebineezer Prout?). These texts considered the A6th as a double leading tone to the root of the dominant; that is, a leading tone from above and below.

[@jonahmatos8829]

i’ve waited for this video for so long 😭

[@nicholasluu7554]

Man I just discovered your channel and am binging everything. One of the best channels on KZbin. I see you’re working on a Milton Babbit video and you did a great video on Leonard Bernstein, I was wondering, if it’s not too outside the “classical” tradition, if you would think about doing a video on the late Stephen Sondheim?

[@musicalintentions]

Fantastic video! 💕🎵💕

[@tomwheeler1082]

If we thing enharmonicly, we could say that in C major, the french+6 is an Abaug6 or, enharmonicly, Ab7. And, what is a tritone away from Ab? D, which if we make it a dominant becomes a V7/V7! So thinking in reverse, the Abaug6 would actually be the tritonic substitution of the V7/V7! So we could write it as a SubII7, or SubV/V I would guess, as it is the substitution of the secondary dominant!

[@alexmckenzie8491]

Thanks. That was a lot of words I couldn't understand. Isn't it just a chord whose notes are all a half-tone above a dominant resolving down a half-tone to a dominant 7th?

[@shkyrbty]

Thank you for an extension and cool exploration of a very important sonority. I remember in undergrad music school, at this junction of theory, thinking whuuutttt???!

[@TREMOpsulaR]

Extremely good video.

[@scartabellomusic]

The image of Fux listening to Ornette is a good one! Haha good ole fux and his counterpoint text!

[@seanriedy]

Great video!

[@dr7246]

The B Minor Mass example might be the most useful contextual example- though certainly not the only. Nor necessarily representative of the best explanation in all cases. Which is to say: often melody has primacy, and what someone choses to call a “rounding” of a vertical interpretation, in these cases, is really besides the point. Great overview btw!!

[@neilwalsh3977]

Truly a Work of Art - I mean that sincerely

[@boboutthere3764]

Two things interest me in life: Music and Physics. I've read quite a bit about physics theories and, although I've played music all my life, I realize watching this that I understand more about physics than music.... but I loved watching... Maybe I'll catch up.

[@avaonalee]

I usually understand your videos... this one I may have to watch a dozen times 😆

[@_Grid_]

Those DIY Augmented 6th chords are really interesting!

[@3t-sm954]

Wonderful research

[@MalusOfficial]

A great analysis of +6 chords, but I was a little confused as to why you used figured bass notation (ie: C 6/4), is it to relate it to how you notate aug. 6 chords or is it to show its use during its founding (since figured bass was still being commonly used back then)?

[@JafuetTheSame]

was mesmerized&hypnotized by that backround synth tbh...make 1hr meditation video pls

[@ClassicalNerd]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hGS6oXhnhrxkgdk

[@kierenmoore3236]

Thanks for this, and Happy New Year 2024! No examples of these in use in popular music, then … ?! lol

[@brettonjohansen1619]

The Jon Bois look is great

[@harczymarczy]

Zam+6 is used by Kodály (Sík Sándor Te Deuma) on a different scale degree: ending (Phrygian cadence): a: VImaj7 v7(Aeolian) iv987no3 V2 Zam(II)+6 VI46 V

[@jrlepage2a03]

Correction: 11:12 it's spelled Jean-Philippe (1 L, 2 P's), not *Phillipe. I was named after Rameau, and people misspelling my name that way is a big pet peeve of mine. 😅

[@RosendahlMusic]

you're the best!

[@sachaarnaudpiano]

Helloooo ! I just discovered your videos and they’re amazing ! Would you ever consider doing a « great composers » video on Rameau or Liszt?

[@123jkjk123]

"He was an old putz ...and would have exploded if you played him an Ornette Coleman record" is what got me!

[@unwrought9757]

I think that for explanatory purpose it’s always helpful indeed to show and clarify all those chords and passages in the key of C Major and thus to avoid an unnecessary complications of different respective keys. Otherwise it’s very difficult to be followed especially by someone who is not a native speaker and whose musical terminology is different in his mother tongue.

[@bazingacurta2567]

26:29 I'm having trouble understanding how that is an augmented sixth chord. I would have said that that's a Bb7b5 (in this case bII7b5) chord in second inverson (4/6). Do you mean it is enharmonically a French augmented sixth chord? Amazing video as always, anyway.

[@michaweinst3774]

I know it was intended to be merely in the background, but I really liked whatever I could hear of the background music in this video! Considering it's maybe original work, anyway you could upload it separately on your other channel? Me likey chromatic resolutions

[@ClassicalNerd]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hGS6oXhnhrxkgdk

[@Brandon55638]

9:46 Wow. This was the first time I've ever heard of an "Azeri Sixth" chord in context. I always thought that this cross relation came from a kind of cadence that sometimes happens in performances of de Machaut's pieces where the triplum sings F#-G#-A and the tenor sings F natural-E-D. Some performers wanted to avoid augmented and diminished melodic intervals regardless of the harmonic results.

[@antoniobernardo5064]

great video. Not to bother,but would you do a video on liszt ? He's one of my favorite composers

[@alcyonecrucis]

I dig it!!! Augmented unison!

[@segmentsAndCurves]

Diminished 2nd.

[@vrixphillips]

if you're still taking requests, i'd like to request opera guides to Zimmermann's Die Soldaten and Krenek's Karl V. The world needs more explanations of 12-tone and serialist operas :O

[@caterscarrots3407]

I have noticed a slight correlation between the type of augmented sixth and the nationality of the composer, possibly stronger in some cases than the stylistic correlation that Calcott used to name the chords. I see the Italian Augmented Sixth often in works of Italian composers or composers of other nationalities that nevertheless often composed in a more Italian style(Mendelssohn would be an example of the latter). I see the French Augmented Sixth often in works of French composers or composers who lived a lot of their years in France, like Debussy that you mentioned in the video, but also Liszt for instance. And I see the German Augmented Sixth often in works of German and by extent, Austrian composers, like the whole Classical Era Trifecta that is Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. That is not to say that I won't see augmented sixths outside the composer's nationality being used. The Italian Augmented Sixth especially is also commonly used by for instance those same German and Austrian composers that often use the German Augmented Sixth. And Schubert is well known, at least by theorists for, among other things, using the French Augmented Sixth quite often. I'm just saying that there is a slight correlation between composer nationality and augmented sixth type.

[@jonaswolfmusic1775]

4:24 Some call this the "Swiss" augmented sixth chord, probably because it sounds like German sixth chord but is written like French sixth chord. =D

[@ClassicalNerd]

An old professor of mine called it the "Alsatian Sixth" for exactly this reason!

[@caterscarrots3407]

I've heard that too, and I honestly prefer Enharmonic German Augmented Sixth. Yes, it's a mouthful to say, but it's accurate.

[@andsalomoni]

The chord C E A# sounds like C E Bb, which is a dominant seventh chord and tends to impose itself as a dominant seventh chord. Does it really sound as an augmented sixth chord to someone?

[@ClassicalNerd]

It's all contextual. Resolve it like I show in the video: augmented sixth. Resolve it to I/i: V7.

[@Steve_Max]

What is the meaning of "C 6/4" at 21:03? Is it supposed to say D 6/4?

[@ClassicalNerd]

C = cadential. There's a huge theory debate over whether to call it V64 or I64; my elegant solution is to call it by a name upon which both can agree. See elsewhere in the comments.

[@jacobbass6437]

@@ClassicalNerd yep, I’ve seen “Cad6/4” to remove the confusion like the commenter above. I’ve also seen “K6/4” which I don’t like.

[@nozkaGaillard]

What a chance for us to have a channel like yours

[@CalebCarman]

In meantone, the augmented sixth approximates almost exactly the 7th harmonic. Kirnberger attributes its use to being a consonance disguised as a dissonance.

[@azraksash]

1/6 comma meantone is a counterexample. Your comment is valid only in tunings (it doesn't have to be meantone ) where augmented sixth is reached by two major thirds + two fifths (octave reduced).

[@redhxrse]

v good video

[@heavydevy-c5630]

Damn I'm actually working with an augmented 6th then in one song. Use Spanish eight tone scale and take out the minor third. Yeah it's super weird. gives a nice nightwish sound though if you're careful. Very hard to work with. You're definitely ahead of everyone out there, damn 😵

[@YangJoshuaXiemusic]

I like the Bgm hhhhh That’s so brainwashed and retentive

[@virtualpilgrim8645]

I was thinking the exact same thing!

[@ClassicalNerd]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hGS6oXhnhrxkgdk

[@forg4308]

A quick question: so is the only reason that the aug 6th can’t be considered a convenient collection of passing tones because together they have a very clear predominant sound and thereby must have a Roman numeral attached to them since passing tones shouldn’t be able to have clearly discernible functions? TBH I really don’t get what is uncompelling about Fux’s opinion on this. Admittedly it’s not fully satisfying, but then, neither is any other theory. For the record, at least to me, it sounds most compelling in the Viennese classical examples where they seemed least contrived in context, perhaps because of Fux’s posthumous influence over that style?

[@ClassicalNerd]

It's not so much the clear predominant sound (technically, you can +6 your way to _any_ chord, as in the Chopin example) as much as its common use, and composers' treatment of it as a coherent, functional sonority. The irony is that, yes, it _does_ in fact derive entirely from a more horizontal, Fuxian view than it does from the vertical, Rameauvian position-but since the latter position won out, you get the few centuries' worth of logical twists that I track in this video. More than any other "tonal" chord, it problematizes what we mean when we say "tonality" and the Roman numeral-based theory that underpins it.

[@forg4308]

@@ClassicalNerd thanks for the answer!

[@eugeblacks]

Moar!! 👏

[@Dartharris02]

I’d love to see a great composer’s episode on Cab Calloway

[@ClassicalNerd]

Duly noted: lentovivace.com/classicalnerd.html

[@ShaharHarshuv]

Couldn't follow everything but it was very interested 😅

[@MaximilianMKGill]

Thank you for this content the beginning reminded me of Twilight Zone.

[@pillmuncher67]

So, in the Renaissance they already had enclosures?

[@idrisbalavakos]

I will love you forever if you cover Ruth Crawford Seeger. Her chamber compositions changed my music composition life. I find she is not in nearly as many discussions as she should be.

[@ClassicalNerd]

I did, many many years ago. So it's not nearly what I do now, but it's more than nothing.

[@idrisbalavakos]

@@ClassicalNerd I see it, watching now. Thanks!

[@noelwalterso2]

From my relatively uneducated point of view I think of it as a tritone substitution for the V7 of V. Which is another notoriously hard to spell chord.

[@annakimborahpa]

If, during the 12th through 16th centuries, 'musica ficta' applied to those notes outside common usage/notation, could the various augmented sixth chords employed after 1600 "that broke theory" be considered 'musica afflicta'? On a more serious note, in the Adagio of his Seventh Symphony In E Major, Anton Bruckner composed what is first perceived as a dominant seventh chord on the V of Db Major and then transforms it into an augmented sixth chord modulating into the key of C Major which coincides with the famous cymbal crash inspired by the death of Richard Wagner. See the score and hear this transformation of the dominant seventh in one key into the augmented sixth of another key from the last measure of letter V climaxing into letter W at 18:08-20 of this link: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i5aWhJeonJh7pNk

[@JG_1998]

make a liszt video please. im begging!

[@NathanAMeyers]

The aug 6th if interpreted as F G D# is just a G lydian major 7th. That's why it works

[@manueljoseblancamolinos8582]

Lots of augmented sixths in Tchaikovsky Manfred first movement.

[@peterschaffter826]

3:40 Whoa! That's not a C-6/4 beside the German 6th! It's a second inversion e-minor. Typo?

[@ClassicalNerd]

No. C = cadential. Of the three ways I know how to express that chord, it's my preferred method. (What to call C64 could be a whole video unto itself.)

[@peterschaffter826]

@@ClassicalNerd Gotcha. I'm old-school trained. I'd mark that as I-6/4 (i.e. "one-six-four"); no need to state the cadential function because it's implied. Thanks for clearing that up. BTW, I never got around to posting a compliment on your serialism video a few years ago. It was a stunner, possibly the most sensitive discussion of the subject I've ever come across. I was amazed.

[@threnodymusic552]

Have you ever heard of the Russian augmented 6th? It's an augmented augmented 6th C E G# A# resolving to dominate V. B D# F# A. I do not know of an example of its use, but it was discussed in theory class.

[@ClassicalNerd]

I discuss that chord at 31:11 . I don't know of any source that calls it the "Russian Sixth," although I discuss an example of such labeling tendencies at 30:14 .

[@ralfpisters]

It seems to me Scriabin is fond of this chord. He uses it, for instance, in the prelude in E major, opus 33 no. 1, in the last bar. He uses it again in no. 2 of the same set, in a bit more ambiguous manner, in mm. 3-4, resolving to D major.

[@asev1969]

У вас камера плохо закреплена и заваливается налево-направо.

[@harczymarczy]

13:00 but see Bach: Mass in B minor, Crucifixus, ending.

[@lundsweden]

Sometimes, its hard to find a root (of the chord, that is).

[@pantheon777]

Ornett Colman reference. Noice.

[@isaacrodriguez3000]

Can you make videos on Alan Rawsthorne and William Walton????? PLEASE

[@ClassicalNerd]

Duly noted: lentovivace.com/classicalnerd.html