How to Compose Auxiliary Chords || Tonal Voice Leading 17

[@Tabu11211]

I so appreciate your Channel

[@JacobGran]

Thank you!

[@samsun216]

Beautiful channel. Thank you!

[@JacobGran]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@keyxmusic]

Going off the analysis at 26:30, would you say that this type of hybrid, or "Frankenstein" analysis, is your preferred way to analyze any piece of tonal music? I'm especially interested in the French art music of the late 19th - early 20th century by composers such as Faure and Poulenc. On a side note, the history lesson about how the term neighbor tones came into use is super interesting!

[@chessematics]

One doesn't analyse actual music like this. Analysing symphonies using such contrapuntal methods will take a lifetime. And most of these analyses aren't even that useful. These things are much better analysed harmonically than contrapuntally.

[@prettyfar7002]

So helpful thank you

[@JacobGran]

Glad it was helpful!

[@SpaghettiToaster]

There are these funny diminished 7th and augmented 6th chords that Tchaikovsky especially likes to use, which don't function in their normal (dominant/subdominant respectively) ways, but instead embellish a chord (usually I) with its root as a common tone. An example would be the many diminished 7th chords in the waltz of flowers. Another one the underwater level in super mario bros. Could you say that those are essentially auxiliary chords like the ones in this video, just utilizing every possible neighbor note at the same time (either by whole or half step)?

[@JacobGran]

Yes, the Waltz of the Flowers is a fantastic example. It's funny; when a fully diminished seventh chord being used as an auxiliary chord includes the root of the chord that it embellishes, we call it a common tone diminished chord (like the one in the Schubert Quintet example), but if the root has to be kept on as a kind of pedal, like in your examples, we don't have a standard name for that 5-note chord type, even though they are pretty common and clearly related.

[@SpaghettiToaster]

Yes, and there's also a German augmented 6th version of the same procedure (sometimes seen in Chopin for example) where it's even more confusing what to call it. On the one hand, it's a very strong voice leading with all the half step resolutions. On the other hand, people are very attached to the specific outward resolution and predominant function as part of the definition of an augmented 6th, so you can't call it that. I find this one very interesting because it is an instance of a German augmented 6th that is actually *not* equivalent to a secondary dominant tritone substitution (also it sounds awesome).

[@hippotropikas5374]

@@SpaghettiToaster Is the augmented 6th chord you're talking about the one that is in the middle of this progression: [C,E,G] - [C,D#,F#,Ab] - [C,E,G]?

[@SpaghettiToaster]

@@hippotropikas5374 Yes exactly. That's the simplest case, although there are also instances where the C would be a pedal tone and not part of the chord itself, hence my confusion what to call it, since it's not really a "common-tone chord".

[@hippotropikas5374]

@@SpaghettiToaster I see what chord you're talking about. But I don't see the other harmonic context you're talking about. Do you have an exemple? Coule you write it the way I did?

[@peterwloszek5472]

Very nice! Thank you!!!

[@baranysos]

Thank you for the great video. In the Schubert example, how do you decide that the first 7 measures correspond to tonic prolongation instead of few harmonic changes here and there? Is it because of the lack of cadence?

[@JacobGran]

Great question: for the most part, yes. I would be more inclined to hear the V 6/5 chord in m. 6 as a functional dominant if it had occurred in root position (which is always the strongest expression of tonic and dominant function). The shape of the bass line also suggests B as a neighbor note enveloping C, before the real goal-directed motion towards G begins in m. 7.

[@baranysos]

@@JacobGran Thank you sir.

[@edbowles5497]

Hi Jacob! Thanks for another great video. My question isn't really regarding aux chords (I can't find the relevant video- I've been on a bit of a spree), but rather about how to deal with a bassline or cantus firmus that moves on the upbeat as well as the downbeat. If I am writing some actual counterpoint, which is mainly 2:1 (two crotchets in the melody and one minim in the bass), but then the bass starts to move in crotchets also, how am i to treat the upbeat? Does it then become a 1:1 exercise? Or do the 2:1 rules still apply, meaning i can have dissonances on the upbeat , because this beat is naturally less accented? I am trying to use what I have learned from studying 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, 4:1 counterpoint into free composition, and I am finding it quite difficult to know which 'rules' to follow sometimes. Any help gratefully received! Ed

[@JacobGran]

Hi Ed, great question. If we are viewing what you are composing as a strict counterpoint exercise, then the rule should be that those simultaneous crotchets obey the rules of first species since they move in a 1:1 rhythmic proportion. However, in real music simultaneous dissonances happen pretty frequently in a 1:1 proportion in faster note values. Knud Jeppesen shows examples by Palestrina and others of dissonant crotchets of the type you describe, but they always come from a texture with more than two voices, so that the dissonance can be measured against a slower moving voice.

[@chessematics]

12:55 I will never understand why appogiature are not allowed in strict counterpoint

[@JacobGran]

The short answer is that appoggiaturas are more style-specific than other kinds of voice leading dissonance, occurring frequently in Italian opera and instrumental music of the 18th century onwards, but hardly at all (if ever) in the "strict style" of 15th- and 16th century vocal polyphony. Strict counterpoint was intended to model that older style, and so the authors of those texts could not justify including every kind of dissonance or ornament. Neighbor notes (at least at first), appoggiaturas, and anticipations were the big categories that got left out. But don't be mistaken; classical composers were certainly taught how to handle appoggiaturas as a thoroughbass dissonance (what they sometimes referred to as "free composition") rather than one within the "strict composition" that served only as the starting point of their education.

[@chessematics]

@@JacobGran now i see...that's why, as someone who learnt the harmony in detail before counterpoint, the extreme lack of appogiature stuck me hard.

[@damoon57]

Hi Dr. Free composition means you can write whatever you want without considering the counterpoint laws!?

[@khaledshokry5070]

Thanks : )

[@ShaharHarshuv]

At some point it feels like overanalyzing. The short version is that dissonant chords are good if the voice existed in the previous chord, or it's a dissonant version. I think a more abstract way of thinking is basically that voices that moves smoothly are good, and dissonant are good if they are part of a "tension and resolution" .

[@JacobGran]

I believe AB Marx and some other 19th century theorists (later Schenker) would agree with your last statement. The basic pattern that passing tones, neighbor tones, and suspensions share in common is "Ruhe - Beweg - Ruhe," which means "Rest - Motion - Rest." Marx thought of this as the principle that underlies all forms of dissonance.

[@apzzpa]

Why in the Mozart example is the second chord labelled with a V when G is the the sub-dominant?

[@carlosandres7006]

I only see an E cause of the clef change

[@JacobGran]

Yes as Carlos Andres points out the left hand is in treble clef, so the notes of that chord are A C-sharp E G.

[@elchatismiquin6445]

Is an A major chord.

[@rumnicthegod9611]

Is there a problem with indirect neighbour tones that made them unmentioned in the video?

[@JacobGran]

I'm not familiar with that term. Could you give an example?

[@rumnicthegod9611]

@@JacobGran I’m sorry I worded that quite poorly, what I should have said is that since indirect passing tones exist what about neighbour tones? Do they have an indirect variant?

[@lebannerfan65]

Adjacent is probably a more pragmatic translation for Neben-.

[@JacobGran]

I agree that that is correct for Neben- in general. Specifically, though, "auxiliary" is the accepted English translation for this musical term going at least back to the 19th century. They sometimes also translated it as "secondary," as with "secondary dominant" for "Nebendominant," which seems like even more of a stretch to me.

[@juwonnnnn]

👏

[@elchatismiquin6445]

Is not correct cifrate all the notes, not are chords, they are pass notes (notas de paso). In Félix Salzer's Structural Hearing 1952, in the second measure there are fifths (do re do - sol la sol) 🤷‍♂️ In Mozart's Rondó: tonics, dominants and tonics. This is The Classicism. In the fourth grade (IV) the bass is a pedal, if it change to G this is too evident, is better to sustain the bass in D. I don't see any auxiliary chord in this piece... I don't understand this video... In Schubert's quintet, the chord in the third measure must be understood like a seventh diminished sensible chord (do, re#, fa#, la) and resolves in do again, not in D flat M/m, neither in E M/m, neither in G M/m, neither in B flat M/m... in C major again. Auxiliary chord... the dominant is an auxiliary chord? The sensible seventh is an auxiliary chord? No matter where it resolves... And in the ninth measure is a dominant chord over tonic (classicism again). I thought Auxiliary chords were another thing... Thanks! Great channel!

[@MrTocoral]

In Schubert, m.3, it would be quite silly to analyse the diminished chord as a dominant. It is definitely a decoration with chromatic "neighbour notes", there is no other functional role to this chord. However I agree that the first chord of m.9 could be labelled as a diminished chord over G, with function "dominant of G". I also agree with what you say about Mozart. But it is a matter of sensibility in analysis : the same chords can sometimes be interpreted as a tonal function, or as the result of the movement of voices. The two are often intertwined. Clearly, Jacob Gran is more interested in studying the movement of voices, and analysing the chords as a result of this movement ; other theorists would go the other way around.

[@MrTocoral]

I would also add, that these two points of view sometimes show their limits when they are applied too systematically. When every passing note is interpreted as a clue to a chord change, it's overkill. There is something that is called melodic movement. And in my opinion, trying to fill the gaps of voice leading with "hypothetical notes" that are never actually heard, can be overkill as well. There is something like unprepared jumps for the sake of adding color, or favoring the tonal role over the voice leading continuity.

[@MichaelJohnson-composer]

Great videos, but my god, Dude, is your delivery dry. Can you do anything to make it more interesting?

[@peterwloszek5472]

Very Nice! Thank you!!!