The dominant seventh
By writing harmonies you’ll often use* passing tones* or neighbour tones. The passing tone is known to be useful in becoming the dominant seventh. For example; the tonic (I) could be c-e-g, where after de dominant (V) follows g-b-d and a dominant seventh (V7) g-b-d-f. The g would almost always jump off to the tonic and the d in soprano will resolve to a c. The seventh always has to resolve in a downwards motion. The passing tone is only able to be approached from down under, because of the downwards resolving motion of the seventh. The seventh can also be used as an Appogiatura; it is always in the right way solved and never wrongly prepared.
You can never move from a V7 to a V, because the dominant seventh has a stronger dominant function than the dominant itself. A half cadence therefor always includes a dominant. V-V7-I is therefor possible, but V7-V-I not.
The dominant seventh never has a doublings problem; g-d’-b’-f’’’ --> c-c’-g’-e’’
When the leading note is in soprano in de dominant seventh this will lead to parallel fifths; which are forbidden to use. This leads to a triple-root chord; g-d’-f’-b’ --> c-c’-e’-c’’
So you’ll leave a fifth and uses three times the 1. Another option would be to remove the fifth in de dominant seventh chord itself and use 2 times the root; g-g-f’-b’ --> c-g-e’-c’’
Unequal fifths are allowed; so with chromatic difference.
The impact of melody, rhythm and measure on harmony
It is useful to change chords when you move from a weak to strong measure.
The dissection of a phrase to a musical skeleton is called reduction. Ornamental figures that take longer than the time of the beat are called supermetrical figurations and those are consonant because of the bass tone. Metrical figures then take a whole measure and are by nature consonant. submetrical figures are shorter than a measure. When a chord is a harmonization of an ornamental note it is clearly that this chord has less importance.
Yours Sincerely @inMusicalTerms
with the help of The Complete Musician: An Integrated Approach to Tonal Theory, Analysis, and Listening, 3rd Edition - Steven G. Laitz
P.s.: check out my other articles about music theory:
- tonic and dominant ; https://steemit.com/music/@inmusicalterms/music-theory-the-tonic-and-dominant
- writing harmonies ; https://steemit.com/music/@inmusicalterms/music-theory-writing-harmonies
or about music related content