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Introduction
As we have seen in our chapters on tonality, major and minor serve as equal polarities in the world
of tonal music. At least, that is my experience. Some say that minor is a distorted, or "turbid" or
"artfully contrived" form of the True Tonality, which is major. This school of thought has many
adherents. But seen from a global perspective, where so much music tends towards a minor third
at at least equal measures to the major third, I tend towards a view that sees major and minor
tonalities as in equal balance, one to the other.
The theory of Harmonic Polarity makes this explicit, by positing an ascending series that gives rise
to major harmonies, and a descending series that gives riese to minor harmonies. This has been
explained on previous pages, both from a practical and a philosophical viewpoint.
It reamins in this chapter to look a little more deeply at how the polarity of major and minor play
out in the real-life world of tonal composition.
Expressed in the key of C, we can speak more directly about C minor as being the parallelminor of
C major. Thus the natural scale of C minor uses the key signature of the relative major, in this case
Eb major:
This natural minor scale is one of the three minors, but it is more of a modal scale, as it is identical
to C aeolian.
The harmonic minor scale is the natural minor scale with its seventh step raised to create the
same half-step leading tone that exists in the parallel major scale.
The melodic minor scale reflects the tendency of composers, when they create tonal melodies in
the minor mode, to raise the 6th and 7th degrees of the scale when ascending to the tonic, but to
lower the 6th and 7th degrees of the scale (that is, return them to their natural state) when the
melody descends. Thus the melodic minor scale is different on the ascent than on the descent.
This is similar to the function of many Indian ragas, by the way.
(The flats in parenthesis are just to reinforce what is already in the key signature.)
These scales represent procedures that composers used for centuries regarding chords within the
minor mode. It's important to emphasize that the compositional practices came first, and the
scales were then created to define what composers had long been doing.
Let's investigate.
Tonic, Subdominant and Dominant are major, Mediant, Submediant and Supertonic are minor and
the Leading Tone triad is diminished (and usually forms a part of the complete Dominant Seventh
Chord).
The minor mode is the polar opposite of the major mode. In minor, the primary triads i, iv and v
are naturally minor (we artificially make the V chord major in order to create the raised leading),
while the secondary triads are major, with the addition of the one diminished triad, just as in the
major key.
Thus both the major and the natural minor modes have three major triads, three minor triads and
one diminished triad. They occur on different steps of the scale, and this is the primary (and
extremely important) reason why the two modes sound so different from one another.
In the minor mode, the chords built on the third, sixth and seventh degrees of the scale are all
major, and relate directly to the I, IV and V chords of the relative major key. (In C minor, the i
chord is c minor and the III chord is Eb major, just as the relative major of C minor is Eb). The
chord built on the second degree of the scale is diminished, just as the scale on the seventh
degree of the relative major scale is diminished. Here are the same chords, with the labels below
referring to the chords in C minor, and the labels above corresponding to the identical chords in Eb
major, the relative major of C minor:
Please see this important connection between relative major and minor chords. A great deal about
tonal harmony can be understood by simply grasping the implications of this correspondance.
Please listen to this example to hear clearly the difference between these three cadences! Notice
how the last measure begins on C minor but ends on C major. A common occurance at the end of
minor music, especially in Baroque practice.
It is important to note that the "harmonic minor scale" is actually the bi-product of the need to
create a major chord dominant chord within the minor key. Even in the earliest forms of harmonic
thinking, during Renaissance times, the raised leading tone was used to create a cadence in an
otherwise minor modality. This is why I call this the "so-called harmonic minor scale." The scale is
really just a theoretical way to codify a standard practice: when in the minor mode, raise the
leading tone of a dominant chord to create a major chord when resolving back to the harmony of
the tonic triad.
The melodic minor scale, with its ascending A natural in the key of C minor, exists
because of what its name implies: it is a melodic device when a melody moves
towards the tonic in a minor key.
But it also implies that the A natural could be used in a harmonic context, allowing
the otherwse minor Subdominant triad to appear as a major triad. This is
commonplace in the minor tonality. Thus in C minor, you could sometimes have a
subdominant minor chord, F-Ab-C, but also a subdominant major chord, F-A-C,
with an natural accidental on the A. Here's a short progression in C minor:
In terms of Harmonic Polarity, the reverse is also true. Since we can see the minor subdominant
chord as arising from the descending reciprocal series, the minor version of the subdominant
chord can equally arise during an otherwise major passage.
Thus the Subdominant chord becomes a harmony well-suited to modal shift The IV chord is
normally major in a major key and minor in a minor key, but it can shift to its polar opposite.
Consider this harmonic progression:
Listen to the two progressions, played back to back on this sound clip: The
perhaps a more complex one, we need to look at the subdominant chord in minor and
its relative chord, the ii7. This follows up on the discussion on the previous page
regarding the diminished seventh chord.
We have seen that a standard motion in tonal music is for the tonic to swing
downward to the subdominant, upwards to the dominant and then back to the tonic.
This is the same whether the progression is seen in minor or major.
Another version of this progression substitutes the ii chord (the SubdominantRelative or S-R) for the IV chord. Notice that in minor, the ii chord becomes
a diminished triad, due to the presence of the Ab in the key of C minor.
Astute observers might point out that the bass line and the soprano line are moving in parallel
octaves in the final example. TRUE! Such problems will be fixed when we study chord inversions in
the next chapter.
In Jazz and some Classical context, this two chord is given the added seventh, turning it into a ii7
chord. For this example, I have placed the F in the bass instead of the D, but if you look at the
treble clef chord, you will notice that it spells out a complete ii7 chord: D-F-A-C.
The difference between these progressions are subtle, but give them a listen. All
three are played back to back in this one sound file.
Notice that in major, the ii7 chord is a minor seventh chord, while in minor,
the ii7 chord is a half-diminished seventh chord, or in jazz terms, a "twoseven flat five." Both names refer to the same thing: this is a seventh chord
with a minor seventh above the root, but a triad that is diminished ( in
other words, in possession of a "flat-five."):
It's a little hard to see with the graphic, but the half diminished seventh chord is
traditionally written with the symbol . Thus we'd write ii7 for the two halfdiminished seventh chord.
The close relationship between these ii chords and the subdominant chord is that
in some theory discussions, the ii7 chord is not played with the D in the bass, but
is played a subdominant chord, a F chord, with an "added sixth." In this way, the
subdominant quality is maintained, and the additional note is an "added tone" to
the basic subdominant triad. Note the how measures one and three and measures
two and four have the identical notes. The only difference is that the first two
chords are spelled as a stack of thirds, whereas the second two chords are spelled
as triads with an added sixth. This may seem esoteric now, but it will become
important in the next book, as you progress in your study of harmony.
Any way you look at it, this sonority is unique in music due to its quality. In all
cases in tonal music, the ii chord or the ii7 chord proceeds to the V chord. If you
go far in harmony, you will come to discover that this particular chord, the "halfdiminished seventh chord" becomes a magical harmony that found all sorts of new
expressions in the music of Wagner, Debussy, Ravel and others. That, of course,
much down the road).
This is a lot of words. It's easier if you look at it, and most importantly, listen to it: