Chapter 9

a focal note that serves as a key’s gravitational center within a piece of tonal music.

the very stable fifth degree within a major or minor scale; also, a primary harmonic function that lends an opposing force to tonic function and represents the fundamental source of harmonic tension or instability within a piece of tonal music.

a harmonic function that is so named because the chords possessing this function tend to be followed by dominant function chords.

a very common manner of working with harmonies on the staff in composition training that traditionally involves composing individual parts for each member of a choir, which combine on a single grand staff to create chordal textures in the manner of a chorale.

the specific arrangement of a harmony in pitch space, pertaining to the spacing, doubling, and/or omission of the chord tones.

a repeated note within a single contrapuntal voice.

a complete musical idea that terminates with a cadence.

a point of rest that signals the completion of a musical idea.

short for perfect authentic cadence, a cadence that features root position dominant and tonic chords, specifically, and stepwise motion into tonic in the soprano.

short for imperfect authentic cadence, a cadence that includes harmonic motion from the dominant to the tonic, but is less conclusive than a PAC. The IAC may feature one or both of the harmonies in inversion, or, more commonly, may have scale degree three or five in the soprano upon the arrival to the final tonic.

the rate of harmonic change per unit of musical time.

a cadence characterized by resting on the dominant triad at the end of a phrase.

or Phrygian cadence, a cadence that features descending half step motion from the minor submediant to the dominant in the bass and harmonic progression from a first inversion iv chord to a root position V triad.

a cadence that involves a harmonic move from V to vi (or VI in minor keys) at the end of a phrase, wherein the submediant chord serves as a tonic substitute.

harmonic motion from V to vi (or VI in minor keys), wherein the submediant chord serves as a tonic substitute (but not at the very end of a phrase).

harmonic motion from the subdominant to the tonic, such as in the traditional plagal “Amen” cadence (I–IV–I).

an embellishment that is approached and left by step in the same direction and takes place in an accented metrical position.

a general type of embellishment that is so named because it features stepwise motion on one side of the dissonance and a leap on the other. Two incomplete neighbor types are the appoggiatura and the escape tone.

a very expressive dissonance that is preceded by leap—typically an ascending leap—and followed by step in the opposite direction.

an incomplete neighbor embellishment that is preceded by step and left by leap in the opposite direction into a chord tone.

an embellishment that is essentially an inverted suspension, in that it is an accented dissonance that is prepared by the same pitch (often featuring a tie) and resolves by ascending stepwise motion instead of descending stepwise motion.

an unaccented embellishment that is approached by stepwise motion and left by common tone.

a type of embellishment featuring a dissonance (usually in the bass voice) that is preceded and followed by a common tone, resolving only when other voices in the texture move.

Arabic numerals added below a staff that indicate the intervals above the notated bass line that are to be added (typically to form chords in various inversions).

a second inversion triad that harmonizes a passing tone in the bass between more structurally significant chords.

an apparent second inversion triad formed when the bass line of a piece arpeggiates up or down between chord tones to embellish a root position harmony.

an apparent second inversion triad that is created when a harmony is expanded with upper neighbor tones above its chordal third and fifth over a static bass.

an apparent second inversion tonic sonority that embellishes the dominant at or near a cadence.

a subdominant chord that does not possess predominant function, instead moving directly to tonic.

a series of non-functional chords that are bonded together by repeated voice leading patterns.

a unique hypermetrical phenomenon that occurs when the end of one phrase takes place simultaneously with the beginning of another.

a concise, score-based overview of a song that includes a basic representation of the melody on the staff along with chord symbols above the staff that indicate the progression.