search

DCMLab / standards

Repository containing standards developed at the DCML. https://dcmlab.github.io/standards
4 stars 0 forks source link

9th chords #16

Open allorens opened 4 years ago

allorens commented 4 years ago

Although you already considered (and then discarded) the option of including 9th chords in the syntax, I'm still willing to leave the issue open. They appear quite early (already in the 1720s) over V or viio where the 9th is neither a passing note nor a suspension, and in contexts where 'added notes' do not exist. Do you think this would complicate the syntax excessively becasue of the many types and inversions?

Preliminary idea:

  1. Dominant major 9th (major triad + minor 7th + major 9th): eg. V9, V76, V54, V32 (or other figured bass simplifications?)
  2. Dominant minor (major triad + minor 7th + minor 9th): Vm9, Vm76, Vm54, Vm32
  3. Minor 9th (minor triad + minor 7th + major 9th): i9, i76, i54, i32
  4. Minor triad + minor 7th + minor 9th: im9, im76, im54, im32
  5. Major 9th (major triad + major 7th + major 9th): VM9, VM76, VM54, VM32
  6. Diminished 9th (diminished 5th + diminished 7th + minor 9th): viio9, viio76, viio54, viio32
  7. Hafl-diminished 9th (diminished 5th + minor 7th + minor 9th): vii%9, vii%76, vii%54, vii%32
johentsch commented 4 years ago

in contexts where 'added notes' do not exist

Could you please explain what kind of contexts you have in mind? What would be your guidelines for distinguishing V9 from V7(9) and V7(+9)?

allorens commented 4 years ago

I had in mind some early 18th-century pieces where added notes hardly feature (some suspensions for clear expressive purposes from time to time, but never of the 9 type, i.e. with the root present at the same time, and in any case no added notes). There I've found 9th chords quite frequently, which made me think that, given the context, perhaps one should not treat the 9th as an addition. But of course this will remain open to discussion and theoretisation.

image (this is one of such instances)

To my view, V7(9) would always be followed by a V7so the (9)funtions as a proper suspension. Both V9 and V7(+9) can resolve in any other chord. The distinction between them is a matter of classification criteria: do 5-note chords 'exist' as a category or are they just formed by a tetrad + an added note?