Dark Eyes and Others

DrSnyder

I never saw a minor V such as a Gm resolving to C or Cm. The Fm is resolving great to C Major though. In other words a V chord could be minor anyway as a substitute chord. A Bm7b5 for G7 or a Fm6 for G7 works good.

plectroman

It seems to me that referring to the V chord as simply major is not not quite specific enough...it's a dominant 7th chord, and even if the dominant 7th is not played, it is strongly implied. 5th mode of harmonic minor produces a dominant 7th flat 9 chord which fits a resolution to a tonic minor like a glove. Sometimes you'll hear careful use of a natural 9th on a V chord resolving to minor, but one has to be careful not to carry it too close to the target minor chord because it tends to anticipate or imply a tonic major.

dennis

wow this is an old thread!

anyway here's some historical clarification

the reason the dominant chord exists in minor is because in its natural state the natural minor tonality (the I chord) is missing it's polar opposite (which occurs naturally in a major tonality)... A natural V to I progression is very weak and doesn't really go anywhere

So they raised the 3rd of the V chord to create that polar opposite.... the problem now is that it created an unnatural interval of an augmented 2nd.

So to correct that unnatural interval, they raised the 6th as well

I say "unnatural interval" because the rules of voice leading in the early days of tonal music were fairly strict and evolved from the fairly strict modal counterpoint tradition of the renaissance period (back then a perfect 4th interval was considered dissonant...)

having a minor V chord going to minor I chord is more of a modal technique ....

a

So, maybe it wasn't until the Renaissance that they(?) raised the third, but that sound may have been around in folk music before then, no ?

dennis

you mean baroque period... it's after the renaissance period that music started becoming tonal....

in renaissance music, everything is modal... towards the end of the renaissance era, and going into the baroque era, these things start to break down with progressions in fifths and the use of accidentals to create functional harmonic movement (like VI II V I)

dennis

here's an example of modal music with tonal aspects (ie raised 3rds)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNnRovyU ... re=related

a

but was that only in liturgical music ? what about the other music, stuff that wasn't for the church or commissioned by rich or powerful people?