Product Code Database
In music, the subtonic is the degree of a musical scale which is a major second below the tonic note. In a major key, it is a lowered, or flattened, seventh scale degree (). It appears as the seventh scale degree in the natural minor and descending melodic minor scales but not in the major scale. In major keys, the subtonic sometimes appears in Borrowed chord. In the movable do solfège system, the subtonic note is sung as te (or ta).
The subtonic can be contrasted with the leading-note, which is a minor second below the tonic.Bruce Benward and Marilyn Nadine Saker, Music: In Theory and Practice, vol. 1, seventh edition (Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003), p. 33. . "Used only to designate the seventh degree of the natural minor scale," The distinction between leading note and subtonic has been made by theorists since at least the second quarter of the 20th century.Donald Tweedy, Manual of Harmonic Technique Based on the Practice of J. S. Bach (Philadelphia: Oliver Ditson, 1928), p. 7. Before that, the term subtonic often referred to the leading tone triad, for example.Herbert, John Bunyan (1897). Herbert's Harmony and Composition, p. 102. Pennsylvania State. Gardner, Carl Edward (1918). Music Composition: A New Method of Harmony, p. 48. Carl Fischer. Clack, H. P. (1899). Songs and Praises, p. 14. H.P. Clack. Root, George Frederick (1872). The Normal Musical Hand-book, p. 315. J. Church. "The name in harmony sometimes given to seven of a diatonic scale," p. 344.Stainer, John (1871). A Theory of Harmony Founded on the Tempered Scale, p. 9. Rivingtons.
The word subtonic is also used as an English translation of subtonium, the Latin term used in Gregorian mode for the similar usage of a tone one whole step below the mode final in the Dorian mode, Phrygian mode, and .Julian Rushton, "Subtonic", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001); Harold C. Powers, "Subtonium", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001)
Theorists Stefan Kostka and Dorothy Payne describe the subtonic chord (VII) as "sounding like the V in the key of the relative major—that is, a V of III."Stefan Kostka and Payne, Dorothy (1995). Tonal Harmony, p. 118. McGraw Hill. . Allen Forte writes that "while VII in relation to C minor (I) becomes V in relation to III (E major).... As a major triad on an unaltered or natural scale degree 7 in minor the VII functions as a secondary dominant triad in relation to the mediant."Allen Forte, Tonal Harmony, third edition (S.l.: Holt, Rinehart, and Wilson, 1979): pp. 116, 123. . In the minor mode, the subtonic chord may also appear as a major minor seventh chord (i.e. dominant seventh chord), VII7. (2025). 9780072852608, McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780072852608
In jazz, the flattened seventh is also used as a substitute for the dominant, V, especially in the backdoor cadence,Jerry Coker, Elements of the Jazz Language for the Developing Improvisor (Miami: CCP/Belwin, Inc, 1991), p. 82. . ii–VII7–I, where the subtonic is substituted for the dominant seventh. In this case, VII functions as a pivot chord borrowed from the parallel key (its dominant seventh). The chords V7 and VII7 have two common tones: in C major, these chords are G–B– D– F and B– D– F–A.
However, while "the leading-tone/tonic relationship is axiomatic to the definition of common practice tonality", especially Cadence and modulations, in popular music and rock music a diatonic scalic leading tone (i.e., –) is often absent. In popular music, rather than "departures" or "aberrant", the "use of the 'flattened' diatonic seventh scale degree… should not even be viewed as departures". In reference to chords built on the flattened seventh, Richard Franko Goldman argues that "the concept of Borrowed chord is in actuality unnecessary. The mixture of major and minor is a simple fact in the Classical and Romantic music."Goldman, Richard Franko (1965). Harmony in Western Music, p. 76. Barrie & Jenkins/W. W. Norton. .
|
|
