Product Code Database
An augmented triad is a chord, made up of two (an augmented fifth). The term augmented triad arises from an augmented triad being considered a major chord whose top note (fifth) is raised. When using popular-music symbols, it is indicated by the symbol "+" or "aug". For example, the augmented triad built on A, written as A+, has pitches A-C-E:
The chord can be represented by the integer notation {0, 4, 8}.{ \omit Score.TimeSignature \relative c' { 1 } }
The augmented chord on I may contain the major seventh (I () or I ()), while the augmented chord on V may contain the minor seventh (V (), V (), or V ()). In C: C–E–G–B and G–B–D–F.
The augmented triad on the V may be used as a substitute dominant chord, and may also be considered as III+. The example below shows III+ as a substitute dominant in a ii-V-I turnaround in C major.
See, for example, Henry Purcell's Dido & Aeneas.{ \omit Score.TimeSignature \relative c' { 2 1 \bar "||" } }
/ref>Other examples of the augmented chord include its use as a chromatic Passing chord over the first degree, the rising to then harmonized as IV, as in Jay and the Americans' "Some Enchanted Evening", Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" (I – I+ – IV – iv) (see also minor major seventh chord), Herman's Hermits' "There's a Kind of Hush" (continues to 7 harmonized by Im7), by ii Roy Orbison's "Crying", followed by 6 – 6 – 5 motion in "Crying", The Guess Who's "Laughing", Dave Clark Five's "Because" (verse: I – I+ – vi – Im7... ii and cadence on V+), The Monkees' "Tapioca Tundra" (I – I+ – vi, and V+ after bridge).
Though rare, the augmented chord occurs in rock music "almost always as a linear embellishment linking an opening tonic chord with the next chord", for example John Lennon's "(Just Like) Starting Over" and The Beatles' "All My Loving". Thus, with an opening tonic chord, an augmented chord results from ascending or descending movement between the fifth and sixth degrees, such as in the chord progression I – I+ – vi. This progression forms the verse for Oasis's 2005 single "Let There Be Love" (I – I+ – vi – IV)
Striking examples of its use may be found in Mozart’s keyboard minuet K355. It first occurs as a passing chord on the third beat of bar 1 (D–G–B). However it comes into more striking prominence in the 6-bar sequential passage starting on the first beat of bar 5 (D-F–A):
According to Aubyn Raymar, in this minuet “flowing counterpoints woven among closely crowded chromaticisms and richly variegated harmony, sequential progressions in either direction coupled with unexpected dissonance… - such resources used with a mastery of concentration intensify the emotion which stirs within the brooding phrases of a perfectly balanced poem.” Raymar, A. (1931, p.3) introduction to Mozart: Miscellaneous Pieces for Pianoforte. London, Associated Board of the Royal schools of Music.
Its rarity makes the augmented triad a special chord that touches on the atonal. Its uses to 'suspend' tonality are famous; for example, in Arnold Schoenberg's "Walzer" ( Fünf Klavierstücke Op. 23 No. 5). An earlier example may be found at the opening of Franz Liszt's Faust Symphony, where a sequence of augmented triads unfolds as :
However, the augmented triad occurs in tonal music, with a perfectly tonal meaning, since at least J.S. Bach. See the "surprising" Whittaker, W.G. (1924, p.34), Bach's Cantatas, Oxford University Press first chord (D–F–B) in the opening chorus to his cantata Ach Gott, vom Himmel sieh darein, BWV 2: . Other examples may be found in the work of Joseph Haydn. See, for example, bars 5-8 of the Trio from Haydn's String Quartet Op. 54 No. 2:For further discussion, see -also in Richard Wagner's Siegfried Idyll: -and in Chopin’s stormy Prelude No. 24. The left hand piano arpeggios outline an augmented triad (D–F-A) in bars 47-50. The sudden change in dynamics from forte to a hushed piano in these bars highlights the emotional intensity of this passage: augmented triad results diatonically in minor mode from a dominant chord where the fifth (the second degree) is replaced by the third degree, as an anticipation of the resolution chord. Johannes Brahms's Tragic Overture also features the chord prominently (A–C–E), in alternation with the regular dominant (A–C–E). In this example one can also see other aspect of the appeal of the chord to composers: it is a 'conflation' of the fifth degree and the third degree, the usual contrasting keys of a piece in the minor mode.
The "whirl of the final bars" of Mahler’s Symphony No. 7De La Grange, H. (1999, p.880) Gustav Mahler, Volume 3 Oxford University Press. features an abrupt interpolation of an augmented chord (E–G–C) in the penultimate bar, before the final chord of C major:
With the lead of Franz Schubert (in his Wanderer Fantasy), romantic music composers started organizing many pieces by descending major thirds, which can be seen as a large-scale application of the augmented triad (although it probably arose from other lines of development not necessarily connected to the augmented triad). This kind of organization is common; in addition to Schubert, it is found in music of Franz Liszt, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Louis Vierne and Richard Wagner, among others.
In J.S. Bach’s Magnificat, the composer sets the words “dispersit superbos mente cordis sui” (He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts) with a powerful chord sequence starting with an augmented triad (F–A-D) on the word “mente.” The passage is made all the more effective by being inititated by a sudden tempo change and a beat’s silence. This gives the chord considerable dramatic clout:
In the opening scene of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, one of the three Norns conveys her dread and uncertainty about what is going to pass. “Sing, sister, wind the rope of fate.” The underlying orchestral accompaniment contains ominous augmented chords of “ambiguous tonality.”:Donington, R, (1963, p.218), Wagner’s Ring and its Symbols. London, Faber.'' - Norn's fateful prediction]]
| !Chord !Root !Major third !Augmented fifth |
|
|
