Product Code Database
In music theory, a dominant seventh chord, or major minor seventh chord, is a seventh chord composed of a root, major third, perfect fifth, and minor seventh; thus it is a Major chord together with a minor seventh. It is often denoted by the letter name of the chord root and a superscript "7".Bruce Benward & Marilyn Nadine Saker (2003). Music in Theory and Practice, seventh edition (Boston: McGraw-Hill), vol. 1: p. 77. . In most cases, dominant seventh chord are built on the fifth degree of the major scale. An example is the dominant seventh chord built on G, written as G7, having pitches G–B–D–F:
\clef treble \time 4/4 \key c \major} }1
The Leading-tone and the Subdominant combined form a diminished fifth, also known as a tritone. The clashing sound produced by playing these two notes together gives the dominant seventh chord its dissonant quality (i.e. its Harmony instability).
Dominant seventh chords are often built on the fifth scale degree (or dominant) of a key. For instance, in the C major scale, G is the fifth note of the scale, and the seventh chord built on G is the dominant seventh chord, G7 (shown above). In this chord, F is a minor seventh above G. In Roman numeral analysis, G7 would be represented as V7 in the key of C major.
This chord also occurs on the seventh degree of any natural minor scale (e.g., G7 in A minor).
The dominant seventh is perhaps the most important of the seventh chords. It was the first seventh chord to appear regularly in classical music. The V7 chord is found almost as often as the V, the dominant triad,Benward & Saker (2003), vol. 1: p. 199. and typically functions to drive the piece strongly toward a resolution to the tonic of the key.
A dominant seventh chord can be represented by the integer notation {0, 4, 7, 10} relative to the dominant.
An excerpt from Monteverdi's "Lasciatemi Morire", Lamento d'Arianna (1608) is shown below. In it, a dominant seventh chord (in red) is handled conservatively, "prepared and resolved as a suspension, clearly indicating its dissonant status."Benward & Saker (2003), vol. 1: p. 201.
{
\override Score.SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t
\set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/8)
<< \new StaffGroup <<
\new Staff <<
\new Voice \relative c'' {
\clef treble \time 4/4 \key c \major
\voiceOne d2 r4 f, \once \override NoteHead.color = #red e1 fis2
}
\new Voice \relative c'' {
\clef treble \time 4/4 \key c \major
\voiceTwo bes2 d, \once \override NoteHead.color = #red cis4 d2 cis4 d1
}
>>
\new Staff <<
\new Voice \relative c'' {
\clef treble \time 4/4 \key c \major
\stemUp g2 r4 bes, \once \override NoteHead.color = #red a1 a
}
>>
\new Staff <<
\new Voice \relative c' {
\clef bass \time 4/4 \key c \major
\voiceOne bes4 a g2~ \once \override NoteHead.color = #red g4 f e2 d
}
\new Voice \relative c {
\clef bass \time 4/4 \key c \major
\voiceTwo g1 \once \override NoteHead.color = #red a d
}
>>
>>
>> }
The V7 was in constant use during the Classical period, with similar treatment to that of the Baroque. In the Romantic music, freer Voice leading was gradually developed, leading to the waning of functional use in the Post-romanticism and Impressionistic periods including more dissonant dominant chords through higher Extended chord and lessened use of the major minor chord's dominant function. Twentieth-century classical music either consciously used functional harmony or was entirely free of V7 chords while jazz and continued to use functional harmony including V7 chords.
An excerpt from Chopin's Mazurka in F minor (1849), Op. 68, No. 4, mm. 1–4 is shown below with dominant sevenths in red: "the seventh factor had by this time achieved nearly consonant status."
{
\new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff <<
\new Voice \relative c'' {
\clef treble \key f \minor \time 3/4
\override DynamicLineSpanner.staff-padding = #2
c4~(_\markup { \italic "sotto voce" } c8[ des] des[ c]
b\trill ais \once \override NoteHead.color = #red b4\< g')\!
bes,!~( \once \override NoteHead.color = #red bes8[ c] c[ bes]
a8\trill gis \once \override NoteHead.color = #red a4\< f')\!
}
>>
\new Staff <<
\new Voice \relative c' {
\clef bass \key f \minor \time 3/4
r4
r \once \override NoteHead.color = #red
r \once \override NoteHead.color = #red
r \once \override NoteHead.color = #red
}
>>
>> }
| in C: G7 |
| in C: G |
| in C: G |
| in C: G or G2 |
The opening bars of Mozart’s Piano Sonata in C, K545 features dominant seventh chords in both second and first inversions: concluding cadence of the same movement features the chord in root position: striking use of inversions of the dominant seventh can be found in this passage from the first movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 127. Here, the second and third inversions contribute to the "magnificently rich harmony" Radcliffe, P. (1965, p. 99) Beethoven's String Quartets. London, Hutchinson.:
This dominant seventh chord is useful to composers because it contains both a major triad and the interval of a tritone. The major triad confers a very "strong" sound. The tritone is created by the co-occurrence of the fourth degree and seventh degree (e.g., in the G7 chord, the interval between B and F is a tritone).
In a diatonic context, the third of the chord is the leading-tone of the scale, which has a strong tendency to pull towards the tonic of the key (e.g., in C, the third of G7, B, is the leading tone of the key of C). The seventh of the chord acts as an upper leading-tone to the third of the scale (in C: the seventh of G7, F, is a half-step above and leads down to E). This, in combination with the strength of root movement by fifth, and the natural resolution of the dominant triad to the tonic triad (e.g., from GBD to CEG in the key of C major), creates a resolution with which to end a piece or a section, often in a cadence.
\new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff <<
\relative c' {
\voiceOne \clef treble \key c \major \time 4/4
1
}
>>
\new Staff <<
\new Voice \relative c' {
\clef bass \key c \major \time 4/4
b_\markup { \concat { "V" \combine \raise #1 \small 6 \lower #1 \small 5 \hspace #6 "I" } } c \bar "||"
}
>>
>>
Because of this original usage, it also quickly became an easy way to trick the listener's ear with a deceptive cadence. The dominant seventh may work as part of a circle progression, preceded by the supertonic chord, ii.
A non-diatonic dominant seventh chord (sometimes called a chromatic seventh) can be borrowed from another key, and this can provide a way for the composer to modulate to that other key. This technique is extremely common, particularly since the Classical period, and it has led to further innovative uses of the dominant seventh chord such as secondary dominant (V7/V, shown below), extended dominant (V7/V/V), and substitute dominant (V7/V) chords.
\set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/4)
\new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff <<
\new voice \relative c'' {
\clef treble \key c \major \time 4/4
\voiceOne c2 b c1
}
\new voice \relative c'' {
\clef treble \key c \major \time 4/4
\voiceTwo a2 g g1
}
>>
\new Staff <<
\new voice \relative c' {
\clef bass \key c \major \time 4/4
\voiceOne d2 d e1
}
\new voice \relative c {
\clef bass \key c \major \time 4/4
\voiceTwo fis2_\markup { \translate #'(-2 . 0) { \concat { "V" \combine \raise #1 \small 6 \lower #1 \small 5 "/V" \hspace #3 "V" \hspace #7 "I" } } } g c,1 \bar "||"
}
>>
>>
}
\new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff <<
\relative c' {
\voiceOne \clef treble \key c \major \time 4/4
1
}
>>
\new Staff <<
\new Voice \relative c' {
\clef bass \key c \major \time 4/4
g_\markup { \concat { "V" \raise #1 \small "7" \hspace #6 "I" } } c \bar "||"
}
>>
>>
\new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff <<
\relative c' {
\voiceOne \clef treble \key c \major \time 4/4
1
}
>>
\new Staff <<
\new Voice \relative c' {
\clef bass \key c \major \time 4/4
_\markup { \concat { "V" \raise #1 \small "7" \hspace #6 "I" } } \bar "||"
}
>>
>>
\new Staff <<
\new Voice \relative c'' {
\clef treble \key c \major \time 4/4
\stemUp f2 e b c
}
\new Voice \relative c'' {
\clef treble \key c \major \time 4/4
\stemDown b2 c \bar "||" f, e \bar "||"
}
>>
According to Heinrich Schenker, "The dissonance is always passing, never a chord member ( Zusammenklang),'"Schenker, Heinrich. Jahrbuch II, p. 24 cited in Oswald Jonas (1982). Introduction to the Theory of Heinrich Schenker (1934: Das Wesen des musikalischen Kunstwerks: Eine Einführung in Die Lehre Heinrich Schenkers), p. 20. Translator: John Rothgeb. . and often (though by no means always) the voice leading suggests either a passing note:
or resolution of a (hypothetical) suspension:
{
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f
\new PianoStaff <<
\new Staff <<
\relative c' {
\clef treble \key c \major \time 4/4
\textLengthOn
1^\markup { \small "German 6th" }
^\markup {\small "Dominant 7th" }
}
>>
\new Staff <<
\relative c' {
\clef bass \key c \major \time 4/4
1 \bar "||"
\bar "||"
}
>>
>> }
The dominant seventh chord is frequently used to approximate a harmonic seventh chord, which is one possible just intonation, in the ratios 4:5:6:7Benitez, J. M. (1988). Contemporary Music Review: Listening 2, p. 34. . Cites Leonhard Euler (1764). , for the dominant seventh. Others include 20:25:30:36 , found on I, and 36:45:54:64, found on V, used in 5-limit just tunings and scales.Wright, David (2009). Mathematics and Music, pp. 140–141. .
Today, the dominant seventh chord enjoys particular prominence in the music of Barbershop music, with the Barbershop Harmony Society describing the chord as the "signature" of the barbershop sound. A song may use the chord type (built on any scale degree, not just ), for up to 30 percent of its duration.Rose, Amy (February 2, 2017). " Intro to Barbershop: What is Barbershop?", BarberShop.org. As barbershop singers strive to harmonize in just intonation to maximize the audibility of harmonic overtones, the practical sonority of the chord tends to be that of a harmonic seventh chord. This chord type has become so ingrained into the fabric of the artform that it is often referred to as the "barbershop seventh chord" by those who practice it.
| 20:25:30:36Shirlaw, Matthew (1900). The Theory of Harmony, p. 86. . |
| 4:5:6:7 |
| 4:5:6:7 |
| 36:45:54:64 |
|
|
