The Neapolitan Six
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1music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush
The Neapolitan Six
in addition to the altered root borrowed chords,
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since it’s not a borrowed
there is another altered root chord that fits well
chord, this chord can be used
with the borrowed chords, even though it is not
in both major and minor.
actually borrowed from the parallel minor.
that chord is a
b b
w w
major triad
there are a couple of interesting
built on the
things about this chord. one is
lowered second
the fact that it is almost
scale degree.
exclusively used in first inversion.
&
w
seriously! although this
chord is extremely common
in the common practice
period, there are very few
examples of it used in
root position.
second inversion is
even rarer.
the second interesting thing about
6
C:
N
the chord is its name: you might expect
it to be called a “flat two,” in keeping
with the other altered root chords.
but, in fact, this is the first of a few chords
The Neapolitan six chord, since it is
that have special names. This particular one
built on a form of the supertonic,
is called the neapolitan chord .
has some characteristics of a
subdominant function chord
“neapolitan” means “from naples,”
in that it often resolves toward a
referring to the city of naples,
dominant function. in fact, it is very
italy . the chord isn’t actually
common to see the neapolitan chord
resolve to a dominant seventh in
from naples, though; it was
third inversion, or to a cadential
just associated with the operas
six-four chord .
written by neapolitan composers
˙ b
&
˙
˙
like alessandro scarlatti.
˙
˙ b
˙ b
˙
˙
˙ b
˙
Naples
?
˙
˙
˙
˙
˙
˙
funny thing is, this chord was used pretty
commonly before scarlatti’s time, in
compositions far from the courts of italy.
6
4
6
6
C:
N
V
N
I
2
4
it’s also worth noting that although nearly
(even though the neapolitan chord
every theorist and theory textbook calls the
has a lot in common with other
chord a “neapolitan sixth chord,” it is more
subdominant function chords, it is
properly called a “neapolitan six chord.” that’s
most often referred to as part of
because in the rare situations where it is used
a larger group of chords called
in root position, it is simply called the neapolitan
predominants, and the label of
chord, and when it is found in second inversion,
“subdominant function” is generally
it’s called the neapolitan six-four.
limited to the subdominant and
supertonic chords and their
variants.)
since we don’t pronounce I
6
as “one sixth,”
we shouldn’t say “Neapolitan sixth” for N
6
!
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