Triads Within Tonality
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1music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush
Triads Within Tonality
now that we’re familiar with how
triads work, it’s time to put them
into the context of a key .
since writing music in a particular key means using the notes in that key signature,
it stands to reason that most of the chords will be built from those same notes!
chords which use notes from a particular key signature are said to be diatonic
to that key. diatonic means “from the key ...” that means no accidentals!
œ œ
œ œ œ
œ œ
œ œ œ
we can quickly show all the diatonic triads in a particular key by writing a scale
œ œ
œ
œ œ
in that key and building triads on each note, using only the notes in that key .
& œ œ
œ
œ
œ
œ
I
ii
iii
IV
V
vi
vii°
we refer to
these chords
with roman
numerals as
shown here.
notice how
chord type
is shown by
capitals or
lower case?
these chords are also
sometimes referred to by
their official names!
this pattern of
major, minor and diminished
why is the sixth chord called the submediant?
triads is the same in every major key!
well, just as the mediant chord is halfway
the subdominant triad is always major,
between the tonic and dominant chords,
and the leading-tone triad is always
the submediant chord is halfway between the
diminished, whether you’re in
tonic... and the subdominant a fifth below!
c major or f sharp major!
because the dominant and leading-tone triads both
have a strong tendency to resolve to tonic, we say they
have a “dominant function.” the subdominant and supertonic chords both tend to
resolve to the dominant, so we say they both have a “subdominant function.”
the diatonic triads in minor work the same way... since we’re dealing with chords, we
œ œ
use the harmonic minor scale. however, it’s important to note that common practice
œ œ œ
œ œ
period composers raised the leading tone only over dominant function harmony:
œ œ
& œ
œ œ
œ #
œ #
the dominant and leading-tone triads!
œ œ
œ
œ œ
œ
œ
same names
and roman
numerals...
i
ii°
III
iv
V
VI
vii°
different
capitalization!
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