Hi I am a Neapolitan saxophone player and music teacher. This video is really excellently made and give the deserved credit to the Neapolitan Traditional Music. By the way there are plenty of Neapolitan (not just Sicilian! :) ) traditional songs that features this specific form of cadence. The South of Italy has been a separate nation for many centuries whose name was Kingdom of the two Sicilies and whose capital was Naples. This just for saying that Neapolitan and Sicilian songs (especially the ones that can be find on spotify) has deeply seeded common roots. If you are interested in listening some example just let me know. Thanks again fro this lesson!
An outstanding series for learning and reference. Clear, concise, effective visual presentations with great examples punctuated with occasional bits of appropriate humor. (Lesson 31 is another story 😊) You have a true gift for teaching and communicating. Thank you for such dedication and efforts on these lessons. P.S. If you are still reviewing comments from older videos, please take a look at my questions/comment on Lesson 15. There is another recent similar question there too. Thank you.
Hi Seth, I love the enthusiasm and clarity of your explanations of often quite tricky topics. The time taken to do all the onscreen stuff is impressive as well. I am teaching quite a lot of composition at the moment and will be directing my students to your channel for reinforcement for sure. Thanks!
Thanks, Bruce! Glad you like them. The videos are a labor of love, but the immersive, multimedia thing really seems to help a lot of people learn. And UA-cam gives my class materials vastly more reach than they would've had 20 years ago. Share away!
Pr.Monahan I thank you so much for this serie. I really took the time to take notes, do exercices on each of your vidéos and it helped me a LOT in my Understanding and my own musical analysis. To find such great content for FREE and so well produced is a miracle. Thank you again for everything you made and we hope to hear from you soon ! All my regards
Thanks so much for the kind words! It always delights me to learn that the videos help people in their growth as a musician. As it happens, I'm working on the next round of videos at this moment. Lessons 37 and 38 should be posted by early July, and then a few more in August!
I believe that the simplest reason for it is a response to the greek modes. Also, thanks for the videos on Neapolitan and Augmented Sixth cords, it puts an emphasis on neighbour notes going to other chords, really helped me understand.
I think another great example would be in the opening of Chopin’s first ballade. And I just realized that he did melody thing as well in that opener. It has always eluded me about how he came up with that opening which he never returned to again for the entire remainder of the piece. Thankfully I get it now.
I really enjoyed this series of lectures. You expertly guided me to make difficult connections. This is a refreshing approach. Thank you. Bravo!!! Encore!!! Encore!!! 👏 👏 👏
I will be studying in Eastman this September, and music theory teacher at Eastman recommended your videos. I could not say how grateful watching such wonderful lessons! I am glad to learn so much! Although it may still take time for me to digest the new content... Hope my study in new country and new school will be fine...
31:50 it's also quite common in Bollywood film music, now that you mention it. I just remembered that trademark sound after the Sicilian band played it
Please write a book. Even if the book is just the "big 18" grid on laminated cardstock, I will buy dozens of copies and walk down the hallways of my university throwing it at music students.
Make them yourself! I made flash cards for the Big 18 in addition to fill in work sheets. I have bad dreams about being pummeled with hardback copies of Schoenberg now, and being forced to listen to 12 tone row for hours on end. Leave it to a music teacher to traumatize students :)
Thank you very much for this incredible serie of videos. I've tried reading many books on the topic, but always gave up because of their arid approach. The way you present theory is simply amazing! Clear, concise and entertaining (at times!). You are an incredible teacher! I hope you will keep this serie going and keep sharing your love of music. Thanks again!
Thank you very much Monahan, I adore the Neapolitan chord. I really like the way Mozart uses it in many of his compositions. Examples of aria Queen of the night, overture Don Giovanni, Lacrimosa and many others
Another informative and enjoyable lesson Seth, thanks very much. I like the Neapolitan chord, it adds a flair of the exotic to an otherwise standard progression. There are a couple of scales I'd like to mention: Neapolitan minor and Neapolitan major (which is actually a minor scale) and both have the b2 scale degree (Neapolitan minor is Harmonic minor with a b2 and Neapolitan major is Melodic minor with a b2). Once again, great lesson and I look forward to the next one.
Love these videos so much, thanks a lot as always! Here I must say the vanilla "ii-dim" just keeps sounding more "spicey" than the bII6. The bII6 sounds very pretty, but to me it sounds so completely consonant and not chromatic. The dim always hits harder, idk why I seem to have a sort of blind spot for the bII6, but it never sounded "interesting" to me, just perfectly placed.
This flattening of scale degree 2 can work with any dimished 63 chord by just using a minor 6th instead of a major 6th interval. Try it with the vii6 chord, it sounds nice too. You will be using the bVII scale degree for this.
Flattening SD2 in a viio6 chord gives you an Italian augmented sixth whose bass is a half-step above the tonic. Effectively, it has a dominant function, just like viio6 itself. It's not super common, but one does see those from time to time. I have a small collection of pieces that end with that progression, including (probably most famously) Schubert's C-major String Quintet.
Is it just me or does that "Old Sicilian Songs" example sound more French than any sort of Italian? That minor key progression, it just reminds me much more of French music than anything else.
Hey professor, your videos are absolutely amazing. Thank you so much. If you are willing to share, I would love to know in which softwares you are using in order to edit your presentations.
Hi Shir. I tried to write a long reply to this question, but for some reason UA-cam is not letting me post it in full. If you'd like to email me directly (seth.monahan@yale.edu), I'd be glad to explain that way.
I view the Neapolitan chord as a tritone sub of the V7 chord. Maybe that's just the jazzy side of my playing talking, though. Great content. Thank you!
Well, be careful. Functionally, the classical N6 doesn't work as a "substitute" for V7, because one is a predominant and the other a dominant. They come as a pair, always in a specific order (bII6-V7). BUT: by the 1830s or so, composers start playing around with the idea that augmented sixth chords might go straight to tonic-i.e., that they could indeed be substitute dominants. Popular among them are French and German augmented sixths built above lowered scale-degree ^2. What that makes, of course, is a "dominant-seventh" sounding chord with the Neapolitan note in the bass, going straight to tonic-**very much** like a tritone sub in that case. Also: there are pieces from later in the 19th century that show that composers were very much aware of the tritone sub principle. The climax of Brahms op. 117/2 makes a huge deal out of swapping B7 out for F7 as a shortcut back to the tonic key.
@SethMonahan Very interesting. Have you ever heard of Barry Harris? He was a jazz pianist, band leader, and educator for decades. The last of the old guard of bebop. His method is so useful at creating cadence-like movements within chords and songs. For example, he explains that a dim7 chord built off the leading tone of any chord (^7) creates movement into that chord. You would probably observe this as an incomplete cadence. He has a whole methodology of approaching dominant chords, but he places a lot of importance on the Diminished Scale. That is where tritone substitutions come from. He calls the V7 & bII7 brothers or sisters. The other brothers or sisters are symmetrically found in minor thirds from these. III7 or bVII7 will work functionally the same as a V chord, but with different extensions and dissonances. What will really bake your noodle is the substitution of a minor 6th chord on the 5 of 5. So ii(min6) is the equivalent of V7. The tritone sub also has a substitute like this. bvi(min6). This is a good substitute for an V alt chord. Similar chords are found on the iv and vii. Check out the channel TILF from Barry Harris on UA-cam if you are interested.
Bit late to the party but just commenting that the fazil say version is super fast it's not usually played that fast. Afterall the tempo marking is Allegro ma non troppo
Seth … think back to Smithfield high school days. Do you remember a short stint in a band with Jake Rainville, joe Jagielo and, so I’m told, myself ?!? Derek Sabourin
Derek! Wow-I haven't thought about that band in a long time. Scary to think it's almost 30 years ago! I saw Jake at my grandmother's funeral back in 2008-ish, but we haven't been in touch since then. And I don't think I've seen you or Joe since the early '90s. I hope you're doing well!
@@SethMonahan it’s crazy how time flies…just stumbled across some info on you and your career and one click led to another and in figured I’d say hello. Congrats on all your achievements musically-- we all knew you were destined for great things !! Glad you are well, buddy!
@@MrDsabourin Ahhhh, you're too kind. I'm just a guy lucky to find one thing he was pretty good at. Incidentally: I was out walking this morning, and one of our '90s garage band riffs popped into my head. I can't even remember who wrote it-maybe me, maybe Jake. But I think it might've been lost forever if you hadn't come knocking. I made sure to write it down for posterity. :)
@@SethMonahan that’s awesome ….. well, it Looks like I was FINALLY able to contribute to the band and keep at least part of it alive (30+ years later)!!!!
Thank you very much for this amazing series, Mr. Monahan! I've learned a lot. However, I forget most things. I believe the reason for this is that I don't "practise" music analysis. Do you have any sugestion on how to practise? Is there any books that you recommend? PS: I am a mathematician, but I've been playing piano since I was 9, and I'm interested in composition. PS^2: One of the first pieces I tried to analyze harmonically (when I was just starting the study of music theory) was the first movement of the Appassionata. It was really frustrating that I couldn't even fully analyze the first period. So I looked on the internet and discovered the neapolitan sixth chord, but none of the explanations I found were as good as yours. I'm so glad you made a video about this beautiful chord!
Hi Lorenzo, and thanks for the kind words! Analysis is something that definitely improves with practice-particularly the aural element, the ability simply to recognize the sounds one hears in real time, with or without the score. I don't have any books to recommend for harmonic analysis. So it might be best just to "practice" by studying the music you love. If you're interested in learning to analyze classical form-which I don't really deal with here-you might want to check out Jim Hepokoski's "A Sonata Theory Handbook" (Oxford Univ. Press, 2020). Jim advised my dissertation long ago and was, hands down, the most inspiring analyst I ever studied with. (When I teach the opening of the Appassionata-which is EVERY YEAR, if I can help it!-I definitely hear it through Jim Hepokoski's ears. Such a superb movement!)
@@SethMonahan Thanks for the suggestions Professor! I'll try to practise analysis and check out the book! Yes, this movement is gorgeous! Well, actually the whole sonata hahaha. Do you have any special tips for practising ear recognition and score recognition of chords? I imagine that score recognition is easier, but even using the Big 18 table I feel I'm being slow. My final goal would be to recognize a chord just by its notes, but there are so many possible combinations...
Hi again professor! I was trying to analyze the harmonic progression of the theme of Beethoven's 32 variations. I analyzed it as follows: i-V⁶-V of IV- IV⁶- Ger-i⁶⁴- iv-V-i The problem here is that i⁶⁴ should resolve to V, but it goes to iv instead. I listen this iv as a tweak, a delay, before going to V. However, I can't figure out how to classify the i⁶⁴. Is it dominant? Tonic? Or would it be a instance of the passing i⁶⁴, the topic from the next video?
Hi Lorenzo! That IS indeed the passing I6/4 from the next video. In fact, I have that theme in my list of possible examples. (Though it's a bit unusual in that it's accented. Usually passing I6/4s are very low-profile chords, sneaking in on weak beats.)
Good catch, Solanine! I'm inclined to give a "yes, but..." answer here. The sound of the "bII dominant" obviously calls to mind the tritone sub, and strikingly so. But the term "substitution" carries baggage I wouldn't want to automatically apply to a foreign folk tradition. In jazz theory, the "substitution" is something you learn to do on purpose...it's a *technique* as much as a sound per se. I'm not sure that the Sicilian folk musician would think about the "bII7" chord that way, if only because the bII triad seems to have a life of its own in that music-more so, at least, than the very limited role that chord has in European common-practice harmony.
Thank you, Dr Monahan, I have watched all your videos and they have helped me learn a lot. I am curious to know - the only composition (that I have heard) in major key in which I hear the Neapolitan chord is in the exposition of Mozart’s piano concerto 21 in C major. Is this right? Looking forward to your next video! - Krishna
Hi Krishna! The Neapolitan is indeed rare in major-key pieces. Mozart K. 467 is a great example. For another-from an equally wonderful piece-check out the opening movement of Schubert's C-major String Quintet. There's an explosive Neapolitan in the third key area, in G major, mm. 118 and 122. It's one of my all-time favorite works.
Oh, I wouldn't've minded another hour or two of random Sicilian music. (If the next video seems like it's gonna be shorter than usual, just stick it on there for no reason.)
Aren't those pieces great? (Of course, it completely slipped my mind that the incredibly famous main theme from The Godfather starts with a huge melodic emphasis on b^2.)
Thanks for kind comments, Lance. FWIW, I use five apps in my assembly line: (1) Sibelius (for typesetting music); (2) Audacity (for sound editing); (3) Adobe Illustrator (to disassemble graphics exported from Sibelius into component parts); (4) Keynote (to gather all the materials into a slideshow); and (5) Camtasia (to record the slideshow, plus narration and MIDI piano).
@@SethMonahan Hey Seth, thanks for the reply. I figured there was a number programs that you used. I make videos also and it can be very tedious. I was wondering if you are on Facebook in any of the Music groups and if you are familiar with the resurgence of the Partimento/Schema/Thoroughbass resurgence. I'm working on an Applied Unified Theory combining Modern Functional Harmony and the Old Schools Methods but from a Composers point of view instead of a purely academic one. Kind of a songwriters guide for the 18th century. Keep up the great videos, looking forward to the next one. Take care.
I've seen some people explain that the Neapolitan is usually found in first inversion because it's "really" a root position iv with a raised chordal 5th. Do you think this is a reasonable explanation or far-fetched?
It certainly doesn't seem UN-reasonable to me. Though if I wanted to think of the Neapolitan deriving from a diatonic predominant, I'd go with ii6 instead of iv. My reasons: (1) ii6 is simply more common in this style as a predominant; and (2) ii6 is very often voiced with ^2 on top, in a melodic role. In the early Baroque pieces I looked at from the "Neapolitan school," b^2 often sounded like an inflection of regular ^2 in the melody, as opposed to an upper neighbor to ^1.
Aww, I was hoping you would tell us how you call the German Sixth when it’s spelled with sharp 2 instead of flat 3 in major keys. I’ve seen Swiss Sixth, Alsatian, Dutch… I just call it the Schumann Sixth because the classic example comes from Dichterliebe.
1. That's a distinction without a difference. You've just described a major triad in first inversion with scale degree ^4 in the bass. 2. There's no objective reason why one should prefer to understand the chord as iv with one altered note, versus my explanation of calling it iio with one altered note. 3. There are good reasons NOT to think of bII6 as an altered iv chord-foremost among them, the many times that composers use the chord **in root position.** Your definition would have us understand those root-position bII triads either as unrelated to the Neapolitan sixth (which is ridiculous), or as second-inversion iv chords with altered bass notes (which is not only dizzyingly contrived, it makes for horrendous pedagogy). 4. Barely anyone watches this channel. So it's overwhelmingly likely that the viewer who "liked" your comment was YOU-which confirms my impression that you're a self-important contrarian who thinks they know more than they do. 5. Go away.
Great question! I expect that people could legitimately disagree about that one. On the one hand, it checks most of the important boxes: bII6 in G minor, and the b^2 descends by semitone to the leading tone. On the other hand, it appears with no tonal context whatsoever, and the intervening music before the main theme hardly clarifies things. We're in a kind of tonal limbo. On the basis of the latter, I'm *not* inclined to call it a Neapolitan sixth, simply because it doesn't sound like one to me. (I can't help but hear it as "I6" in Ab, even though Ab major is a total phantasm and vanishes before our ears.)
@@SethMonahan One interesting point relating to the G minor Ballade is that that same A-flat major harmony in first inversion appears very prominently in the coda serving each time as a decidedly functional Neapolitan sixth that powers a series of authentic cadences. So in light of this, I’m inclined to hear the introduction as planting the seeds of this ultimately functional Neapolitan but shrouding it in a kind of cosmic haze (which reminds me somewhat of the finale of Mahler 6 where his motives swirl around ambiguously before crystallizing into their “functional” forms in the sonata spaces). Thanks for the videos, Dr. Monahan - I’m a huge fan of your work!
@@hendrikkitsvanheyningen2631 I wanted to make sure I re-listened to the last few pages of the Ballade before replying-and now that I have, I think your point is very well taken! (This is in reference to mm. 216, 218, 224, and 226 for anyone who's curious.) And naturally, I'm delighted by the Mahler 6 comparison; I've been known to mention it on occasion in my scholarly work. :) As it happens, I've always heard the influence of this Ballade on a passage just before the recapitulation of the First Symphony, mvt. IV. Twice, Chopin brings the main theme back over a dominant pedal point (m. 94, Am; m. 194, Gm), and each time, the theme gets progressively more agitated, with an almost obsessive melodic focus on raised scale degrees ^6 and ^7 (e.g., E-natural and F# in G minor). Mahler borrowed this sound pretty explicitly in mm. 500-504 of the First Symphony finale, where the secondary theme (1) appears over a dominant pedal; (2) grows increasingly agitated; and (3) gets "stuck" on raised SD ^6 and ^7 (D and E in F minor).
Hi Mr. Monahan, thank you for what you do, I've watched every single video so far! I've got one small off-topic question though that I've had for a while: Why do V7 chords (moving to I) so often omit the chordal third (scale degree 7)? Surely you need the leading tone going to the tonic? If you need an example: Beethoven: Bagatelle Op. 33 No. 7, (ua-cam.com/video/DNlICUf6Jls/v-deo.html).
Thanks for your question! Actually, it is VERY rare for dominants to lack a leading tone. It does happen occasionally, and its usually a function of some unusual pianistic texture. (See for instance m. 6 of Schubert's Ab-major Impromptu, D. 935 no. 2; there's a V4/2 with no leading tone.) But I don't see any incomplete dominants in the Beethoven bagatelle you mention: I see a LH voicings that omit the leading tone, which appears in the RH melody. Can you help me understand what you're referring to?
@@SethMonahan Thanks so much for your quick response! You have rightfully noticed that actually I'm just being a bit of an idiot ;) That's entirely on me, I sometimes get confused as to which notes are part of the actual chord and which ones aren't. The same confusing thing happens in m. 56 of Beethoven's Op. 27 No. 1 2nd movement, where the missing G only appears 5 bars later.
Yes, actually! The last two chords of Chopin's first Nocturne, op. 9/1. The piece is in Bb minor, and the second-to-last chord is Cb-Eb-Gb-A-nat. It resolves to major I instead of minor, but it's basically the same thing. (And if you watched Video 35, you'll recognize that it's actually a German augmented sixth chord built on flat ^2!) A more common variant of that progression is a chord built with b2, 4, 5, and 7. It's like a French augmented sixth chord built on b2. Schubert ends his String Quintet in C on that progression.
@@SethMonahan That nocturne ends on a V chord, B-flat major, which goes into the E-flat major tonic of the next piece in the opus, no. 2. The second to last chord is a standard Ger+6.
@@KingstonCzajkowski I'm very much aware that the next piece in the set is in Eb. And while your interpretation is clever, it rather undermines your thesis that the chord over Cb is "a standard Ger+6." You could justly argue that there is a "hidden syntactic continuity" between the first two op. 9 nocturnes without the argument overextending itself. But: (1) there is nothing "standard" about a Ger+6 whose ultimate tonic resolution is in **a different, separate composition altogether**; (2) the Cb-Eb-Gb-A chord occurs **over a tonic pedal in Bb**. That means your ostensible "standard" Ger+6 occurs over a "dominant" pedal in Eb-which is itself, of course, not "standard" at all. And finally, there is no reason to contrive an analysis that has op. 9/1 ending-implausibly, I submit, for most competent listeners-on the dominant of some other key, because (as my original comment makes clear), the augmented-sixth-built-over-flat-^2 is already a feature of common-practice syntax in the 1830s. So...sorry, but I'm not buying it. Calling this a "standard" Ger+6 is like calling the opening of Beethoven 9 a "standard" V of Dm. It waves away what is interesting and special for no obvious end. Hard pass.
@@SethMonahan Thank you for the wonderful and detailed response. While I was being a bit contradictory just for the sake of it and knew at least that the passage wasn't so clear-cut, I learned a lot from your analysis and think about the passage differently now.
Hi Seth, thanks for another great video. Just one question while I'm here, how would you describe the functionality of the flattened Supertonic chord when it resolves directly to Tonic? Is it acting with substitute Dominant function or could it be viewed as extending the Tonic function? Thanks Seth, looking forward to the next video in your wonderful series.
Great question, Trevor! I don't have an iron-clad opinion on this, if only because root-position bII, as a triad, almost never goes straight to tonic in classical/early-Romantic repertoire. BUT-there are related progressions. I can think of places in Mozart and Liszt where bII6 goes straight to i6, and to my ear, those have a kind of subdominant (S) function. There are also instances of chords built with b^2 in the bass going to tonic, but they're not triads. Instead, they're actually augmented sixth chords being used with dominant functions. Schubert's C-major quintet ends with Db-F-G-B (Db bass) going to root-position tonic. That's either a French augmented sixth chord built over the wrong note OR a V4/3 with a flattened bass note. In either case, it's a chord with b^2 bass "posing" as a dominant. Similarly, Chopin's Bbm nocturne ends with Cb-Eb-Gb-A going to tonic, which is the exact same chord we hear in those two Sicilian pieces here (bII + the leading tone).
@@SethMonahan Hi Seth, I'm really pleased that you appreciated my question. I think the thing that fascinates me is the realisation of the nuance to be found, even in finality. All the best for now.
@@gwalla Yes-definitely! I'm not sure if you watched Video 35 about augmented sixth chords. But it ends by showing the German augmented sixth going to V7, which also has the sound of a tritone substitution. In C major, it sounds like one is using Ab7-G7 instead of D7-G7. It's an anachronistic concept when applied to music of the 1800s, obviously. But if you know the sound of tritone substitutions, it's kind of hard not to hear it that way!
Hi Andrew! Yes, I'm well-and thanks for asking. Unfortunately, my job only allows me to make videos during the summer months. So I can rarely make more than 4-5 videos per year. I've got plans for dozens more, but my classroom teaching has to come first. And that takes 100% of my bandwidth during the school year.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Hi I am a Neapolitan saxophone player and music teacher. This video is really excellently made and give the deserved credit to the Neapolitan Traditional Music.
By the way there are plenty of Neapolitan (not just Sicilian! :) ) traditional songs that features this specific form of cadence. The South of Italy has been a separate nation for many centuries whose name was Kingdom of the two Sicilies and whose capital was Naples. This just for saying that Neapolitan and Sicilian songs (especially the ones that can be find on spotify) has deeply seeded common roots.
If you are interested in listening some example just let me know. Thanks again fro this lesson!
Terrific; at last some meaty technical stuff on the web for real musicians.
Just found your channel. Great format, clear and concise. Good examples too. Thank you!
An outstanding series for learning and reference. Clear, concise, effective visual presentations with great examples punctuated with occasional bits of appropriate humor. (Lesson 31 is another story 😊)
You have a true gift for teaching and communicating. Thank you for such dedication and efforts on these lessons.
P.S. If you are still reviewing comments from older videos, please take a look at my questions/comment on Lesson 15. There is another recent similar question there too. Thank you.
Hi Seth, I love the enthusiasm and clarity of your explanations of often quite tricky topics. The time taken to do all the onscreen stuff is impressive as well. I am teaching quite a lot of composition at the moment and will be directing my students to your channel for reinforcement for sure. Thanks!
Thanks, Bruce! Glad you like them. The videos are a labor of love, but the immersive, multimedia thing really seems to help a lot of people learn. And UA-cam gives my class materials vastly more reach than they would've had 20 years ago. Share away!
Pr.Monahan I thank you so much for this serie. I really took the time to take notes, do exercices on each of your vidéos and it helped me a LOT in my Understanding and my own musical analysis. To find such great content for FREE and so well produced is a miracle. Thank you again for everything you made and we hope to hear from you soon ! All my regards
Thanks so much for the kind words! It always delights me to learn that the videos help people in their growth as a musician. As it happens, I'm working on the next round of videos at this moment. Lessons 37 and 38 should be posted by early July, and then a few more in August!
I believe that the simplest reason for it is a response to the greek modes. Also, thanks for the videos on Neapolitan and Augmented Sixth cords, it puts an emphasis on neighbour notes going to other chords, really helped me understand.
I wish this video had been out a year ago, when I was taking theory 3 virtually and had to teach myself everything!
I think another great example would be in the opening of Chopin’s first ballade. And I just realized that he did melody thing as well in that opener.
It has always eluded me about how he came up with that opening which he never returned to again for the entire remainder of the piece. Thankfully I get it now.
I really enjoyed this series of lectures. You expertly guided me to make difficult connections. This is a refreshing approach. Thank you. Bravo!!! Encore!!! Encore!!! 👏 👏 👏
I will be studying in Eastman this September, and music theory teacher at Eastman recommended your videos. I could not say how grateful watching such wonderful lessons! I am glad to learn so much! Although it may still take time for me to digest the new content... Hope my study in new country and new school will be fine...
MANY congratulations on starting at Eastman this Fall! You're going to work with some amazing people there!
31:50 it's also quite common in Bollywood film music, now that you mention it. I just remembered that trademark sound after the Sicilian band played it
Amazing course! I am enjoying it a lot and your explanations are so helpful for appreciating music better and practicing composition. Thank you!
You're welcome, Jorge! Glad you like it!
Excellent channel, dude! Education and pleasure should always go together. Here, they do!!! Thanks!
Thank you so much man! Just discovered your channel. This is exactly what I've been looking for. Can't be happier! Cheers
Please write a book. Even if the book is just the "big 18" grid on laminated cardstock, I will buy dozens of copies and walk down the hallways of my university throwing it at music students.
You know, I stopped using textbooks in my classes specifically because I couldn't *stop* throwing them at students...
Make them yourself! I made flash cards for the Big 18 in addition to fill in work sheets. I have bad dreams about being pummeled with hardback copies of Schoenberg now, and being forced to listen to 12 tone row for hours on end. Leave it to a music teacher to traumatize students :)
Thank you very much for this incredible serie of videos. I've tried reading many books on the topic, but always gave up because of their arid approach. The way you present theory is simply amazing! Clear, concise and entertaining (at times!). You are an incredible teacher! I hope you will keep this serie going and keep sharing your love of music. Thanks again!
Thank you very much Monahan, I adore the Neapolitan chord. I really like the way Mozart uses it in many of his compositions. Examples of aria Queen of the night, overture Don Giovanni, Lacrimosa and many others
Another informative and enjoyable lesson Seth, thanks very much. I like the Neapolitan chord, it adds a flair of the exotic to an otherwise standard progression. There are a couple of scales I'd like to mention: Neapolitan minor and Neapolitan major (which is actually a minor scale) and both have the b2 scale degree (Neapolitan minor is Harmonic minor with a b2 and Neapolitan major is Melodic minor with a b2). Once again, great lesson and I look forward to the next one.
Love these videos so much, thanks a lot as always! Here I must say the vanilla "ii-dim" just keeps sounding more "spicey" than the bII6. The bII6 sounds very pretty, but to me it sounds so completely consonant and not chromatic. The dim always hits harder, idk why I seem to have a sort of blind spot for the bII6, but it never sounded "interesting" to me, just perfectly placed.
32:20 wait i hear Ravel's Bolero inside it suddenly, particularly the ending 2-3 bars of the minor melody
Videos 1-36! All watched!! Now I'm off to do some course work. You make theory so much fun!
Thank you so much-I'm so glad you like them!
I hit the like button without any fear or regret prior to watching your video lectures.
Thanks, Ryan!
This flattening of scale degree 2 can work with any dimished 63 chord by just using a minor 6th instead of a major 6th interval. Try it with the vii6 chord, it sounds nice too. You will be using the bVII scale degree for this.
Flattening SD2 in a viio6 chord gives you an Italian augmented sixth whose bass is a half-step above the tonic. Effectively, it has a dominant function, just like viio6 itself. It's not super common, but one does see those from time to time. I have a small collection of pieces that end with that progression, including (probably most famously) Schubert's C-major String Quintet.
Is it just me or does that "Old Sicilian Songs" example sound more French than any sort of Italian? That minor key progression, it just reminds me much more of French music than anything else.
Hey professor, your videos are absolutely amazing. Thank you so much.
If you are willing to share, I would love to know in which softwares you are using in order to edit your presentations.
Hi Shir. I tried to write a long reply to this question, but for some reason UA-cam is not letting me post it in full. If you'd like to email me directly (seth.monahan@yale.edu), I'd be glad to explain that way.
Love the music from The Godfather! I'm part Sicilian! 😊
33:30 - I think, b2 & #7 its a another augmented sixth chord not a seventh chord.
I view the Neapolitan chord as a tritone sub of the V7 chord. Maybe that's just the jazzy side of my playing talking, though. Great content. Thank you!
Well, be careful. Functionally, the classical N6 doesn't work as a "substitute" for V7, because one is a predominant and the other a dominant. They come as a pair, always in a specific order (bII6-V7).
BUT: by the 1830s or so, composers start playing around with the idea that augmented sixth chords might go straight to tonic-i.e., that they could indeed be substitute dominants. Popular among them are French and German augmented sixths built above lowered scale-degree ^2. What that makes, of course, is a "dominant-seventh" sounding chord with the Neapolitan note in the bass, going straight to tonic-**very much** like a tritone sub in that case.
Also: there are pieces from later in the 19th century that show that composers were very much aware of the tritone sub principle. The climax of Brahms op. 117/2 makes a huge deal out of swapping B7 out for F7 as a shortcut back to the tonic key.
@SethMonahan Very interesting. Have you ever heard of Barry Harris? He was a jazz pianist, band leader, and educator for decades. The last of the old guard of bebop. His method is so useful at creating cadence-like movements within chords and songs.
For example, he explains that a dim7 chord built off the leading tone of any chord (^7) creates movement into that chord. You would probably observe this as an incomplete cadence. He has a whole methodology of approaching dominant chords, but he places a lot of importance on the Diminished Scale. That is where tritone substitutions come from. He calls the V7 & bII7 brothers or sisters. The other brothers or sisters are symmetrically found in minor thirds from these. III7 or bVII7 will work functionally the same as a V chord, but with different extensions and dissonances.
What will really bake your noodle is the substitution of a minor 6th chord on the 5 of 5. So ii(min6) is the equivalent of V7. The tritone sub also has a substitute like this. bvi(min6). This is a good substitute for an V alt chord. Similar chords are found on the iv and vii.
Check out the channel TILF from Barry Harris on UA-cam if you are interested.
Bit late to the party but just commenting that the fazil say version is super fast it's not usually played that fast. Afterall the tempo marking is Allegro ma non troppo
There is telepathy. Der Müller und der Bach was the piece I was humming along the road before i reached home and clicked on your video.
Seth … think back to Smithfield high school days. Do you remember a short stint in a band with Jake Rainville, joe Jagielo and, so I’m told, myself ?!?
Derek Sabourin
Derek! Wow-I haven't thought about that band in a long time. Scary to think it's almost 30 years ago! I saw Jake at my grandmother's funeral back in 2008-ish, but we haven't been in touch since then. And I don't think I've seen you or Joe since the early '90s. I hope you're doing well!
@@SethMonahan it’s crazy how time flies…just stumbled across some info on you and your career and one click led to another and in figured I’d say hello. Congrats on all your achievements musically-- we all knew you were destined for great things !! Glad you are well, buddy!
@@SethMonahan one last thing-- I don’t usually join garage bands, but when I do-- I join ones with geniuses in them !
@@MrDsabourin Ahhhh, you're too kind. I'm just a guy lucky to find one thing he was pretty good at. Incidentally: I was out walking this morning, and one of our '90s garage band riffs popped into my head. I can't even remember who wrote it-maybe me, maybe Jake. But I think it might've been lost forever if you hadn't come knocking. I made sure to write it down for posterity. :)
@@SethMonahan that’s awesome ….. well, it Looks like I was FINALLY able to contribute to the band and keep at least part of it alive (30+ years later)!!!!
Excellent job!
Hey-thanks!
the modes are named after ancient greek kingdoms and surrounding regions like Lydia. Should we fact-check it or something? It's just cool
Thank you for your videos!! By the way, I miss the ones about counterpoint and your great web site with theory and examples 😢
Thank you very much for this amazing series, Mr. Monahan! I've learned a lot. However, I forget most things. I believe the reason for this is that I don't "practise" music analysis. Do you have any sugestion on how to practise? Is there any books that you recommend?
PS: I am a mathematician, but I've been playing piano since I was 9, and I'm interested in composition.
PS^2: One of the first pieces I tried to analyze harmonically (when I was just starting the study of music theory) was the first movement of the Appassionata. It was really frustrating that I couldn't even fully analyze the first period. So I looked on the internet and discovered the neapolitan sixth chord, but none of the explanations I found were as good as yours. I'm so glad you made a video about this beautiful chord!
Hi Lorenzo, and thanks for the kind words! Analysis is something that definitely improves with practice-particularly the aural element, the ability simply to recognize the sounds one hears in real time, with or without the score. I don't have any books to recommend for harmonic analysis. So it might be best just to "practice" by studying the music you love. If you're interested in learning to analyze classical form-which I don't really deal with here-you might want to check out Jim Hepokoski's "A Sonata Theory Handbook" (Oxford Univ. Press, 2020). Jim advised my dissertation long ago and was, hands down, the most inspiring analyst I ever studied with. (When I teach the opening of the Appassionata-which is EVERY YEAR, if I can help it!-I definitely hear it through Jim Hepokoski's ears. Such a superb movement!)
@@SethMonahan Thanks for the suggestions Professor! I'll try to practise analysis and check out the book! Yes, this movement is gorgeous! Well, actually the whole sonata hahaha.
Do you have any special tips for practising ear recognition and score recognition of chords? I imagine that score recognition is easier, but even using the Big 18 table I feel I'm being slow. My final goal would be to recognize a chord just by its notes, but there are so many possible combinations...
Did someone forget to flip the stems at 19:25? :O
(Jokes aside, I really enjoy these videos!)
Do you offer private online teaching over Skype,Whatsapp or other online Web messaging softwares?Would be very interested!
Hi again professor! I was trying to analyze the harmonic progression of the theme of Beethoven's 32 variations. I analyzed it as follows:
i-V⁶-V of IV- IV⁶- Ger-i⁶⁴- iv-V-i
The problem here is that i⁶⁴ should resolve to V, but it goes to iv instead. I listen this iv as a tweak, a delay, before going to V. However, I can't figure out how to classify the i⁶⁴. Is it dominant? Tonic? Or would it be a instance of the passing i⁶⁴, the topic from the next video?
Hi Lorenzo! That IS indeed the passing I6/4 from the next video. In fact, I have that theme in my list of possible examples. (Though it's a bit unusual in that it's accented. Usually passing I6/4s are very low-profile chords, sneaking in on weak beats.)
@@SethMonahan thanks! I really thought it was a bit odd that this chord is accented. I feel like it is somehow justified by the 5-6 in the melody
On Sicilian folk music - Isn’t IIb(7) - I just a tritone substitution for V(7) - I, at least according to more modern interpretations?
Good catch, Solanine! I'm inclined to give a "yes, but..." answer here. The sound of the "bII dominant" obviously calls to mind the tritone sub, and strikingly so. But the term "substitution" carries baggage I wouldn't want to automatically apply to a foreign folk tradition. In jazz theory, the "substitution" is something you learn to do on purpose...it's a *technique* as much as a sound per se. I'm not sure that the Sicilian folk musician would think about the "bII7" chord that way, if only because the bII triad seems to have a life of its own in that music-more so, at least, than the very limited role that chord has in European common-practice harmony.
Thank you, Dr Monahan, I have watched all your videos and they have helped me learn a lot.
I am curious to know - the only composition (that I have heard) in major key in which I hear the Neapolitan chord is in the exposition of Mozart’s piano concerto 21 in C major. Is this right? Looking forward to your next video! - Krishna
Hi Krishna! The Neapolitan is indeed rare in major-key pieces. Mozart K. 467 is a great example. For another-from an equally wonderful piece-check out the opening movement of Schubert's C-major String Quintet. There's an explosive Neapolitan in the third key area, in G major, mm. 118 and 122. It's one of my all-time favorite works.
thank you! I will listen to that one.
WONDERFUL content
Thanks, Laura!
Oh, I wouldn't've minded another hour or two of random Sicilian music. (If the next video seems like it's gonna be shorter than usual, just stick it on there for no reason.)
Aren't those pieces great? (Of course, it completely slipped my mind that the incredibly famous main theme from The Godfather starts with a huge melodic emphasis on b^2.)
I'm still waiting for your lessons
Me too, friend. I usually only have time to make them during the summer, when I'm not teaching. Alas!
Happy new year!
Same to you, friend!
Hey Seth, Great Videos on the Augmented 6ths btw. I was wondering what software you use to create your video's. take care and keep the videos coming.
Thanks for kind comments, Lance. FWIW, I use five apps in my assembly line: (1) Sibelius (for typesetting music); (2) Audacity (for sound editing); (3) Adobe Illustrator (to disassemble graphics exported from Sibelius into component parts); (4) Keynote (to gather all the materials into a slideshow); and (5) Camtasia (to record the slideshow, plus narration and MIDI piano).
@@SethMonahan Hey Seth, thanks for the reply. I figured there was a number programs that you used. I make videos also and it can be very tedious. I was wondering if you are on Facebook in any of the Music groups and if you are familiar with the resurgence of the Partimento/Schema/Thoroughbass resurgence. I'm working on an Applied Unified Theory combining Modern Functional Harmony and the Old Schools Methods but from a Composers point of view instead of a purely academic one. Kind of a songwriters guide for the 18th century. Keep up the great videos, looking forward to the next one. Take care.
Is Moonlight Sonata using Neapolitan?
I've seen some people explain that the Neapolitan is usually found in first inversion because it's "really" a root position iv with a raised chordal 5th. Do you think this is a reasonable explanation or far-fetched?
It certainly doesn't seem UN-reasonable to me. Though if I wanted to think of the Neapolitan deriving from a diatonic predominant, I'd go with ii6 instead of iv. My reasons: (1) ii6 is simply more common in this style as a predominant; and (2) ii6 is very often voiced with ^2 on top, in a melodic role. In the early Baroque pieces I looked at from the "Neapolitan school," b^2 often sounded like an inflection of regular ^2 in the melody, as opposed to an upper neighbor to ^1.
Thanks for this very good video!
You're very welcome!
Aww, I was hoping you would tell us how you call the German Sixth when it’s spelled with sharp 2 instead of flat 3 in major keys. I’ve seen Swiss Sixth, Alsatian, Dutch… I just call it the Schumann Sixth because the classic example comes from Dichterliebe.
I've seen Enharmonic German Sixth which I think is most appropriate.
It's not a major triad - it's the minor subdominant with a lowered sixth, or rather, Fa with a minor third and minor sixth.
1. That's a distinction without a difference. You've just described a major triad in first inversion with scale degree ^4 in the bass.
2. There's no objective reason why one should prefer to understand the chord as iv with one altered note, versus my explanation of calling it iio with one altered note.
3. There are good reasons NOT to think of bII6 as an altered iv chord-foremost among them, the many times that composers use the chord **in root position.** Your definition would have us understand those root-position bII triads either as unrelated to the Neapolitan sixth (which is ridiculous), or as second-inversion iv chords with altered bass notes (which is not only dizzyingly contrived, it makes for horrendous pedagogy).
4. Barely anyone watches this channel. So it's overwhelmingly likely that the viewer who "liked" your comment was YOU-which confirms my impression that you're a self-important contrarian who thinks they know more than they do.
5. Go away.
How about the opening of the g minor Ballade?
Great question! I expect that people could legitimately disagree about that one. On the one hand, it checks most of the important boxes: bII6 in G minor, and the b^2 descends by semitone to the leading tone. On the other hand, it appears with no tonal context whatsoever, and the intervening music before the main theme hardly clarifies things. We're in a kind of tonal limbo. On the basis of the latter, I'm *not* inclined to call it a Neapolitan sixth, simply because it doesn't sound like one to me. (I can't help but hear it as "I6" in Ab, even though Ab major is a total phantasm and vanishes before our ears.)
@@SethMonahan One interesting point relating to the G minor Ballade is that that same A-flat major harmony in first inversion appears very prominently in the coda serving each time as a decidedly functional Neapolitan sixth that powers a series of authentic cadences. So in light of this, I’m inclined to hear the introduction as planting the seeds of this ultimately functional Neapolitan but shrouding it in a kind of cosmic haze (which reminds me somewhat of the finale of Mahler 6 where his motives swirl around ambiguously before crystallizing into their “functional” forms in the sonata spaces). Thanks for the videos, Dr. Monahan - I’m a huge fan of your work!
@@hendrikkitsvanheyningen2631 I wanted to make sure I re-listened to the last few pages of the Ballade before replying-and now that I have, I think your point is very well taken! (This is in reference to mm. 216, 218, 224, and 226 for anyone who's curious.) And naturally, I'm delighted by the Mahler 6 comparison; I've been known to mention it on occasion in my scholarly work. :) As it happens, I've always heard the influence of this Ballade on a passage just before the recapitulation of the First Symphony, mvt. IV. Twice, Chopin brings the main theme back over a dominant pedal point (m. 94, Am; m. 194, Gm), and each time, the theme gets progressively more agitated, with an almost obsessive melodic focus on raised scale degrees ^6 and ^7 (e.g., E-natural and F# in G minor). Mahler borrowed this sound pretty explicitly in mm. 500-504 of the First Symphony finale, where the secondary theme (1) appears over a dominant pedal; (2) grows increasingly agitated; and (3) gets "stuck" on raised SD ^6 and ^7 (D and E in F minor).
Thank u so much for notetion video,I 👍👏👏👏
Hi Mr. Monahan, thank you for what you do, I've watched every single video so far! I've got one small off-topic question though that I've had for a while: Why do V7 chords (moving to I) so often omit the chordal third (scale degree 7)? Surely you need the leading tone going to the tonic? If you need an example: Beethoven: Bagatelle Op. 33 No. 7, (ua-cam.com/video/DNlICUf6Jls/v-deo.html).
Thanks for your question! Actually, it is VERY rare for dominants to lack a leading tone. It does happen occasionally, and its usually a function of some unusual pianistic texture. (See for instance m. 6 of Schubert's Ab-major Impromptu, D. 935 no. 2; there's a V4/2 with no leading tone.) But I don't see any incomplete dominants in the Beethoven bagatelle you mention: I see a LH voicings that omit the leading tone, which appears in the RH melody. Can you help me understand what you're referring to?
@@SethMonahan Thanks so much for your quick response! You have rightfully noticed that actually I'm just being a bit of an idiot ;) That's entirely on me, I sometimes get confused as to which notes are part of the actual chord and which ones aren't. The same confusing thing happens in m. 56 of Beethoven's Op. 27 No. 1 2nd movement, where the missing G only appears 5 bars later.
Is there any other music that uses this bII+#7 chord going to i?
Yes, actually! The last two chords of Chopin's first Nocturne, op. 9/1. The piece is in Bb minor, and the second-to-last chord is Cb-Eb-Gb-A-nat. It resolves to major I instead of minor, but it's basically the same thing. (And if you watched Video 35, you'll recognize that it's actually a German augmented sixth chord built on flat ^2!) A more common variant of that progression is a chord built with b2, 4, 5, and 7. It's like a French augmented sixth chord built on b2. Schubert ends his String Quintet in C on that progression.
Tritone subs in jazz.
@@SethMonahan That nocturne ends on a V chord, B-flat major, which goes into the E-flat major tonic of the next piece in the opus, no. 2. The second to last chord is a standard Ger+6.
@@KingstonCzajkowski I'm very much aware that the next piece in the set is in Eb. And while your interpretation is clever, it rather undermines your thesis that the chord over Cb is "a standard Ger+6." You could justly argue that there is a "hidden syntactic continuity" between the first two op. 9 nocturnes without the argument overextending itself. But: (1) there is nothing "standard" about a Ger+6 whose ultimate tonic resolution is in **a different, separate composition altogether**; (2) the Cb-Eb-Gb-A chord occurs **over a tonic pedal in Bb**. That means your ostensible "standard" Ger+6 occurs over a "dominant" pedal in Eb-which is itself, of course, not "standard" at all. And finally, there is no reason to contrive an analysis that has op. 9/1 ending-implausibly, I submit, for most competent listeners-on the dominant of some other key, because (as my original comment makes clear), the augmented-sixth-built-over-flat-^2 is already a feature of common-practice syntax in the 1830s.
So...sorry, but I'm not buying it. Calling this a "standard" Ger+6 is like calling the opening of Beethoven 9 a "standard" V of Dm. It waves away what is interesting and special for no obvious end. Hard pass.
@@SethMonahan Thank you for the wonderful and detailed response. While I was being a bit contradictory just for the sake of it and knew at least that the passage wasn't so clear-cut, I learned a lot from your analysis and think about the passage differently now.
Hi Seth, thanks for another great video. Just one question while I'm here, how would you describe the functionality of the flattened Supertonic chord when it resolves directly to Tonic? Is it acting with substitute Dominant function or could it be viewed as extending the Tonic function? Thanks Seth, looking forward to the next video in your wonderful series.
Great question, Trevor! I don't have an iron-clad opinion on this, if only because root-position bII, as a triad, almost never goes straight to tonic in classical/early-Romantic repertoire. BUT-there are related progressions. I can think of places in Mozart and Liszt where bII6 goes straight to i6, and to my ear, those have a kind of subdominant (S) function.
There are also instances of chords built with b^2 in the bass going to tonic, but they're not triads. Instead, they're actually augmented sixth chords being used with dominant functions. Schubert's C-major quintet ends with Db-F-G-B (Db bass) going to root-position tonic. That's either a French augmented sixth chord built over the wrong note OR a V4/3 with a flattened bass note. In either case, it's a chord with b^2 bass "posing" as a dominant. Similarly, Chopin's Bbm nocturne ends with Cb-Eb-Gb-A going to tonic, which is the exact same chord we hear in those two Sicilian pieces here (bII + the leading tone).
@@SethMonahan Hi Seth, I'm really pleased that you appreciated my question. I think the thing that fascinates me is the realisation of the nuance to be found, even in finality. All the best for now.
@@SethMonahan Sounds like an early example of what jazzers would call a tritone substitution, just spelled in the common practice manner.
@@gwalla Yes-definitely! I'm not sure if you watched Video 35 about augmented sixth chords. But it ends by showing the German augmented sixth going to V7, which also has the sound of a tritone substitution. In C major, it sounds like one is using Ab7-G7 instead of D7-G7. It's an anachronistic concept when applied to music of the 1800s, obviously. But if you know the sound of tritone substitutions, it's kind of hard not to hear it that way!
Professor are you ok? Still healthy?
Hi Andrew! Yes, I'm well-and thanks for asking. Unfortunately, my job only allows me to make videos during the summer months. So I can rarely make more than 4-5 videos per year. I've got plans for dozens more, but my classroom teaching has to come first. And that takes 100% of my bandwidth during the school year.
❤