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Augmented6thchord

June 21, 2022 By Aron Bernstein Leave a Comment

Weekly Music Challenge: 6/20/22

Test your theory chops with the weekly challenge from Breaking Barlines! You’ll find a new question here every Monday. Please comment to post your reply.

This Week’s Challenge:

Augmented sixth chords make for a slick, chromatic approach to the dominant. The following passage by Friedrich Kuhlau has two of them back-to-back: a German and and Italian sixth. The question is, why not just approach V directly from Germany? Why does Kuhlau make a pit stop in Italy before resolving to the dominant? Hint: on the advice of counsel, I’ll take the fifth!

Kuhlau, Piano Sonatina in A minor, Op. 88, No. 3. Second Movement.
Listen to Audio

Post your reply and come back Friday, June 24th for the answer!

ANSWER for 6/6/22

Here we see Kuhlau deftly invoking (or, rather, removing) the fifth, to avoid getting pulled over by the theory police. The German 6th is the only augmented 6th chord that contains a perfect 5th above the bass, and, as you can see below, it produces the dreaded parallel 5ths if it resolves directly to V. For this reason, the German 6th usually resolves first to cadential 6/4. The Italian 6th, however, doesn’t contain a perfect 5th, so it can resolve directly to V with no voice-leading problems. So Kuhlau starts with a German 6th, then simply plucks out the 5th, instantly changing his passport to Italy and heading home!

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Filed Under: music theory challenge Tagged With: Augmented6thchord, augmentedsixth, breakingbarlines, classicalmusic, harmony, kuhlau, music, musiceducation, musiclessons, musictheory, musicvideo, popmusic

August 16, 2021 By Aron Bernstein 4 Comments

Weekly Music Theory Challenge 8/16/21

Show off your theory chops with my weekly challenge! You’ll find a new question here every Monday. Please comment to post your reply.

This week’s challenge:

Below is a German Augmented Sixth Chord resolving to V in the key of C or C minor. Can you spot the voice-leading problem? What is it, and what’s the best way, in classical music, to avoid it?

Reply to post your answer, and check back on Friday, August 20th to see if you’re right!

ANSWER for 8/16/21

Go to Cadential 6/4 First!

The German 6th is the only augmented 6th chord that contains a perfect 5th (seen here in the bass and tenor voices). Going straight to the V chord results in a nasty case of parallel 5ths. For this reason, the German 6th typically does not resolve directly to V.

The most common solution, in classical music, is to resolve the German 6th to I 6/4 (the cadential 6/4). As seen above, this ensures that the perfect fifth in the bass and tenor is broken up before finally resolving to the V chord. This eliminates the parallel 5ths seen at left.

Parallel Fifths
Parallel Fifths Avoided

Want to Learn More?

With Breaking Barlines you learn music theory the right way: fun, useful, and with a personal touch! Have a look at the complete Breaking Barlines Course! Then sign up for a monthly subscription for full access to all video lessons, worksheets, and answer keys. New lessons are always being added, so stay tuned!

Filed Under: music theory challenge Tagged With: augmented6th, Augmented6thchord, augmentedsixth, breakingbarlines, chords, classicalmusic, German6th, harmony, music, musiceducation, musiclessons, musictheory, musicvideo, popmusic

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