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June 21, 2021 By Aron Bernstein 10 Comments

Weekly Music Theory Challenge 6/21/21

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:

In last week’s challenge we said hello to this Phrygian cadence in Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. This week, what type of chord would you get if you sharped the root of the iv6 chord? Careful: make the root sharp, not the bass:

ANSWER for 6/21/21

Those of you who crossed the Alps for an Italian holiday: CORRECT! By sharping the root of the iv6 chord in a Phrygian cadence, you end up with an Italian augmented sixth chord. And this is very likely the origin of the Italian 6th: a chromatically embellished Phrygian cadence. Listen to both:

Phrygian Cadence followed by Italian Augmented Sixth

This B-flat Italian 6th is enharmonic with a B-flat dominant seventh chord, but the sharped root is spelled G-sharp, not A-flat. And spelling makes all the difference. When you hear how this chord resolves (the augmented 6th goes outward to the octave), that’s when you can distinguish it from a Bb7.

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Filed Under: music theory challenge Tagged With: bach, breakingbarlines, cadence, chords, classicalmusic, music, musiceducation, musiclessons, musictheory, popmusic

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Doug says

    June 21, 2021 at 6:59 pm

    An Italian Augmented 6th chord with a nonstandard doubling of scale degree 6 (Bb) rather than the usual doubling of scale degree 1 (D).

    Reply
    • Johnny Brewer says

      June 26, 2021 at 5:08 am

      You would get the secondary leading tone chord of the dominant.

      Reply
      • Aron Bernstein says

        June 26, 2021 at 4:20 pm

        Hi Johnny, thanks for chiming in! It does contain two of the notes in the secondary leading tone chord of V, but you’d have to also have a B natural, and we have B flat!

        Reply
    • Aron Bernstein says

      June 27, 2021 at 7:33 am

      Super job, Doug! And doubly correct with your note on doubling; it’s usually the third of an Italian 6th that’s doubled.

      Reply
  2. MT says

    June 22, 2021 at 8:32 am

    B-flat, D, G# is Italian 6th. So it’s an inverted It6 resolving back to D Minor. I think? Lol.

    Reply
    • Aron Bernstein says

      June 27, 2021 at 7:32 am

      Correct and well done MT! However, this Italian 6th is in root position, resolving to the V chord (A major).

      Reply
  3. Charles Birkby says

    June 23, 2021 at 10:10 am

    Italian 6th

    Reply
    • Aron Bernstein says

      June 27, 2021 at 7:31 am

      Right you are, Charles! Ciao!

      Reply
  4. Michael Jeter says

    June 26, 2021 at 6:21 am

    You get the major of what was a minor.

    In the key of d minor, iv6 is Bb-d-g.
    Sharp the root: Bb d Ab, which I would call Bb7

    Reply
    • Aron Bernstein says

      June 26, 2021 at 4:18 pm

      Hey Michael! You’ve got all the right pitches, but, since we’re sharping the root, we have to keep the original letter name. So it’s G sharp, rather than A flat. And we end up with a chord that’s enharmonic with a Bb7, but it actually has a very different name.

      Reply

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