Harmonic Expansions 1.6

HARMONIC EXPANSIONS

CHAPTER 1: EXPANDING THE TONIC TRIAD; THE FUNDAMENTAL HARMONIC PROGRESSION
1.6 Expanding the initial tonic with consonant skips

Haydn's "Miracle" Symphony (No. 96) is one of his "London" Symphonies, written for a London audience. The above painting is a view of London at the time by Antonio Canaletto.

Haydn: Third movement of the "Miracle" Symphony with a consonant skip and a more distant lower neighbor

In the third movement of his "Miracle" Symphony Haydn wrote a melody which begins A, D and F-sharp, all members of the tonic triad, D Major. In this way he expanded the initial tonic triad by adding more chord tones to the melody.

So each chord of the fundamental harmonic progression can itself be expanded. See the illustration to the right which demonstrates these consonant skips (CS) in four voices. A consonant skip is a chord tone which is approached by skip from another chord tone. To expand the initial tonic with consonant skips, insert another tonic chord, with soprano changing from scale degree 1 to 3, or 3 to 1, before the dominant. Spacing may change between tonic chords. Choose open or close, whatever is smoother.
	Expansions of the tonic can also be made with other embellishing tones. See for instance the example to the left in which the initial tonic in the fundamental harmonic progression from page 1.4 is expanded with lower neighbors. More detail in Chapter 2.
More Distant Embellishing Tones As phrases get longer, embellishing tones can have more distant relationships. Play the video to the right. In Example 1 the soprano D will get two funcions. It will remain an upper neighbor to C, but it will also become a passing tone between a newly inserted consonant skip, E, and the final C of the phrase. The original upper neighbor relationship will be more distant than the new passing tone relationship. In Example 2 the soprano D will remain a passing tone between E and C, but it will also become an upper neighbor to a newly inserted C. The original passing tone relationship will be more distant than the new upper neighbor relationship. Similarly in the example at the top of the page the C-sharp is a lower neighbor to the D on beat one of the first full measure despite the intervening F-sharp.

Your turn!
1. DOWNLOAD pdf file 01.6 to print out and write on.
2. ENTER your part writing on the Harmonic Expansions 1.6 page in Noteflight.

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