HARMONIC EXPANSIONS

CHAPTER 4: INSERTING PRE-DOMINANTS AND THE CIRCLE PROGRESSION
4.5 ii6 as preparation of cadential 6/4

A 19th century title page for Schumann's Album for the Young

The above excerpt from Schumann's "Sailors' Song" (Album for the Young, Op.68, No.37) illustrates the standard voice leading from ii6 to the cadential 6/4 in which the top voices fall as the bass rises by step. Before the Roman numeral analysis is shown, a harmonic reduction deletes neighbor and passing tones to clarify the structure of the chords.

The video to the left illustrates standard voice leading from ii6 to cadential 6/4 in four voices. As in beats 2 and 3, all three top voices descend and the bass is doubled in both chords. Examples in four voices have until now begun with scale degrees 1 or 3 in the soprano. In this illustration, however, a full descending scale fragment is harmonized beginning with scale degree 5 in the soprano.

Sometimes the melody dictates nonstandard doublings and voice leading. The following excerpt is in the context of an arpeggiated figuration as accompaniment. Here the cadential 6/4 is approached in the melody by a leap down of a sixth and doubling the tonic rather than the bass (scale degree 5).

From Clementi, Sonatina Op. 36 No.1, II

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