CHAPTER 3 (PART 3)


NON-FUNCTIONAL CHORDS

Passing Chords

Passing chords are formed by the stepwise movement of one or more voices from a harmony note in one chord to form an intermediate chord or chords on the way to becoming a harmony note in another chord. The stepwise movement may be a filling in by one note or multiple notes. If the filling-in is by multiple notes then I will refer to this as a linear progression. (See chapter 4.). One or more voices may be involved in similar or contrary motion. This type of chord has its origins in 16th century polyphony. See voice leading appendix for more details. The reason for giving these chords a special name is not because they have a special significance but because they are capable of being confused with genuine functional chords. In reality, they arise out of voice leading movements just as other surface voice leading patterns.

For a chord to be a passing chord it must normally be made up solely of notes from the preceding chord plus linear moving notes. The one exemption to this is that chromatic auxiliary notes are sometimes used in addition to the passing notes. This is because of the way that voice leading patterns can be combined. See Voice Leading Patterns Combined.

The passing chords so formed are thus non-functional and the surrounding chords on which the movement starts and ends are functional chords. Passing chords are used in both static and dynamic harmony.

The passing chord is named by analogy with the passing note. The following example contains a passing note marked with an * :

 






The passing note fills in the gap between the two harmony notes in the chords before and after the passing note. The short duration and nature of the passing note does not create a feeling of a change of harmony. The passing chord is an extension of the passing note such that the duration of the passing note(s) and the way the note(s) sound, in conjunction with other notes of the chord, creates a senses of a change in harmony.

Using the analytical symbols introduced earlier, the following harmonic outlines indicate some of the possibilities within the diatonic major scale:



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All the passing chords in the figure above are made up of two types of notes:

1. notes which are retained from the preceding chord and

2. notes that take part in the stepwise movement.

Normally, if other notes are involved, the chord is not a passing chord. The one exemption to this is that chromatic auxiliary notes are sometimes used. These are introduced below. The curved brackets are used to indicate that the chords are passing chords. The remaining symbols have meanings as introduced previously.

The examples moving from chord I to chord IV are common in both static and dynamic harmony and the examples moving form chord I to chord VI are common in dynamic harmony, in which case the progression is a β (beta) chord progression.

All the harmonic outlines shown start with chord I. However, the patterns may be transposed so that they start on other scale steps. For example, I ( III ) IV could be transposed to II ( IV ) V etc. It is not the actual scale steps involved that matter but the succession of scale steps. Similar patterns may also be derived for the minor key.

The following is an example of a) (i)

 




The note combination highlighted by an * appears at first sight to be a chord III in root position. However, this is not a I - III - IV - I progression because the chord III arises as a result of a passing note between chord I and chord IV. The F# is a stepwise filling in note between the G in chord I and the E in chord IV. The bass note B arises as an arpeggiation of the G major chord in the bass. As the chord III is the result of a passing note (the F#). It will be referred to as a passing chord. The chord III is thus the result of a melodic (voice leading) movement rather than an harmonic movement. The duration of the note and the way it combines with the other notes are sufficient to justify referring to the chord as a passing chord.


The harmonic outline shows this in a graphical way. The white note heads indicate functional chords and the black note heads indicate non-functional chords. The melodic movement from the G in chord I to the F# passing note to the E in chord IV is indicated by the beam connecting the three notes involved in the linear movement. The symbols are thus used to express analytical meanings and these should not be confused with the normal meaning of the symbols.

In this example, it is fairly easy to see the melodic nature of the passing chord. However, it is not always so easy to establish which chords in a progression are melodic and which are harmonic. Chords that at first sight appear to be functional may arise as the result of one or more auxiliary notes, passing notes or appoggiaturas. For the harmony and syntactic structures to be correctly understood it is necessary to correctly identify and separate these non-functional chords from the underlying progression.

The following is an example of b) (ii):

 




The following example contains the same chord progression but within a slower harmonic rhythm:






So far, we have only considered diatonic passing chords. However, the number of possibilities for chromatic passing notes is enormous. Any two notes separated by a tone in two successive functional chords could be elaborated by a stepwise chromatic filling in note. For example, C# can fill in the gap between C and D. Chromatic passing notes are even possible between two notes a minor third apart. For example, the space between the descending C to A interval, in C major, can be filled in by a B-flat in place of the diatonic B-natural.

When you consider that these chromatic notes can be combined in many ways the number of possibilities is enormous. The resulting chromatic harmonies add variety and interest to the underlying diatonic harmonies but do not usually imply a change in key. Due to the number of possibilities, two figures follow. The first showing single voice only movements and the second showing some of the common possibilities involving chromatic movement in move than one voice.





The following is an example of 3.5 a) (iii). The augmented 5th chord arises from the filling in of the interval between chord I and chord IV:





 

 

All of the above examples are made up purely of passing notes with the exception of the second example in the minor key. In this common example the passing chord between the chord I and chord V is made up of two semitone auxiliary notes. The use of two semitone auxiliary notes in this way to make up passing chords appears to be the only real exception to the rule that passing chords are made up of passing notes. Note that this is not an auxiliary chord as the auxiliary notes do not return to the same chord but rather move on to another chord. The auxiliary notes used are part of the surface voice leading which is why the augmented 6th chord created is a non-functional chord.

Note: There is a further description of the passing note and passing chords in the Voice Leading Appendix at: Arpeggiation and Passing Notes and in subsequent sections.

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Ver. 2.5