CHAPTER 5 (PART 2)

EXTENSIONS WITHIN THE BASIC STRUCTURE

The Dominant Prolongation

The dominant prolongation is the most common type of internal extension to the basic syntactic structure. Here, the dominant chord of the cadence is prolonged by the use of static harmony in a similar way to the way the tonic chord is prolonged in the static harmony of the opening section of the musical phrase. All the techniques explained in the previous chapters for prolonging the tonic can be applied to the dominant chord. These are:

  • Static harmony deploying a variety of auxiliary chords that fill in between dominant chords
  • The use of a dominant pedal note underscoring the static harmony.
  • The use of passing chords filling in between the dominant and auxiliary chords.
  • The use of linear progressions filling in between the dominant and auxiliary chords or successive dominants.

In addition, the following devices can be used to extend the cadential chord V:

Dominant prolongations are very common and are used in some form or other in most pieces of music. They vary from short elaborations just deploying a cadential 6 4 chord to long prolongations and cadenzas that extend over many bars. The more structurally important the position in the music, the longer and more elaborate the dominant prolongation can be. Dominant chords involved in the dominant prolongations often contain added 7ths and sometimes added 9ths.

Dominant prolongations are prolongations of the cadential dominant chord and form a syntactic function in the phrase. Non-cadential dominant chords are not normally prolonged in this way.

The following figure shows the form of a complete phrase extended by a dominant prolongation:

 

 

The following eight bar dominant prolongation from the Bach: First Prelude is based on a simple oscillation between dominant and tonic. The dominant and tonic chords here exchange roles in comparison with their roles in an opening section static harmony. That is to say, in this dominant prolongation the tonic chord acts as an auxiliary chord to the repeated occurrences of the dominant chord which is being prolonged. The tonic auxiliary chords are shown in square brackets in the harmonic outline.

At bar 28 the movement from chord V to auxiliary chord I is further elaborated by a passing chord created by chromatic passing notes moving in parallel thirds. (D to E-flat to E-natural and F to F# to G) These result in a dominant leading passing diminished 7th chord. At bars 26 and 30 the harmony is further elaborated by suspensions. These suspensions are shown as small quaver notes in the harmonic outline. The whole prolongation is underscored and delimited by a dominant pedal.

 



 

If you examine the whole prelude you will discover that, syntactically, it is in the form of a closing section only. The dominant prolongation shown above is preceded by 23 bars of dynamic harmony and followed by a 4 bar static coda (see later).


The following example from Elgar: Enigma Variations shows a dominant prolongation in context. It is preceded by I - II - dynamic harmony and followed by the tonic chord. As in the previous example, the dominant prolongation uses only chord I as the auxiliary chord and the prolongation is underpinned by a dominant pedal. One of the tonic auxiliary chords takes on a 7th and one of the dominant chords takes on a 9th briefly. Both discords are resolved in the normal way. The horizontal square bracket indicates the extent of the dominant prolongation in the harmonic outline.

 



The dominant cadential harmony may be extended in two ways not usually deployed in opening section static harmony. These are the cadential 6 4 appoggiatura chord (discussed in chapter 3 (part 4)) and the cadenza. The cadenza can be anything from a simple short elaboration of the dominant chord to many bars of improvisational music. When these are used in combination, the elaboration starts during the 6 4 harmony and continues into the dominant harmony. Whatever the nature and length of the cadenza, the function is to prolong the dominant cadential harmony, thus delaying the completion of the cadence and end of the movement or section of music. The following example illustrates a brief cadenza that elaborates both the cadential 6 4 and dominant harmony:

 



The following is a full phrase example containing a dominant prolongation which extends over 7 whole bars and involves 9 auxiliary chords.

The opening section static harmony extends from bar 9 to 11, the dynamic harmony from bar 12 to 15 and the dominant prolongation from bar 16 to 22. The cadential chord I is not shown. It overlaps onto the next phrase where it forms that start of the new phrase static harmony. For an analysis of the full movement, refer to Appendix B of the Thesis section of this site.

 

This phrase can be described, in more detail, as follows:

  1. Bars 9 to 11: Opening Section static harmony: I [ VII ] I, over a tonic pedal. The auxiliary harmony here could be considered to be the result of a series of auxiliary notes only and forms a diminished 7th chord over a tonic pedal.
  2. Bars 12 to 15: Closing Section dynamic harmony: 4 α progressions and 3 β progressions. The first (β) progression is elaborated by a chromatic passing chord (see chapter 3 (part 3)) as indicated in the analysis. The brief elongation of the D minor harmony at bar 13 is not sufficiently long to constitute a syntactic element in its own right but forms part of the dynamic harmony.
  3. Bars 16 to 22: Dominant prolongation: repeated V - [ I ] - V which elaborates the cadential dominant chord for 7 whole bars.
  4. Bar 23 (not shown): Cadential chord I overlaps with the start of phrase 3.

See the thesis for how I have delimited the phrase boundaries and for further details of the analysis.

See demo 4 for an animated example of a phrase containing a dominant prolongation .

Next Section

CONTENTS