The modulations gave this piece a new perspective I've never heard before. It's incredible how much interesting harmony there is in within 6 minutes but without making the piece sound unnatural, like all the chords weave into each other so smoothly you don't even notice it to the point you get distracted.
This is amazing. The chords on top make so much easier to play the piece by heart. Beethoven was the master of modulation. Is there any other composer that clever in that realm?? I mean, other composers went crazy on modulations but LBV makes them feel natural almost imperceptible and in most cases elevate the pieces to a heavenly abstraction.
I've always found the bars 55 through 60 beautifully heartbreaking, a perfect reconsiliation with life's melancholy in a form of pure harmonic cadence.
I believe that at the time he wrote this he was heartbroken and losing his hearing... his world closing in on him. A man for whom music was his whole life, now barely able to hear the bass notes and only with the side of his head pressed tight up against the piano... and, largely, alone... with only a single student left. I think this really underscores the mood of the piece. Less romantic and more funereal. Even the notes in his original manuscript would seem to indicate that he originally intended the piece to be more funereal in tone. He left written references to Mozarts Don Juan in the manuscript, in particular the part where Don Juan kills the commander... also in C#m So I never really bought that this was simply a romantic piece intended as a love letter to Giulietta Guicciardi... I think it's probably the "moonlight" moniker _(added after his death, due to a kind comment by a reviewer)_ that has left people with a more romantic understanding of the piece than it is probably due. For me, this is piece is mournful... painful even. Capturing the true tragedy of Beethovens own life, in a way difficult to express in words.
@@emichiel1200 Interesting, because I also play this sonata and I will generally do a crescendo on the ascending diminished arpeggios and diminuendo on the descending diminished arpeggios, so the top of those arpeggios might very well be forte while the bottom is mezzo piano or whatever, to sort of emphasize the pain of those diminished chords. That's generally where I play forte in this movement. Not at the cadences(in fact, I tend to diminuendo even further at the cadences after those diminished arpeggios, cadencing in the pianissimo that's about to follow), but those areas before the cadences with the ascending and descending arpeggios around 2 octaves wide and only towards the peaks of those arpeggios. I will also play a bit forte in the melody around the double neighbor figures, again to emphasize the pain that is in this movement, though not as much or as long as with the diminished arpeggios.
Thank you for your hard work. Will be studying this. I don't think I truly began to appreciate Beethoven until I heard this piece in the context of understanding modulations.
This is brilliant it is wonderful to have all the chords listed.I am fed up reading analyses that doesn't give chords and modulations.Will you do an analyses on Bach's Air on a G String entering chords and modulations.David ,I am so happy to read your site today .Thank you again
This is beautifully and sensitively rendered... kudos to the performer. As I am studying this piece myself, the analysis is (and will continue to be) helpful -- thanks very much to the uploader!
My quick take: the key is the unusual roles. The melody starts out in the bass, it's so deep because it's so slow, and the harmony has to serve as melody because you need to keep it flowing. It's an inversion of melody and harmony. Until the bass melody turns into part of the harmony as usual starting in measure five when he adds a conventional upper register melody but keeps the pace
Beethoven asked himself why the moonlight was so famous and played so often. He said I wrote so many beautiful pieces why always the moonlight. The richness of harmony and modulations in so dense and logical that it is amazing. He loved his sonata the "appassionata" the most. Thank you for the great work done.
Thanks, this is fantastic, a great find. No stupid TH-camr waffling bullshit they read five minutes ago on Wikipedia, just a good strong harmonic analysis, exactly what I was searching for. Thank you.
Why? Because the key of B minor has been previously established. When the B minor chord turns to major and goes to E minor, we do not hear the progression as a modulation to E minor beacause it is not : the B major chord is only the V of iv in B minor. That's why you hear the E minor chord resolving nicely to B minor, it is simply a plagal cadence in B minor.
V/iv: The major (not relative) chord of the minor, so at measure 15 we're in Bminor, so Bmajor (raise the third a half step to a major third) is the V/iv
In classical theory, VI refers to the chord built on the 6th degree of a minor scale, which is a minor sixth (or flat sixth) from the root. In jazz theory you would see the label bVI but not here.
Excellent, well done! Thanks for your hard work. However, in m13 I would express the chords on beats 3 and 4 as Emin6 and Emin6/G respectively. Yes, I know the the C#half-dim7/E and C#half-dim7/G are inversions of the Emin6, but it's clear to me that since Bm is the current i chord on the first beat, the strong E in the bass on the third beat makes it the iv chord leading to the V in the next bar, leading, of course, back to i.
Fantastic! When I teach chord analysis I first use the letter name and refer to the inversion. The Roman numerals are important and refer to architecture but both symbol systems should be used.
hey is there any reason why the pivot chord, E, at 4:06 (measure 48) is represented as iii? I get why it's also I, but shouldn't it be III (for the old key--C#minor)?
A little bit late but I believe that the E pivot is intended as the I chord in E and the shift to C#m begins at the G#7, so they probably made the mistake since their focus wasn't so much on the E chord's role in the key of C#m but rather just starting the key shift analysis a chord earlier for ease of reading.
Which measures, you may very well be right, but it does depend on which measure you are talking about because in this piece Beethoven does both the e minor going to the B and vise versa
I'm struggling to understand the small numbers next to the Roman numerals. I guess they're an instruction on how to voice the chord, they only appear with slash chords, but I can't see what the numbers actually correspond to. They're neither scale degrees from the overall key centre nor extensions from the current chord. Can anyone enlighten me? Also, what is N6?
Hey, Vince: The numbers next to the chord indicate inversions. First inversion is a 6, second is a 64. For example, let’s say we’re in C major. A ii chord in C major is D F A. If you inverted it (making it a ii6), it would become F A D. If you inverted it again, it would be A D F (making it a ii64). If the chord has a seventh: root position is 7, first inversion is 65, second is 43, and third is 42. For example, if we’re looking at a V7 chord in C major, it’d be G B D F. If it was V65, it’d be B D F G, and so on. A N6 chord is known as a Neapolitan. A Neapolitan is a flat major II chord. Let’s say we’re in A minor. The iio (o meaning ‘diminished’) chord is B D F. A Neapolitan lowers the root of the chord by a half step. This means the B becomes a Bb (B flat) thus making it major. 6 indicates that it is in first inversion. Most Neapolitan chords are. Let me know if any of that was confusing!
@@tal8571 No, that's great, thanks. I was sure it related to voicing somehow. I've just looked up inversion numbering in classical music, and I now realise the numbers refer to the interval between the bass note and the other chord tones. I'm used to reading jazz chord charts, so this is all a bit new to me!
Excellent work. I thought long and hard about measures 16 and 18 and claim that we're looking at C (major) over B (first 3 beats of course). There simply is no "C" in an e minor chord, ever. It's my story and I'm sticking to it lol.
Thanks for your work, I Just didn't understand that A#°7 in the Key of B minor that u consider a vii°7 chord, why? The seventh of B minor Is A Major. Can't I consider that chord as a II° in the Key of B minor? It would be c#°
Thoughts about note names... Assume for a moment that we were to name the note C an Apple and the note D an Orange. Is there any possible way that a Sharped Apple would ever equal a Flatted Orange? But alas, in music theory, the laws of physics are suspended and we end up with sharps, flats, double sharps etc. Pitches are numbers. Durations are numbers, yet no one is defining the harmonic progression of the durations. The language of music has obscured the numbers upon which it was founded.
Hi Im just wondering if someone could confirm that the A chord in bar 40 which is labelled VI is the same as bVI in this case. Ie. in minor keys (except nat min ascend) the 6th chord is normally called a flat 6th I thought.. So is it written here as natural simply for economy - ie. it is naturally flat in minor key so no need to show accidental?
Just wondering why so many of the chords analyzed as vii (diminished 7th) are not seen as incomplete dominant minor ninth chords - V9, or in the case of secondary dominant harmony, V9/V ? etc...
+Michael Kovitz A fully diminished 7 is 3 minor thirds stacked on top of one another, e.g. Fx A# C# E. The V9 of this chord would be spelled enharmonically E G Bb Db. Around 2:37 there's an example of this. Maybe the most important reason for analyzing these chords as fully diminished vii chords is their function. In the example progression i-ii-dim6-vii dim7/V, the root of the vii chord, Fx, resolves upward to G#, just as we would expect a leading tone to do. If the chord were a V9, we'd have a chromatic (and therefore non-leading tone) line Gnat - G#. There are a few other details. V9 tends to be in root position, although it can be inverted. If Fxdim7 were rewritten as a V9, it would be in first inversion. The 9 here would be doubled, which is a little odd. Poorly spaced 9 chords can sound like dominant chords with added tones, e.g. V7 add 2. Most importantly, when you listen to the music, do you feel like the harmony is shifting or pulling you toward the V, or do you feel like you've been sitting on the dominant harmony for a while. To me, I feel the tension of the vii resolving to the V, and so it makes sense to call it a Fxdim7. Beethoven does use 9 chords sometimes. One instance you might want to check out is in the Quartet Op. 135, where he has a six-five vii dim7 chord followed by a V9.
Harry, Thanks for the input. Nothing I enjoy more than musical discussions, except maybe esoteric spiritual ones. Too bad we could not be having this one over a glass of wine. I think that an important point here is the comparison between a fully diminished 7th chord and an incomplete dominant minor 9th chord with the root note omitted. Note by note these are exactly the same. In other words, a VII dim7 and a V9 (incomplete) of the same key are exactly the same. So The question becomes what to call them. First, we have to ask, are we looking at a piece of diatonic common practice music? In the case of the Moonlight Sonata the answer is yes. The next question is, is the chord acting as a dominant to the chord its going to? if these answers are yes, experts like Walter Piston suggest they be analyzed as incomplete dominant minor 9th chords, either V chords or V of the chords they are going to, i.e. secondary or tertiary dominant harmony. If, on the other hand, the chord is not functioning as a dominant of the chord its going to, then it could be analyzed as a VII dim7. Back to my original comment; many of the chords in this analysis of the Moonlight really fit all the criterion for an incomplete dominant minor ninth chord. So why the designation of vii dim 7th? I believe this is more about a trend in contemporary analysis, i.e. changes that respond to the music of the 20th and 21st Centuries. I still believe that in analyzing diatonic common practice music of the classical romantic period, we should go with the incomplete dominant minor 9th chord. Thoughts? Regards, Michael
+Michael Kovitz I'm not sure I follow. Are you saying the VII could be a V9 without the root? Could you give an example from the score? I don't see how you could analyze any chord, let alone a V9, without the root. A V9 can be incomplete in the sense of omitting the 7, 5, or even 3, but the 1 and 9 must be present. The 1 gives the 9 context; I don't know how you can do without it, unless it's somehow implied, but even then. I don't have a copy of Piston handy but I'm skeptical that he'd regard a plain old vii dim7 as a V9 without the root, e.g. (F#) A# C# E G. If you can point me to a page, I'd be happy to take a look. But you are right in that the function is the most significant aspect, although I would argue that function is a slightly broader concept than the relation between the chord and the one that immediately follows. Harmonic rhythm is also important. I kind of hinted at it before, but here's an actual example. Look at measures 12-13. There's a common chord modulation from C major to B minor, then there's a vii - V - i progression. Under your analysis it would be a V9 - V7 - i progression, with less harmonic movement (V9 would be a coloring effect). Maybe this isn't an example you would pick, but I think it shows how harmonic rhythm can highlight what's "really" going on with the makeup of the harmony. To me, the vii analysis makes sense because there's a build up of tension, first in the modulation to the leading tone minor, then to the vii, then to the V before the tension is discharged in the i, with an appropriate lull in the harmonic rhythm--two beats of i compared to one beat for the 3 preceding chords. It makes sense also in light of the melody. The G natural of the vii chord leads to the F# of the next arpeggio, which doubles the melody's F# as a kind of surprise rather than the affirmation of a tone we should have already had in mind were the progression V9-V6/5. Vii also makes sense because the progression prolongs and then fulfills the tendency of the leading tone (A#) to resolve upward to the tonic (B). If you are indeed talking about omitting the root of V9, would you also analyze a diminished vii chord as a V7 without the root? Would a IV chord be a ii without the root?
Hi Harry, Thanks again for your response. Indeed this could turn out to be a long (and hopefully enjoyable) discussion. But perhaps the best thing I could do is to first steer you to Piston's Harmony. In the fourth edition on page 309 it states, "The dominant (minor) ninth chords are most often found with root omitted, their dominant implication being sufficiently strong whether or not the actual fifth degree (of the scale) is present." It goes on to give examples suggesting that the preferred analysis is V9 (should show a little o above the 9 but I can't do that on my puter) rather than VII (or VIIdim7). So, I would say, get your hands on a copy of Harmony and study these comparisons of the incomplete dominant minor ninth chord and the full diminished 7th chords and then we could talk further. Hope this helps...Cheers! Michael
Good video and great analysis. I have a question though: there is a mistake with the E Major as a scale right? the I of E is E and not C so it should be C Major right?
From what I understand, at 0:45 : It's written "Diatonic pivot modulation". When it switches from C# to F#, it means it goes from "i to iv". But F# also being the second note of the E Major scale, we can pretend that E Major becomes the new "i" (and F#, as written, would then be like a "ii"). Hope it's clear enough :)
Oh, and so you know, this type of modulation is called "modulation to the relative major", because E Major is the relative major of C# (like C Major with A minor)
+behindyou123456 Since no one answered you, please allow me to share my newbish insight. That was a transition, with the tonal center shifted to Bmin. A#7 is the viiº of the upcoming new root (Bmin), so it's being used as a dominant chord for the modulation. Something very interesting about what is actually on the score, as Michael Kovitz mentioned in these comments, is that the A#7 could be seen as a F#7(b9), which would make the passage much easier to understand. (By the way, the previous root, before Bmin, was not Emin, but Cmaj).
I'm not an expert but I think I could add in a different perspective. The C# note is a pedal note and seems to be the prevailing harmony here. The B-C# dyad with varying outer voice harmony make it appear to me like an inside-out pedal 6/4 chord (also called a neighboring 6/4 chord). It doesn't seem that far-fetched considering how often Beethoven uses expansion 6/4's (passing, cadential) in this piece. Also notice how the soprano and bass exchange voices, G-E and E-G. I'm of the opinion that the tonality would be the one that's most stable (C#) and not the one that's in motion (E), but ultimately I'm no Beethoven or David Bennett Thomas so what do I know? I would agree technically that if it's voiced like an Em6 then that's the tonality, right? But I think we have to consider the greater harmonic context and harmony doesn't always derive from the bass note, especially in short harmonic rhythms like this. Either way it's predominant, but by common practice standards it seems a lot more likely to use a II-7(b5) than a IV- (6/5/3/1)
And by no means am I qualified to know what a short harmonic rhythm is. I'd say an 8th note in 4/4 is definitely approaching embellishing tone territory. I guess a quarter note isn't quite so short but still I think my thinking was right haha.
Hi, seeking help in analyzing the G#sus in 4th measure. Why is the 5th also sharped? Need to know what's it called/reason behind it (music theory). Thank you.
Why is it still considered B minor at that point (bars 15-18)? It sounds to me like E minor - what exactly is it that indicates B minor? And thanks for sharing.
first off thanks for the video. secondly, is there anything else the V7 in measure 8 could be. Im analyzing this for theory and the V7 i put down was counted wrong.
+Zodiaddict It's a chord called the Neopolitan chord. It was Beethoven's favourite chord in minor and I think it is very beautiful. The neopolitan chord is a major chord, found by going a half step up from tonic. In C# minor it is D major. The neopolitan chord has a pre-dominant function, just as F# minor and D# dim. Google "neopolitan chord" and you'll find more information!
unfortunately I expected an actual analysis of this piece, not just a transcription. do you have any videos where you discuss what's happening in these classical pieces harmonically?
The analysis is spot on. The interpretation leaves a lot to be desired. The tempo is one of the most commonly misinterpreted aspects of this movement unfortunately. In Beethoven's own handwriting on the original score a quarter note is equal to 52-60 bmp. And why does almost every pianst play the triplets completely incorrectly in the descending lines in measures 36 and 37? And again during the coda? Sigh. This work is one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted classical pieces of all time. It's very frustrating
The triplet figures are often times reinterpreted as straight eight notes. They loose their effect when this happens and so many people play them this way. It is important to keep the first note of each triplet slightly accented in order not to loose the triplet emphasis. In sections I hear 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2 not 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3. It is what Beethoven intended. Who are we to negotiate with the Masters intentions?
Crap. This is not easy to play at all, even though it's a slow tempo. Chords do make it easier to see the pattern. Did Beethoven download this piece from the Morphogenetic Field of his era? What a genius!
The modulations gave this piece a new perspective I've never heard before. It's incredible how much interesting harmony there is in within 6 minutes but without making the piece sound unnatural, like all the chords weave into each other so smoothly you don't even notice it to the point you get distracted.
This is amazing. The chords on top make so much easier to play the piece by heart.
Beethoven was the master of modulation. Is there any other composer that clever in that realm??
I mean, other composers went crazy on modulations but LBV makes them feel natural almost imperceptible and in most cases elevate the pieces to a heavenly abstraction.
I've always found the bars 55 through 60 beautifully heartbreaking, a perfect reconsiliation with life's melancholy in a form of pure harmonic cadence.
I believe that at the time he wrote this he was heartbroken and losing his hearing... his world closing in on him. A man for whom music was his whole life, now barely able to hear the bass notes and only with the side of his head pressed tight up against the piano... and, largely, alone... with only a single student left.
I think this really underscores the mood of the piece.
Less romantic and more funereal. Even the notes in his original manuscript would seem to indicate that he originally intended the piece to be more funereal in tone. He left written references to Mozarts Don Juan in the manuscript, in particular the part where Don Juan kills the commander... also in C#m
So I never really bought that this was simply a romantic piece intended as a love letter to Giulietta Guicciardi... I think it's probably the "moonlight" moniker _(added after his death, due to a kind comment by a reviewer)_ that has left people with a more romantic understanding of the piece than it is probably due.
For me, this is piece is mournful... painful even. Capturing the true tragedy of Beethovens own life, in a way difficult to express in words.
That's the only place where I like playing a more forte. Beautiful cadence !
@@emichiel1200 Interesting, because I also play this sonata and I will generally do a crescendo on the ascending diminished arpeggios and diminuendo on the descending diminished arpeggios, so the top of those arpeggios might very well be forte while the bottom is mezzo piano or whatever, to sort of emphasize the pain of those diminished chords. That's generally where I play forte in this movement.
Not at the cadences(in fact, I tend to diminuendo even further at the cadences after those diminished arpeggios, cadencing in the pianissimo that's about to follow), but those areas before the cadences with the ascending and descending arpeggios around 2 octaves wide and only towards the peaks of those arpeggios. I will also play a bit forte in the melody around the double neighbor figures, again to emphasize the pain that is in this movement, though not as much or as long as with the diminished arpeggios.
Muy bien dicho
Reconciliación con la vida, eso sentía yo siempre en esa parte y no sabía cómo poder expresarlo con palabras
The coughing at measures 48 & 49 are in C#, I think.
Good catch haha
Sounds like an arpeggio of C#m's 3rd inversion to me XD
The guy even coughs on time, over the right C#minors!!!
A good recording must have a cough. By norm 😅😅
The analysis of one of the most beautiful movements in the history of classical music!!! Great!
4:50 Bar 57 where the bass mimics bar 54 and by doing so creates such unique passing chords, due to the stark shift in harmonic rhythm. - amazing
Thank you for your hard work. Will be studying this. I don't think I truly began to appreciate Beethoven until I heard this piece in the context of understanding modulations.
This is brilliant it is wonderful to have all the chords listed.I am fed up reading analyses that doesn't give chords and modulations.Will you do an analyses on Bach's Air on a G String entering chords and modulations.David ,I am so happy to read your site today .Thank you again
th-cam.com/video/NGmQixzNdu0/w-d-xo.html&ab_channel=ByronWeigelMusicTheory
There you go
This is beautifully and sensitively rendered... kudos to the performer. As I am studying this piece myself, the analysis is (and will continue to be) helpful -- thanks very much to the uploader!
This is the best tutorial for this piece. You made it very clear with all the chord names. Thank you very much!!
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Great exercise for composers!
My quick take: the key is the unusual roles. The melody starts out in the bass, it's so deep because it's so slow, and the harmony has to serve as melody because you need to keep it flowing. It's an inversion of melody and harmony. Until the bass melody turns into part of the harmony as usual starting in measure five when he adds a conventional upper register melody but keeps the pace
Beautiful, detailed analysis of a masterpiece. Thanks!
Beethoven asked himself why the moonlight was so famous and played so often. He said I wrote so many beautiful pieces why always the moonlight. The richness of harmony and modulations in so dense and logical that it is amazing. He loved his sonata the "appassionata" the most. Thank you for the great work done.
Great Video! Always cool to look at a score, analyzed! Thanks again, David!
Very helpful. The double labelling of chords is particularly useful!
Thank you David!! Beautiful chords progressions 😊
Thanks, this is fantastic, a great find. No stupid TH-camr waffling bullshit they read five minutes ago on Wikipedia, just a good strong harmonic analysis, exactly what I was searching for. Thank you.
fantastic interpretation!full of grace...thank you for the analysis
This is really helpful, thanks for posting.
Thank You David Bennet Thomas !!
Why? Because the key of B minor has been previously established. When the B minor chord turns to major and goes to E minor, we do not hear the progression as a modulation to E minor beacause it is not : the B major chord is only the V of iv in B minor. That's why you hear the E minor chord resolving nicely to B minor, it is simply a plagal cadence in B minor.
I liked this performance of the movement very very much!
V/iv: The major (not relative) chord of the minor, so at measure 15 we're in Bminor, so Bmajor (raise the third a half step to a major third) is the V/iv
In classical theory, VI refers to the chord built on the 6th degree of a minor scale, which is a minor sixth (or flat sixth) from the root. In jazz theory you would see the label bVI but not here.
Beautiful beyond words
Excellent, well done! Thanks for your hard work. However, in m13 I would express the chords on beats 3 and 4 as Emin6 and Emin6/G respectively. Yes, I know the the C#half-dim7/E and C#half-dim7/G are inversions of the Emin6, but it's clear to me that since Bm is the current i chord on the first beat, the strong E in the bass on the third beat makes it the iv chord leading to the V in the next bar, leading, of course, back to i.
Fantastic! When I teach chord analysis I first use the letter name and refer to the inversion. The Roman numerals are important and refer to architecture but both symbol systems should be used.
hey is there any reason why the pivot chord, E, at 4:06 (measure 48) is represented as iii? I get why it's also I, but shouldn't it be III (for the old key--C#minor)?
A little bit late but I believe that the E pivot is intended as the I chord in E and the shift to C#m begins at the G#7, so they probably made the mistake since their focus wasn't so much on the E chord's role in the key of C#m but rather just starting the key shift analysis a chord earlier for ease of reading.
Thank you for this video, I'm trying to analyze the whole piece as i type and this will definitely be helpful
These chords are wonderful.. It's so fascinating this was written 300 years ago and still it's so relatable..!
Que gran trabajo, Felicitaciones Maestro.
Never is late to learn.
Thanks! No more I can say about your channel‼
From Argentina, a City on feet of Aconcagua.
I'm pretty sure we also can regard bar 16 as a N6 (C major over a pedal point b resp. e minor with 6th over B major)
Fantastic playing. Reminds Richter's version.
Excellent Chords progression partition
Awesome thank you very very much, is there any PDF sheet or document so that i can´t stop sketching my music sheet? haha Remarkable work thanks again
it's the vii7 of the next V chord .. its call Double-Dominant and you can find it as DDvii7 in some books.
Which measures, you may very well be right, but it does depend on which measure you are talking about because in this piece Beethoven does both the e minor going to the B and vise versa
What makes it so beautiful?
Beethoven's sauce
@@guilhermeassef8028 here I thought it was hearing and feeling another person's soul. Which I guess is Beethoven sauce in a nutshell.
Thank you for this! Also, just nit picking, but shouldn't the diatonic pivot modulation at 4:10 read: I/III - as in capital III for E major?
This is the best thing since sliced bread!
Thanks for this new English expression. I liked it.
Thank you. Very helpful, even 10 years later :-)
This is amazing. I absolutely suck at piano but this ispure inspiration. My god can this chick play!
Understood. Thank you kindly for the prompt response - and for all your videos!
I'm struggling to understand the small numbers next to the Roman numerals. I guess they're an instruction on how to voice the chord, they only appear with slash chords, but I can't see what the numbers actually correspond to. They're neither scale degrees from the overall key centre nor extensions from the current chord. Can anyone enlighten me? Also, what is N6?
Hey, Vince:
The numbers next to the chord indicate inversions. First inversion is a 6, second is a 64. For example, let’s say we’re in C major. A ii chord in C major is D F A. If you inverted it (making it a ii6), it would become F A D. If you inverted it again, it would be A D F (making it a ii64).
If the chord has a seventh: root position is 7, first inversion is 65, second is 43, and third is 42. For example, if we’re looking at a V7 chord in C major, it’d be G B D F. If it was V65, it’d be B D F G, and so on.
A N6 chord is known as a Neapolitan. A Neapolitan is a flat major II chord. Let’s say we’re in A minor. The iio (o meaning ‘diminished’) chord is B D F. A Neapolitan lowers the root of the chord by a half step. This means the B becomes a Bb (B flat) thus making it major. 6 indicates that it is in first inversion. Most Neapolitan chords are.
Let me know if any of that was confusing!
@@tal8571 No, that's great, thanks. I was sure it related to voicing somehow. I've just looked up inversion numbering in classical music, and I now realise the numbers refer to the interval between the bass note and the other chord tones. I'm used to reading jazz chord charts, so this is all a bit new to me!
Thank you 😊😊😊 very much for analysis. 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Thank you for this.
Merci pour cette superbe version, intelligente et sensible ;-)
Amitiés collégiales.
Philippe
speechless..
Excellent work. I thought long and hard about measures 16 and 18 and claim that we're looking at C (major) over B (first 3 beats of course). There simply is no "C" in an e minor chord, ever. It's my story and I'm sticking to it lol.
Stick to your guns!🙂
What would I have to get a PDF of this analysis??
Magnífico!
Thx a lot. Valuable informations !
wow! best channel on youtube. At least for me
thank you
N6 - Neopolitan 6 - triad built on lowered supertonic
Wonderful job Mr Thomas !!could I get the PDF of these analysis??many thanks!
Thanks for your work, I Just didn't understand that A#°7 in the Key of B minor that u consider a vii°7 chord, why? The seventh of B minor Is A Major. Can't I consider that chord as a II° in the Key of B minor? It would be c#°
Just discovered this analysis an channel. GREAT , subscribing, commenting, like ... NO WORDS TO SAY TKS. God keep on blessing you
2nd Moviment?
Thank you very much for this wonderful analysis. Publishing any sheet music without chord names is a Major Crime.
Thoughts about note names... Assume for a moment that we were to name the note C an Apple and the note D an Orange. Is there any possible way that a Sharped Apple would ever equal a Flatted Orange? But alas, in music theory, the laws of physics are suspended and we end up with sharps, flats, double sharps etc. Pitches are numbers. Durations are numbers, yet no one is defining the harmonic progression of the durations. The language of music has obscured the numbers upon which it was founded.
Could you help me understand Bar 34? Thank u F x dim 7 what’s the chords?
Hi Im just wondering if someone could confirm that the A chord in bar 40 which is labelled VI is the same as bVI in this case. Ie. in minor keys (except nat min ascend) the 6th chord is normally called a flat 6th I thought.. So is it written here as natural simply for economy - ie. it is naturally flat in minor key so no need to show accidental?
is there a way to get these partition with chords progression I mean....
two beats per measure, it is cut common time not common time.
Just wondering why so many of the chords analyzed as vii (diminished 7th) are not seen as incomplete dominant minor ninth chords - V9, or in the case of secondary dominant harmony, V9/V ? etc...
+Michael Kovitz A fully diminished 7 is 3 minor thirds stacked on top of one another, e.g. Fx A# C# E. The V9 of this chord would be spelled enharmonically E G Bb Db. Around 2:37 there's an example of this.
Maybe the most important reason for analyzing these chords as fully diminished vii chords is their function. In the example progression i-ii-dim6-vii dim7/V, the root of the vii chord, Fx, resolves upward to G#, just as we would expect a leading tone to do. If the chord were a V9, we'd have a chromatic (and therefore non-leading tone) line Gnat - G#.
There are a few other details.
V9 tends to be in root position, although it can be inverted. If Fxdim7 were rewritten as a V9, it would be in first inversion.
The 9 here would be doubled, which is a little odd. Poorly spaced 9 chords can sound like dominant chords with added tones, e.g. V7 add 2.
Most importantly, when you listen to the music, do you feel like the harmony is shifting or pulling you toward the V, or do you feel like you've been sitting on the dominant harmony for a while. To me, I feel the tension of the vii resolving to the V, and so it makes sense to call it a Fxdim7.
Beethoven does use 9 chords sometimes. One instance you might want to check out is in the Quartet Op. 135, where he has a six-five vii dim7 chord followed by a V9.
Harry, Thanks for the input. Nothing I enjoy more than musical discussions, except maybe esoteric spiritual ones. Too bad we could not be having this one over a glass of wine. I think that an important point here is the comparison between a fully diminished 7th chord and an incomplete dominant minor 9th chord with the root note omitted. Note by note these are exactly the same. In other words, a VII dim7 and a V9 (incomplete) of the same key are exactly the same. So The question becomes what to call them. First, we have to ask, are we looking at a piece of diatonic common practice music? In the case of the Moonlight Sonata the answer is yes. The next question is, is the chord acting as a dominant to the chord its going to? if these answers are yes, experts like Walter Piston suggest they be analyzed as incomplete dominant minor 9th chords, either V chords or V of the chords they are going to, i.e. secondary or tertiary dominant harmony. If, on the other hand, the chord is not functioning as a dominant of the chord its going to, then it could be analyzed as a VII dim7. Back to my original comment; many of the chords in this analysis of the Moonlight really fit all the criterion for an incomplete dominant minor ninth chord. So why the designation of vii dim 7th? I believe this is more about a trend in contemporary analysis, i.e. changes that respond to the music of the 20th and 21st Centuries. I still believe that in analyzing diatonic common practice music of the classical romantic period, we should go with the incomplete dominant minor 9th chord. Thoughts? Regards, Michael
+Michael Kovitz I'm not sure I follow. Are you saying the VII could be a V9 without the root? Could you give an example from the score? I don't see how you could analyze any chord, let alone a V9, without the root. A V9 can be incomplete in the sense of omitting the 7, 5, or even 3, but the 1 and 9 must be present. The 1 gives the 9 context; I don't know how you can do without it, unless it's somehow implied, but even then.
I don't have a copy of Piston handy but I'm skeptical that he'd regard a plain old vii dim7 as a V9 without the root, e.g. (F#) A# C# E G. If you can point me to a page, I'd be happy to take a look.
But you are right in that the function is the most significant aspect, although I would argue that function is a slightly broader concept than the relation between the chord and the one that immediately follows.
Harmonic rhythm is also important. I kind of hinted at it before, but here's an actual example. Look at measures 12-13. There's a common chord modulation from C major to B minor, then there's a vii - V - i progression. Under your analysis it would be a V9 - V7 - i progression, with less harmonic movement (V9 would be a coloring effect). Maybe this isn't an example you would pick, but I think it shows how harmonic rhythm can highlight what's "really" going on with the makeup of the harmony.
To me, the vii analysis makes sense because there's a build up of tension, first in the modulation to the leading tone minor, then to the vii, then to the V before the tension is discharged in the i, with an appropriate lull in the harmonic rhythm--two beats of i compared to one beat for the 3 preceding chords.
It makes sense also in light of the melody. The G natural of the vii chord leads to the F# of the next arpeggio, which doubles the melody's F# as a kind of surprise rather than the affirmation of a tone we should have already had in mind were the progression V9-V6/5.
Vii also makes sense because the progression prolongs and then fulfills the tendency of the leading tone (A#) to resolve upward to the tonic (B).
If you are indeed talking about omitting the root of V9, would you also analyze a diminished vii chord as a V7 without the root? Would a IV chord be a ii without the root?
Hi Harry, Thanks again for your response. Indeed this could turn out to be a long (and hopefully enjoyable) discussion. But perhaps the best thing I could do is to first steer you to Piston's Harmony. In the fourth edition on page 309 it states, "The dominant (minor) ninth chords are most often found with root omitted, their dominant implication being sufficiently strong whether or not the actual fifth degree (of the scale) is present." It goes on to give examples suggesting that the preferred analysis is V9 (should show a little o above the 9 but I can't do that on my puter) rather than VII (or VIIdim7). So, I would say, get your hands on a copy of Harmony and study these comparisons of the incomplete dominant minor ninth chord and the full diminished 7th chords and then we could talk further. Hope this helps...Cheers! Michael
Thank you so much for this!
Excellent!! Can I get a pdf of your analysis?
Good video and great analysis.
I have a question though:
there is a mistake with the E Major as a scale right? the I of E is E and not C so it should be C Major right?
From what I understand, at 0:45 : It's written "Diatonic pivot modulation". When it switches from C# to F#, it means it goes from "i to iv". But F# also being the second note of the E Major scale, we can pretend that E Major becomes the new "i" (and F#, as written, would then be like a "ii").
Hope it's clear enough :)
Oh, and so you know, this type of modulation is called "modulation to the relative major", because E Major is the relative major of C# (like C Major with A minor)
Any idea where i can get the analysis for the 2nd and 3rd movements? Thanks!
At 1:11 how did A#7 appear? Isn't Emin the root?
+behindyou123456 Since no one answered you, please allow me to share my newbish insight. That was a transition, with the tonal center shifted to Bmin. A#7 is the viiº of the upcoming new root (Bmin), so it's being used as a dominant chord for the modulation. Something very interesting about what is actually on the score, as Michael Kovitz mentioned in these comments, is that the A#7 could be seen as a F#7(b9), which would make the passage much easier to understand. (By the way, the previous root, before Bmin, was not Emin, but Cmaj).
Isn't that a neapolitan chord with a 7 (Bb/A#)? We're in B, so the neapolitan would be C.
I can hear that there some CouGh Majors not written in the analysis
why there are C#7/E and C#7 in bar 13? more simple way is Em6 and Em6/G or i don't understand something?
I agree, although they're not C#7, they're C# half-diminished. Still, the harmonic function there is clearly the iv chord, Em6
I'm not an expert but I think I could add in a different perspective.
The C# note is a pedal note and seems to be the prevailing harmony here. The B-C# dyad with varying outer voice harmony make it appear to me like an inside-out pedal 6/4 chord (also called a neighboring 6/4 chord). It doesn't seem that far-fetched considering how often Beethoven uses expansion 6/4's (passing, cadential) in this piece. Also notice how the soprano and bass exchange voices, G-E and E-G. I'm of the opinion that the tonality would be the one that's most stable (C#) and not the one that's in motion (E), but ultimately I'm no Beethoven or David Bennett Thomas so what do I know?
I would agree technically that if it's voiced like an Em6 then that's the tonality, right? But I think we have to consider the greater harmonic context and harmony doesn't always derive from the bass note, especially in short harmonic rhythms like this. Either way it's predominant, but by common practice standards it seems a lot more likely to use a II-7(b5) than a IV- (6/5/3/1)
And by no means am I qualified to know what a short harmonic rhythm is. I'd say an 8th note in 4/4 is definitely approaching embellishing tone territory. I guess a quarter note isn't quite so short but still I think my thinking was right haha.
I haven't notice how jazzy this piece is.
Or alternatively how much jazz borrows from romanticism
Try schoenberg hehe, so jazz.
Jazz take from the classical and barroque masters for its kind way of music
Reportedly, John Lennon was inspired to write “Because” by this piece. Legend has it that he asked Yoko Ono to play it backwards and riffed on that.
Hi, seeking help in analyzing the G#sus in 4th measure. Why is the 5th also sharped? Need to know what's it called/reason behind it (music theory). Thank you.
i think its a 4th reserve cause then in the next chord it resolves in the third of the g sharp major chord
Thank you very much! Is it possible to obtain a copy of the written Harmonic Analysis?
KG
thank you,really helps me
I dont understan what you mean by the F double sharp at 27 and do forth in other areas as well, how is it a vii7/V chord?
geniuss!!!! thank you so much
0:35
It isn't beautiful how this piece moves around modulations?
Could you suggest a list or an order in which you consider that your videos and analyzes are more appreciable or more profitable. Thank you
Thank you very much !
Why is it still considered B minor at that point (bars 15-18)? It sounds to me like E minor - what exactly is it that indicates B minor?
And thanks for sharing.
first off thanks for the video. secondly, is there anything else the V7 in measure 8 could be. Im analyzing this for theory and the V7 i put down was counted wrong.
How is the 4th chord in the song D/F# when it uses a natural A. F# major is F# A# C#
+Zodiaddict It's a chord called the Neopolitan chord. It was Beethoven's favourite chord in minor and I think it is very beautiful.
The neopolitan chord is a major chord, found by going a half step up from tonic. In C# minor it is D major. The neopolitan chord has a pre-dominant function, just as F# minor and D# dim. Google "neopolitan chord" and you'll find more information!
D/F# means D Major with an F# in the bass, not F# Major with a D
Exactly. That's what it is analysed as. The Neapolitan chord will almost always been in first inversion.
And it isn't a song. It's the first movement of a Sonata. Huge difference. D major = D F# A in root position.
shouldn't the (E#7/G#) be minor?
I so wanna learn how to play this on my autoharp
Very helpful! Thanks.
Oh thank you
Hey David, Is there a difference between enclosures and "double neighbors" (as indicated in measures 52 and 54)?
unfortunately I expected an actual analysis of this piece, not just a transcription. do you have any videos where you discuss what's happening in these classical pieces harmonically?
yes thats what i expected
Hello, which system of analysis do you use, Riemann or Erpf or some other?
J'aime bien l'harmonica
The analysis is spot on. The interpretation leaves a lot to be desired. The tempo is one of the most commonly misinterpreted aspects of this movement unfortunately. In Beethoven's own handwriting on the original score a quarter note is equal to 52-60 bmp. And why does almost every pianst play the triplets completely incorrectly in the descending lines in measures 36 and 37? And again during the coda? Sigh. This work is one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted classical pieces of all time. It's very frustrating
At least there's pianists like andras Schiff and Rudolph Serkin
The triplet figures are often times reinterpreted as straight eight notes. They loose their effect when this happens and so many people play them this way. It is important to keep the first note of each triplet slightly accented in order not to loose the triplet emphasis. In sections I hear 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2 not 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3. It is what Beethoven intended. Who are we to negotiate with the Masters intentions?
All relative. Pleasure is the law according to however a person desires to play or interpret it.
What does N mean ??
Neapolitan 6
Crap. This is not easy to play at all, even though it's a slow tempo. Chords do make it easier to see the pattern. Did Beethoven download this piece from the Morphogenetic Field of his era? What a genius!
4:10
coUgH hAck
Who is the performer?
+Peter Tarsio Tiffany Poon
What does N6 mean in bar 21
+Bethany Mulley Neapolitan 6th? I had to look it up.
+Bethany Mulley If you're still wondering its a Neapolitan chord (major chord built on a flat scale degree 2) in first inversion