music Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...

and

musical analysis Musical analysis is the study of musical structure in either compositions or performances. According to music theorist Ian Bent, music analysis "is the means of answering directly the question 'How does it work?'". The method employed to answer ...

, a subsidiary chord is an elaboration of a principal

harmonic A harmonic is a wave with a frequency that is a positive integer multiple of the '' fundamental frequency'', the frequency of the original periodic signal, such as a sinusoidal wave. The original signal is also called the ''1st harmonic'', ...

chord Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...

in a

chord progression In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice ...

. If the principal chord (''X'') is partially replaced by the subsidiary (''Y''), there are three possible positions - beginning, middle, and end - for the subsidiary: van der Merwe, Peter (2005). ''Roots of the Classical: The Popular Origins of Western Music'', p.501. . :''X–Y''a :''Y–X'' :''X–Y–X'' Modulation with subsidiary chord

For example, a subsidiary chord in a

modulation In electronics and telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform, called the '' carrier signal'', with a separate signal called the ''modulation signal'' that typically contains informat ...

. A subsidiary chord may be a chord with related function and/or sharing pitches, for example in E major, Cm (C-E-G) as a subsidiary for E (E-G-B), which share two of three pitches and are related as tonic parallel (vi) and tonic (I).

See also

References

Further reading