music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

, the mediant (''Latin'': "being in the middle") is the third

scale degree In music theory, the scale degree is the position of a particular note on a scale relative to the tonic—the first and main note of the scale from which each octave is assumed to begin. Degrees are useful for indicating the size of intervals ...

() of a

diatonic scale In music theory a diatonic scale is a heptatonic scale, heptatonic (seven-note) scale that includes five whole steps (whole tones) and two half steps (semitones) in each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by eith ...

, being the note halfway between the tonic and the dominant.Benward & Saker (2003), p.32. In the movable do solfège system, the mediant note is sung as ''mi''. While the fifth scale degree is almost always a perfect fifth, the mediant can be a

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

minor third In music theory, a minor third is a interval (music), musical interval that encompasses three half steps, or semitones. Staff notation represents the minor third as encompassing three staff positions (see: interval (music)#Number, interval numb ...

. Schenkerian analysts consider the ''mediant'' (third scale degree) as an expansion or extension of the tonic since they are both common tones of the tonic chord. Thus, the third degree of a tonic triad is also the mediant iii note; furthermore, the 5th degree of the

submediant In music, the submediant is the sixth degree () of a diatonic scale. The submediant ("lower mediant") is named thus because it is halfway between the tonic and the subdominant ("lower dominant") or because its position below the tonic is symm ...

chord vi is also the mediant iii note. On the other hand, in German theory derived from Hugo Riemann the mediant in major is considered the dominant parallel, Dp, and in minor the tonic parallel, tP. In

Roman numeral analysis In music theory, Roman numeral analysis is a type of Harmony, harmonic analysis in which chord (music), chords are represented by Roman numerals, which encode the chord's Degree (music), degree and Function_(music), harmonic function within a given ...

, the mediant chord can take several forms. In

major scale The major scale (or Ionian mode) is one of the most commonly used musical scales, especially in Western music. It is one of the diatonic scales. Like many musical scales, it is made up of seven notes: the eighth duplicates the first at doubl ...

s, the mediant chord is a minor triad and is symbolized with the

Roman numeral Roman numerals are a numeral system that originated in ancient Rome and remained the usual way of writing numbers throughout Europe well into the Late Middle Ages. Numbers are written with combinations of letters from the Latin alphabet, ea ...

iii. In natural minor scales, the mediant is a major triad and is symbolized with the Roman numeral III. In harmonic minor scales and ascending melodic minor scales, the seventh scale degree is raised by a half step from the subtonic b7 to the leading tone natural 7, creating an augmented triad that is symbolized with the Roman numeral bIII+ (flat III augmented). The term ''mediant'' also refers to a relationship of musical keys. For example, relative to the key of A minor, the key of C major is the mediant, and it often serves as a mid-way point between I and V (hence the name). Tonicization or

modulation Signal modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform in electronics and telecommunication for the purpose of transmitting information. The process encodes information in form of the modulation or message ...

to the mediant is quite common in pieces written in the minor mode and usually serves as the second theme group in

sonata form The sonata form (also sonata-allegro form or first movement form) is a musical form, musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of t ...

since it is very easy to tonicize III in minor. Tonicization of III in major is quite rare in early classical harmony, compared with, say, modulation to the dominant V or the subdominant IV in major. It becomes more common in late Haydn and

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

and normal by middle-period

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

. Mediant tonicization in major is an important feature of Romantic music.

References

Diatonic functions 3 {{music theory stub

See also

References