Tonal Harmony and Functional Progression
How chords acquire functions within a key and combine into goal-directed progressions.
Definition
The study of how chords take on functional roles within a key and combine into progressions that establish, depart from, and return to a tonic.
Scope
Covers the construction and labeling of triads and seventh chords, Roman-numeral and figured-bass analysis, the assignment of harmonic functions (tonic, predominant, dominant), cadences, and the syntax of chord progression that drives tonal music toward resolution. Excludes the detailed motion of individual voices, treated under voice leading.
Core questions
- How are chords built and labeled with Roman numerals and figured bass?
- What does it mean for a chord to have a tonic, predominant, or dominant function?
- How do cadences articulate harmonic phrases?
- What gives a progression its sense of direction toward resolution?
- How does functional theory differ from Roman-numeral labeling?
Key theories
- Theory of harmonic function
- Riemann reduced the chords of a key to three functional categories — tonic, subdominant (predominant), and dominant — arguing that every harmony is heard as a representative of one of these functions, a framework that complements Rameau's earlier root-based account.
History
Rameau's eighteenth-century theory of the fundamental bass identified chords by root and inversion; Riemann's late-nineteenth-century function theory regrouped them into tonic, subdominant, and dominant categories, and both strands feed modern tonal pedagogy.
Key figures
- Jean-Philippe Rameau
- Hugo Riemann
Related topics
Seminal works
- aldwell2019
- riemann1893
- rameau1971
Frequently asked questions
- What does harmonic function mean?
- It is the role a chord plays in establishing or resolving tonal tension — tonic chords feel at rest, dominant chords create tension that pulls toward the tonic, and predominant chords prepare the dominant.
- Why are Roman numerals used to label chords?
- Roman numerals identify a chord by the scale degree of its root within the prevailing key, making harmonic patterns comparable across different keys.