4/24/16, 1:41 PMPartwriting help III | Music Theory Blog

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9th March 2007Here's the next in a series of posts designed to help students in search of partwriting help. In this post, I will discuss thenotorious second inversion chords, or 6/4 chords (to use the figured bass). 6/4 chords are an unusually difficult topic,I've found, and I hope this post will clarify their use.

First, it is important to know that 6/4 chords are extremely unstable, unlike root-position or first-inversion chords. Youcould begin and end a piece on a root position chord and the piece would sound complete. You could not begin andend a piece on a second-inversion chord (in the common practice era) and have it sound final and complete. This lackof closure is due to the origins of the 6/4 chords in a variety of embellishing (non-chord) tones.

There are four types of 6/4 chords in common usage, each with its roots in a particular embellishing tone. The first typeof 6/4 chord, and probably the most common is the cadential 6/4 chord. The cadential 6/4 is so called because itoccurs most commonly at cadences. The cadential 6/4 chord originated from suspensions, as shown in the examplebelow.

[http://bp2.blogger.com/_J1R3uEl1Kxg/RfHCDjJZWBI/AAAAAAAAAAU/3AuPEYbUQOs/s1600-h/cad64.JPG] **You may wish to right-click on the image and open it in a new window: it will be larger and you may be better able totoggle back and forth between the text and the example.

In the first two measures (labeled (1)), we have a perfect authentic cadence written in four voices. If we suspend thenotes of the tonic triad over the dominant bass, we get the cadential 6/4. The E and the C are retained from the tonicchord in the first half of the measure and they reappear over the bass G in the second measure of (2). The E resolvesdown to D, and the C resolves down to B: D and B in combination with the G produce the dominant chord. Notice thedoubled G in the second chord: you should always double the bass in a 6/4 chord.

Also, notice the figures I use under the G in the bass: I use a roman numeral V to indicate the dominant harmony. 6-5and 4-3 both indicate linear motions (i.e., suspensions) over the bass note of the V chord. There is an importantdifference between this figuration and V 6/4, which (in the key of C major) could be interpreted as a G major chord witha D in the bass. The hyphens (6-5 and 4-3) are key in making this distinction.

At some point in history, other chords began to intervene between the initial tonic and the cadential 6/4. As a result, itlost some of its suspension-like qualities. (3) above shows a cadential 6/4 chord with a ii6 chord in between the initialtonic and the cadential 6/4. In (4) above, the cadential 6/4 resolves to a V7 chord: note the figuration which shows 8-7,6-5, and 4-3.

The next type of commonly encountered 6/4 chord is the passing 6/4 chord. The passing 6/4 came about as a resultof passing tones between a bass arpeggiation of a triad. The example below illustrates.

Partwriting help III

4/24/16, 1:41 PMPartwriting help III | Music Theory Blog

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[http://bp3.blogger.com/_J1R3uEl1Kxg/RfHFrzJZWCI/AAAAAAAAAAc/E0aTDwC9ZH0/s1600-h/pass64.JPG] The first two measures feature a voice exchange that prolongs the tonic harmony. The voice exchange occurs betweenthe soprano and the bass: the C in the bass in the first measure is transferred to the soprano in m. 2; the E in thesoprano in m. 1 is transferred to the bass in m. 2. To smooth out the voice leading, we add a passing tone, D, in thebass (highlighted in yellow). To give the D a little more oomph, we can harmonize it with notes from the dominant triad,as shown in the last two measures. Notice that I didn't call this chord a V 6/4 for two reasons: first, I want to emphasizeits embellishing role. It's nowhere near as structurally important as the two tonic chords on either side. Second, I wantto avoid confusion with the cadential 6/4 figures given above.

The next kind of 6/4 chord is the neighboring 6/4 (also called the pedal 6/4). As you may have guessed, this 6/4chord has origins in neighbor tones and pedal tones. The example below illustrates.

[http://bp2.blogger.com/_J1R3uEl1Kxg/RfHH1jJZWDI/AAAAAAAAAAk/MY_l7Si9Ji0/s1600-h/n64.JPG]

We call this the neighboring 6/4 chord because the alto and tenor voices go up by step in the second half of the firstmeasure and return from the notes they came in the second measure. Here again, I didn't label the harmony as a IV6/4: I used n 6/4 to show its weak stature and to emphasize its role in prolonging the tonic harmony. One could alsonotated the linear motions of the voices as I did in the second half of the example. This 6/4 chord is also called thepedal 6/4 chord because the bass does not change (much like a pedal tone).

The final type of 6/4 chord in common usage is the arpeggiated 6/4. The arpeggiated 6/4 occurs when the bass line isarpeggiating a triad.

4/24/16, 1:41 PMPartwriting help III | Music Theory Blog

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[http://bp3.blogger.com/_J1R3uEl1Kxg/RfHJuzJZWEI/AAAAAAAAAAs/fjf7YeWbqNo/s1600-h/arp64.JPG] In the first two measures, the bass line is arpeggiating a tonic triad (note that I used only one roman numeral to indicatethat the fundamental harmony stays the same; only the inversions change). The arpeggiated 6/4 occurs when the fifthof the chord is in the bass (on the first half of m. 2). The second two measures illustrate perhaps the most commonoccurence of the arpeggiated 6/4 chord (especially if you're a bass player!): in oom-pah or boom-chick figures. Inmeasure 1, the tonic harmony remains in force through the whole measure, and we get the fifth of the chord in the basson the second half of the measure. In measure 2, we get the fifth of the chord in the bass on the downbeat of themeasure, and dominant harmony fills the measure.

In summary:

There are four kinds of 6/4 chords: cadential, passing, neighboring, and arpeggiated.

All 6/4 chords are substantially less stable than root-position or first-inversion triads. (In fact, some would arguethat they're not chords at all but rather amalgamations of embellishing tones.)

The cadential 6/4 always occurs in a metrically strong position. The passing and neighboring 6/4 chords virtuallyalways occur in weak metrical positions. The arpeggiated chord can occur in strong or weak metrical positions.

Always double the fifth of the chord in 6/4 chords. The fifth of the chord is equivalent to the bass note in all cases.

Posted 9th March 2007 by Michael Berry

Labels: Partwriting help

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Daniel Roca 12:44 PM

HI. I would like to comment on the labelling of cadential 6/4 chords. The form that is used here (one of the mostwidespread ones) can IMO be somehow misleading and I would like to share an alternative solution that we used inthe IEM (www.iem.es), an organization devoted to the renovation of musical pedagogy.1. In the basic examples shown here the labelling can seem sufficient, although it can of course be confused bybeginners with the second inversion of V2. But, more important, if you have to label a passage where there is a long distance, and specially when there areembellishment chords between cad 6/4 and resolution, this solution seems unpractical to me.

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What we use instead is to put the suspensions in parenthesis, such es (6) 5 (6) 7(4) 3 (4) +V Vand so on. This way, the embellishing notes are crearly distinguished, and the chord's main structure is visible, if youmentally ignore parenthesis, (a common practice in reading texts of all kind.

An interesting side effect is that you can use the parenthesis always when you feel the need to label embellishmentsof any kind, Simplifying the labelling system. For example, you could label a 6-suspension(6) 5V____

or any other formation such as5 (6) 53 (4) 3i______

We didnt invent this kind of label. We took it from DESPORTES, Yvonne (1975): Précis d'analyse harmonique. Paris.Heugel

Just my 2 cts worth. Thank you for your article

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Michael Berry 1:22 PM

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for your clear and thoughtful comments. Using parentheses seems like an easy, clear way of distinguishingembellishing tones from more structural pitches. Schenker does a fair amount of this in his analyses for similarreasons: it is suggestive of a hierarchy.

MB

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