Tonicization through Secondary Dominant Chords

Tonicization through Secondary Dominant Chords: AP Music Theory Study Guide

Welcome, musical maestros and harmony heroes! 🎶 Prepare yourselves for an enlightening journey through the world of secondary dominants and tonicization. We’re about to explore how composers sprinkle a bit of harmonic magic to add variety and a sprinkle of surprise to their compositions. Think of it as musical teleportation, where you briefly visit another key without booking a permanent stay. 🌍🎼

Tonicization is like a mini-vacation from your primary key—it's a super brief modulation where you borrow a few notes from another key, called the secondary key. The tonic of this secondary key is known as the temporary tonic. Imagine you're chilling in C major and suddenly take a short detour to G major, enjoying the scenery before heading back home. 🏡➡️🏖️

For instance, if our home sweet home is C major, tonicizing G major would involve throwing in some chords that scream G major, like the G major chord itself or a delightful I-V-vi-IV progression, creating a cozy temporary stay before unpacking your bags back in C major.

Closely related keys are like your primary key’s BFFs—they are harmonically close and share many similar pitches and progressions, making for smooth musical transitions. Here are their main types:

• Relative Keys: These are the "twin" keys sharing the same key signature but with different tonic notes. For example, C major’s twin is A minor.🎷👯
• Dominant and Subdominant Keys: These keys are a perfect fifth apart. G major is the dominant buddy to C major, while F major hangs as the subdominant.
• Tonic and Dominant Keys: These are a perfect fourth apart. Think of F as the dominant partner to Bb, and Bb as the tonic’s cheering squad.

To determine closely related keys, imagine standing on the Circle of Fifths and looking around for friends just one accidental away. If you’re in A major, your close pals are D major, E major, and their relative minors (i.e., B minor and C# minor). It’s like figuring out who’s in your musical neighborhood block party. 🎉

Identifying tonicizations is all about keeping an eye (or ear) out for accidentals that belong to closely related keys. Notice an accidental resolving upward by step? That’s a leading tone relationship, indicating our momentary zag into a temporary tonic.

For example, picture yourself in D major, and you stumble across G#s popping up all over. 🧐 This hints at tonicization. If this G# resolves up to A, and you find A chords at the party, you’ve momentarily teleported to A major—just a step away on the Circle of Fifths. 🎯

So, why do our temporary journeys use dominant chords? Because listeners need to feel that the temporary tonic is the real deal. Dominant chords, with their fervent leading tones, pull tensions towards resolution, making the temporary tonic feel like home sweet (if fleeting) home. 🏠🎵

These dominant chords leading into temporary tonics are called secondary dominants. The most common is V/V, the dominant of the dominant chord. In C major, G is the dominant chord, and D major (V/V) momentarily teleports us to G major before we head back to our C major homeland.

Secondary dominants don't just stick to the dominant. They can also tonicize other degrees, like ii or IV. In C major, V/ii (A major) precedes D minor; V/IV could be D major resolving to F major, adding harmonic spices to your musical stew. 🌶️

If V/IV in C major doesn’t feature extra accidentals, it might hide as a simple I-IV progression. Surrounding accidentals or frequent subdominant tones can reveal if it’s actually a V/IV-IV sneak attack.

Secondary dominants often cozy up near cadences but can extend into longer tonicizations known as “cadential extensions.” These involve chains of secondary dominants, weaving intricate harmonic webs before resolving back to the main key.

Cadential extensions come in prefixes and suffixes:

• Suffixes: These extend the cadence after the dominant section. You might see V-I followed by V/ii-ii sequences, piling up the tonal interest before heading back home. Think of suffixes as the musical trail mix keeping the journey interesting. 🥨🍫
• Prefixes: These harmonic rich intros appear before the final cadence, like ii-V/IV-IV-V-I, keeping the ears guessing before the final homecoming.

Both involve chromatic adjustments to keep secondary dominants major or Major-minor seventh. In the end, it’s about enriching that final cadence with layers of harmonic goodies.

• Cadential Extension: Adding more drama to the final cadence, prolonging resolution for a dramatic flair.
• Circle of Fifths: A circular chart showing the relationship of the 12 major and minor keys through perfect fifths.
• Closely Related Keys: Keys that share many common tones, great for smooth transitions.
• I-V-vi-IV Progression: A common four-chord sequence in popular music.
• Leading Tone Relationship: The strong pull between the leading tone (seventh scale degree) and the tonic.
• Temporary Tonic: A short-lived key center used for temporary resolution.
• V/ii, V/IV chords: Secondary dominants for targeting ii or IV chords, adding harmonic interest.
• V65/V: A first inversion V7 chord in the key of the dominant scale degree.

And there you have it! Tonicization using secondary dominant chords is like your music going on a world tour, visiting exciting, closely related keys before returning home. Whether it's a fleeting trip to a relative key or a prolonged stay through cadential extension, secondary dominants make your music vibrant and dynamic. Embrace the harmonic journey, and may your compositions dance with varieties of tones and transitions! 🎊✨

Now gear up, grab your scores, and let those secondary dominants guide you through your AP Music Theory adventures!