Group 1
ENHANCE YOUR INTERPRETATIONS THROUGH HARMONIC ANALYSIS WITH BEN LAUDE
Led by tonebase Head of Piano Ben Laude, youâll also be receiving direct feedback from two special guests: Curtis/Juilliard music theory professor and new tonebase artist Eric Wen and pianist/composer/Indiana University music faculty member and tonebase blogger Nicole DiPaolo!
This Intensive is meant for pianists of different skill levels and music theory backgrounds. If youâre new to music analysis, youâll find all the prerequisite knowledge youâll need and more in Ben Laudeâs âMusic Theory Basicsâ course.
Whether youâre just getting your feet wet with Roman numeral analysis, want a better grasp of figured bass, or youâre ready to ascend to the high art of Schenkerian analysis, you WILL improve your skills in music theory and analysis.
Assignments
Follow these steps:
- Submit a piece/passage for approval! Choose a piece of tonal music whose harmony youâd like to understand better. It can be a piece youâre working on, or just one youâd enjoy. For longer works, choose a section that youâd like to focus on.
- Attempt a roman numeral analysis! Begin identifying harmonies and labeling them with roman numerals, either directly to your printed score or digitally using a PDF annotation app. See below for more details (1a, 1b)
- Post your analyses to the thread for feedback! Either take a picture of your handwritten analyses or save a digitally-annotated analyses and upload into the thread below, along with any questions you might have for me, Eric, or Nicole.
- Recommended: Let's hear how your interpretation evolves with your analysis! Post videos to show how your harmonic understanding is influencing your performance.
- Optional: Try out formal analysis, chordal reduction, and more! If you've completed a harmonic analysis and are satisfied with it, move on to analyzing the form of your piece, attempt a chordal reduction, or explore other analytic techniques. See below for more details (2, 3, 4)
For printable staff paper, click here!
More instructions:
- Depending on your music theory background, consider starting at either 1a or 1b and consider how far you'd like to progress beyond harmonic analysis. There's not shame in staying at 1a the whole time!! It can take a while to get the hang of this:
1a. Roman numeral analysis - Diatonic. If youâre new to music analysis, this is a good place to start. Pick a work from the classical period (Mozart, Haydn, Clementi, or Beethoven), identify the key, determine the chord scale, and begin labeling your score with Roman numerals under each distinct harmony. Look out for ânon-chord tones,â notes that donât belong to the given triad or extended chord, but live in between or next door to chord members. When you see accidentals, look for clues in the harmonic progression to help you determine if it's a passing tone/embellishment or if you're entering chromatic harmonic terrain (see 1b). Your piece might modulate, but still remain diatonic to the new key (as in simpler classical works).
1b. Roman numeral analysis - Chromatic. If youâre comfortable analyzing mostly diatonic works from the classical era, consider choosing a romantic piece that features more chromatic progressions (late Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Grieg, Tchaikovsky). Label your score with Roman numerals, indicating modal mixture, applied chords (secondary dominants/leading tone chords), and modulations. Identify what keys you visit and keep track of how you get there.
2. (Optional) Formal analysis. If you've grasped the harmonic content of your piece/passage, you can then move on to analyzing its larger form â how phrases connect to larger sections, what key areas you visit along the way, and how the composer journeys from the tonic to the dominant and back to tonic over the course of the work. Most 18th-19th century music is in one of the following forms: binary form (A/B), ternary form (A/B/A), and sonata form (exposition/development/recapitulation). Romantic works might have more varied forms.
3. (Optional) Chordal reduction. Using voice leading principles, try constructing a chordal reduction of your piece/passage and be able to play it musically.
4. (Optional) Explore other analytic techniques. If you feel confident in your harmonic and formal analysis, consider strengthening your understanding of figured bass (thoroughbass), species counterpoint, schemas (voice leading patterns), and Schenkerian analysis.
RECOMMENDED TONEBASE COURSES
Primary resource
- Ben Laude: Music Theory Basics [Elementary concepts, Roman numerals]
Further resources for more advanced analysis
- Derek Remes: Harmony and Composition in J.S. Bachâs Circle [Intermediate-advanced concepts, figured bass vs roman numeral analysis]
- Derek Remes: Reverse Engineering Bach[Chordal reductions]
- Eric Wen: Music Theory for Pianists through the lens of Schenkerian Analysis [Intermediate-advanced concepts, Schenkerian Analysis]
Recommended reading
- Nicole DiPaolo: Composing for piano â 3 ways to get started [featuring overviews of schemas, scale degrees, and other theory concepts applied to composition]
Fellow Participants in Group 1:
Group 1
Frank
Dorian Mearns
Victor Wong
Lc
Christo
Maggie Lam
yoanitadharmawan
Lukas
Maggie
Abril Garza
ALICE
rebecca LAM
Ko
Scott Nguyá» n
Angela
-
I'm working on BeethovenOp110 2nd mvt. I just started on some of it. Some interesting mode-mixture. On the 2nd line, there's an augmented-chord that I'm a bit stump on (red highlighted).
I'm probably work on Schumann Kresleiriana next since I'm learning it. Strangely, this is the first time to put what I learn in theory class into the pieces I'm learning on the piano.
edited: I was not entirely happy with my earlier analysis of V V/V V on measure 5-8. I now added an alternative where it modulates to Cmaj with a I-V-I (PAC). This agrees more with how I feel it - a swing between F minor and C major. This phrase, as I understand, is from a German folksong (Unsa KĂ€tz hĂ€d Katzâln gâhabt (Our cat has had kittens).
p/s correction: This is the 2nd movement, not 3rd. Pardon my earlier mistake.
-
Lc Oh, this will be fun! I'll take a closer look tomorrow. For that augmented chord, I wouldn't over-think it. You're right to call the A-flat an anticipation. What Beethoven is doing is finding a way to slide up from C major to D-flat major without using parallel 5ths. That anticipation tone accomplishes that by creating a 6th and then sliding the root and 3rd up after the fact He waits another beat to lift the notes to D-flat, but that fits the syncopated motive of the phrase (in fact, it triggers it).
-
Ben Laude Thank you Ben. That makes sense.
I updated the pdf to a different copy. Hopefully more legible.
I'm stuck on the D-maj section. Is it really a ninth-chord (Db-F-?-C-Eb )? or should I consider the "Eb" as nct? -
Lc That section is totally wild and funky! (and you mean Db major, not D major) I remember not really knowing what was going on when I learned it, and it made it challenging to memorize.
But revisiting it now, I can see it better:
- First of all, no - I wouldn't call that a 9th chord. The Eb is definitely an NCT resolving to scale degree 1. You could either call it a passing tone (ignoring the C, it passes from F to Db), or an appoggiatura/upper-neighbor. And think of it this way can inform your interpretation: practice slowly, and really enjoy resolving Eb to C as if it were a normal appoggiatura.
- Now, so long as you realize that the harmonies rarely have all 3 notes of the given triad represented, and you realize that the passage filled with lots of unexpected non chord tones that occur almost randomly on strong and weak pulses, you can actually think of bars 41-48 as following a perfectly normal progression:
Db: [I] [V] [I6] [I6/4] [viiÂș] [V] [V6] [I]
It's hard to "hear it" that way. I think Eric Wen would just call 41-44 a tonic prolongation (just a weirdly decorated I chord), 45-47 a dominant prolongation, and 48 a resolution back to I. Let's ask him!
Nicole What do you think?
-
Ben Laude Thank you. That makes sense.
Indeed I had a tough time memorizing this section when I was learning it. That's why I'm eager to analyze this to really find out what's going on with what seems to be alternating major 2nd/ major 3rd patterns.
I see what you mean by the extended tonic prolongation. It feels that way to me as well, since the left hand bass so clearly outlines the Tonic/Dominant cord.
-
Lc The highlighted chord is just derived from ascending melodic minor--in F minor that would use D and E naturals. He may have wanted to avoid a melodic tritone between Db and G because he's invoking a folksong, which should be easy to sing for random non-musicians. So it is a bit of mode mixture, taking the ii chord you'd normally find in F major. But as I tell my piano students all the time--the idea that a piece or even long passage can be governed by only one type of minor scale is an old wives' tale at best. Minor is just really flexible for historical reasons that might be too much to explain here.
-
Nicole Thank you Nicole! Now that you pointed out the potential tritone, that makes sense why it is that way.
-
-
Harmonic Analysis Group 1
Dear all! Just a reminder about the Zoom check-in with Nicole and Eric today. Here's the meeting info:
Topic: Two Week Intensive Check-In with Ben, Nicole, and Eric!
Time: Aug 5, 2022 11:00 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88205704167I will kick things off, then turn it over to Eric and Nicole who will each discuss some topics that bear directly on all of your work, before opening up questions to the whole group!
See you there!
-
Chopin op50 no1
I am practicing this piece now.
I skipped,
On measure 16, the 4th beat, use common harmony( e: III ) to modulate to e minor key.
Thank you for enduring my bad handwriting.
Appreciate it
-
Ko good work. Here's some feedback:
- Bar 4: if you were to play or listen to that bar, would it sound like the chord with the E, G, C# and A# is a functional harmony? Yes, it's on a downbeat, but it rebounds immediately to the tonic chord. Especially over the tonic pedal, I would just call these accented passing tones. Maybe even an "accented passing chord," with chromatic lower-neighbors in the left hand and an upper neighbor in the right hand.
- Bar 12 is great: you're absolutely right, he points towards IV, but then slides the G up a half-step in the bass as he's resolving the accented passing tone (appoggiatura E-D) in the soprano, to tonicize ii instead. BUT, because he showed us IV, it actually sounds like a deceptive cadence in IV. Wonderful trickery. This is a pivotal measure, as I'm sure you already could feel, so really show our ears the bass and soprano lines, and maybe linger on the dissonance.
- Bar 13: It looks like you call this a modulation to A minor, but we never get a strong cadence in A minor. This is really a prolonged ii chord in G major, which is our destination at the end of the line in bar 16.
- Similarly, I'm not persuaded that Chopin modulates to E minor. This feels to me like a prolonged vi chord. Why? Again, no cadence in E minor... instead, we get this absolutely enchanting suspended feeling on E minor - nothing really happens, just some inflection with the A minor 6/4 chord, but it's basically one long vi chord that we visit. Then we get V7/V in bar 24, which means you can interpret 17-25 as one long ii-V-I in D, which is really just a roundabout way of tonicizing V before preparing another big arrival back in G with the opening material.
- Towards the end of the first page: you're going to kill me! But, I still don't think we've modulated away from G! Now Chopin is borrowing chords from the parallel minor (G minor) to set up another glorious return to G major. Rather than saying you're in C minor, call it:
G: iv - I - iv - V7/III - III -V7/VI - VI - iiĂž7 - V - i6 - VI6 - Vpedal.... (end of page) - Then, he's still toying with us, now, with V7/IV at the top of page 2, then when he reaches the F-sharp dominant chord in bar 2, that begins a circle of 5ths progression back towards I:
F-sharp dom7 - B - E(dom7) - a minor, and that's definitely a ii chord in G. He briefly visits IV before landing on a dominant pedal that eventually gets us back to the opening material. - 3rd/4th line, 2nd page: Jeezz, this piece is wild! Nope, still not a modulation! Look at those Eb6 chords. He keeps alternating between B-flat and B-natural. He's just coloring a G major I chord with upper and lower chromatic neighbors (B-flat to B natural; E-flat to D). You could call it VI6 (borrowed from parallel minor), but really it's all just a tonic chord with chromatic colorings.
- Similarly, when you get back to V in the 5th line, you can just call that a dominant pedal with chromatic colorations as well (lots of viiÂș7/V, but really it's all just playing around with chromatics above sd5)
- I love all the tonicizations of minor-iv in the final two bars.
- Damn, what a piece. Do you see how he teases us with what appear to be modulations, but he's really just testing the limits of how far he can move away from home without every actually moving to a new key?
-
Ben Laude Thank you so much
It is hard to guess composers' mind.
Appreciate it.
-
-
Harmonic Analysis Group 1
Dear all! Just a few words on how I'm approaching closing out this Two Week Intensive:
- If you haven't received direct written feedback from me, you will. I've just been juggling a few commitments at the moment and it will probably take me through tomorrow (Wednesday) evening to get to everybody. Nicole will be making her last round as well!
- If I've already responded to you, I likely will not have time to follow up with another written response. However, on Thursday I'm planning to record a video commentary in which I follow up with each participant one final time. This will be much more efficient for me, and also allow me to show you a few things at the piano that I take away from your analyses. I encourage you to watch the whole video, not just the part responding to your analysis, as there is much to learn from everyone's submissions.
- I am recording a Zoom call with Eric Wen tomorrow morning in which he'll discuss 6 pieces, 2 by Bach, 2 by Beethoven, and 2 by Chopin, each of which is among the submissions across the four groups. I encourage you to watch this video too, as his perspective is very rich and filled with implications for performance.
- As we wrap up our analyses and start thinking about implications for performance, I once again encourage you to post videos of yourself playing the passage we studied to together, and offering a word or two about how your newfound harmonic understanding has influenced how you approach the piece. It needn't be profound! And, if you're not sure exactly how your analysis should translate to performance, that's okay. But I'll try to offer some ideas in the video I create.
-
Ben Laude Thank you Ben for all the work you put in.
Alright, here's my attempt.I analyzed the middle section, and realized how clean & simple the chord progressions are.
Db: I- V- I,
I - IV (new key Gb:I)
Gb: I - V- I
I / Db:IV - V/ii - ii - V - I
Db: I - V - I
I - V- I
Overall, I think the analysis helped me understand why I always love (and HATE) the V/ii chord. (hate because I always get it wrong in my fingers!). If I could to get it right, I'd like to punctuate this special chord a bit more.
I made a video of the middle section Db major/Gb/Db in reduction. https://youtu.be/fjcZAXNRKHI
All in all, this was a fun challenge. It's been education to sit down to analyze something I played. Thanks for the inspiration!!(update: After sleeping on this a bit, I realize I could be more bold on my pedaling. There were sections that seems a bit dry in my first recording. Now that I know where all the chord progressions are, I felt more confident in holding my pedals longer to let the harmony carries thru. Overall I like it a bit better.)
Revised middle section with more pedals: https://youtu.be/pr8sorXGGIg
-
Ben Laude Thanks Ben! This was really awesome and a great exercise in analysis!
-
Harmonic Analysis Group 1 Dear all - as promised, here is the analysis session I recorded with Eric Wen, especially for this Two Week Intensive!
Wen and I break down passages from Mozart's Sonata K. 545 and Fantasy K 397 before turning to the first page of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata to discuss what's so enchanting and tragic about the harmonic motion. We finish with a peek at the opening of Chopin's E-flat Nocturne, Op. 9 No. 2.
I believe you will all find it helpful to watch us analyze and play this music. I chose the pieces and topics directly from this Intensive. Even if the piece you analyzed isn't present here, you'll likely find many insights that do apply to your piece.
It's a long, unedited video, so there will be some down time as we transition between pieces. Apologies in advance for my clumsy use of the editor in my PDF Preview. Not ideal. But I eventually get the hang of it!See the description for chapter timecodes!
-
Watched the entire recording. Understood the first one very well. Some on the other pieces. I hope to rewatch it sometime in the future.
