Thursday, December 4, 2008

Open Question: Musicians! How to analyze this circle of fifths progression? First good answer gets 10 points...! Please help?

I'm analyzing Dvorak's Sonatina for Violin in G Major, Op. 100 Movement 1 (Allegro Risoluto). And I'm completely thrown for a loop because I don't know how to analyze some of this stuff, specifically this one excerpt (measures 98-111, mostly). This is essentially what that excerpt looks like (I left out some rhythms and stuff but this is all the chord-tone notes that are there): http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e316/bfroggy326/dvorak2.jpg (The piece starts in G major so the key signature was 1 sharp, that's why it only has 1 sharp there even though I've analyzed it starting with B major.) Basically I've analyzed most of it using letter names for the chords. I need to somehow convert this into a roman numeral analysis. I don't know if it modulates to a different key or what, but the goal is definitely to move back to the home key of the piece (G major) which it does at the very end of the circle-of-fifths thing. I'm just confused because I would think that, for example, that first e minor chord would be a iv, but since we're in B major a iv doesn't exist. Is it just a borrowed chord and I should analyze it as a iv anyway, or is it some kind of secondary chord or what??? If anyone could help me convert these letters into roman numerals it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much! Ohh, okay. Thanks! I got the analyzing done through measure 103 but once I get to the "g, C, F, bflat, Eb7, Ab, Ab7", I'm not sure what to do. What key do I analyze these in??? Wait, disregard what I just asked. Would it be right if I just put measures 104-105 in F major, and call the chords (g C F) ii - V - I ? And then put measures 106-108 in Db major, and call the bflat a ii/V, the Eb7 a V7/V, then the Ab a V (and the Ab42 a V7)? Then switch to G major?

1 comment:

Bon said...

I'll try to look at the piece in coming days-- For the most part, I do my Roman Chords in a way that makes it easy for me to get a grip on the piece.... so if It "looks like" the "key center" shifted-- then I look at that way. If it's just a borrowed chord, without an extended key center change, I'll look at that way.

Whatever is useful to you, I think, is best. Too bad the composers strip the roman chords out. The goal as I see it is to understand the chord changes-- whether it's interpreted in the same key or not. So it's not a situation where "it's correct" or "incorrect" but rather "understandable" or "not".

Join me in my piano discussion forum sometime. [+]