Aeolian harmony

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Aeolian harmony (Björnberg 1985) is harmony or chord progression created from chords of the Aeolian mode. Commonly known as the "natural minor" scale as it can be played on the "white" or natural notes of the piano starting from A-B-C-D-E-F-G, it gives the following succession of triad chords: i, ii-diminished, III, iv, v, VI, VII.

There are common subsets including i-bVII-bVI (a descending sequence well-known for its Spanish associations), i-iv-v and blues minor pentatonic derived chord sequences such as I-bIII-IV, I-IV, bVII (The verse of "I'm Your Man"). All these lack perfect cadences (V-I), since the Aeolian fifth chord is minor and so does not provide a leading note. At times chord v is made a major V, effectively departing from the mode to give a raised seventh leading note in the ascending scale, as found in the typical "Malaguena" sequence i-bVII-bVI-V. In purer modal circumstances the fundamental tension is between i and bVII. Middleton (1990, p.198) suggests of modal and fourth-orientated structures that, rather than being "distortions or surface transformations of Schenker's favoured V-I kernel, it is more likely that both are branches of a deeper principle, that of tonic/not-tonic differentiation."

[edit] Source

• Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0-335-15275-9.
  • Björnberg, Alf (1985).