16b Discussion - Neapolitan chords (bII6)
Strawberry, Vanilla, and Chocolate
“What mode is the Neapolitan chord borrowed from?”
- Phyrgian
- The solfege is: Ra, Fa, Le
Voicing Secrets:
- The best chord tone to double is the third, because the other two notes in the Neapolitan chord are really strong tendency tones. This is why Neapolitan chords are almost always in first inversion, so that the third is in the bass and has more freedom to move where it pleases.
- Going from a N6 chord to a cadential 6/4 sounds good, because the bII chord tone can resolve down by a half step to I.
- Conversely, if you go from a N6 to a V chord of some kind, the bII has to resolve in a way that isn’t as smooth.
- N6 chords function most similarly to iv chords, because they are spelled similary and resolve similarly.
- N6 chords are mostly used as predominant function. However, a N6 chord can have dominant function, but the resolution will likely have lots of objectional parallels.
*Another chord that the bII chord can move to is the IVM7(#11) because of very smooth voiceleading. <- (hip)