First of all, HAPPY AUGMENTED SIXTH DAY! If you've forgotten to celebrate, or somehow don't know why today is so special, you can check in on the original "Augmented Sixth Day" post from 2012, plus other past celebrations here:
- Happy Augmented Sixth Day - 8/6/2012
- Happy Augmented Sixth Day! (2016 ed.) - 8/6/2016
- Augmented Reality - 10/16/2021
- An Aug 6 for Aug 6 in an August Sextet - 8/6/2022
- The Augmented Reality Waltz - 8/6/2025
The day is running short, but I do have a quick, new favorite "Augmented Sixth" to share. Our story begins a couple of weeks ago while I was teaching Music Theory at a summer chamber music camp. I was doing some informal class-quizzing using the wonderful exercises found on Musictheory.net, in this case focusing specifically on visual recognition of intervals from 4ths through 7th using this custom-made exercise. The following popped up randomly.
I was pleased when a student correctly identified the interval shown as an "augmented sixth"; and although chromatic harmony is still a far-off topic* for most of these students, I was happy to remember that I had pointed out an instance of a very expressive Augmented Sixth just the day before using these same two pitches. It had come up while I was coaching a group playing the second movement of Mendelssohn's Piano Trio in D Minor, so I pulled up the score quickly to show the class. (There's little point in learning music theory if you can't apply to actual music.)
To be clear, AUGMENTED SIXTH DAY has traditionally been about the three famous flavors of harmony which are framed by this interval: the Italian Sixth, the German Sixth, and the French Sixth. The most important characteristic of augmented sixth harmonies is that the two accidentals pointed in opposite directions resolve outward by half-step to an octave. So, the interval above would resolve into two Gs an octave apart. In the Mendelssohn example I shared, these pitches do resolve in this manner, though not as part of the standard Augmented Sixth Chord function in which the lower note of the interval is the lowest note of the chord and the harmony basically functions as part of a cadence.
To be honest, I only noticed today when returning to the passage that the use here is a bit more unusual. In this case, the two pitches appear as part of a B-flat Dominant Seventh chord leading to an E-flat Major harmony, so B-flat is the bass note, the A-flat shown is the seventh, and the F-sharp is a voice-leading result of moving up chromatically from F to G. Thus, whereas on beat three we get a standard V7/IV chord** leading to a IV chord, on the fourth beat, it's a V7 chord with a #5 (so this harmony has an augmented 5th and an augmented 6th) - and instead of leading to cadence, the beautiful, tender harmony arrives at a radiant IV chord (E-flat Major) mid-phrase, where Mendelssohn lets the music float in a treading water manner. (The disappearance of the bass register for the next six beats is a very important part of this effect.)
There are, to be fair, many other subtleties of voice-leading which the hastily made harmonic reduction below does not show, but this video gives you a chance to hear first the underlying implied harmonies and then Mendelssohn's exquisite piano version.
And, you may hear the whole movement, including the beautiful repetition of this passage with violin and cello below. The passage described above begins at about 1:15. Happy Augmented Sixth Day!
P.S. Posting this in a hurry, so I may return next week to clarify a few things. The main thing is...the Mendelssohn.
P.S. #1 If you read this and think, aren't those just a couple of passing chromatic notes that add a little tension? You're right! That's pretty much what most chromatic harmonies (like Augmented Sixths Chords) are: they are moments in which intense voice-leading leads to some transient harmonies. That's why the most important thing about understanding Augmented Sixth Chords is not naming - it's recognizing where the chromatic leading tones go.
P.S. #2 Mendelssohn's contemporary Schumann was particularly fond of using the musical instruction innig as a way of indicating a special kind of intense but inward expression. The title of this blog post intentionally calls upon that kind of association. The inner voices in Mendelssohn's writing are indeed innig in their affect.
P.S. #2 Mendelssohn's contemporary Schumann was particularly fond of using the musical instruction innig as a way of indicating a special kind of intense but inward expression. The title of this blog post intentionally calls upon that kind of association. The inner voices in Mendelssohn's writing are indeed innig in their affect.
* I should clarify that, while Chromatic Harmony as a concept is advanced for these mostly early intermediate theory students - still grappling with basics of intervals, keys, chords - all of them have played plenty of repertoire in which Chromatic Harmony plays a significant role. The violinist from the Mendelssohn trio I was coaching was in my theory class, and though this violinist wasn't up to speed on theory grammar, the ability to play an F-sharp more beautifully because of feeling the harmonic tension beneath (A-flat and B-flat) was already there. It's an interesting tension about teaching theory in general, as many young musicians are already playing music of incredible sophistication. But it's always possible to say, "Hey, look, see how there's both a sharp and a flat at this point in the music, and see how they resolve by half-step to the same pitch? Listen for that, and it will help you feel what's going on."
The same is true for all sorts of details related to structure. The re-transition which begins at 3:58 here is easy to explain as a passage which sits on a pedal tone leading back home after a section which had built to a point of dramatic unrest. And when I described how three simple repetitions of an upward-reaching phrase starting at 5:22, with the third time being the charm, help to communicate a sense of longing and passion, the students were easily able to understand how this simple structural device functions. Yes, of course a musically inclined students would intuit [a words kind of like innig] all these features anyway, but I find slipping some theory into these sessions can really help.
The same is true for all sorts of details related to structure. The re-transition which begins at 3:58 here is easy to explain as a passage which sits on a pedal tone leading back home after a section which had built to a point of dramatic unrest. And when I described how three simple repetitions of an upward-reaching phrase starting at 5:22, with the third time being the charm, help to communicate a sense of longing and passion, the students were easily able to understand how this simple structural device functions. Yes, of course a musically inclined students would intuit [a words kind of like innig] all these features anyway, but I find slipping some theory into these sessions can really help.
** It's true that there's no D in what I'm calling a V7/IV here (should be B-flat, D, F, A-flat), but the E-flat here pretty clearly functions as a displaced suspension which resolves to D on the next beat. Of if it bothers you that the previous beat's E-flat is two octaves up in the soprano voice, then call it a appoggiatura. Part of the beauty of Mendelssohn's writing is in how fluidly the voice-leading functions within this accompanimental figuration.
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