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Unit 7: Harmony and Voice Leading IV: Secondary Function

4 dot points across 4 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do we part-write a secondary dominant so its borrowed leading tone and seventh resolve correctly?

Topic 7.2 Part Writing of Secondary Dominant Chords: part-write secondary dominants, resolving the raised leading tone up and the chordal seventh down into the tonicized chord.
A focused answer to AP Music Theory Topic 7.2, covering how to part-write secondary dominants, resolving the borrowed (raised) leading tone up by step and the chordal seventh down by step into the tonicized chord, spelling the chromatic accidental correctly, and avoiding parallels, with a worked resolution.
9 min answer →

How do we part-write a secondary leading-tone chord so all its tendency tones resolve into the target?

Topic 7.4 Part Writing of Secondary Leading-Tone Chords: part-write secondary leading-tone chords, resolving the borrowed leading tone up and the diminished and seventh intervals correctly.
A focused answer to AP Music Theory Topic 7.4, covering how to part-write secondary leading-tone chords, resolving the borrowed leading tone up by step, the chordal seventh down by step, the diminished fifth inward, avoiding the doubled tendency tone, and spelling the chromatic notes, with a worked resolution.
9 min answer →

How does a secondary dominant briefly make another chord feel like a temporary tonic?

Topic 7.1 Tonicization through Secondary Dominant Chords: identify secondary dominants (V/V, V7/IV, and so on) and the tonicization they create.
A focused answer to AP Music Theory Topic 7.1, covering tonicization, secondary dominant chords (V/V, V7/ii and the like), how a borrowed leading tone creates a temporary tonic, reading the slash notation, and distinguishing tonicization from modulation, with a worked identification.
9 min answer →

How can a leading-tone chord, rather than a dominant, tonicize another chord?

Topic 7.3 Tonicization through Secondary Leading-Tone Chords: identify secondary leading-tone chords (vii diminished/V, vii diminished 7/ii, and so on) and the tonicization they create.
A focused answer to AP Music Theory Topic 7.3, covering secondary leading-tone chords (vii diminished and vii diminished 7 of a target), how they tonicize like secondary dominants, the difference between half-diminished and fully diminished sevenths, the slash notation, and distinguishing them from secondary dominants, with a worked identification.
9 min answer →