These are the kind of videos I have scoured RUclips for but are hard to find---there are tons of videos analyzing pop and jazz songs, but few that break down classical music in such a great way. For somebody interested in classical music but not deeply classically trained, I benefit so much from your breakdowns of these pieces. I look forward to your future videos on the individual Mozart pieces. I hope you'll take requests some time too!
The Neapolitan chord with the rising slow arpeggio in the 2nd movement of 23rd piano concerto by Mozart always let me hold my breath and let time stand still for a moment. Absolutely increadible!
@@Richard.Atkinson there are a lot of treasures in that recap: the rising chromatic scale in the 1st violins, followed by the "sighing" syncopated reply. The chromaticisms in the bassoons, accompanied by a horn pedal which suddenly drops all the way down to the fundamental. It shows he used exceptional care crafting this passage.
My personal favourite is in Pamina’s lament called “Ach such Fuhl’s” from Die Zauberflote- give it a listen if you don’t know it; it’s so beautiful and difficult to sing!
5 лет назад+301
I just want someone to want me as much as that high note D wants to resolve into C# in 8:59.
I played it through on the piano but found that a c# doesn't resolve anything. It was a disappointing effect.
5 лет назад+24
@@citizent6999 If you only played G-B-D, sure, of course it has no tendency to resolve, because you play it like you're in G major. In G major, this note D is perfectly stable and has no desire to resolve into C#. But, remember, in this context here, we are in F# minor. You have to play from the beginning of the movement, not just jump into this measure. It is the context that makes it require resolution.
@@thomaspick4123 in Romanian we do have a word "napolitană" which means "wafer" so, therefore, I did giggle, understandably. 😅🤭😁😜✌🏻🙌🏻😝👌🏻 Tasty. 😂🤣🤔☺️😌🙂😁
4:46 I've always loved the suspensions in the oboes here. Not many other composers could've thought of something so fitting to this particular moment. It really shows Mozart's gift for idiomatic woodwind writing.
Thank you! beautifully explained! now that i see how Mozart used the Neapolitan sixth so masterfully within the context of each example, it has made me appreciate these (some of my personal) favourite Mozart pieces even more :D
I like plenty! As a partially trained musician picking up his lute again, I couldn't be more pleased to find your channel. Both K.466 and K.488 are being recorded this week by Olga Pashchenko and Il Gardinello, using one of my fortepianos. It helps so much to try to get inside these pieces.
That sounds like the Levin interpretation of the Mozart Piano Concerto in D minor - no other player I know plays along with the orchestra before the written entrance because that's how it was done in Mozart's day.
Thanks for the best description and explanation of the N6 I have ever seen. It is true what you said - textbooks provide the 'theory' but actually listening and seeing the chord in 'action' like you did made so much more sense.
1:58 My two biggest criticisms of music pedagogy (at least in the context of common-practice music theory) are that 1) most of the time, students are taught to blindly follow the rules of the period without being given adequate explanations for why the rules exist (in fact, they're often not even told that the rules are mainly relevant in a common-practice context) and 2) the almost exclusive focus on harmony, to the detriment of other important musical features. This is especially problematic because most forms of modern popular music have relatively unsophisticated harmonies and relatively sophisticated timbres and rhythms. If students think music is just harmony, they'll automatically dismiss some of the greatest 21st century music as boring or unsophisticated.
I agree with both of those. That's why I hardly ever focus on roman numeral analysis, which often just leads to fruitless arguments about the several possible accurate ways of labeling something.
@@vivvpprof You're technically correct but that's a very reductive and simplistic view of hip-hop. It's like saying Chopin's mazurkas and polonaises are basically reworked Polish folk, that's right but it doesn't even begin to describe it, does it?
my favorite Neapolitan chord is used throughout Chopin's F# minor polonaise (you'll know which one I mean ). he puts it in 3rd inversion, which Chopin does a lot, and sounds amazing
Finally figured out why I like your videos so much. They remind a lot about my older brother's classes (university professor though in the completely unrelated discipline of physical therapy). I've had the pleasure of attending and helping with a few, and I love your videos as much as I loved those classes :)
Thank you for making this excellent video. That quintet is truly sublime. The subtle harmonic complexity and depth are extraordinary, especially given the deceptive simplicity of the thematic material and overall form. The enharmonically altered Neopolitan chord and C# minor chord in the recapitulation are utterly mystifying, yet somehow he know they'd make perfect sense. For me, this exemplifies what sets Mozart's music above everyone else's.
I love your idea of teaching theory using the most insanely great passages. All of these are passages that jumped out at me as timeless hooks when I did a non-scholarly binge listening of all mozart's mature pieces. This part (@ 8:45) almost sounds like it's changed key temporarily to G.
Sweet, I attended a performance of the D minor concerto by Mitsuko Uchida just last week and was listening to the Levin recording earlier today. Seems like Mr. Atkinson has impeccable timing when it comes to his uploads! 😄 Great job as always!
Try and see and support other performers. A problem is the dominance of a few performers - Uchida, Ashkenazy etc that demand outrageous fees. To understand why this happens you need to understand the industry - which has tendencies towards monopolistic accumulation, like any other. It pays the major labels to have fewer artists and to promote them as 'great'. It allows them to avoid the higher risks and costs of promoting new and different artists. This convenient and self-serving arrangement keeps a certain hierarchy in place. For the health of music (and society) itself, it is a cycle that has to be broken.
It's great that we can all look at Mozart's music and, even on as specific a point as the use of Neapolitan 6th chords, there can still be people saying "what about this one that you missed.." My personal favourite is omitted here: it's in the Act II finale of the Magic Flute, in the chorale prelude/fugue section, where Mozart adds an extra phrase to the Lutheran chorale he is quoting, puts a N6 into it, and uses this as a precursor to a modulation to Db that is quite possibly my favourite moment in his entire output, partly because of the audacity of the moment itself but partly because of the way he then resolves this conflict in the most sublime way possible over the next couple of minutes. Genius.
I learned to compose music kind of like a language, the way I fluently use words, not thinking too much about the details of theory. But when I started to explore, for instance, the exposés of the Bach's WTC by Tim Smith, my musical productivity exploded. Now I know what I was really doing when I used Neapolitan chords in my own works! Thank you very much.
Awesome! I was analyzing that particular opening in the 2nd movement of the 23rd piano concerto last week and kept wondering why the G major chord felt so right in the key of F# minor. D major certainly has the effect of tonicizing the Neapolitan, and is result of the upward chromatic deceptive cadence at C#7. The effect is tremendous on the listener even if they don't know how it works!
I wish that such a good audio and visual presentation such as this to have in My music school..SO clear and understandable...make Me wonder how it was so hard to understand this? Thank You Richard for this!:)
Trying to analyse and situate that C sharp minor chord harmonically around 17:38 is a bit difficult. Still, I would say that the chord belongs to another tonality (hence, it modulates briefly) - to *A Major* - because it is easier to classify the chord and to understand the overall harmony. The C# chord and the next chord (E7 dom) don't, however, have a tonic quality in my analysis, hence I would analyse them both as one single chord that changes in quality in the second measure for two reasons: 1) Because the bass tone is the same and; 2) Because you can actually read the C# chord as a dominant (despite not sounding like one) and it would be labeled V6 (all in A Major). I hope I've been helpful and that my analysis makes perfect sense to you! Greetings!
I agree that it makes most sense to describe the passage in terms of other tonalities, but the only one that makes sense to me is C# itself. I'm not sure how anything in that passage relates to A major at all. Can you explain what you mean?
5 лет назад+2
@@Richard.Atkinson I would label the overall harmony as A Major because I see the C# in that chord not as a tonic, but as a false anticipation to the tonic A. Still, there's no resolution of the tone, so instead it functions as a leading tone to the seventh of the dominant chord (D), that then resolves deceptively to A minor.
Mozart didn't notate the 17:14 in flats as would be normal for Neapolitan harmony. He intentionally used sharps. Why? Because in addition to the passage and its C#m chord "simply sounding cool" as commenter above rightly observes (even as its chromatic voice leadings follow "the rules"), his sharps show us his harmonic intent. Previously he made an unusual move from Neapolitan (Db 6/4) to V to VI (A minor), messing with listeners' heads by successively using both available versions of the sixth pitch of the scale, Ab and A and their respective corresponding flatted and natural scale pitches. Now, he doubles down and uses the Neapolitan and all its implied flatted pitches to *briefly modulate* to plain old A minor with all its natural pitches - except G#. So he uses sharps all the way, with G# pedal (the only shared pitch between this Neapolitan and Am). First, C#M (over G#). Then G#7 (over G#). Then E# becomes E natural, leaving C#m (over G#). Then the D# becomes D natural 🤤 so we hear a E7 chord (still over the G#!), which resolves "conventionally" to the A minor chord (the other sharps we've been hearing now go away, too) which has been his destination all along - just as it was 1st time we heard it few measures back. In short, the sharps (in place of the expected flats) tell the reader and performers that he plans to redo his earlier highly unusual resolution of VI flat to VI natural (from the perspective of the C major which is the background to this whole paasage) but even more intensely than before (G#/Ab pedal, use of temporary dominant E7, etc). Anyway that how this man's ears hear it - and that's how Mozart notated it, too!
Nicely done--both the video and the analysis! So, the 2nd time (17:14) Mozart may have notated initially with flats but with the serendipitous move to the minor Neapolitan(!) saw an opportunity to move directly to VI (Am) by skipping the "middle man" V (G) thus deciding to use sharps, instead?
There're just Harmonic min b2 or Melodic min b2...or Enigmatic scales. Like the Double harmonic min or Harmonic min #4 or Loc Maj7, ion #6, dor #5, phry#4, lyd #3, mix #2, aeo#1 Aeo#1 transfer to (loc bb3, b4, bb7) oh..if you're familar with different scales..you'll be familar with variations of loc...loc bb7.. loc b4..loc maj6.. loc b4, bb7...ect..... Loc bb3, b4, bb7 or Loc maj7.lol.....why Not? Keys are just PITCH of the MAJOR scale ( Reference) There's different ways to keep track of the 10-ea scales aeo dor Harmonic min melodic min Harmonic min b2 melodic min b2 Harmonic min b5 melodic min b5 ( why not? :-P) Harmonic min #4 melodic min #4 Ion #6 ..... What if I list it like this? aeo maj7 Harmonic min dor maj7 melodic min phry maj7 Harmonic min b2 mix maj7 Ionian loc maj7 Ion #6 dor b2 maj7 dor #4 maj7 dor b5 maj7 aeo b2 maj7 aeo #4 maj7 aeo b5 maj7 ...................... dor b5 is the ii mode of Harmonic MAJOR mix b6, maj7 = Harmonic MAJOR mix b6 = V of Melodic min Aeo b5 is the iv mode of Melodic min Harmonic min b5 is the iii mode of HUNGARIAN MAJOR aeo#4 is the iv mode of Harmonic min b2 aeo #4, maj7 is AKA Hungarian minor. They had to call them something.. but I dont have a problem playing A min C dim into C# min I could had play A min B7 into E Major or E min ( A lydian b3 ( melodic min #4 = E Harmonic MAJOR) I could had play G#7 phrygian b4 ( 1, b4, 5, b7) into C# min.. But hey.. C dim into C# min....works. it's the same as playing G7....B dim/G into C Maj..or C min but the A lydian b3 is also a possible dim or full dim Bb maj or Augment to G min G harmonic , melodic min Just incase you wanna play the G Mix #2 (A# note instead of Bb) :-P Any ways....back to the C# min/E MAJOR C# min....D maj7 E7 F# min /A MAJOR C# min D dim E7 A harmonic min or A harmonic MAJOR C# min D7 E7 A Melodic min C# min D min E dim into F MAJOR or F min....sort like F melodic min C# min D maj E Maj F# dim into G MAJOR or G min Do you see the D7......F#dim/D into G MAJOR or G min ? Notice the D, E or F chords....how they relate back to C MAJOR/Amin....if i want to modulated back to A min After the E MAJOR or I could had easily played F dim into F# min/A MAJOR F dim, G# dim into A min. or F maj. Fdim#G maj G# dim into A....whatever .. it'll be sort of the same movement...if I did it between the A Natrual min/C Major A min BbMaj, B dim, C maj, C# into D min Then the same from Dmin/F Major D min, Eb maj E dim F Maj F# dim G Maj G# into A or the same from E min/G MAJOR G# dim/aug into A or play the G# Maj to D7 ( V of G Major) Then play Eb Maj( apply it again) to the C min chord. ( as lydian b3 to G Harmonic MAJOR) I can play C dim ( B7) D# dim into E min or D7 into the G MAJOR..again There's all kinds of cool stuff you can do. I could had easily play C Maj C# dim into D min, EbMaj to C min Then G min, F min, E7 into A min again... Notice the Db/C# is a Maj3 stack below the F min DIAD G# or Ab is WH or b3 from F lydian #2 ( A harmonic min) Lydian b3 ( C Harmonic MAJOR) it'll sound sort of like play F min G7 into C Maj... You'll see/hear the iv as min....from time to time... for Cadence...or flavoring I can even play the Bb Maj after the A min...then alter the A to A MAJOR. it'll be as if I play A Maj. Bb maj, C Maj D min ( typical spanished guitar or using the D Harmonic min..A7 into D min or C# augmented into the D min chord ( II V I) back to C MAJOR..again if I wanted to...Then alter the C to C7 into F min, E7 into A min again.lmao Or play the Db..stack over the F min E min A min...for cadence.lol Then Bb dim C# dim into D Min again...hahahaaaa
I love the bit at 16:30. The Neapolitan section sounds to me like a tonicization of the Neapolitan, but the augmented 6th chord-the same exact notes as the dominant of the Neapolitan-sounds like a completely different chord.
Die Zauberflöte has two Neapolitan chords I like a lot. At the end of Pamina's aria Ach ich fühl's, which reinforces the characters pain and in the beginning of the ending sequence in Der, welcher wandert diese Strasse voll beschwerden, which gives a kind of mysterious flavor.
Loved your analysis!! I just take the opportunity to mention one of my favourite neapolitan chord passage which is the codetta of 1st mvt of Beethoven's Waldstein sonata. Its a passage with two repeating phrases which are an octave apart. The Neapolitan doesn't appear in the exposition but only in the recapitulation, and that too only in the 1st phrase which is quite a memorable moment.
It probably doesn't count. I don't know enough about music theory. But I'm reminded of Mozart's Ach Ich Fuhl's, a death aria which constantly makes you believe that the music is about to modulate back to tonica, and then it takes a turn. (In my opinion, perfecly illustrating the agony and torture of wanting to die, and you feel so close, but you can't.) Half way through the music, it modulates to the dominant, and you're sure it's about to modulate to tonica and wrap up. But the chord rises by a semitone ... and btw, then the soprano explodes in an ff highnote of agony. I know it's not a neapolitan chord because it's over the dominant not the tonica. But I love it. I hope that explanation of a layman made somewhat sense. :'D
I’ve actually heard some musicologists make the case that tonality in the 18th century was still utilizing extended meantone tuning rather than equal temperament, which essentially means that a diatonic semitone - G#-A- is aurally wider than its cousin, the chromatic semitone - Ab-A. That would mean the section from the C Major Quintet in c-sharp minor is ever so slightly LOWER than the parallel passage in D-flat. Weird.
K488, 2nd mov, is sublime. I understand it's the only movement he ever composed in the key of f sharp minor. I have struggled for decades to find the right tempo. Traditionally, Siciliani are a bit faster than what is usually played in this movement. Same can be said of Magic Flute's Ach, ich fuhl, which is often sung too slowly. However, it's hard to pull off the amazing depth of both of these masterpieces at a slightly quicker pace. I can't figure it out.
The K. 488 example is one of my favorites, too! But I have to admit that the first example of a Neapolitan chord that came to mind was the ending of a Waltz in A-flat major (Act I, No. 2) from Swan Lake. In fact, that instance of the Neapolitan was exactly in the form you showed at 1:50.
I think omitting the coda of the 24th concerto is a mistake. The Neapolitan is a major harmonic feature in the whole movement and its piercingly unsettling repeated D-flat defines the eerie harmony of the coda so it is in fact the main device used to give the final impression to the whole piece. ruclips.net/video/NkoEkyFPaX0/видео.html
Very nice, thanks. In minute 6:15" it states that a 6/8 meter is a Compound Triple meter. We know the 6/8 to be a Compound Douple meter. Unless it refers to the division of the beat (to be in three eight notes).
Thanks I am too happy to be watching this before sleep :) My amateur brain, still a fledgling in music, always wondered what a Neapolitan chord was. The examples you give and the explanation help me feel its sound... and ofc Mozart equals
Osmin's aria 'Trallalera' (Wer ein liebchen hat gefunden) from Mozart's Serail, has an incredibly intense N6 on the second 'Trallalera' ritornello, with a 9th over cellos and Cb!
Great video, Richard! I agree too, that musical education tends to avoid 'adventurous' chords in harmony lessons. Edit: for anyone wondering, there is also a Neapolitan chord used in act 1 no 4 of the magic flute.
Well, three of the four examples in this video are not really that "adventurous." I'm more against using mundane, boring examples than I am against using simple examples.
@@Richard.Atkinson I know what you mean. I'm currently studying music in higher education in the UK, and when we learn how harmonise a melody in the style of Bach, its all I IV V, despite diminished 7ths often being used in chorales we've studied.
As I study music and therefore also music theory I totally agree with you. Speaking of the magic flute: I always loved the unexpected Neapolitan chord in the next-to-last bar of the no.17 Aria - it effects such a sadness truly summing up Pamina's despair.
You missed the second, more subtle Neapolitan chord in the orchestral section of Concerto No 23 at 9:34 (two bars before the Solo section). Being part of the Ib-iv-N-ivc-Vb progression, this instance of the Neapolitan chord is resolved in a different way than the 2-bar arpeggio in the piano solo section.
One of the reasons why we call it the Neapolitan 6 chord has to do with its other name in the Music Theory Verse: flat II 6 (bII6). In some ways I prefer this other name because it more clearly conveys the idea of this harmony’s function in a phrase-it is a chromatic inflection of the iio6 in the Minor mode (most commonly). The bass note is the same, and the low form of the submediant (diatonic in Minor, of course) is also the same. This also helps to illuminate why it most often appears in 1st inversion rather than in root position. The iio triad (not seventh chord, just the triad) is extremely rare in nature since the fifth above the bass is a dissonant tritone. As such, in Minor, we really only see the iio6 triad, hence the chromatic inflection of that-bII6-is way more common than the root position version of that. Yes, I’m aware there are notable exceptions, like in that one C Minor Chopin Prelude everyone plays. It’s a great moment, but in that case the reason it works is because earlier in the piece, a root position Db chord occurs functioning as a predominant within a tonicization of VI. Then, when that Db occurs again in the same sequence as before, we are expecting an Eb chord (as the dominant to Ab) but instead get the G7 as the dominant to C Minor. Great piece. Also, although I wrote this long comment about one tiny comment you made about the name of the chord, I liked this video. You used very nice musical examples. What I would also have done is shown some ways that bII6 resolves to V. There’s at least three distinct ways I can think of: straight to V(7), having a viio7 of V in between the Neapolitan and the dominant like Mozart does in the Queen of the Night aria (works because contrary chromatic motion in outer voices), and also resolving to the cadential 6/4 to 5/3, as Mozart does in the A Major piano concerto you showed us. Cheers from a music theorist and pianist!
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These are the kind of videos I have scoured RUclips for but are hard to find---there are tons of videos analyzing pop and jazz songs, but few that break down classical music in such a great way. For somebody interested in classical music but not deeply classically trained, I benefit so much from your breakdowns of these pieces. I look forward to your future videos on the individual Mozart pieces. I hope you'll take requests some time too!
The Neapolitan chord with the rising slow arpeggio in the 2nd movement of 23rd piano concerto by Mozart always let me hold my breath and let time stand still for a moment. Absolutely increadible!
has always been a favorite moment of mine as well. nice to now know how it works.
Mozart's 20th Piano Concerto is, imo, the greatest piece of music I have ever heard. I think I listened to only this piece for an entire summer.
I need a channel like yours. I came for the neopolitan chord, and I stayed for the analysis and (small) history lesson.
My favorite Neapolitan in Mozart: 40th symphony, last movement, second theme in the recapitulation. A sublime rising Ab major arpeggio in the winds.
@@byronrakitzis I also love that one! Especially when the woodwinds take over.
@@Richard.Atkinson there are a lot of treasures in that recap: the rising chromatic scale in the 1st violins, followed by the "sighing" syncopated reply. The chromaticisms in the bassoons, accompanied by a horn pedal which suddenly drops all the way down to the fundamental. It shows he used exceptional care crafting this passage.
My personal favourite is in Pamina’s lament called “Ach such Fuhl’s” from Die Zauberflote- give it a listen if you don’t know it; it’s so beautiful and difficult to sing!
I just want someone to want me as much as that high note D wants to resolve into C# in 8:59.
I played it through on the piano but found that a c# doesn't resolve anything. It was a disappointing effect.
@@citizent6999 If you only played G-B-D, sure, of course it has no tendency to resolve, because you play it like you're in G major. In G major, this note D is perfectly stable and has no desire to resolve into C#. But, remember, in this context here, we are in F# minor. You have to play from the beginning of the movement, not just jump into this measure. It is the context that makes it require resolution.
@@citizent6999 a very disappointing D then?
@@JonathanDavis7 D will often disappoint
That will NEVER happen...
That orchestra entry after the piano neapolitan is so luscious
One of the most inspired Mozart passages!
Really? What did it taste like?
@@thomaspick4123 😂😂
@@thomaspick4123 in Romanian we do have a word "napolitană" which means "wafer" so, therefore, I did giggle, understandably. 😅🤭😁😜✌🏻🙌🏻😝👌🏻 Tasty. 😂🤣🤔☺️😌🙂😁
@@thomaspick4123 Neapolitan ice cream
4:46 I've always loved the suspensions in the oboes here. Not many other composers could've thought of something so fitting to this particular moment. It really shows Mozart's gift for idiomatic woodwind writing.
Makes it sound like organ!
Mozart sure loved his woodwinds, and the feeling is mutual! /A bassoonist
Another part that sounds similar can be found in the Overture to Cosi Fan Tutte
For me its the most beautiful part of a wonderful concerto.
I love when you said almost every Mozart’s piano concerto deserved its own video :) I’m sure he would’ve been proud of his piano concertos.
I love the way Mozart handles the N6.
Thank you! beautifully explained! now that i see how Mozart used the Neapolitan sixth so masterfully within the context of each example, it has made me appreciate these (some of my personal) favourite Mozart pieces even more :D
I like plenty! As a partially trained musician picking up his lute again, I couldn't be more pleased to find your channel. Both K.466 and K.488 are being recorded this week by Olga Pashchenko and Il Gardinello, using one of my fortepianos. It helps so much to try to get inside these pieces.
That sounds like the Levin interpretation of the Mozart Piano Concerto in D minor - no other player I know plays along with the orchestra before the written entrance because that's how it was done in Mozart's day.
I had the pleasure of hearing Levin play this live
But there isn't it in the original manuscript. Although it appears in NMA score for the first time.
Thanks for the best description and explanation of the N6 I have ever seen. It is true what you said - textbooks provide the 'theory' but actually listening and seeing the chord in 'action' like you did made so much more sense.
1:58 My two biggest criticisms of music pedagogy (at least in the context of common-practice music theory) are that 1) most of the time, students are taught to blindly follow the rules of the period without being given adequate explanations for why the rules exist (in fact, they're often not even told that the rules are mainly relevant in a common-practice context) and 2) the almost exclusive focus on harmony, to the detriment of other important musical features. This is especially problematic because most forms of modern popular music have relatively unsophisticated harmonies and relatively sophisticated timbres and rhythms. If students think music is just harmony, they'll automatically dismiss some of the greatest 21st century music as boring or unsophisticated.
I agree with both of those. That's why I hardly ever focus on roman numeral analysis, which often just leads to fruitless arguments about the several possible accurate ways of labeling something.
Like what, Lady Gaga? :D
@@vivvpprof I don't know much about Lady Gaga, but I'd say that Kendrick Lamar has produced some of the greatest music of the last few decades.
@@alexshih3747 I listened for a while to his "DNA" and it's basically re-worked folk music, e.g. ruclips.net/video/epKIGQOkm5c/видео.html
@@vivvpprof You're technically correct but that's a very reductive and simplistic view of hip-hop. It's like saying Chopin's mazurkas and polonaises are basically reworked Polish folk, that's right but it doesn't even begin to describe it, does it?
my favorite Neapolitan chord is used throughout Chopin's F# minor polonaise (you'll know which one I mean ). he puts it in 3rd inversion, which Chopin does a lot, and sounds amazing
Can't wait for k. 466 1st movement to be analyzed.
Finally figured out why I like your videos so much. They remind a lot about my older brother's classes (university professor though in the completely unrelated discipline of physical therapy). I've had the pleasure of attending and helping with a few, and I love your videos as much as I loved those classes :)
I could pass at least 3 hours without stop watching your videos. Or even the whole day. +1 Subscriber, really good quality content there.
Thank you for making this excellent video. That quintet is truly sublime. The subtle harmonic complexity and depth are extraordinary, especially given the deceptive simplicity of the thematic material and overall form. The enharmonically altered Neopolitan chord and C# minor chord in the recapitulation are utterly mystifying, yet somehow he know they'd make perfect sense. For me, this exemplifies what sets Mozart's music above everyone else's.
Great video, informative and clear (and really spot-on Italian pronunciation!)
I love your idea of teaching theory using the most insanely great passages. All of these are passages that jumped out at me as timeless hooks when I did a non-scholarly binge listening of all mozart's mature pieces.
This part (@ 8:45) almost sounds like it's changed key temporarily to G.
you are simply amazing. i listen to your lectures hypnotized!
Thank you so much for this!! Absolutely love the example from the Dies Irae, what a breathtaking moment.
Sweet, I attended a performance of the D minor concerto by Mitsuko Uchida just last week and was listening to the Levin recording earlier today. Seems like Mr. Atkinson has impeccable timing when it comes to his uploads! 😄 Great job as always!
Try and see and support other performers. A problem is the dominance of a few performers - Uchida, Ashkenazy etc that demand outrageous fees. To understand why this happens you need to understand the industry - which has tendencies towards monopolistic accumulation, like any other. It pays the major labels to have fewer artists and to promote them as 'great'. It allows them to avoid the higher risks and costs of promoting new and different artists. This convenient and self-serving arrangement keeps a certain hierarchy in place. For the health of music (and society) itself, it is a cycle that has to be broken.
It's great that we can all look at Mozart's music and, even on as specific a point as the use of Neapolitan 6th chords, there can still be people saying "what about this one that you missed.." My personal favourite is omitted here: it's in the Act II finale of the Magic Flute, in the chorale prelude/fugue section, where Mozart adds an extra phrase to the Lutheran chorale he is quoting, puts a N6 into it, and uses this as a precursor to a modulation to Db that is quite possibly my favourite moment in his entire output, partly because of the audacity of the moment itself but partly because of the way he then resolves this conflict in the most sublime way possible over the next couple of minutes. Genius.
Well this sure was an unexpected Christmas present. It's not even Christmas!
Wonderful video. The substance is frequently beyond my competence. But the video has been fashioned with love and that love is contagious.
I learned to compose music kind of like a language, the way I fluently use words, not thinking too much about the details of theory. But when I started to explore, for instance, the exposés of the Bach's WTC by Tim Smith, my musical productivity exploded. Now I know what I was really doing when I used Neapolitan chords in my own works! Thank you very much.
Just wanted to say that I love your videos and always learn something new! Thanks for taking the time to share you knowledge!
This made theory fun! Love Mozart; all of his music bespeaks genius.
Mozart also uses N6/4 and the tonicization of the Neapolitan in Piano Concerto No.24 (last movement).
also the 3rd mov of schubert sonata in a minor d784 uses different Times the neapolitan chord in those arpeggios in contrary motion
You have revolutionary my music life! THANK YOU!!!
Awesome! I was analyzing that particular opening in the 2nd movement of the 23rd piano concerto last week and kept wondering why the G major chord felt so right in the key of F# minor. D major certainly has the effect of tonicizing the Neapolitan, and is result of the upward chromatic deceptive cadence at C#7. The effect is tremendous on the listener even if they don't know how it works!
I have genuine love for how informative your videos are. Keep up the good work!
Super interesting! You have explained in the best and easiest way the N chord :)
Thankyou Richard. Yet another very informative and brilliant work.
I love Your examples and analysis,,, VERY INSPIRING ! ! !
I wish that such a good audio and visual presentation such as this to have in My music school..SO clear and understandable...make Me wonder how it was so hard to understand this? Thank You Richard for this!:)
Lovely! Thank you so much for creating these.
Trying to analyse and situate that C sharp minor chord harmonically around 17:38 is a bit difficult.
Still, I would say that the chord belongs to another tonality (hence, it modulates briefly) - to *A Major* - because it is easier to classify the chord and to understand the overall harmony.
The C# chord and the next chord (E7 dom) don't, however, have a tonic quality in my analysis, hence I would analyse them both as one single chord that changes in quality in the second measure for two reasons:
1) Because the bass tone is the same and;
2) Because you can actually read the C# chord as a dominant (despite not sounding like one) and it would be labeled V6 (all in A Major).
I hope I've been helpful and that my analysis makes perfect sense to you!
Greetings!
I agree that it makes most sense to describe the passage in terms of other tonalities, but the only one that makes sense to me is C# itself. I'm not sure how anything in that passage relates to A major at all. Can you explain what you mean?
@@Richard.Atkinson I would label the overall harmony as A Major because I see the C# in that chord not as a tonic, but as a false anticipation to the tonic A. Still, there's no resolution of the tone, so instead it functions as a leading tone to the seventh of the dominant chord (D), that then resolves deceptively to A minor.
Actually the last example, the Dies Irae, I think is one of the most iconic uses of Neapolitan in all of music
What an amazing, well produced video!
You better believe that after watching it to the end I liked it and subscribed!
My favourite use of the Neapolitan chord is the one at the end of Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue.
What a remarkable analysis video!Thanks Richard! And there's a tiny mistake, before the D7 It should be the K64 at the 12:57
There's some lovely examples in the Rondo in A minor, K.511
Wounderful effort and knowledge ❤️❤️❤️❤️🙏🙏🙏 much appreciated.. i hope to see videos analysing whole peices
Mozart didn't notate the 17:14 in flats as would be normal for Neapolitan harmony. He intentionally used sharps. Why? Because in addition to the passage and its C#m chord "simply sounding cool" as commenter above rightly observes (even as its chromatic voice leadings follow "the rules"), his sharps show us his harmonic intent.
Previously he made an unusual move from Neapolitan (Db 6/4) to V to VI (A minor), messing with listeners' heads by successively using both available versions of the sixth pitch of the scale, Ab and A and their respective corresponding flatted and natural scale pitches.
Now, he doubles down and uses the Neapolitan and all its implied flatted pitches to *briefly modulate* to plain old A minor with all its natural pitches - except G#.
So he uses sharps all the way, with G# pedal (the only shared pitch between this Neapolitan and Am). First, C#M (over G#). Then G#7 (over G#). Then E# becomes E natural, leaving C#m (over G#). Then the D# becomes D natural 🤤 so we hear a E7 chord (still over the G#!), which resolves "conventionally" to the A minor chord (the other sharps we've been hearing now go away, too) which has been his destination all along - just as it was 1st time we heard it few measures back.
In short, the sharps (in place of the expected flats) tell the reader and performers that he plans to redo his earlier highly unusual resolution of VI flat to VI natural (from the perspective of the C major which is the background to this whole paasage) but even more intensely than before (G#/Ab pedal, use of temporary dominant E7, etc).
Anyway that how this man's ears hear it - and that's how Mozart notated it, too!
I think you win!
Master Teacher, @@Richard.Atkinson - your approval made my day!
@@rabbibarrykornblau9877 As his daughter, I can attest to the fact that it made his day. He is quite proud of his achievement 🏆🏆😄
Nicely done--both the video and the analysis! So, the 2nd time (17:14) Mozart may have notated initially with flats but with the serendipitous move to the minor Neapolitan(!) saw an opportunity to move directly to VI (Am) by skipping the "middle man" V (G) thus deciding to use sharps, instead?
There're just Harmonic min b2 or Melodic min b2...or Enigmatic scales.
Like the Double harmonic min or Harmonic min #4
or Loc Maj7, ion #6, dor #5, phry#4, lyd #3, mix #2, aeo#1
Aeo#1 transfer to (loc bb3, b4, bb7)
oh..if you're familar with different scales..you'll be familar with variations of
loc...loc bb7.. loc b4..loc maj6.. loc b4, bb7...ect..... Loc bb3, b4, bb7
or Loc maj7.lol.....why Not?
Keys are just PITCH of the MAJOR scale ( Reference)
There's different ways to keep track of the 10-ea scales
aeo dor
Harmonic min melodic min
Harmonic min b2 melodic min b2
Harmonic min b5 melodic min b5 ( why not? :-P)
Harmonic min #4 melodic min #4
Ion #6
.....
What if I list it like this?
aeo maj7 Harmonic min
dor maj7 melodic min
phry maj7 Harmonic min b2
mix maj7 Ionian
loc maj7 Ion #6
dor b2 maj7
dor #4 maj7
dor b5 maj7
aeo b2 maj7
aeo #4 maj7
aeo b5 maj7
......................
dor b5 is the ii mode of Harmonic MAJOR
mix b6, maj7 = Harmonic MAJOR
mix b6 = V of Melodic min
Aeo b5 is the iv mode of Melodic min
Harmonic min b5 is the iii mode of HUNGARIAN MAJOR
aeo#4 is the iv mode of Harmonic min b2
aeo #4, maj7 is AKA Hungarian minor.
They had to call them something..
but I dont have a problem playing A min C dim into C# min
I could had play A min B7 into E Major or E min
( A lydian b3 ( melodic min #4 = E Harmonic MAJOR)
I could had play G#7 phrygian b4 ( 1, b4, 5, b7) into C# min..
But hey.. C dim into C# min....works.
it's the same as playing G7....B dim/G into C Maj..or C min
but the A lydian b3 is also a possible dim or full dim
Bb maj or Augment to G min G harmonic , melodic min
Just incase you wanna play the G Mix #2 (A# note instead of Bb) :-P
Any ways....back to the C# min/E MAJOR
C# min....D maj7 E7 F# min /A MAJOR
C# min D dim E7 A harmonic min or A harmonic MAJOR
C# min D7 E7 A Melodic min
C# min D min E dim into F MAJOR or F min....sort like F melodic min
C# min D maj E Maj F# dim into G MAJOR or G min
Do you see the D7......F#dim/D into G MAJOR or G min ?
Notice the D, E or F chords....how they relate back to
C MAJOR/Amin....if i want to modulated back to A min
After the E MAJOR
or I could had easily played F dim into F# min/A MAJOR
F dim, G# dim into A min.
or F maj. Fdim#G maj G# dim into A....whatever ..
it'll be sort of the same movement...if
I did it between the A Natrual min/C Major
A min BbMaj, B dim, C maj, C# into D min
Then the same from Dmin/F Major
D min, Eb maj E dim F Maj F# dim G Maj G# into A
or the same from E min/G MAJOR G# dim/aug into A
or play the G# Maj to D7 ( V of G Major)
Then play Eb Maj( apply it again)
to the C min chord. ( as lydian b3 to G Harmonic MAJOR)
I can play C dim ( B7) D# dim into E min
or D7 into the G MAJOR..again
There's all kinds of cool stuff you can do.
I could had easily play C Maj C# dim into D min, EbMaj to C min
Then G min, F min, E7 into A min again...
Notice the Db/C# is a Maj3 stack below the F min DIAD
G# or Ab is WH or b3 from
F lydian #2 ( A harmonic min) Lydian b3 ( C Harmonic MAJOR)
it'll sound sort of like play F min G7 into C Maj...
You'll see/hear the iv as min....from time to time...
for Cadence...or flavoring
I can even play the Bb Maj after the A min...then alter the A to A MAJOR.
it'll be as if I play A Maj. Bb maj, C Maj D min ( typical spanished guitar
or using the D Harmonic min..A7 into D min
or C# augmented into the D min chord ( II V I) back to C MAJOR..again
if I wanted to...Then alter the C to C7 into F min, E7 into A min again.lmao
Or play the Db..stack over the F min E min A min...for cadence.lol
Then Bb dim C# dim into D Min again...hahahaaaa
I also like the use of N6 at the Andante part of the Don Giovanni Overture, with the use of tremolo in the upper strings
I love the bit at 16:30. The Neapolitan section sounds to me like a tonicization of the Neapolitan, but the augmented 6th chord-the same exact notes as the dominant of the Neapolitan-sounds like a completely different chord.
Die Zauberflöte has two Neapolitan chords I like a lot. At the end of Pamina's aria Ach ich fühl's, which reinforces the characters pain and in the beginning of the ending sequence in Der, welcher wandert diese Strasse voll beschwerden, which gives a kind of mysterious flavor.
And also near the end of the Queen of the Night aria in Act II
Loved your analysis!! I just take the opportunity to mention one of my favourite neapolitan chord passage which is the codetta of 1st mvt of Beethoven's Waldstein sonata. Its a passage with two repeating phrases which are an octave apart. The Neapolitan doesn't appear in the exposition but only in the recapitulation, and that too only in the 1st phrase which is quite a memorable moment.
Excelent video! Could you make a video about augmented 6ths? Italian, german and french. It’s a topic that I’ve never understood since school. Thanks!
Awesome suggestion, I'm glad it's now been realized!
I love your analyses. They make me gain a deeper appreciation of these well known pieces. I wondered if you will ever analyze a piece by Tsaikovsky?
Great to understand this chord in context. Thanks a lot
Thank you for this.
Complimenti da Palermo! Wonderful video
It probably doesn't count. I don't know enough about music theory. But I'm reminded of Mozart's Ach Ich Fuhl's, a death aria which constantly makes you believe that the music is about to modulate back to tonica, and then it takes a turn. (In my opinion, perfecly illustrating the agony and torture of wanting to die, and you feel so close, but you can't.) Half way through the music, it modulates to the dominant, and you're sure it's about to modulate to tonica and wrap up. But the chord rises by a semitone ... and btw, then the soprano explodes in an ff highnote of agony. I know it's not a neapolitan chord because it's over the dominant not the tonica. But I love it. I hope that explanation of a layman made somewhat sense. :'D
"Ach, ich fühl's" is a break up aria, not a death aria.
I’ve actually heard some musicologists make the case that tonality in the 18th century was still utilizing extended meantone tuning rather than equal temperament, which essentially means that a diatonic semitone - G#-A- is aurally wider than its cousin, the chromatic semitone - Ab-A. That would mean the section from the C Major Quintet in c-sharp minor is ever so slightly LOWER than the parallel passage in D-flat. Weird.
I’ve tried to make the case that in parts of Italy this wasn’t always the situation (for want of a better word).
K488, 2nd mov, is sublime. I understand it's the only movement he ever composed in the key of f sharp minor. I have struggled for decades to find the right tempo. Traditionally, Siciliani are a bit faster than what is usually played in this movement. Same can be said of Magic Flute's Ach, ich fuhl, which is often sung too slowly. However, it's hard to pull off the amazing depth of both of these masterpieces at a slightly quicker pace. I can't figure it out.
thank you. great video!
You are doing a great service to music studies .
The K. 488 example is one of my favorites, too! But I have to admit that the first example of a Neapolitan chord that came to mind was the ending of a Waltz in A-flat major (Act I, No. 2) from Swan Lake. In fact, that instance of the Neapolitan was exactly in the form you showed at 1:50.
Yes, another good example!
Thanks for all this precious work ♥
As a mere amateur music lover, I envy your command and fluency in the most beautiful language ever created.
Tfw the orchestra kicks in after the piano solo in the K. 488 A Major Piano Concerto Movement 2 and you hear that violin arpeggio.
Great video! I advise you to make a video about the use of the IV minor chord.
Great lesson, thank you for it
Very interesting. Thank you!
Brilliant stuff.
Many thanks sir.
I think omitting the coda of the 24th concerto is a mistake. The Neapolitan is a major harmonic feature in the whole movement and its piercingly unsettling repeated D-flat defines the eerie harmony of the coda so it is in fact the main device used to give the final impression to the whole piece.
ruclips.net/video/NkoEkyFPaX0/видео.html
Very nice, thanks.
In minute 6:15" it states that a 6/8 meter is a Compound Triple meter. We know the 6/8 to be a Compound Douple meter. Unless it refers to the division of the beat (to be in three eight notes).
Yes, I said that mistakenly!
Great video and great Italian pronounce!
Awesome, thank for this jewel!!
I'm a bass, and I can tell you it's very satisfying to sing his Requiem.
Thanks I am too happy to be watching this before sleep :) My amateur brain, still a fledgling in music, always wondered what a Neapolitan chord was. The examples you give and the explanation help me feel its sound... and ofc Mozart equals
Osmin's aria 'Trallalera' (Wer ein liebchen hat gefunden) from Mozart's Serail, has an incredibly intense N6 on the second 'Trallalera' ritornello, with a 9th over cellos and Cb!
Great job, so clear to understand. thanks.
Brilliant insight..plus Mozart is 300 years young this year.. you still rock Amadeus..
Bryan Sturgeon
He was born in 1756...
jbckk ok thanks the guys on radio bbc3 did a concert for him last week you better tell them they was wrong
jbckk nice one for the detail and maybe they played a study of his father so this would be the 300 year of that piece.
265 years
Great video, Richard! I agree too, that musical education tends to avoid 'adventurous' chords in harmony lessons.
Edit: for anyone wondering, there is also a Neapolitan chord used in act 1 no 4 of the magic flute.
Well, three of the four examples in this video are not really that "adventurous." I'm more against using mundane, boring examples than I am against using simple examples.
@@Richard.Atkinson I know what you mean. I'm currently studying music in higher education in the UK, and when we learn how harmonise a melody in the style of Bach, its all I IV V, despite diminished 7ths often being used in chorales we've studied.
As I study music and therefore also music theory I totally agree with you.
Speaking of the magic flute: I always loved the unexpected Neapolitan chord in the next-to-last bar of the no.17 Aria - it effects such a sadness truly summing up Pamina's despair.
You missed the second, more subtle Neapolitan chord in the orchestral section of Concerto No 23 at 9:34 (two bars before the Solo section). Being part of the Ib-iv-N-ivc-Vb progression, this instance of the Neapolitan chord is resolved in a different way than the 2-bar arpeggio in the piano solo section.
Can you recommend about a book who can teach how to read music like you do? It's such a great method!!
You should make a video of you explaining how to avoid composing mistakes and how make your writing better.
Fantastic explanation!
Very nice presentation. Carefully thought out. Thank you
Excellent , thank you.
Example 1 4:44
Example 2 10:24
Example 3 16:22
Thank you teacher
Please, do “Best moments from each piece of Bach’s WTC I & II”
Interesting that at 12:26, the strings all have pizzicato marked, but the violins continue to use the bow. Anybody know why?
I have always wondered what you would called a sixth chord with a diminished sixth and now I know. Thank you so much for this video. :)
Excellent work maestro!
One of the reasons why we call it the Neapolitan 6 chord has to do with its other name in the Music Theory Verse: flat II 6 (bII6). In some ways I prefer this other name because it more clearly conveys the idea of this harmony’s function in a phrase-it is a chromatic inflection of the iio6 in the Minor mode (most commonly). The bass note is the same, and the low form of the submediant (diatonic in Minor, of course) is also the same.
This also helps to illuminate why it most often appears in 1st inversion rather than in root position. The iio triad (not seventh chord, just the triad) is extremely rare in nature since the fifth above the bass is a dissonant tritone. As such, in Minor, we really only see the iio6 triad, hence the chromatic inflection of that-bII6-is way more common than the root position version of that.
Yes, I’m aware there are notable exceptions, like in that one C Minor Chopin Prelude everyone plays. It’s a great moment, but in that case the reason it works is because earlier in the piece, a root position Db chord occurs functioning as a predominant within a tonicization of VI. Then, when that Db occurs again in the same sequence as before, we are expecting an Eb chord (as the dominant to Ab) but instead get the G7 as the dominant to C Minor. Great piece.
Also, although I wrote this long comment about one tiny comment you made about the name of the chord, I liked this video. You used very nice musical examples. What I would also have done is shown some ways that bII6 resolves to V. There’s at least three distinct ways I can think of: straight to V(7), having a viio7 of V in between the Neapolitan and the dominant like Mozart does in the Queen of the Night aria (works because contrary chromatic motion in outer voices), and also resolving to the cadential 6/4 to 5/3, as Mozart does in the A Major piano concerto you showed us.
Cheers from a music theorist and pianist!
Bro, I understand everything, great explication!
I'm addicted to these videos, really love your work !!
9:05 reminds me quite strongly of _Qui tollis_ from Bach's Mass in B Minor. I wonder if Mozart drew inspiration from that.
Very enlightening
Fantastic work. Thanks