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Topic: Song of the Waterfall harmonic progression  (Read 1032 times)

Offline quaver

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Song of the Waterfall harmonic progression
on: September 29, 2014, 09:27:01 PM
I am trying to understand the harmonic progressions in Song of the Waterfall by Loeschhorn.  It is in d minor.  In measure six I have the IV chord (of d minor) for the first two beats.  The third beat has the notes of a C7 chord. So how would that fit in d minor, it doesn't seem to belong.

Offline pianoguy711

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Re: Song of the Waterfall harmonic progression
Reply #1 on: September 30, 2014, 03:07:03 PM
the C7 is a transition chord probably to the relative major (F major). the IV chord that came before (g minor) is the II chord of F major and C7 is the V chord of F major.  In jazz we call this a II-V-I chord progression.

Offline lelle

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Re: Song of the Waterfall harmonic progression
Reply #2 on: October 02, 2014, 05:56:31 PM
He is indeed modulating to F major. After the C7 comes a d minor chord which in this case makes it a deceptive cadence - you think he is going to land on F major after the C7, but lands on d minor instead which is the tonic paralell in F major. However you still know he is thinking in F major because the following two bars before the repeat are moving towards landing on that F major chord.
 

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