Harmonic Functions and Sonorities In the section on Hamonic Transformations, we saw how the Basic Materials of any chord could be transformed into a variety
of different sonorities (shape/sounds) without losing the function of the chord (position in the Window, direction, and eventual
resolution) or even the details of its Voice-leading (the linear movements of its 4 orbits). In other words, the same "chord"
(in the sense “function”) could sound many different ways.
In this section, we will concentrate on sonorities and operate the inverse process, discover which chord it came from and
what transformations were applied to it. We will even attempt to draw up a list of all possible sonorities, 44 of them for
tetrads, and 19 for triads.
Definition of the word chord The word “chord” is habitually employed to represent sonority rather than function (the blues "chord" is habitually written F7, even if it is in reality F+6). However, we will always use the word “chord” to represent the function (the chord Cm+6+1-5 would still be basically a chord of C6 to us, and not Ebm7 or F#6). You might want to refer to the Chord Symbols page, or see the List of Sonorities, or move on to the Favorites chapter.
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