This section introduces students to how Western classical composers use harmony to create a sense of trajectory in a phrase of music. It begins with basic diatonic harmony and ends with tonicization and modulation to closely related keys.

Prerequisites

This section assumes a familiarity with the topics covered in Fundamentals. It’s helpful, but not necessary, for students to have studied some counterpoint as well, particularly the introductory chapter of that section.

Organization

The chapters are organized around two principles: (1) the phrase model and (2) bass-line patterns. The section starts by examining phrase endings since these are relatively formulaic, then moves to beginnings, and finally takes on middles.

The first chapter introduces the phrase model, defines phrase, and discusses how composers create phrase endings via cadences. It only uses I and V chords.

In the next four chapters, students learn to strengthen cadences using V⁷ (root position only) and strong predominants (IV and ii⁽⁶⁾), and the cadential . It’s important that students learn about embellishing tones before reading the cadential chapter.

The next six chapters complete the study of diatonic harmony, focusing first on how to expand the tonic at the beginning of the phrase, then on how to create length in the middle of a phrase.

The section ends with tonicization and modulation. The tonicization chapter can be done in two parts: (1) tonicizations of V only; (2) tonicizations of chords other than V.