Sound Reasoning
Table of Contents
Part II: Hearing Harmony
18.1 Hearing Harmony: What is Harmony?
18.2 Harmony in Western Music
18.3 Expressing Harmony
18.4 Listening Gallery: Expressing Harmony
18.5 Harmonic Rhythm
18.6 Listening Gallery: Harmonic Rhythm
18.7 Cadences
18.8 Listening Gallery: Cadences
18.9 The Tonic
18.10 Circular and Linear Progressions
18.11 Listening Gallery: Circular and Linear Progressions
18.12 The Major-minor Contrast
18.13 Modes and Scales
18.14 Hearing the Mode
18.15 Listening Gallery: Hearing the Mode
18.16 Tonic, Mode and Key
18.17 Listening Gallery: Tonic, Mode and Key
18.18 Music Within a Key
18.19 Listening Gallery: Music Within a Key
18.20 Postponed Closure
18.21 Listening Gallery: Postponing Closure
18.22 Chromaticism
18.23 Listening Gallery: Chromaticism
18.24 Dissonance
18.25 Leaving the Key
18.26 Harmonic Distance
18.27 Modulation
18.28 Harmonic Goals
18.29 The Return to the Tonic
18.30 Final Closure
18.31 Listening Gallery: Final Closure
18.32 Reharmonizing a Melody
18.33 Listening Gallery: Reharmonizing a Melody
18.34 Conclusion
18.10 Circular and Linear Progressions
A circular progression cycles the same harmonic pattern over and over again: The harmonies revolve like a spinning merry-go-round.
Circular progressions are common in commercial music. The theme song from the television series “The Office” is based on one.
Circular progressions are also ubiquitous in improvisatory and participatory music: They allow for independence and spontaneity within a shared, reliable framework. Jazz’s “12-bar blues” and “Boogie-Woogie” bass-line are iconic examples.
In classical music, chaconnes, passacaglias and theme and variations incorporate circular progressions. Each time the progression is played, it is expressed in a new way. This excerpt from Georg Friedrick Handel’s Passacaglia in g-minor cycles the harmonic progression four times.
In this excerpt from Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, the solo violin traces its languorously evolving melody over a circular progression, which cycles eight times. Only in the last cycle is there is a small change in the harmonic progression.
On the other hand, a linear progression keeps changing, incorporating new chords and patterns. This excerpt from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 24 in c-minor is a linear progression.
Circular progressions are frequently used for sustaining a mood or elaborating on a state of mind. Linear progressions serve a stronger narrative purpose: They allow the music to progress to new destinations and incorporate greater contrast. Most commercial songs consist of circular progressions: The words may tell a story but the harmony generally revolves in a circle. In contrast, classical music generally incorporates both types: As a result, the music itself can tell an expansive, evolving tale.