INTRODUCTION

In addition to progressions between tonics or tonicized chords, such as those presented in chapter 2, chromatic third relations may occur within progressions and phrases in any number of other musical contexts. Like juxtapositions of tonics, some of the most basic and recurrent of these also come to act as normative relationships within common-tone tonality. Chromatic mediants may be separated by intermediary relative mediants. They may involve dominants in relation to tonics or two dominants in relation to each other. They may occur as third-dividers. Multiple chromatic mediant relations may group by affinity pairs; they may be chained into circles of thirds. And they may involve more than one of these contexts at a time. This chapter provides musical examples to illustrate these circumstances.

CHROMATIC MEDIANT RELATIONS WITH INTERMEDIATE CHORDS

Tovey's table of key relations (Plate 5.18) contains examples of third relations in which relative mediants appear as chords intermediary to the tonic and the chromatic mediant goals. If one allows for the plain juxtaposition of chromatic mediants, it follows that the relative mediants are not necessary intermediary chords, and that the controlling relation in a progression containing both kinds of mediants may well be the non-contiguous one between the tonic and the chromatic mediant.

Two short examples will demonstrate this: one from Schubert, the other from Chopin.