After the Fourth Grade, One Can Find...

... the first

Plagal cadence

I wouldn't want to be wrong, but even the second ...if followed by the fifth

IV - II - V - I or IV - I (Plagal cadence) or IV - V - I or IV - III6... heaven knows!!

...more rarely even the VI degree, if I am not mistaken the neoclassicists used the IV VI connection

Thank you all, summarizing:

After the fourth degree (IV°), we find

- The first degree (I°) (PLAGAL CADENCE)

- The fifth degree (V°)

- The second degree (II°), provided it is immediately followed by the Fifth degree (V°)

- More rarely, the sixth degree (VI°)

Aspirante wrote:

Thank you all, summarizing:

After the fourth degree (IV°) we find

- The first degree (I°) (PLAGAL CADENCE)

- The fifth degree (V°)

- The second degree (II°) provided it is immediately followed by the Fifth degree (V°)

- More rarely the sixth degree (VI°)

I would also say altered 4th with 5-6 (secondary dominant), followed by the 5th.

Bye

Gino

Any degree....

gpr wrote:

I would even say altered 4th with 5-6 (secondary dominant), followed by the 5th.

I made it up to #IV, can you explain the rest better ...

geppino12575 wrote:

Any degree....

...can be and is safe if you, who are prepared, say so, but a table like the one I am trying to set up helps (at least for me) to better rationalize the "best" paths

There is no absolute better or worse way, it depends on many factors; one cannot generalize. Given the same context (school harmony or classical anyway), it can be the melody that dictates the choice of the 'best' degree, but if you don't have the melody, in theory, you can go wherever you want and always find a valid justification; you can even go to the VII degree, even if it is a tritone jump, as long as it then resolves on the I. In my experience, a table of this type would complicate your life rather than make it easier, also because you would then have to make a similar table for each of the degrees, only to discover that in most cases you can truly go anywhere starting from almost all degrees.

Aspirante wrote:

I've made it up to #IV, can you explain the rest better ...

Very simple. Suppose you are considering the "usual" harmonization of a bass with four parts. You are in C major, so let's start from the bass which is on F, and let's suppose for example that we arrange the other three voices like this: C-F-A. Now the bass goes to F#, the alto descends to D, the other two voices remain where they are. This creates an chord foreign to the home key, precisely a dominant seventh chord (in first inversion), which obviously will go to G-B-D-G; apparently there has been a modulation, but in reality it can be considered transitory if C major is immediately returned to afterwards. In this case, the IV+ chord with 5 and 6 should be understood as a "secondary dominant", that is, as the dominant of the dominant.

Ciao

Gino

and if instead of the D you put an Eb you get something more tense, if you really want to do something dramatic then you can even lower the A to Ab