Hello everyone, friends. I wanted to ask your opinion on a modulation. Having to make an arrangement of the well-known piece "un amore così grande" for band, I necessarily had to transpose the entire piece down a semitone, leaving the short eight-bar ending in the original key. In that case, the modulation of the final piece used the following chord progression: am - C7 - F; now it becomes Abm - C7 - F. Obviously, the effect is no longer the same as before, but I wanted to know how you would have resolved it.
Given that there are no magic formulas regarding this and that everything can have a good or bad effect, depending on the context, the instrumentation, the overall sound, the arrangement, etc... I would say that a good way, at least in theory, to connect Ab min with C7, which do not even share a single note, could be to insert a G7 between the two chords, which shares the note Bb with Ab min (obviously in Ab that note is Cb, so it must be enharmonically adjusted) and connects well to the subsequent C, also being a secondary dominant in the key of F, which I believe is the final key one wants to reach. At a theoretical level it can work and involves having to insert only one chord; it is clear that if the piece is always in the same key and only modulates in the last three chords, something unusual will still be perceived and I don't know if this will be pleasing, but at least at a theoretical level, we have a supporting patch.
I had also tried with a diminished F and with G seventh. But in your opinion, if I don't put anything, what happens? If I leave Ab, Do7, F and that's it? Thanks geppino
The lab min to do7 connection is a bit forced in my opinion within a light music context; the chords have no notes in common, nor do the fundamental basses proceed diatonically. In my judgment, a connecting chord is needed. Even a B diminished could be an idea (the F diminished inversion that you proposed).
With a C major 6, you could try doing chromatic contrary motion: the notes of the chord rise by a semitone and the bass descends by a semitone; you obtain a third inversion of the m7 chord which, however, at least in theory, should resolve to G major, not F major, unless you insert some other chord in between. I have always liked chromatic contrary motion, but it does indeed sound a bit Beethovenian.
I fully agree with Geppino, but if you really don't want to add a chord, you could consider using C7(#5); however, you use the altered fifth in a "classical" way and treat it as a minor sixth interval that rests on the fifth of the C7 chord.
Anyway, the best solution depends on an infinity of factors that can transcend the purely harmonic parameter.
I don't know if you have the sheet music in question for piano and voice, but there are some notes that cannot be omitted which therefore guide the choice of chords. To explain myself better: when the singing evokes the phrase "your mouth ignites, it ignites once again" it stays on an A above an A minor chord, then goes to a Bb above a C7 chord and returns to A on an F+ chord, which is then the arrival key. The Bb in the singing is mandatory because it is expected by the audience of melody lovers. The C7 chord should be mandatory. At most, the one to choose is below the A (flat) in this case. Tomorrow afternoon I will post some supporting PDF files
I understand, you expressed yourself clearly, but consider one thing: the Bb of the melody over the A chord is a flat ninth with a clear function as a turning note; if you lower the piece by a half step without also lowering the modulation, you will no longer have the B that goes to Bb and descends to A, but an Ab that rises to Bb and descends to natural A (!!) because in the meantime you have modulated to F major. The sensation and the functions that each of those notes assumes will be completely different; at that point, forget the original and look for a musically convincing solution—for example, I would add a coda, otherwise this very strong modulation just for the last three chords seems a bit thrown in there. Anyway, even considering the melody staying on Ab, both G7 and B dim fit well and all in all create a very similar sound.
