Inversions : The opening bars of
Mozart’s
Piano Sonata in C, K545 features dominant seventh chords in both second and first inversions:The concluding
cadence of the same movement features the chord in root position:A striking use of inversions of the dominant seventh can be found in this passage from the first movement of
Beethoven’s
String Quartet Op. 127. Here, the second and third inversions contribute to the "magnificently rich harmony" :
Function {{Image frame|content= { \override Score.SpacingSpanner.strict-note-spacing = ##t \set Score.proportionalNotationDuration = #(ly:make-moment 1/12) \new PianoStaff -.\p -.[ -.] -.\ff r } >> \new Staff 8 \stemNeutral -.[_\markup { \concat { "V" \raise #1 \small "7" \hspace #1.2 "I" \hspace #2 "V" \raise #1 \small "7" \hspace #1.7 "I" } } bes-.] -. -. r \bar "|." } \new Voice \relative c, { \clef bass \key bes \major \time 2/4 \stemDown bes8 } >> >> } |width=300|caption=Tritone resolutions in the last measures of
Beethoven's
Piano Sonata in B major, Op. 22 (1800).}} The
function of the dominant seventh chord is to
resolve to the
tonic note or chord. This dominant seventh chord is useful to composers because it contains both a major triad and the interval of a
tritone. The major triad confers a very "strong" sound. The tritone is created by the co-occurrence of the fourth degree and seventh degree (e.g., in the G7 chord, the
interval between B and F is a tritone). In a diatonic context, the third of the chord is the
leading-tone of the scale, which has a strong tendency to pull towards the tonic of the key (e.g., in C, the third of G7, B, is the leading tone of the key of C). The seventh of the chord acts as an upper leading-tone to the third of the scale (in C: the seventh of G7, F, is a half-step above and leads down to E). • The
diminished fifth (if the seventh is above the third, as in the first measure below) resolves inwards while the
augmented fourth (if the seventh is below the third, as in the second measure below) resolves outward. This means that the seventh resolves
stepwise downwards and often (though by no means always) the voice leading suggests either a
passing note: :8 7 3 :5 5 1 or resolution of a (hypothetical)
suspension: :(8) 7 3 :(4) 5 1
In blues progressions In music that follows follow the
blues progression, the
IV and
V chords are "almost always" dominant seventh chords (sometimes with
extensions) with the
tonic chord most often being a major triad. Examples include
Bill Haley and the Comets' "
Rock Around the Clock" and
Buster Brown's "
Fanny Mae", while in
Chuck Berry's "
Back in the U.S.A." and
Loggins and Messina's "
Your Mama Don't Dance" the tonic chord is also a dominant seventh. Used mostly in the first fifteen years of the rock era and now sounding somewhat "retrospective" (e.g.,
Oasis' "
Roll With It"), other examples of tonic dominant seventh chords include
Little Richard's "
Lucille",
The Beatles' "
I Saw Her Standing There",
Nilsson's "
Coconut",
Jim Croce's "
You Don't Mess Around With Jim", and
The Drifters' "
On Broadway". ==Related chords==