[ONLINE] Doctoral Colloquium (Music): Marie-Ève Piché

The Doctoral Colloquium is open to all.

Doctoral Colloquium: Marie-Ève Piché

Join URL: https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/82439650053

“Minorized” Augmented Sixths: Introducing a New Family of Augmented-Sixth Chords

Harmonic theories typically recognize three types of augmented-sixth chords. Referred to as the Italian, French, and German sixths, all three chords have a major third above the lower note of the augmented-sixth interval. In late-tonal styles, however, composers frequently used various types of augmented-sixth chords that instead feature a minor third or augmented second above the lower note. I have gathered more than 200 examples of such chords, which appear in a wide range of contexts (e.g., prolongational progressions, sequences, cadences, and enharmonic pivots). Unlike other hallmarks of late-tonal harmonic practice, minorized augmented sixths have not been the object of substantial or systematic theorizing. To date, only one type has received significant theoretical attention, namely, the one that is enharmonically equivalent to a half-diminished chord, because of its famous use in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. Other types, such as the one equivalent to a minor-seventh, are encountered almost as frequently as the “half-diminished” augmented sixth, but examples of such chords are rarely mentioned in the theoretical literature. My dissertation fills this gap by providing a systematic account of the most common types of minorized augmented sixths in the late-tonal repertoire and explores the reasons why certain chords have been more discussed than others.

Marie-Ève Piché is a Ph.D candidate in music theory at McGill University. Prior to her doctoral studies, she completed undergraduate and master's degrees in musicology at Université de Montréal, with a thesis on the harmonic language of Schubert. Her primary research interests include late-tonal harmony and the history of music theory. She has presented papers at the annual meetings of the Society for Music Theory (SMT), Canadian University Music Society (MusCan), Music Theory Midwest (MTMW), and the New England Conference of Music Theorists (NECMT). Her research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She is currently a musicianship instructor at the École de musique Vincent-d’Indy.