French 6th Chord

The French sixth chord is a type of augmented sixth chord used in classical harmony. It is named after French composers who popularized its use. Its typical resolution is to the dominant (V) chord. However, I used this chord here to provide emotional punctuation within the flow, resolving directly back to the tonic (I) rather than the dominant (V). The excerpt begins in the F minor scale, where I applied the French sixth chord in bars 2 and 4. In bar 5, the piece modulates to the C minor scale and concludes there. This is an ongoing project.

Structure:

• It’s built on the lowered sixth scale degree (♭6).

• The chord contains four notes:

  • ♭6 (lowered sixth degree)

  • 1 (tonic)

  • 2 (supertonic)

  • ♯4 (raised fourth degree)

• The characteristic interval is the augmented sixth between ♭6 and ♯4.