# Beethoven and Thematic Instability in the Appassionata Sonata



## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

It is clear that Beethoven is a towering genius. And with the definition of worship as extreme reverence and awe, I voted the first option in the poll here. Beethoven is highly charged with a stark dissociative instability, and yet these dissociations feel so right and come together in the end, particularly in the coda of his sonata forms where everything gets so powerfully resolved.

With all of the great composers who achieve above and beyond what they set out to do, many different musical elements and musical attributes operate together in synergy, and as people have said above, it is hard to pinpoint _one thing_ that provides for Beethoven's greatness. And not only that, but the narrative of each piece, the problems and developments and resolutions, tend to be individual to those pieces, so it is hard to provide an all-encompassing single category or trick.

Nevertheless, in order to make some progress in understanding, I think it is instructive to think about the category of _thematic instability_. This is where the main theme of a sonata form movement contains problems, instabilities, and dissociations that need to be resolved at the end of the movement, the coda. These instabilities are in texture, harmony, chromaticism, rhythm, and their intersection.

While "textbook" sonata form puts the recapitulation as the resolution of a [tonic->dominant] exposition into a [tonic->tonic] recapitulation... the coda needs to act, in Beethoven, as a second resolution, in fact, the primary resolution of the thematic instabilities presented earlier. In fact, this sort of resolution became gradually more and more important as we progress from the middle period to the late period... to the point where it's no longer sonata form in certain extreme cases.

And the motivic development that Beethoven is so famous for: this is the essential tool in bridging the gap between unstable and stable. And development sections, the sections that contain the greatest motivic developmental instability: they prefigure... partially! .... the resolutions in the coda.

Some might say that the paramount importance of thematic instability makes Beethoven proto-romantic, and while this might be true, his harmony is entirely classical, although the elaborations of ideas and narrative goals are not the default classical ones, i.e. the default conception of sonata form as a dominant to tonic resolution at the largest scale. Strange magic does raise a good point: the elegant imperfect hierarchy of harmonic rhythm governed by textural associations and symmetry-asymmetry conflict is not as big of a factor in Beethoven as it is in Mozart. But really, greatness and genius can, and should, come from doing different things, and whether one prefers one or the other is an individual decision.

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I will provide some short examples of thematic instability in Beethoven. There's a lot more going on than what I highlight here, and one really needs to study the score to know how to completely fits together. I won't be able to explain the complete airtight logic of the entire scaffolding, but this should provide a starting point. Take the first movement of the Appassionata sonata. The first phrase, the octave unison arpeggiated motif, the tonic F minor triad, ending in an imperfect half cadence (by imperfect half cadence, I mean an ending on the fairly weak first inversion dominant) with a trill, gets sequenced by the same, but by the remote Neapolitan G flat major, and then ends on the imperfect dominant of G flat. This trill figure gets repeated on the imperfect dominant of the tonic F minor, with the "fate" motif reflecting the note motif D flat ->C, and after a bit we have an arpeggiated flurry, into an imperfect half cadence. The D flat -> C, and more generally the flat 6 -> 5 scale degrees, are central to the eventual resolution.

This is all quite unresolved. It is characteristic of later Beethoven: airy, uncertain, fragmented, and weightless. But it is not _just_ the lack of a perfect authentic cadence, or even a perfect half cadence that makes this passage unresolved. The chromatic, airy and sudden Neapolitan G flat chord seems to have come out of nowhere, and it's the job of the piece to "explain" and resolve this problem. The oscillation of D flat -> C by both the repetition of the trill figure up and down and the hammering of the fate motif provide some glue, but this is only a weak prefiguring.

So does this thematic instability get resolved? One clue is to look at the development of the main theme. In this sonata form, the second theme is a variation/development of the first theme's main motif. While the main arpeggiated motif of the first theme _doesn't chord progress at all_ and is just a bare octave unison, the second theme melody is confidently progressional, and confidently harmonized through accompaniment.

Fast forwarding way out to the end, look at the final presentation of the theme in the coda, the extra fast piu allegro part. This is a final variation of the second theme which in turn, obviously, came from the main motif of the first theme group. Notice how this final theme, although it goes through chromatic dissonance, feels so _right_ and resolved. It is so Beethovenian, its rightness and strength. And why is that? It is _because_ of the chromatic dissonance! The remote and airy G flat note finally becomes integrated into the theme in the nicest possible way. The confident, chord progressional melody, even though it leaps, outlines within the chord progression the note descent A flat -> G -> _G flat_ -> F -> E... and then again A flat -> G -> _G flat_ -> F -> E -> F with that last F being the cadence into the last pounding "fate" chords.

And that flat 6 -> 5 note progression becomes essential here, because the G flat -> F linear progression is harmonized through the diminished seventh chord of B flat minor resolving into the B flat minor chord i.e. the flat 6 -> 5 of B flat minor.

Now... this isn't the whole story, because other smaller resolutions happened before that and they are needed to give this whole thing actual salience. The first resolution of the crucial second theme in the recapitulation takes the exposition's theme in A flat major and resolves it to F major. This is the usual sonata form process. In both cases, the melody is interrupted by a halt of the accompaniment into a halted texture, into a half cadence and a stepwise descending linear flurry by the right hand.

That halted texture is key. It prefigures ever so subtly the G flat -> F note resolution in the alto voice of the harmony, and it emphasizes the G flat as the flat 6 on top of the 5 of the subdominant B flat minor. This is given further salience through it reflecting in texture the note progression C -> D flat like a beat earlier. This particular resolution doesn't "stick out", especially because of the halt in texture and the G flat being in the alto voice, but it is prefiguring. After all, even though there's a halt, it is still a continuation of the melody, and thus prefigures the whole melodic resolution in the coda!

The second theme melody incorporating the G flat -> F descent appears in other places, but because the underlying harmony doesn't establish the actual key of F minor these are felt less strongly, they are merely prefigurations. In fact, the coda starts with the deep left hand playing the theme and incorporating the outline of the G flat -> F descent, but this is harmonized by the dominant 7th of D flat major -> D flat major. There's no approach to the F minor tonic. There are also analogous parts in the development section that do this, incorporating the outline of the G flat -> F descent but not actually establishing F minor.

OK. That wasn't absolutely everything. But it does give an idea of why Beethoven can be extremely dissociative and unstable in his themes and textures, and yet resolve over the course of the piece he resolves the thematic instability.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

Isn't this use of 'instability' part of what makes Beethoven special? The music always seems to contain emotions raging within, especially in a piece like the Apassionata?


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

I am of mixed feelings about the above. On an intellectual level, it can be fun to have a musicological analysis tell us "why" a particular thing worked. Then again, it doesn't really tell us anything about Beethoven's creative process -- because we don't know the exact thinking that went into the movement's creation. We know he thought long-term and structural-harmonically -- but whether or not he put it into words as he went ("Now, I have to put a Neapoloitan chord 'here' to be able to get to this key area 'here' , , ,) is not possible to know.

Long ago I went to a lecture by Charles Rosen about "thematic transformation late Beethoven," which, as you can imagine, was fascinating. But in the end I don't know that it improved or increased my love for the late quartets in any substantive way.


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

MarkW said:


> I am of mixed feelings about the above. On an intellectual level, it can be fun to have a musicological analysis tell us "why" a particular thing worked. Then again, it doesn't really tell us anything about Beethoven's creative process -- because we don't know the exact thinking that went into the movement's creation. We know he thought long-term and structural-harmonically -- but whether or not he put it into words as he went ("Now, I have to put a Neapoloitan chord 'here' to be able to get to this key area 'here' , , ,) is not possible to know.
> 
> Long ago I went to a lecture by Charles Rosen about "thematic transformation late Beethoven," which, as you can imagine, was fascinating. But in the end I don't know that it improved or increased my love for the late quartets in any substantive way.


That's all fair. There's so much going on at a structural level that tracing his creative process is impossible to do. A large number of patterns and relations in a piece tend to operate at a subconscious level, both for the listener and even for the composer. And indeed, if things were _too_ logical and connected the music would just wind up being square. There has to be spontaneity.

However, the chord-progressional stuff you describe to move harmonically here or there was certainly fairly routine basic technique... I was including their description to look at thematic problems and how they are resolved. Going from chord 1 to chord 2 is usually fairly routine, but the thematic problems proposed, elaborated, and resolved are not routine. And speaking of which, for my own sanity, I should have mentioned the ascending chromatic notes F -> G flat (spelled F #) -> G outlined at the end of the development section as a prefiguration of the reverse direction happening at the end in the coda.

Mostly I just wanted to trace this out for myself to understand, to some degree, the feeling of "rightness" in Beethoven. This process _is_ mysterious, individual, and unique. However, trying to make some incomplete sense of it is definitely doable.


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

MarkW points out that SeptimalTritone's analysis and post "cannot really tell us anything about Beethoven's creative process". That may be valid, but it's neither here nor there as far as I'm concerned. I believe ST's analysis does _not_ set out to nor claim to accomplish that.

I soaked up and greatly appreciated your analysis as I would a lecture on a Beethoven piano sonata by Schiff or a musical analysis of Beethoven by Rosen. For me, it's more about _our_ process, how _we_ consume art, _our_ intellectual processes that must be satisfied. Analysis like this sates and stimulates my curiosity and my intellectual need to continue learning. I love gaining perspective from all sides; musically speaking (thematic analysis, etc.) as well as non-musically speaking (Beethoven's biographic facts, like a quote from Beethoven on his creative and musical processes, for instance). Yes, the strict musical analysis may not tell me about Beethoven's creative processes, but Beethoven's own words about his creative processes won't tell me about the musical elements. I'm grateful to have a _full_ picture painted for me, from all perspectives, to gain more insight on my favorite composer. Your analysis and your posts in general, ST, make TC a great place to be!

:tiphat:


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

SeptimalTritone said:


> It is clear that Beethoven is a towering genius. And with the definition of worship as extreme reverence and awe, I voted the first option in the poll here. Beethoven is highly charged with a stark dissociative instability, and yet *these dissociations feel so right and come together in the end, particularly in the coda of his sonata forms where everything gets so powerfully resolved.
> *
> While "textbook" sonata form puts the recapitulation as the resolution of a [tonic->dominant] exposition into a [tonic->tonic] recapitulation... *the coda needs to act, in Beethoven, as a second resolution, in fact, the primary resolution of the thematic instabilities presented earlier.* In fact, this sort of resolution became gradually more and more important as we progress from the middle period to the late period... to the point where it's no longer sonata form in certain extreme cases.


I believe you have it exactly backwards - that the whole purpose behind Beethoven's codas in his revolutionary middle-period works is to leave the tensions inherent in his thematic processes palpably unresolved at the end of the first movement, and that the Appassionata is the quintessential example of the practice. Why does he do this? Because in these works he is aiming for dramatic unity on the largest scale and it would be death to the teleology of the overall structure if he resolved his thematic instabilities within the opening movement. Doing so would negate the motivation for the return of the b6-5 motive in the finale and the prolongation of the idyllic submediant key in the Andante. What he does resolve in the recap and coda of the first movement - in the most irresolute way possible! - are the tonal and harmonic tensions, since this sort of resolution is essential to syntactic closure in the style. The steadily exacerbated thematic tensions are there precisely to counter this concession to grammar and syntax.

First of all, your claim that "everything gets so powerfully resolved" in the coda is strange, since the ending of the movement could not be more inconclusive! The final transformation of the principal theme (mm. 257ff.) just falls apart, dissolves, - disassociates if you prefer - fading out ppp and with the fifth of the tonic chord on top. The final cadence is imperfect, and given how much you make of imperfect cadences in the exposition, it is surprising you fail to mention this in the coda where it matters so much more. And what precedes this final dissolution? The main event of the coda is putting the originally peaceful second theme through several horribly agitated and tense transformations. The first of these, ending with 21 measures at fortissimo, gives way to a quiet passage in which the "Fate motive," (Db-Db-Db-C) returns to deliver a sinister threat. A sudden (m. 238) explosion launches an even more frenzied and frantic version of the second theme. And then, finally, the complete dissolution at the end.

Your claim that the coda acts as "a second resolution, in fact, the primary resolution of the thematic instabilities presented earlier," is 180° off course. There is no resolution of thematic tensions here. In fact, the imbalances in the thematic material reach a feverish pitch in the coda and are purposely left unresolved with a palpably inconclusive fade to nothing. Beethoven's big middle period codas aren't second resolutions, they are highly unstable second developments.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

The fist part of the Apassionata especially sounds like a fantasy, similar to the Moonlight and others. This is when Beethoven was really starting to let his imagination roam, and I think this is the key, not in terms of themes resolving or not, but in the fantasia-like progress of the linear narrative. This seems to favor "unresolved" more than "closed loop."


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

EdwardBast said:


> I believe you have it exactly backwards - that the whole purpose behind Beethoven's codas in his revolutionary middle-period works is to leave the tensions inherent in his thematic processes palpably unresolved at the end of the first movement, and that the Appassionata is the quintessential example of the practice. Why does he do this? Because in these works he is aiming for dramatic unity on the largest scale and it would be death to the teleology of the overall structure if he resolved his thematic instabilities within the opening movement. Doing so would negate the motivation for the return of the b6-5 motive in the finale and the prolongation of the idyllic submediant key in the Andante. What he does resolve in the recap and coda of the first movement - in the most irresolute way possible! - are the tonal and harmonic tensions, since this sort of resolution is essential to syntactic closure in the style. The steadily exacerbated thematic tensions are there precisely to counter this concession to grammar and syntax.
> 
> First of all, your claim that "everything gets so powerfully resolved" in the coda is strange, since the ending of the movement could not be more inconclusive! The final transformation of the principal theme (mm. 257ff.) just falls apart, dissolves, - disassociates if you prefer - fading out ppp and with the fifth of the tonic chord on top. The final cadence is imperfect, and given how much you make of imperfect cadences in the exposition, it is surprising you fail to mention this in the coda where it matters so much more. And what precedes this final dissolution? The main event of the coda is putting the originally peaceful second theme through several horribly agitated and tense transformations. The first of these, ending with 21 measures at fortissimo, gives way to a quiet passage in which the "Fate motive," (Db-Db-Db-C) returns to deliver a sinister threat. A sudden (m. 238) explosion launches an even more frenzied and frantic version of the second theme. And then, finally, the complete dissolution at the end.
> 
> Your claim that the coda acts as "a second resolution, in fact, the primary resolution of the thematic instabilities presented earlier," is 180° off course. There is no resolution of thematic tensions here. In fact, the imbalances in the thematic material reach a feverish pitch in the coda and are purposely left unresolved with a palpably inconclusive fade to nothing. Beethoven's big middle period codas aren't second resolutions, they are highly unstable second developments.


OK thanks. You are right about the finale being the real, final resolution. The recap has, in both the first and second theme, both the flat 2 -> 1 -> 7 -> 1 and flat 6 -> 5 motif allied together as per the actual N chord, going into a dominant->tonic full perfect cadence. Then mm. 579 - 585, 586 - 595, and 633 - 655 would be the final resolution of the problems of the sonata, with the coda of the finale just being a strong tonic prolongation, with still the N -> V -> I resolution affirmed?

I see what you mean about the first movement, the mm. 240 piu allegro part, only ending in an imperfect cadence in mm. 250. There just felt something so right about the linear outline of the melody of flat 3 -> 2 -> flat 2 -> 1! But I guess that mm. 248-250 just abandon that into a weak cadence with the C on top. You're right about that. It did feel, however, like that final presentation of the second theme had that... much more satisfying incorporation of the G flat in the main melodic line for the first time in that melody in the actual key of F minor, rather than another key like in the development, or going from F minor to weakly tonicizing D flat major like in the first part of the coda, or in the halted part in the recap in F minor the G flat is only in the alto voice. Even though the second part of the coda never goes to the full conclusion of G flat -> F -> E -> F in the melody in mm. 248-250 and only imperfect cadences, the incorporation of the G flat in the melody, stepwise, while still being in F major completely, is a first. What do you think?


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

SeptimalTritone said:


> OK thanks. You are right about the finale being the real, final resolution. The recap has, in both the first and second theme, both the flat 2 -> 1 -> 7 -> 1 and flat 6 -> 5 motif allied together as per the actual N chord, going into a dominant->tonic full perfect cadence. Then mm. 579 - 585, 586 - 595, and 633 - 655 would be the final resolution of the problems of the sonata, with the coda of the finale just being a strong tonic prolongation, with still the N -> V -> I resolution affirmed?
> 
> I see what you mean about the first movement, the mm. 240 piu allegro part, only ending in an imperfect cadence in mm. 250. There just felt something so right about the linear outline of the melody of flat 3 -> 2 -> flat 2 -> 1! But I guess that mm. 248-250 just abandon that into a weak cadence with the C on top. You're right about that. It did feel, however, like that final presentation of the second theme had that... much more satisfying incorporation of the G flat in the main melodic line for the first time in that melody in the actual key of F minor, rather than another key like in the development, or going from F minor to weakly tonicizing D flat major like in the first part of the coda, or in the halted part in the recap in F minor the G flat is only in the alto voice. Even though the second part of the coda never goes to the full conclusion of G flat -> F -> E -> F in the melody in mm. 248-250 and only imperfect cadences, *the incorporation of the G flat in the melody, stepwise, while still being in F major completely, is a first. What do you think?*


I think the role of G-flat in that movement has been puzzling people for a couple of centuries and your surmise is likely part of the explanation. Another attempt at explaining it was Patricia Carpenter's "Grundgestalt as Tonal Function." (Music Theory Spectrum 7 (1985): 15-38). She had an elaborate argument that the basic form (Grundgestalt) or fundamental shape underlying the movement is the submediant relationship, I-VI in harmonic terms. So the exposition ends in Ab-minor, the development begins in Fb major (which Beethoven kindly spells as E major), the two keys being a b6 apart. The next keys in the development are E minor, C minor, Ab minor, each a flat-6th above the preceding. Toward the climax of the development, where the second theme is the subject (m. 109ff), we get the keys of D-flat, B-flat minor, and finally G-flat, each the submediant of the last. Anyway, the development of the second theme in Gb is right before the devastating climax of the movement, and I think it is the first time a G-flat triad has been heard since the beginning of the exposition. Carpenter takes this climactic passage as the solution of the G-flat enigma, explaining the G-flat move in the first theme as the submediant of the subdominant - that is, as the VI chord of Bb minor, as it later proves to be near the climax of the development (m. 117).

I favor a simpler narrative explanation: The F to G-flat move in the first theme is transgression. (And in terms of harmonic progression it certainly is!) The D-flat to C motion of the Fate motive is retribution - or, actually, the threat of it, to be fulfilled later. It reverses this unjustified move in a subdominant direction by dragging us back toward the dominant. The semitone motion in opposite directions (F-Gb, Db-C) gives this transgression-retribution relationship a neat symmetry. In the development this drama is expanded. In the development of the second theme we have flatward moves, that is, in a subdominant direction, beginning at m. 109 - Db, Bbm, Gb - which finally brings the Gb of the first theme into reality, that is, into a harmonic context in which it makes sense. The retribution on the Fate motive at the thunderous climax of the movement follows almost immediately. Once again, transgression and retribution. Gregory Karl has a more complete narrative interpretation in similar terms in his "Structuralism and Musical Plot" (Music Theory Spectrum 19 (1997): 13-34).

Anyway, the movement is a fascinating puzzle to grapple with and it is good to see someone (else) getting pulled into the labyrinth!


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## Klassic (Dec 19, 2015)

Gentlemen, you caused me to fall out of my chair from laughter. You academic types are all the same, none of you will ever have a clue. :lol:


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## SeptimalTritone (Jul 7, 2014)

You know, that Grundgestalt article is what got me initially interested in this in the first place, and is what I first read before making this thread! The Carpenter article is a good article. It also makes a big deal of the second theme in the recap, where the melody halts at mm. 180-181, especially the G flat as flat 6 of B flat minor. This also happens in the coda's piu allegro, that is, G flat as flat 6 of B flat minor, but this time the G flat is in the leading melodic voice, being in the linear note progression A flat -> G -> G flat -> F. I really regret missing the fact that in the leading melodic voice, D flat and C take over to give an imperfect cadence at the end with C on top, whereas in the finale's recapitulation (done twice, for greater measure!) that doesn't happen and the cadence is full.

I see what you mean with the fate motif acting as counterpressure to the lurch to G flat, and that the much great difficulty of this counterpressuring move at the climax at the devlopment: extreme difficulty in that D flat note actually going down to C, from when then the fate motif actually does that C acts as the famous dominant pedal note. I will dig up the Karl article. Thanks!


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

SeptimalTritone said:


> I see what you mean with the fate motif acting as counterpressure to the lurch to G flat, and that the much great difficulty of this counterpressuring move at the climax at the devlopment: extreme difficulty in that D flat note actually going down to C, from when then the fate motif actually does that C acts as the famous dominant pedal note. I will dig up the Karl article. Thanks!


Yes, I think you are right that Carpenter mentions the later Gbs! I was going from memory. Haven't read it in years. Carpenter comes from a very harmonocentric perspective, whereas we both seem to want to put more emphasis on thematic events.

The importance of Db can't be stressed too much. The crucial move in both the development and the coda is the attempt to establish the second theme in D-flat major. Both attempts go very wrong. The slow movement takes up this thread by wholly stabilizing D-flat major. But at the end Beethoven completely undercuts it by making it the soprano voice in the vii4/3 harmony that begins the finale. This is one of the ways in which critical tensions from the first movement persist to motivate the action of the finale.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Klassic said:


> Gentlemen, you caused me to fall out of my chair from laughter. You academic types are all the same, none of you will ever have a clue. :lol:


Laughing and stereotyping people who actually know what they're talking about is a sure sign of cluelessness.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I go off on rants like that sometimes. Here is one about root movement in Beethoven's Ninth:

The Second Movement (Scherzo) of Beethoven's Ninth has some transitional material right before the modulation to E minor that involves root movement in thirds. The movement starts in D minor. Then, the transition: (1) CMaj-Amin-FMaj-Dmin...(2) Dmin-BbMaj-Gmin-EbMaj...(3) Ebmaj-Cmin-AbMaj-Fmin...(4) DbMaj (F bass)-Bbmin (Db bass)-GbMaj (Bb bass)-Ebmin (Gb bass)...(5) BMaj-G#min-EMaj-C#min- Then (in octaves, not triads):[A-Bb-B]...into E minor. Does that ring a bell? They fly by pretty quick.

This chord sequence, in which different key areas are briefly touched on, goes by as quickly as a bebop chord sequence. I hesitate to call these brief resting points "key centers", as they have not settled down into the key area yet, as finally happens in the E minor section which follows, so I would characterize the sequence as "transitional" material.

Notice how Beethoven is playing with both major thirds and minor thirds. The minor third root movements could be seen as I-vi, as in the first CMaj-Amin. The movement from Amin to Fmaj could be seen as a iii min-I Maj. This allows him to quickly establish new "tonic" chords (also, chords are constructed using major and minor thirds). Would anyone classify these as true modulations? If so, they are very compact. 

The root movement of these chords in minor and major thirds _also_ outlines chords, like a 
(1)D minor seventh, outlined by C-A-F-D, and 
(2)Eb major seventh, outlined by D-Bb-G-Eb, 
(3)Fmin7 outlined by Eb-C-Ab-F,
(4)GbMaj7, outlined by F-Db-Bb-Gb, 
(5)C#min7, outlined by B-G#-E-C#
then the C#min7 is seen as iii min of A Major, then a chromatic climb to B (V of V in A), which is the V of the new key, E minor.

Could this "outlining of chords" also be seen as a "root movement" in its own right? If so, we start out in D minor, which is then seen as the ii minor of C Maj, through G7. 
Then we have C major-D minor (seen now as a iii minor in Bb major)-Eb major(IV in Bb)-F minor(v minor in Bb)-Gb major(b vi in Bb and V in Db minor (C#)-C#minor(iii in A)-A major-(Bb)-B, finally to E minor.

If so, look how brilliant the "double meaning" of chords outlining other chords by their predominant note is.

Does it sound elitist? It's too complicated not to be, and for that same reason, not able to communicate to "everyman." I believe they call this "The curse of intelligence."


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