# The Diminished Seventh as "Vagrant" Chord



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

[WIK: Music theorists have struggled over the centuries to explain the meaning and function of diminished seventh chords. Currently, two approaches are generally used. The less complex method treats the leading tone as the root of the chord, and the other chord members as the third, fifth, and seventh of the chord, the same way other seventh chords are analyzed.
The other method is to analyze the chord as an "incomplete dominant ninth", that is a ninth chord with its root on the dominant, whose root is missing or implied.

Diminished seventh chord as an incomplete ninth in C Minor:










Using Piston's incomplete-ninth analysis above, a single diminished seventh chord, without enharmonic change, is capable of the following analyses: V, V of ii, V of III (in min.), V of iii (in maj.), V of iv, V of V, V of VI (in min.), V of vi (in maj.), V of VII (in min.). Since the chord may be enharmonically written in four different ways without changing the sound, we may multiply the above by four, making a total of _forty-eight possible interpretations!_]


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## Doctuses (Jun 11, 2018)

That's pretty neat!


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