Workshop 36 mini-test

1. What is C harmonic minor?

2. What is G Phrygian dominant?

3. Which notes most distinguish it from G Mixolydian?

4. Why can G7 cease to feel like merely a transitional dominant if it lasts many bars?

5. What happens when C changes to B over a G pedal?

6. What does A♭ major triad contribute over G?

7. What is the relationship between B°7 and G7♭9?

8. Why can E♭ remain unchanged when G7♭13 resolves to Cm?

9. How can G simultaneously function as a local center and as V of C minor?

10. What is the deepest lesson of Workshop 36?

Answers

1. C-D-E♭-F-G-A♭-B-C.
2. G-A♭-B-C-D-E♭-F-G, the fifth mode of C harmonic minor.
3. Primarily A♭ (♭9) and E♭ (♭13) instead of Mixolydian A and E.
4. Repetition, pedal bass, groove, and duration can establish G as a perceptual/local center even though it retains long-range dominant potential.
5. C→B changes suspended/modal dominant color into much clearer functional G dominant because B is the major 3rd.
6. A♭-C-E♭ = ♭9, 11, and ♭13 against G.
7. B°7 = B-D-F-A♭, which is the upper structure of G7♭9 after removing the G root.
8. E♭ changes function from ♭13 of G7 to the minor 3rd of Cm, so the harmony resolves by reinterpretation rather than movement.
9. On the local timescale, sustained G bass and modal vocabulary make G feel central; on the larger structural timescale, the eventual G→C resolution reveals G as dominant of the true C-minor tonic.
10. A chord’s function depends not only on its notes, but also on how long it lasts and on the timescale at which you hear it.

The central lesson of Workshop 36 is:

The same harmony can be both destination and tension: live inside the sound long enough and it becomes a world; listen across the whole form and you may discover that the entire world was still pointing home.