Subsidiary chord

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title: "Subsidiary chord" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["chords"] topic_path: "general/chords" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiary_chord" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

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In music and musical analysis, a subsidiary chord is an elaboration of a principal harmonic chord in a chord progression.

If the principal chord (X) is partially replaced by the subsidiary (Y), there are three possible positions - beginning, middle, and end - for the subsidiary: :X–Ya :Y–X :X–Y–X

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For example, a subsidiary chord in a modulation.

A subsidiary chord may be a chord with related function and/or sharing pitches, for example in E major, Cm (C-E-G) as a subsidiary for E (E-G-B), which share two of three pitches and are related as tonic parallel (vi) and tonic (I).

References

References

  1. [[Peter van der Merwe (musicologist). van der Merwe, Peter]] (2005). ''Roots of the Classical: The Popular Origins of Western Music'', p.501. {{ISBN. 0-19-816647-8.
  2. Becker, Julius (1845). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=i10JAQAAMAAJ&q=subsidiary+chord&pg=PA1 A concise treatise on harmony]'', p.17. Ewer & Co.

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