In music theory, the tonic parallel (relative chord, German: Parallelklang) is a diatonic function and chord, relative to the tonic, and thus considered to have or fulfill the function of the tonic. The term is used in German theory and derives from the work of Hugo Riemann. It is abbreviated "Tp" in major and "tP" in minor.
Dr. Riemann...sets himself to demonstrate that every chord within the key-system has, and must have, either a Tonic, Dominant or Subdominant function or significance. For example, the secondary triad on the sixth degree of the scale of C major, a-c-e, or rather c-e-a, is a Tonic 'parallel,' and has a Tonic significance, because the chord represents the C major 'klang,' into which the foreign note a is introduced. This, as we have seen, is the explanation which Helmholtz has given of this minor chord." —Shirlaw 2010In C major:
- Tp is A-minor, US submediant
In C minor:
- tP is Eb-major, US mediant
Famous quotes containing the words tonic and/or parallel:
“We need the tonic of wildness,—to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“As I look at the human story I see two stories. They run parallel and never meet. One is of people who live, as they can or must, the events that arrive; the other is of people who live, as they intend, the events they create.”
—Margaret Anderson (1886–1973)