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:
“You are done for—a living dead man—not when you stop loving but stop hating. Hatred preserves: in it, in its chemistry, resides the “mystery” of life. Not for nothing is hatred still the best tonic ever discovered, for which any organism, however feeble, has a tolerance.”
—E.M. Cioran (b. 1911)
“If from the earth we came, it was an earth
That bore us as a part of all the things
It breeds and that was lewder than it is.
Our nature is her nature. Hence it comes,
Since by our nature we grow old, earth grows
The same. We parallel the mother’s death.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)