Neapolitan Chord - Inversions

Inversions

The flattened major supertonic chord is sometimes used in root position (in which case there may be even more concessions regarding consecutive fifths, similar to those just discussed). The use of a root position Neapolitan chord may be appealing to composers who wish for the chord to resolve outwards to the dominant in first inversion; the flattened supertonic moves to the leading tone and the flattened submediant may move down to the dominant or up to the leading tone. Although the flattened submediant moves similarly to the flattened supertonic, the transition from a root position Neapolitan chord to a first inversion dominant has more outward motion than the first inversion, whose notes all move towards tonic. An example of a flattened major supertonic chord occurs in the second to last bar of Chopin's Prelude in C minor, Op. 28, No. 20. In very rare cases, the chord occurs in second inversion; for example, in Handel's Messiah, in the aria Rejoice greatly.