1.2.17 An overview of the emotional nature of harmonies

Major tonic: a feeling of sober-minded contentment.

Minor tonic: grief (when played quietly), anger (when played loudly). Also communicates all other emotions which involve a sense of discontentment.

Natural minor: courage, adventure, tension, danger, severity, a challenging situation.

Dominant: a feeling of motion, aspiration, liberation.

The dominant of the minor tonic takes on the character of the minor and expresses stasis.

Seventh chord: resistance, protest, defiance, weepiness, weakness, braking, a walking motion.

In the minor tonic, it takes on the character of the minor and expresses stasis.

Secondary dominant chord: a very adaptable character with multi-facetted uses. Telegraphs the nature of the anticipated new tonic. Can express bitter disappointment or being painfully, greatly moved. If the anticipated tonic is major: full of hope, a feeling of heading out to something new.

Major subdominant: lightheartedness, ebullience, joy, drunkenness, victory, solemnity, an emotional climax, rejoicing, satisfaction.

Major subdominant with a major seventh: like the subdominant, but with a touch of bitterness: a wistful goodbye, a final embrace, yearning, a longing dream, an awareness of the fleeting nature of joy.

Added sixth in a major chord: comfort, coziness, fidelity, warm-heartedness, warmth, togetherness, love, friendship.

Added sixth in a minor chord: loneliness, separation, abandonment, heartbreak.

Neapolitan sixth chord: disappearance, death, abandonment, immutable pain, saying goodbye forever.

Diminished seventh chord: fear, despair, panic, dismay, broody downheartedness, melancholy.

If the anticipated resolving chord is a major chord: feigned despair, coquetterie.

Augmented chord: astonishment, amazement, surprise, magic, transformation.

Whole-tone scale: being weightless, under water, in space, in a dream.

Minor sixth: threat, danger, fear, feelings of anxiety