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The harmonic reduction of the first four bars of the Prelude goes like this:

B | C | C | B

D | E | F#| G

G | G | G | G

When I hear this and also based on my understanding of tonal harmony, I'd analyse the third chord as a V7 over a pedal G (implied D), or at most a dim vii over pedal G. It's just a very standard I - IV - V7 - I progression over a tonic pedal.

My cello teacher insists that it's a Gmaj7 with 4-3 suspension. I find that analysis very odd in context, since Gmaj7 is not a exactly a cadential chord and does not establish the tonal harmony of the piece.

What do you all think?

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    I would say that you are correct (F#C->GB over a pedal tone is how I would read it), though I would be more interested in why your teacher thinks the way that he does.
    – Andrew Chin
    Commented Jun 17, 2020 at 11:52
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    I agree, definitely a V-I cadence over a I pedal. The tritone to third resolution solidifies that. IF the F# carried over to the next bar maybe but eh, sus chords don’t usually contain tritones, more 2nds, 4ths and 5ths.
    – John Belzaguy
    Commented Jun 17, 2020 at 15:01
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    Of course it's a V7 - it's Bach, not Debussy. in Bach's time, maj7 chords were used way more sparingly than in later times.
    – Kilian Foth
    Commented Jun 17, 2020 at 15:04
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    @AndrewChin My teacher says it's because there's a G in the bass, which made me even more confused since my teacher had no problems calling the previous chord a C major chord. I suspect she doesn't understand/know the concept of pedal and so thinks that every chord must be analysed fully in terms of the notes there, hence G E C can be rearranged to C E G, but G F# C cannot be rearranged so must be some sort of non-inverted chord.
    – abelian
    Commented Jun 17, 2020 at 22:03
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    Functional major seventh chords are quite rare in the baroque, but they do exist. Where they occur, they are subdominant, as in IV7-V7-I. The major seventh resolves down to the fifth of the V chord. This chord is definitely not a subdominant, and the F sharp resolves up, not down.
    – phoog
    Commented Jan 18, 2022 at 20:30

3 Answers 3

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The standard modern textbook answer using basic harmonic theory would be to view it as a I-IV-V7(incomplete)-I sort of progression over a tonic pedal.

The assumption in most treatment of classical theory is that a I7 implies a dissonant seventh that will generally tend to resolve down by step. The seventh above the bass in this case resolves by ascending, so it's not a standard use of the "classical" seventh chord. So no, I wouldn't agree with a teacher who would label this as a major seventh chord, as least according to standard classical theory. (Jazz theory treats sevenths differently and less strictly.)

That said, there is at least something in the idea that the C-B is a kind of suspension: the C does want to resolve down (and ultimately does). Actually, it's not really a suspension, but a neighbor tone, a dissonant fourth above the bass. If you look at your reduction in the question, you can see an overall B-C-B motion in the upper voice, and a rising D-E-F♯-G ascending line in the middle voice.

That latter interpretation is closer to how Bach probably viewed this himself, as Roman numerals didn't exist yet in his time. He would have thought of this contrapuntally, with a static G bass, an ascending middle line, and a top voice with a neighbor tone motion. In effect, the B-C motion creates a dissonant fourth above the bass that needs resolution, then the middle voice rise to F♯ creates an F♯-C tritone that increases the need for resolution, which then moves to G-B in the next bar.

However that gets translated into Roman numerals depends a bit on what assumptions you're making (e.g., are we just speaking functionally and calling it a V7, even without the "root" D?). But yes, most modern theory texts would probably see this as a series of incomplete harmonies implying a I-IV-V7-I over a pedal.

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  • Thank you for this very detailed answer. I agree that understanding it as contrapuntal lines also makes a lot of sense, it's just that doing what my teacher did and trying to intepret it chordally as a maj7 with suspension misses both the standard modern harmony answer and the contrapuntal view.
    – abelian
    Commented Jun 20, 2020 at 10:36
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    The major seventh chords I can call to mind without looking anything up are IV7, not I7.
    – phoog
    Commented Jan 18, 2022 at 20:31
  • @phoog: Calling something a "chord" with a Roman numeral is ahistorical, as I pointed out, so we're just playing language games as to what constitutes a chord. There are certainly plenty of circumstances where the notes of a "I7" exist in the baroque - everywhere, often in sequences, often resolving to "IV." If such a chord was built on the 5th scale degree, everyone calls it V7 without hesitance. Instead, we tend to call the "7th" in I7 a suspension or passing tone or whatever, but the 7th in V7 is often that too. It's just an arbitrary convention/distinction in our modern labeling system.
    – Athanasius
    Commented Jul 20 at 18:04
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I studied classical composition with real contemporary composers at 2 conservatories and finally one other music academy. The consensus that these composers all pointed out, is that Bach obviously didn't think about vertical harmonies like we do today, because he came from a polyphonic musical tradition.

So all of his harmonies are a result of voice leading, and the basic structure-ornament, structure-ornament, structure-ornament etc form. Which is the most essential classical compositional technique. It's really the bread and butter of composition.

Taking three notes, as a (beginning) structure, then give this structure an ornamentation by giving each or some of the notes its neighbor (chromatic or diatonic) notes. Of course it's up to the composer to stretch this form with using the ornamentation as the new structure, and giving that its own ornamentation.

I believe that's whats happening here, (structure-ornamentation-ornamentation-structure) just to get back to our starting point for the fourth time. It has nothing to do with functional harmony, I believe in Bach’s time it didn't even exist as today. And also the point in classical composition is that chords are not preexistent, but they are born as the composition evolves, from the smallest structure through ornamentation. Anyway, it’s a topic to talk about for years, and that's what composition students do at academies. I hope it helped a little bit.

Cheers,

David

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  • Between your name and the topic, I am put in mind of the venerable cellist and teacher Andor Toth.
    – Aaron
    Commented Jan 18, 2022 at 0:35
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This V7-I progression can also be viewed as the Cadential 64 chord progression. It is sometimes shown as I64-53 in some old textbooks, but it functions as the dominant - Tonic cadential moment in the music. So, It is 4-3 suspension, and it is also the V7-I cadential moment for sure.

As for the G pedal, I think this is the most interesting part in Bach's Cello Suite. I think maybe the low G pedal can be viewed as the continuous bass notes performed by organ players' foot ("Ostinato"). So it creates multi-layers/polyphonic style of music.

We can take many different angles to analyze the music! So there is no correct answer. If the third chord can be viewed as the Gmaj chord, it will be Gmaj7add13 though, which omits the fifth (which is totally acceptable in music theory!).

Best,

Po

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