In the common-practice style, usually dominant chords were always major, even in minor keys. Without the leading tone, how did minor dominant chords (v) function?
1 Answer
These minor v chords are not typically viewed as dominant in function, no.
Instead, they most often function as passing chords. Imagine we pass from i through v6 down to VI (or even iv6). In these cases the v chords very clearly do not reach the hierarchical level of a "real" dominant and instead are just voice-leading conduits leading from one chord to another.
They can serve a handful of other purposes (like as a pivot chord in a common-chord modulation), but their use as passing chord is far more common.
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1I generally agree. Just an observation, but isn't a "pivot chord" effectively just a "voice-leading conduit leading from one key to another"? I'm personally not a big fan of the concept of pivot chords for modulating (it's a somewhat ahistorical notion, as a modulation was generally created by an active note or interval shifting toward the new key). But generally when theory textbooks do choose to locate "pivot chords," they're often boring not-going-anywhere verticalities without a strong function in either key, or at least that's often how students are often taught to identify them. Jul 27, 2021 at 6:37
v. It's easy for students to lose sight of the fact that theory often follows practice rather than the other way around, which is understandable given that they're being taught theory that largely didn't yet exist when the music it seeks to describe was being composed.