what is the oldest use of 9th chords in western music and when did they become popular

Question

From page 752, of Laitz's The Complete Musician 4th edit.

''(...) By continuing the process of stacking thirds, these composers added another third above the seventh, creating a ninth chord; by adding another third above that ninth they created an eleventh chord(...)''

These composers=generally late 19th and early 20th century composers (Bartok,Ravel,Debussy,Schoenberg)

From the text I draw on the conclusion that 9th chord invented during those years which surprised me as I though that it is much older than 1900s.

Is it the thing that the author mentions or is it something else? When in the western music history, 9th chords invented and widely used first?

Answer 1

Like ttw says, it depends on how you define a ninth chord (or any similar extended tertian, like an eleventh or thirteenth). Kirnberger differentiated between "essential" dissonances and "inessential" dissonances. In short, the difference is whether the dissonance resolves simultaneously with the chord change (meaning it is an "essential" part of the chord) or if it resolves before the chord changes (meaning it is an "inessential" part of the chord).

In my experience, true ninth chords, where the ninth is an essential dissonance, starts to appear around the middle of the 19th century with Wagner, Liszt, maybe some Chopin, etc.

But inessential ninths are found at least as early as the Classical era; see m. 7 of the second movement of Mozart K332. I would argue that this D♭ resolves before the chord change, making this D♭ just a long non-chord tone and not a true chordal ninth.

Answer 2

I found a reference from Kirnberger (though no source, just a comment) suggesting that the ninth is an "unessential" harmony; a ninth chord may drop the ninth without changing the basic harmony; this (nach Kirnberger) cannot be done with the seventh. I didn't find a reference to using an unprepared ninth as an object in itself (though such discussions occur in the 1600s about sevenths.) Some time back I found a circle-of-fifths progression in Vivaldi using all chords as sevenths (some major, some minor.)

The question has a somewhat fuzzy answer in that suspensions of ninths may cause an "ephemeral" ninth chord to occur; one can also treat suspensions of a seventh similarly.

Answer 3

T-Bone Walker used ninth chords in many of his songs, including his immortal Stormy Monday Blues. I don't know of any earlier use of ninth chords in blues prior to his recordings but the chord I call the T-Bone Walker chord has been used by plenty of blues guitarists since then.