ABSTRACT
Jazz harmonic syntax encompasses a plethora of different types of chords, from simple three-note triads to as many as eight-note structures. Within such a rich palette of possibilities, it is the four-part chord that constitutes the fundamental formation of jazz harmony. One essential difference between common-practice and jazz music relates to the status, role, and treatment of chordal dissonances. The chordal seventh or the sixth enhances the structure of chords, adds a kinetic force that energizes harmonic progressions, and permeates various levels of the musical structure. Essential chord tones can be applied to major, minor, diminished, augmented, or suspended triads. In other harmonic contexts, a minor seventh chord will most likely function as a tonic chord. The term intermediary might seem odd; after all, this category features chords that could have easily been characterized as predominants or dominants. In jazz terminology, the term voicing refers to the arrangement of pitches in a chord.
