ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a discussion on altered pre-dominants—the Neapolitan and Augmented Sixth chords. The so-called Neapolitan chord made cameo appearances in the seventeenth century and debuted as a more central member of the harmonic vocabulary in a type of opera centered in Naples, Italy, in the first half of the eighteenth century. Usually appearing in the minor mode, the chord is a major triad, built on the lowered second scale degree. At least initially, the chord appeared in first inversion—called the Neapolitan sixth chord—reflecting its linear origin as a chromatically inflected first inversion. When used in a progression, the bass rises to the fifth scale degree while the chromatically inflected pitch (the lowered 2nd scale degree) moves to the leading tone (sometimes with an intervening tonic in the case of a cadential six-four).
