WebFacts 1
Although the chord we call the Neapolitan can be found in late seventeenth-century
works from a variety of geographical locations, its name is associated with seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century opera composers of the so-called Neapolitan School-composers living and
working in the city-state of Naples (now a part of Italy). Some of the eighteenth-century
composers associated with this group include Alessandro Scarlatti, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi,
and Giovanni Paisiello. In the Romantic era, this chord became a favorite of composers from
farther north as well. Beethoven, in particular, liked the rich sound of the Neapolitan.
The term "Phrygian II" comes from the Phrygian mode, whose second scale degree is a
half step above the tonic scale degree, and whose supertonic chord is major. Think of E
Phrygian, the scale with all white keys (on the piano) from E to E. Scale-degree in E Phrygian
is F, and the supertonic chord is F-A-C: a major triad. When tonal-music composers write this
chord, however, they are not trying to refer to the Phrygian mode. The chord functions quite
differently in a tonal context than it does in a modal one!
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