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In music theory
Music theory

Music theory is the field of study that deals with how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It identifies patterns that govern composer techniques....
, a leading-note (called the leading-tone in the US) is a note or pitch
Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
 which resolves
Resolution (music)

Resolution in western tonal music theory is the "need" for a sounded note and/or chord to move from a Consonance and dissonance to a Consonance and dissonance ....
 or "leads" to a note one semitone
Semitone

A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone,Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and others use "half tone".One source says that step is "chiefly US", and that half-tone is "chiefly N....
 higher or lower, being a lower and upper leading-tone, respectively.

Generally, the leading note is the seventh tonal degree of the diatonic scale
Diatonic scale

In music theory, a diatonic scale is a seven note musical scale comprising five whole steps and two half steps, in which the half steps are maximally separated....
 leading up to the tonic
Tonic (music)

The tonic is the first note of a scale in the tonality method of musical composition. The chord #The Triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord ....
. For example, in the C major scale
Major scale

In music theory, the major scale or Ionian mode scale is one of the diatonic scale Musical scales. It is made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first an octave higher....
 (white keys on a piano, starting on C), the leading note is the note B; and the leading note chord
Chord (music)

In music and music theory a chord is a set of two or more different note that sound simultaneously. Most often, in European-influenced music, chords are tertian Sonority that can be constructed as stacks of thirds relative to some underlying musical scale....
 uses the notes B, D, and F: a diminished triad
Diminished chord

A diminished triad chord is a Triad consisting of a minor third and a diminished fifth above the Root ? if built on C, a diminished chord would have a C, an E and a G....
.






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In music theory
Music theory

Music theory is the field of study that deals with how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It identifies patterns that govern composer techniques....
, a leading-note (called the leading-tone in the US) is a note or pitch
Pitch (music)

Pitch represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. It is one of the three major auditory system attributes of sounds along with loudness and timbre....
 which resolves
Resolution (music)

Resolution in western tonal music theory is the "need" for a sounded note and/or chord to move from a Consonance and dissonance to a Consonance and dissonance ....
 or "leads" to a note one semitone
Semitone

A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone,Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and others use "half tone".One source says that step is "chiefly US", and that half-tone is "chiefly N....
 higher or lower, being a lower and upper leading-tone, respectively.

Generally, the leading note is the seventh tonal degree of the diatonic scale
Diatonic scale

In music theory, a diatonic scale is a seven note musical scale comprising five whole steps and two half steps, in which the half steps are maximally separated....
 leading up to the tonic
Tonic (music)

The tonic is the first note of a scale in the tonality method of musical composition. The chord #The Triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord ....
. For example, in the C major scale
Major scale

In music theory, the major scale or Ionian mode scale is one of the diatonic scale Musical scales. It is made up of seven distinct notes, plus an eighth which duplicates the first an octave higher....
 (white keys on a piano, starting on C), the leading note is the note B; and the leading note chord
Chord (music)

In music and music theory a chord is a set of two or more different note that sound simultaneously. Most often, in European-influenced music, chords are tertian Sonority that can be constructed as stacks of thirds relative to some underlying musical scale....
 uses the notes B, D, and F: a diminished triad
Diminished chord

A diminished triad chord is a Triad consisting of a minor third and a diminished fifth above the Root ? if built on C, a diminished chord would have a C, an E and a G....
. In music theory
Music theory

Music theory is the field of study that deals with how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It identifies patterns that govern composer techniques....
, the leading note triad is symbolized by the Roman numeral vii°.

According to Ernst Kurth
Ernst Kurth

Ernst Kurth, was a Swiss music theorist....
 (1913) the major
Major third

A major third is one of two commonly occurring musical intervals that span three diatonic scale degrees, the other being the minor third. It is denoted 'major' because it is the larger of the two: the major third is a leap of four semitones, the minor third three....
 and minor third
Minor third

A minor third is a Interval of three semitones. It is the smaller of two commonly occurring musical intervals compounded of two steps of the diatonic scale....
s contain "latent" tendencies towards the perfect fourth
Perfect fourth

The perfect fourth is a musical interval which spans four diatonic scale scale degree. It consists of the note and the note five semitones above it on the musical scale....
 and whole-tone, respectively, and thus establish tonality
Tonality

Tonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchy pitch relationships are based on a Key "center" or Tonic . The term tonalit? originated with Alexandre-?tienne Choron and was borrowed by Fran?ois-Joseph F?tis in 1840 ....
. However, Carl Dahlhaus
Carl Dahlhaus

File:Carl Dahlhaus.jpgCarl Dahlhaus , a musicologist from Berlin, has been one of the major contributors to the development of musicology as a scholarly discipline during the post-war era....
 (1990) shows that this drive is in fact created through or with harmonic function, a root progression in another voice by a whole-tone or fifth, or melodically (monophonically
Monophony

In music, monophony is the simplest of texture , consisting of melody without accompanying harmony. This may be realized as just one note at a time, or with the same note duplicated at the octave ....
) by the context of the scale. For example, the leading note of alternating C chord
Major chord

In music theory, a major chord is a chord having a Root , a major third, and a perfect fifth. When a chord has these three notes alone, it is called a major Triad ....
 and F minor chord
Minor chord

In music theory, a minor chord is a chord having a Root , a minor third, and a perfect fifth.When a chord has these three notes alone, it is called a minor Triad ....
s is either the note E leading to F, if F is tonic
Tonic (music)

The tonic is the first note of a scale in the tonality method of musical composition. The chord #The Triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord ....
, or A? leading to G, if C is tonic. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the leading-note is created by the progression from imperfect to perfect consonance
Consonance

Consonance is a stylistic device, often used in poetry characterized by the repetition of two or more consonants using different vowels, for example, the "i" and "a" followed by the "tter" sound in "pitter patter." It repeats the consonant sounds but not vowel sounds....
s, such as a major third to a perfect fifth or minor third to a unison
UNISON

UNISON ? the Public Service Union is the second largest trade union in the United Kingdom, with over 1.3 million members.It was formed in 1993 when three previous public sector trade unions, the National Association of Local Government Officers , the National Union of Public Employees and the Confederation of Health Service Employees merg...
. The same pitch outside of the imperfect consonance is not a leading note.

As a diatonic function
Diatonic function

A diatonic function, in tonality music theory, is the specific, recognized role of each note and chord in relation to the key .Three general and inseparable essential features of harmonic function in tonal music are:...
 the leading-note is the seventh scale degree of any diatonic scale
Diatonic scale

In music theory, a diatonic scale is a seven note musical scale comprising five whole steps and two half steps, in which the half steps are maximally separated....
 when the distance between it and the tonic
Tonic (music)

The tonic is the first note of a scale in the tonality method of musical composition. The chord #The Triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord ....
 is a single semitone
Semitone

A semitone, also called a half step or a half tone,Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and others use "half tone".One source says that step is "chiefly US", and that half-tone is "chiefly N....
. In diatonic scale
Diatonic scale

In music theory, a diatonic scale is a seven note musical scale comprising five whole steps and two half steps, in which the half steps are maximally separated....
s where there is a whole tone between the seventh scale degree and the tonic, such as the Mixolydian mode
Mixolydian mode

The Mixolydian mode is a musical mode or diatonic scale. It has the same series of Major second and Minor second as the major scale, except the fifth note is taken as the tonic or starting pitch of the scale ....
, the seventh degree is the subtonic
Subtonic

In music, the subtonic is the lowered seventh degree of the Scale , as opposed to the leading-tone . For example, in the A minor scale , the subtonic is the note G ; and the subtonic chord uses the notes G, B, and D ....
.

The thriller/horror film Jaws
Jaws (film)

Jaws is a 1975 in film Cinema of the United States horror film thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's best-selling Jaws ....
 contains a well known leading tone leitmotif
Leitmotif

A leitmotif is a recurring musical Theme , associated with a particular person, place, or idea. The word has also been used by extension to mean any sort of recurring theme, whether in music, literature, or the life of a fictional character or a real person....
, E-F, to represent the shark and suspense associated with it.

Sources

  • Dahlhaus, Carl. Gjerdingen, Robert O. trans. (1990). Studies in the Origin of Harmonic Tonality, p.184-5. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-09135-8.
  • Kurth, Ernst (1913). Die Voraussetzungen der theoretischen Harmonik und der tonalen Darstellungssysteme, p.119ff. Bern.