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THE NEAPOLITAN CHORD
HISTORY
If you have ever worked through Gradus ad Parnassum, you will remember Fux advocates flattening the note B to correct any tritones, whether harmonic or melodic. This was one of the principal uses of Bb (and sometimes even Eb) in Renaissance music. That sort of thought naturally leads to flattening the root of the diminished second degree chord, making it consonant and major.
That said, pieces in the mode of A (aeolian) rarely introduced the N chord the way later Baroque composers did. When they did, the Bb temporarily belonged to the phrygian mode on A. Thus the Neapolitan chord is something the minor mode borrows from the phrygian mode with its 2b.
The development of the assorted chromatic harmonies of the late Baroque is a complex subject and I could write much on the topic. During the 17th century, many bizarre and colorful harmonies were experimented with as modality incorporated chromaticism and became tonal. Some of the earliest mixes of chromaticism with Renaissance theory led to fascinating results quite unlike the harmonies of Bach or other familiar late Baroque composers.
Even in the late Baroque, however, composers were still influenced by modal theory. As late as Bach himself, composers did not think in terms of inversions or chord names or secondary dominants or root movements. Rameau's theories on the fundamental bass only gradually changed the analysis of music to understand the idea of inversion. And furthermore, it is only one way of analyzing the patters of tonal music. To truly understand harmony like a Bach or a Vivaldi or a Froberger, we must instead think of melody and voice leading.
So although I have described different ways of understanding progressions in music, remember that Bach himself was not thinking of ii* chords or inversions or anything of the sort. He was instead voice leading all the individual voices in a very tonal way, with great emphasis placed on leading tones. Bach was one to almost never use the minor v chord in the minor mode. He tends to the opposite, almost religiously using the leading tone and creating more leading tones in secondary dominants and diminished seventh chords. Composers before him did not always go so far, often times working somewhere in between modality and tonality.
This does not mean that Bach and his contemporaries wrote more "advanced" music. The harmonic colors of Buxtehude and Frobeger with their mixture of tonality and modality are simply different from the harmonic colors of Bach and Rameau. Both approaches have distinct sounds. (Personally I find the earlier styles more creative. Bach I think is sometimes too unrelenting in his tonality.) Since I see you have a taste for modal chords yourself, if you are interested I could make a lesson much later describing the 17th century's exotic chromatic-modal mix.
Anyway, whether in the 17th or 18th centuries, Baroque composers never used N very much. I have attached one of the few rare examples from the theme of Muffat's monumental (and virtuosic!) passacaglia in g minor. You will notice it, don't worry! In fact, it might be good for you to write out all the harmonies as homework. Also, what happened to analyzing the Rameau? I think I mentioned this earlier; analysis is a giant step towards understanding the Baroque styles.
And for the Neapolitan sixth, I think it would be a good idea for you to write at least one short sarabade phrase using a Neapolitan chord. Colorful chromatic chords are particularly suited to the sarabande's typically lush homophony.
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DNSIHSXPI
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