Question from one not used to chord symbols.

[David Ward]

Background: I'm working on a commission to write a piece for professional opera singer (dramatic mezzo) and a professional Scottish traditional singer, plus some community trad voices, with a professional classical instrumental ensemble and simple(-ish) dramatic staging. (All related to Brexit!!!)

The accompaniment for the trad singer is to-date fully written out, but it's been suggested by the librettist that at some point she might accompany herself in a shortish number. I think the answer for that section might be for me to write the vocal line normally and to attach chord symbols to it. So far so good - that is until I wonder how I might describe in chord symbols the simple accompaniment to a song I've already written for her in the piece (I don't need to do this, it is an exercise to familiarize myself with the principle).

Now look at the screenshot from the on-going vocal score. If I had to give it a label, I think I might call the implied chord on the third compound beat of bar 13 an ‘Italian augmented sixth.’ How might this be notated as a chord symbol?

Apologies for my woeful ignorance of a notation I have not hitherto needed since decades ago (late 1960s) when I did some work on the fringes of the pop/rock world

[Peter Thomsen]

… Now look at the screenshot from the on-going vocal score. If I had to give it a label, I think I might call the implied chord on the third compound beat of bar 13 an ‘Italian augmented sixth.’ How might this be notated as a chord symbol? …

The chord symbol would be G♭7.

You could argue that a G♭7 has F♭, and your chord has E♮.
But in “the world of chord symbols” we do not care about such “enharmonic subtleties”.
What matters, is only the sounding output, not the written notes.

You could argue that a G♭7 includes the fifth = D♭, but it is quite common to omit the fifth in a 7 chord, since the fifth does not add much to the chord sound.

[David Ward]

Thanks.

It seems simple enough once one gets the hang of the system. Augmented sixth chords (whether Italian, French or German) do sound like dominant seventh chords in another context.

I may have some later questions about notating chord symbols in Finale, but I'll read up all about them in the manual first.