20.1: The Neapolitan Chord
- Page ID
- 117501
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The label “Neapolitan” is used in classical music for the ♭IIII chord and is labeled as “NN” instead of ♭IIII. For example, when the Neapolitan chord occurs in first inversion—its most common inversion—it is labeled as NN6.
Being a chromatically altered iiii chord, the Neapolitan has pre–dominant harmonic function.
Notice the special character of the Neapolitan and how composers sometimes alter texture, register, and dynamics when the Neapolitan occurs, as in the first movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, Op. 92.
