Chord transition frequencies in Beethoven String Quartets

[BWV]

Stumbled across this study of the chord transition frequencies in the Beethoven String Quartets, which can be assumed to be fairly representative of common practice classical music in general. There are separate tables for major and minor with the starting chord on the Y and the following chord on the X. Interesting how ii-V is more common than IV-V and, supporting what Gjerdingen and others have said, IV goes most commonly to I6

Statistical characteristics of tonal harmony: A corpus study of Beethoven’s string quartets | PLOS ONE

[Christian Miller]

Interesting!

[mr. beaumont]

Man I love a good chart. And this is a GREAT chart.

[BWV]

To my ears, Beethoven does the IV-V-I more than his predecessors, but even then ii is more common. Everyone gets taught that IV is somehow more 'fundamental' and ii is a substitute for it, but dont think there is any basis for this view (and of course none of these composers thought in roman numerals, but its easy to communicate that way)

[enalnitram]

This is cool! I’d be interested to see a comparison between early, mid and late LVB.

And between him and others.

[BWV]

This is cool! I’d be interested to see a comparison between early, mid and late LVB.

And between him and others.

That would be interesting - my guess is there would not be much chronological difference in this chart across Beethoven's output- the chord to chord changes would be the same and the difference would be the key changes, i.e. far fewer moves to dominant keys in the later music, more movement by thirds like in Waldstein or Hammerklavier

[Christian Miller]

To my ears, Beethoven does the IV-V-I more than his predecessors, but even then ii is more common. Everyone gets taught that IV is somehow more 'fundamental' and ii is a substitute for it, but dont think there is any basis for this view (and of course none of these composers thought in roman numerals, but its easy to communicate that way)

I don’t see any of them as more fundamental

It’s just a different bassline with the same voice leading. Cadenzia doppia innit

Top voices be like
C-D-D-C
C-C-B-C

You can have a bassline like
E-F-G-C
E-D-G-C
Or for that matter…
G-G-G-C

they are doing the same thing.

This is a principle of contrapuntal unity which I think gets missed when one starts to think of chords.The thing that’s fundamental here is not the bass as I see it, but the top lines. That clash between the D and C for example .

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[Christian Miller]

To my ears, Beethoven does the IV-V-I more than his predecessors, but even then ii is more common. Everyone gets taught that IV is somehow more 'fundamental' and ii is a substitute for it, but dont think there is any basis for this view (and of course none of these composers thought in roman numerals, but its easy to communicate that way)

Actually I was under the impression that the II was considered more fundamental (due probably to fundamental bass theory?) I have seen a IV6 written as an inverted IIm7 in books. Maybe it depends on what school you learned from?


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