Mixture – Example 4-Sicilienne

Definition: Mixture is the use of chords from a parallel key (i.e., parallel major, minor, or mode) in a piece of music.

Sicilienne (sometimes attributed to Maria-Teresia v. Paradis)

The following piece has been attributed to Maria-Teresia v. Paradis, but, IMSLP now states: “According to Grove Music, [the attribution of this piece] is spurious, and [it is] possibly composed by violinist Samuel Dushkin (1891-1976), based on Weber’s Romanze from Violin Sonata Op.10, No.1.” (https://imslp.org/wiki/Sicilienne_in_E-flat_major_(Anonymous))

We will look at the first part of this composition as it is a good example of mixture.

The piece is in the key of Eb major. An analysis of all the diatonic chords in the first section of the piece (m. 1-11) is shown below. Chords that are not diatonic in Eb major are shaded.

The two chords shaded in purple (m. 1 and 5) are the same: Ab-Cb-Eb. In the key of Eb, this chord is a minor iv chord – an example of mixture.

The chord shaded in blue (m.2) is F-Ab-Cb-Eb, a half diminished seventh chord with root F, the supertonic in the key of Eb. Therefore, this chord is a iiø7 (with the seventh in the bass), another example of mixture since the half-diminished seventh is normal in a minor key.

The chord in m. 9 (shaded in gray) is a special example of mixture which will be discussed in the next unit. We will leave it blank for now.

Our full analysis is shown below.