Related ii chord: a ii(7) chord that occurs before a secondary dominant and is in the key being tonicized. The inclusion of this chord creates a (ii-V)/x progression.
Below we will look at another example of a related ii chord – “Anthropology” by Charlie Parker.
Anthropology – Charlie Parker
“Anthropology” by Charlie Parker is a contrafact of Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm.”
A contrafact is a musical work based on a prior work. In jazz, this usually means that the harmonies of the two tunes are very similar, if not exactly the same.
A chords only version of the piece is shown below.
Like “I Got Rhythm,” “Anthropology is in a 32-bar song form (AABA). We will look at the final A section of the piece – mm. 19 to the end of the head.
Anthropology – mm 19 to end
Analyzing everything we can gives us the analysis below.
Most chords are diatonic to either Bb major or minor.
Note a couple of non-diatonic chords which are chords that we already know:
First, the secondary dominant in m. 20, the V7/ii (G7) that resolves normally to the ii7 (C-7).
Second, the use of the IV7-bVII7 progression in m. 27 which is not quite in either major or minor but can be thought of as a type of backdoor progression.
The chords in purple boxes are examples of related ii chords.
Anthropology, m. 23
First let’s look at m. 23, the F-7 — Bb7 chords that go to Eb7 in m. 24.
The Bb7 chord in m. 23 can be thought of as a V7 of the Eb that follows (the IV in the key of Bb). The F-7 is the ii7 in this same key of Eb and so is the related ii. Therefore, the F-7 — Bb7 is the ii7-V7 progression in the key of Eb and is thus analyzed as such (see example below).
Anthropology, m. 25
Next, Let’s look at the chords in m. 25 – the D-7 — G7 that proceeds to the C-7 in the next measure.
The G7 in this measure acts as a dominant 7th chord to the C-7 that follows. It could be analyzed as a V7/ii (as in m. 19). However, in this case, it is preceded by a D-7, a ii7 in the key of C. This D-7 is the related ii of the G7. Therefore, it is analyzed as below to show the (ii7-V7) relationship of the C-7 that follows.
More examples that include related ii chords are presented in the following lessons.
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