“SEVENTHS”

A. Principle

1. Principle: a seventh is made by its fundamental, by the third, the fifth and the seventh. There are
various types of sevenths.

2. We take a diatonic scale made of the seven degrees, in our case C Major. We take the first seven
types of sevenths, having thus a correspondence between the degrees of the C Major scale and the
number of possible types of sevenths. To each of these degrees we can associate one of the types of
sevenths: thus, we’ll associate C to the first type, D to the second type, and so on.

3. Every seventh chord will be accompanied on the left hand by the same notes that make the chord,
having always as the typical succession of notes the fifth, third, seventh and fundamental of the
chord: the principle is that the succession 5-3-7-1 should be followed.

B. Composition: generalities

1. The C Major chord builds note after note, starting from the fundamental, the third, the fifth and
finally coming to play the seventh chord in arpeggio.

2. After the seventh chord of first type on C, comes the second type on D, followed by the third type
on E and so on: the sevenths are presentet in simple succession.

3. After few variations on the modality of execution of the various types of sevenths, once B is
reached a descending succession starts, passing through all the types of sevenths presented during
the composition, until the succession descends and reaches C. Here the seventh chord on C loses its
seventh, then its fifth, its third and finishes on the note with which the piece started.

C: Composition: structure

1. The types of sevenths are presented in succession, starting from C with the first type and ending
on B with the seventh type.

2. Every seventh will be now developed and the rule 5-3-7-1 steps in. Therefore, every chord will be
accompanied by these intervals of which its made of.

3. To create a succession within the succession of sevenths, we’ll take the seventh chord on first type
on C and after having presented it we’ll build a seventh chord of first type on its third, on E. We’ll do
the same for E and we’ll have then G#. We continue after we come back to C again.

Now we can go ahead and do the same with the seventh chord of second type on D and all the other
notes and their type of sevenths. However, every note will have its next chord build not always on
the third, but on the seventh or the fifth. To know which interval should be taken from the first note
presenting its seventh we’ll consult the following scheme:

NOTE C D E F G A B
TYPE 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th
STARTING FROM 3° (E) 3° (F) 5° (B♭) 3° (A) 7° (E) 5° (F) 3° (D)

Therefore, we’ll play the seventh chord of third type on E, then we’ll build the same type of seventh
on its fifth, which will give us B♭, of which fifth will be E once again, returning to the starting point.

The choice for these particular starting points has been thought following the logistics of the
intervals: it will be more interesting to start from the seventh of a seventh chord of fifth type, being
that diminished; in the same way, in the types where the seventh is major, the choice of starting
from the seventh has been avoided otherwise the returning to the initial note would’ve seen a
passage through all a chromatic scale, effect which would have stagnated the progression and bored
the listener.

5. To vary the modality of presentation of the sevenths, after the presentation of the first three
types, thus until E, the dynamics of the presentation of these chords will be articulated following a
pattern based on the contrast and developing of the model of arpeggi presented from the
beginning.

6. Once B is reached, we’ll turn back, passing through all the notes of the C Major scale and the
relative sevenths with them associated within this composition. We come back to C which becomes
a triad, a dyad and lastly a single note.