Tonicization

In music, tonicization is the treatment of a pitch other than the overall tonic (the "home note" of a piece) as a temporary tonic in a composition. In tonal music, pieces (or sections) are in a key. This means that the tonic chord has a corresponding dominant chord (e.g., in the key of C major, the tonic chord is C major and the dominant chord is G major or G7). The dominant chord, especially if it is a dominant seventh chord, is said to resolve to (or leading to) the tonic, due to the leading note in the dominant chord resolving to the tonic note.

A tonicized chord is a chord other than the tonic chord that a dominant chord resolves to. When a dominant chord is used before a chord other than the tonic, this dominant or dominant seventh chord is called a secondary dominant. When a chord is tonicized, this makes this non-tonic chord sound temporarily like a tonic chord.

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