Borrowed Chord
A chord taken from the parallel mode on the same tonic
Related
A borrowed chord comes from the parallel mode on the same tonic. In a major key the usual borrowings are iv, ♭VI, ♭VII and iiø7; the tonic stays, but the scale source shifts for a moment, which gives these chords their modal colour.
Mixture names the process; borrowed chord names the result. It differs from a secondary dominant, which points to another temporary tonic, whereas a borrowing still circles the original tonic. It need not resolve and often stays as colour or leads to the subdominant.
To analyse one, first confirm that the tonic has not moved, then ask whether the chord's degree comes from the parallel mode. If a new dominant and cadence follow, the centre has moved and the event is a modulation, not a borrowing.
Sources
- 借用和弦与调式交替的关系，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Modal mixture"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.