Enharmonic Modulation
Respelling a chord to reach a remote key
Related
Enharmonic modulation respells a chord to turn the music toward a remote key. The clearest case is the diminished seventh: it is symmetrical and can be respelled, so one sound may pass for diminished sevenths on different roots and slide into different keys.
Augmented sixth and dominant seventh chords can also trade enharmonically: a German sixth sounds like a dominant seventh, and respelling it can point to another tonic. The point is not the different spelling but the new direction of resolution the ear accepts.
It is not mere enharmonic notation. Respelling alone changes how a note is written, not what the chord does; enharmonic modulation changes the chord's identity and gives a new tonic its pull, usually confirmed by the new dominant and tonic.
Sources
- 等音转调的手法与解决，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Modulation"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.