Tonicization
Treating another chord as a temporary tonic without a real modulation
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Tonicization treats another chord as a tonic temporarily: give it a dominant, let it feel like home for a moment, then return to the real key. It differs from modulation in duration and confirmation: tonicization borrows, it does not move the centre.
It is often done by a secondary dominant: in C major, a D major chord is the dominant of G, and G is the dominant of C — D tonicizes G for a moment. The usual mistake is to hear tonicization as modulation: listen for a cadence confirming the new key and for the old tonic returning.
Read deeper → Tonicization
Sources
- 主音化与转调的边界，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Tonicization"；本文为原创表述
Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.