The most stable chord, traditional teaching tells us, is the root position triad – the one with the fundamental on the bottom.
A more elusive arrangement puts the third of the chord in the bass – nice for subverting the obvious hierarchy of the root.
That leaves the 64 chord, meaning a triad with the fifth in the bass. Traditional teaching tells us this chord requires special treatment. It can set up a cadence, it can connect two other chords. Mostly, though, it can’t just sit there, it has to go somewhere. It contains a powerful interval above the bass, a fourth — not exactly a dissonance, but an interval that requires motion.
I like to call it the America Chord. No triad is more powerful; no triad is more unstable. That combination of power and instability has no geopolitical analogue more telling than the good old USA.
A young man who once wrote an extensive analysis of my a cappella choral music for his master’s degree pointed out something which had eluded me (and isn’t the composer often the last to know?): that I had a propensity for ending quiet pieces on a first inversion triad. Once brought into the light the truth was obvious–I was guilty as may be. In retrospect I think I am drawn to the auditory illusion of a perpetually rising cadence which a sustained first inversion voicing produces. I’m not sure what I would do with your America Chord, either as functional harmony or as “geopolitical analogue” but I am grateful for the evocative moniker!
This evocation of triads brought to mind how David Crosby was forced out of The Byrds after attempting to have his song, Triad, included in their new album of the time, the content deemed too risqué. Living on Crater Road off Beverly Glen in Los Angeles at the time, Crosby’s haunting song reflects upon his desire to have two lovers at once in his life, including some powerfully poetic lyrics. Remarkably, the song’s melody begins almost identically as the song Aquarius from Hair, so I’m curious to know who imitated who because such a striking coincidence as this seems unlikely. In our time, composers have been strongly influenced by rock, rhythm and blues and other American and British forms, including Steve Reich who sites Shotgun by Jr. Walker and the All Stars.
Currently in the process of having the entire Azure Miles Records catalog rerecorded and mastered, we came upon two 1987 compositions which are personal favorites, A Danish Princess and Snow and Wood, built around musical triads, both major and minor.
Getting back to David’s song, Grace Slick and Jefferson Airplane recorded and released Triad instead. My feeling is that it surpasses the original recording by The Byrds, which was eventually released.