Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov · section 44 of 96

B) in the minor mode

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In these sequences the chords belong to the natural minor mode, because of the augmented-second motion; the opening chord and the last chord of the Vth degree, however, belong to the harmonic minor mode:

Harmonic sequence by descending fifths in A minor: natural minor throughout, with harmonic V at the start and before the final tonic — Fig. 149 · See it in the reader

Harmonic sequences by fourths and fifths show the most natural relations that exist between the chords belonging to a single key. In them the connection is alternately harmonic and melodic; diminished-fifth chords, which in progressions containing no sequences are used only as sixth chords, may appear in root position in harmonic sequences.