Music Theory and Analysis
Domain 1 asks you to explain what a score is doing - intervals, chords, tonal function, voice leading, phrase structure, and form - not merely to label it. Items run from single-symbol drills to excerpts you must analyse quickly and correctly.
Chords and Roman numerals
Roman numerals encode scale degree, quality, and inversion. Uppercase = major, lowercase = minor, ° = diminished, + = augmented, ø = half-diminished. Figured bass shows inversion: root position (5/3, usually left bare), first inversion 6, second 6/4. Seventh chords: 7 (root), 6/5 (first), 4/3 (second), 4/2 (third). In minor, ii and vii are diminished while III, VI, and VII are major - and the leading tone must be raised to build V and vii°.
Function and chromaticism
Tonic–predominant–dominant–tonic is the default grammar. Chromatic chords intensify function: secondary dominants (V/V, V7/ii) tonicize a diatonic chord; the Neapolitan (bII6, most often in minor) prepares V; augmented sixths (Italian, French, German) are predominant sonorities that resolve outward to the dominant.
Form
Binary (||: A :||: B :||), rounded binary (A returns varied), ternary (ABA), sonata (exposition with two key areas, development, recapitulation), rondo (ABACA), and theme-and-variations all hinge on cadences: authentic (V–I), half (ends on V), plagal (IV–I), deceptive (V–vi).
Worked example
In G major: G – B7 – Em – Am7 – D7 – G. B7 is V7/vi, tonicizing Em (vi); Am7 is ii7; D7 is V7. Label: I – V7/vi – vi – ii7 – V7 – I. The B7 contains D♯, an accidental foreign to the key signature - that raised chromatic note is the tell.
Traps
Calling every “7” chord diatonic; confusing a 6/4 chord with a 4/3 seventh; mislabelling a deceptive cadence as half; forgetting the raised leading tone in minor; naming intervals without checking the key signature.