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Dominant Chord, Tonic Chord: Different Musical Roles
Although the dominant chord is the only chord in all of music that points directly at the tonic chord, the restful, balanced tonic chord makes possible the necessary contrast that gives all the other chords their edgy, restless, tense, and exciting qualities.
For example, in the key of C major, the F major chord, even though it’s a simple triad, has tension, simply because it’s not the tonic chord.
The constituent notes of the F major chord belong comfortably in the key of C major. But playing the F major chord does not point your brain back to the tonic chord, C major.
Same goes for the other chords in Figure 51 above—except G major. As the V chord, it’s the only chord that points directly at the C chord.
The chord movement V – I serves pretty much the same punctuation function in music as the period does in written language. In music, a cadence marks the end of a phrase. It’s a definite break, usually followed by a period of several seconds before the next phrase starts.
Spoken language does not have an equivalent to music’s cadence. When you talk, you use phrases and sentences, of course, but you don’t pause for several seconds at the end of every phrase and sentence. You just keep on talking until you’re finished.