page_title: Thirteenth
section_title: Dominant thirteenth
hierarchical_section_title: Thirteenth / Dominant thirteenth
caption_attribution_description: English: Dominant thirteenth chord in four-part writing.
context_page_description: In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the interval between the sixth and first scale degrees when the sixth is transposed up an octave, creating a compound sixth, or thirteenth. The thirteenth is most commonly major or minor.
  A thirteenth chord is the stacking of six thirds, the last being above the 11th of an eleventh chord. Thus a thirteenth chord is a tertian chord containing the interval of a thirteenth, and is an extended chord if it includes the ninth and/or the eleventh. "The jazzy thirteenth is a very versatile chord and is used in many genres." Since 13th chords tend to become unclear or confused with other chords when inverted, they are generally found in root position. For example, depending on voicing, a major triad with an added major sixth is usually called a sixth chord, because the sixth serves as a substitution for the major seventh, thus considered a chord tone in such context.
  However, Walter Piston, writing in 1952, considered that, "a true thirteenth chord, arrived at by superposition of thirds, is a rare phenomenon even in 20th-century music." This may be due to four-part writing, instrument limitations, and voice leading and stylistic considerations.
context_section_description: Most commonly, 13th chords serve a dominant function (V¹³), whether they have the exact intervals of a dominant thirteenth or not. Typically, a dominant chord anticipating a major resolution will feature a natural 13, while a dominant chord anticipating a minor resolution will feature a flat 13. Since thirteenth chords contain more than four notes, in four-voice writing the root, third, seventh, and thirteenth are most often included, excluding the fifth, ninth, and eleventh Play . The third indicates the quality of the chord as major or minor, the seventh is important for the quality as a dominant chord, while the thirteenth is necessary in a thirteenth chord.
  In modern pop/jazz harmony, after the dominant thirteenth, a thirteenth chord (usually notated as X¹³, e.g. C¹³) contains an implied flatted seventh interval. Thus, a C¹³ consists of C, E, G, B♭, and A. The underlying harmony during a thirteenth chord is usually Mixolydian or Lydian dominant (see chord-scale system). A thirteenth chord does not imply the quality of the ninth or eleventh scale degrees. In general, what gives a thirteenth chord its characteristic sound is the dissonance between the flat seventh and the thirteenth, an interval of a major seventh.
  In the common practice period the "most common" pitches present in V¹³ chord are the root, 3rd, 7th, and 13th; with the 5th, 9th, and 11th "typically omitted". The 13th is most often in the soprano, or highest voice, and usually resolves down by a 3rd to the tonic I or i. If the V¹³ is followed by a I⁹ the 13th may resolve to the 9th.
caption: Dominant thirteenth chord in four-part writing[3] About this soundPlay (help·info).
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