page_title: Neapolitan chord
section_title: Classical period
hierarchical_section_title: Neapolitan chord / In classical music / Classical period
caption_attribution_description: English: Beethoven Piano Sonata Op. 57, third movement bars 20-27
context_page_description: In music theory, a Neapolitan chord is a major chord built on the lowered second scale degree. In Schenkerian analysis, it is known as a Phrygian II, since in minor scales the chord is built on the notes of the corresponding Phrygian mode.
  Although it is sometimes indicated by an "N" rather than a "♭II", some analysts prefer the latter because it indicates the relation of this chord to the supertonic. The Neapolitan chord does not fall into the categories of mixture or tonicization. Moreover, even Schenkerians like Carl Schachter do not consider this chord as a sign for a shift to the Phrygian mode. Therefore, like the augmented sixth chords it should be assigned to a separate category of chromatic alteration.
  The Neapolitan most commonly occurs in first inversion so that it is notated either as ♭II⁶ or N⁶ and normally referred to as a Neapolitan sixth chord. In C major or C minor, for example, a Neapolitan sixth chord in first inversion contains an interval of a minor sixth between F and D♭.
context_section_description: The Neapolitan chord was a favourite idiom among composers in the Classical period. In his Sonata in C minor, "a masterpiece of tragic power," Haydn uses the chord (D♭ in the key of C minor) as he brings the opening statement of his first subject to a close: 
  Ludwig van Beethoven used the Neapolitan chord frequently in some of his best-known works, including the opening of his Moonlight Sonata, Op. 27 No. 2:
  Wilfrid Mellers sees the apparent tranquillity of these bars as "deceptive, since in bar 3 the bass’s F sharp is harmonized not as a subdominant but, with the quaver triplet’s D flattened as a first inversion of the Neapolitan chord of D major.  The implied progression from D natural to the cadential B sharp delivers a small stab to the nervous system." 
  Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata, Op. 57 uses the Neapolitan chord on a broader harmonic canvas. Both the first and last movements of the sonata open with a phrase repeated a semitone higher (G♭ in the key of F minor).
  Other examples of Beethoven’s use of the chord occur in the opening bars of  String Quartet op. 59 No.2, String Quartet op. 95, and the third movement of the Hammerklavier Sonata.
  
  A powerful example from Schubert comes in his single movement Quartett-Satz (1820).  The opening "has a dramatic intensity… which is all the more powerful because it begins quietly." The passage culminates in a Neapolitan chord (D♭ in the key of C minor):
   According to Roger Scruton, "It is as though a spirit had arisen out of the turbulent clouds and suddenly burst forth into the light – the clouds formed from the key of C minor, the spirit itself, released at last, being in the negation of C minor, namely D flat major." Scruton sees the "semitone conflict" that recurs in different keys as the movement progresses as a unifying feature that has "penetrated the whole structure of the piece."
caption: A Neapolitan chord in Beethoven's Appassionata Sonata, Op. 57, third movement, mm. 20–27
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