A one-paragraph historical narrative:
The major dominant-ninth chord ("V9" or just "dominant ninth") gradually became a significant stylistic element in European and European-influenced music over the course of the nineteenth century. Early on it appeared in dance-based and song genres—notably, Schubert’s—in connection with expressive treatments of scale degree ^6 and from there found its way onto the musical stage by the mid-1830s in both comic and dramatic works, by the 1850s becoming associated especially with Wagnerian opera. By 1890, the two practices—exemplified by Wagner and Johann Strauss, jr., respectively—were firmly established and can be found in a majority of the music from that point through the first half of the 20th century, including some concert music, but especially operettas, musicals, salon or recital pieces, and commercial song repertoires. Before the end of the 19th century the major dominant-ninth chord had also established itself as one of the characteristic sounds of contemporary or Impressionist concert music, in part because of its close relation to the whole-tone scale (four notes out of five). Although that style did persist into the 1930s, already by 1925 the major dominant-ninth sound was considered passé by younger concert composers and was often actively avoided. (text edited 2024-09-23; 2025-01-05)
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Find here an updated index of essays published on the Texas ScholarWorks platform, with abstracts and links: --> link. Essays on the dominant ninth are in §2, beginning on p. 10. Within this blog, of course, the search function can be used to locate specific names, titles, etc., and post titles can be browsed in the sidebar. -- 18 December 2024: I have published the fourth and last part in the most recent series: Dominant Ninth Harmonies in Music from 1900 to 1925, Part 4. Here is the link.
