A one-paragraph historical narrative:
The major dominant ninth chord ("V9") 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—and from there found its way onto the musical stage by the mid-1830s in both comic and dramatic works, eventually becoming associated with Wagnerian opera. By 1890, the two practices—exemplified by Wagner and Johann Strauss, jr.—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 in musicals, salon or recital pieces, and commercial song repertoires. Before the end of the 19th century the dominant ninth chord had also established itself as one of the characteristic sounds of contemporary or Impressionist concert music, and, although the style did persist into the 1930s, already by 1920 the dominant ninth sound was considered passé and was often actively avoided.
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Find here an 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.
