kennethreitz
ce93f429a2
Publish the Obsidian vault's Knowledge folder as /knowledge (881 notes, 67 folders), with a Knowledge item in the nav and footer. - scripts/import_knowledge.py regenerates data/knowledge from the vault: slugged paths, folder notes as index pages, wikilinks resolved to site links (or plain text), callouts, highlights, and Dataview tables rendered statically. Personal notes are withheld via an exclusion list plus a privacy guard. - tuftecms/core/knowledge.py builds a concept index from note titles and aliases. First mentions on ordinary pages link to their Knowledge note (capped, never in headings, code, links, or sidenotes); Knowledge pages list related notes and where they're mentioned across the site; other pages get a Related Knowledge block. - Knowledge URLs join sitemap.xml (so the sweep test covers them), never displace existing legacy slugs, list alphabetically, and mermaid diagrams render client-side only on pages that have them.
2.4 KiB
description, source
| description | source |
|---|---|
| A chord that is already leaning toward the door. | obsidian-knowledge |
Dominant Seventh
A chord that is already leaning toward the door.
The Chord
The dominant seventh is a major triad with a minor seventh stacked on top — a major third, a minor third, then another minor third. On C the notes are C, E, G, B♭. That flattened seventh is the difference between a chord that sits still and a chord that moves. Inside the dominant seventh live two notes a tritone apart — the third and the seventh — and that interval is the most restless in tonal music, the coiled spring at the centre of the whole system.
The tritone between E and B♭ wants to collapse inward: the E rising, the B♭ falling, each resolving by a half step into the notes of a tonic chord a fifth below. This is the engine of Western harmony. The dominant seventh is not a place to rest; it is a chord that exists in order to go somewhere.
Structure
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Formula | 1 3 5 ♭7 |
| Notes (on C) | C E G B♭ |
| Symbol | C7 |
| Quality | The engine of tension that wants to resolve |
Character
The dominant seventh is tension with a grin. It has the brightness of a major triad but a gritty, unresolved edge that can read as bluesy swagger or urgent forward drive. Held on its own it sounds raw and alive; in a progression it sounds like momentum. The blues loves it so much that it builds entire songs from dominant chords that never fully resolve.
In Practice
As the V7 of any key, the dominant seventh powers the strongest cadence in tonal music, pulling home to the tonic. In blues, jazz, funk, and rock it becomes a colour in its own right, used on the I and IV as much as the V. Chains of dominants — the circle-of-fifths motion — drive whole tunes. It is the Major Triad set into motion, and it resolves most naturally toward the tonic of a key in Musical Keys.