Roman numeral analysis

[2] (As the II, III, and VI chords always are minor chords and the VII always diminished, a further distinguishment is thought unneeded, see table for Major Diatonic scale below) Roman numerals can be used to notate and analyze the harmonic progression of a composition independent of its specific key.

For example, the ubiquitous twelve-bar blues progression uses the tonic (I), subdominant (IV), and dominant (V) chords built upon the first, fourth and fifth scale degrees respectively.

Roman numeral analysis is based on the idea that chords can be represented and named by one of their notes, their root (see § History for more information).

The earliest usage of Roman numerals may be found in the first volume of Johann Kirnberger's Die Kunst des reinen Satzes in 1774.

[3] Soon after, Abbé Georg Joseph Vogler occasionally employed Roman numerals in his Grunde der Kuhrpfälzischen Tonschule in 1778.

[7] Anton Bruckner, who transmitted the theory to Schoenberg and Schenker, apparently did not use Roman numerals in his classes in Vienna.

[8] The first authors to have made a systematic usage of Roman numerals appear to have been Heinrich Schenker and Arnold Schoenberg, both in their treatise of harmony.

[9] In music theory related to or derived from the common practice period, Roman numerals are frequently used to designate scale degrees as well as the chords built on them.

[11]: 79–80 In the United Kingdom, there exists another system where the Roman numerals are paired with Latin letters to denote inversion.

The use of Roman numerals enables the rhythm section performers to play the song in any key requested by the bandleader or lead singer.

Gottfried Weber's description of the Roman numerals employed on each degree of the major and minor scales, triads at the left and sevenths at the right. Versuch einer geordneten Theorie der Tonsetzkunst , vol. II, p. 45.
Roman numeral analysis by Heinrich Schenker (1906) of the degrees ( Stufen ) in bars 13–15 of the Allegro assai of J. S. Bach's Sonata in C major for violin solo, BWV 1005. [ 13 ]
Inversion notation for Roman numeral analysis depicting both Arabic numeral and Latin letters.
Roman numeral analysis of the standard twelve-bar blues