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Borrowing chords from the parallel key (e.g., using chords from C minor while in C major). Also called "mode mixture" or "borrowed chords."
Modal mixture adds color and emotion to major-key music by introducing minor-key inflections. The most common borrowed chords: ♭VI, iv, ♭VII, ♭III. Schubert is the master of modal mixture — his sudden shifts between major and minor create his signature bittersweet quality.
Schubert, Winterreise, “Der Lindenbaum”: the E major song turns to E minor for the stanza beginning “Ich musst’ auch heute wandern”, then brightens back to major within it — the parallel minor borrowed for a passage of shadow.
Modal mixture is one of 1760 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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