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Briefly treating a non-tonic chord as a temporary tonic by preceding it with its own dominant (secondary dominant). Shorter and less committed than modulation.
Tonicization adds harmonic color without leaving the home key. V/V (the dominant of the dominant) is the most common: it makes V feel momentarily like a tonic. Use secondary dominants to add chromatic interest to diatonic progressions without actually modulating.
In C major: D7–G (V/V–V) briefly tonicizes G without leaving C major. This is the most common chromatic harmony in tonal music.
Tonicization is one of 228 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary, where every definition is written around how composers actually use the word.
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