Discuss.

Ok. I'll try. This brings back memories of English essays...

V-I is a perfect cadence. By it's name alone it is implied that this is 'perfect'. Perfect can mean complete, entire, wholesome, all good.

V-I has, for a long time been the ultimate cadance

V-I can, with some care, be placed anywhere and it can sound good and finished. (Or at least we're used to that)

I - tonic, mediant and dominant
V - dominant, leading note, super tonic, (subdominant in V7)

leading note wants to resolve to the tonic, submediant wants to resolve to dominant.

In a lot of traditional classical music, all the harmonic mumbo jumbo and movement is all just a show. In the end, all they want to do is have a V-I.

I suppose in ways, a lot of music revolves around the Dominant and Tonic chords. A lot of things we take for granted today are the way they are because of the relationship these two chords share...

Tension and release...

There a few thoughts... Discuss more!

It's all about V-I if you have NO FUCKING IMAGINATION.

so is this why just about every radio song i've ever tried to learn talked about how it was some I-IV-V pattern?

I'm not restricting it to any key. To be more accurate. Root movements a fourth upwards. Called strong movements.

II-V (or make the II a dominant 7)
III-VI
VI-II

...etc.

Diminished Seventh chords can be thought of as dominant ninth chords missing a root.

The overuse of diminished chords does show a lack of imagination.

Uh, please assume all my music examples are in "Piano" Clef:

That's an F#dim7 (phantom root note on D) BTW. Sorry.

Well said. A lot of large scale pieces are basically giant I-V-I's. Sometimes a III is thrown in for the hell of it.

Most (or many?) classical pieces have a B-section in the V-key.

Hey! I'd noticed that before, but I never made any sense of it. I picked up the tritone relationship between the dominant 7 and the diminished chords.

I think what we're (or at least me) hearing is the leading note moving to the tonic and the subdominant moving to the dominant. These notes show up in both movements from the dim to I and V7 to I.

Yeah. I havn't exactly analysed much music, but of the music I have, the Vs really have been showing up, usually after and before Is.

Hmm, 'many' might be the way to go.

And the person who invented tritone chord substitution should be took out and shot.