Quartal and quintal harmony

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"Fourth chord" redirects here. For other uses, see Eleventh chord Fourth.

Four note quartal chord

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In music, quartal harmony is the building of harmonic structures with a distinct preference for
the intervals of the perfect fourth, theaugmented fourth and the diminished fourth. Quintal
harmony is harmonic structure preferring the perfect fifth, the augmented fifth and
the diminished fifth.

Quartal chord on A equals thirteenth chord on B, distinguished by thearrangement of chord factors

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Use of the terms quartal and quintal arises from a contrast, compositional or perceptual, with
traditional tertian harmonic constructions. Listeners familiar with music of the
(European) common practice period perceive tonal music as that which
uses major and minor chordsand scales, wherein both the major third and minor third constitute
the basic structural elements of the harmony.
Quintal harmony (the harmonic layering of fifths specifically) is a lesser-used term, and since
the fifth is the inversion or complement of the fourth, it is usually considered indistinct
from quartal harmony. Indeed, a circle of fifths can be arranged in fourths (GCFB etc.
are fifths when played downwards and fourths when played upwards); this is the reason that
modern theoreticians may speak of a "circle of fourths".
Contents
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1 Analysis

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1.1 Definition
1.2 Analytical difficulties
2 History

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2.1 Precursors
2.2 20th- and 21st-century classical music

2.2.1 Schoenberg

2.2.2 Webern, Ives, and Bartk

2.2.3 Hindemith

2.2.4 Others
2.3 Jazz
2.4 Rock music
3 Examples of quartal pieces
3.1 Classical
3.2 Jazz
3.3 Folk
3.4 Rock
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links

Analysis[edit]
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Definition[edit]
The concept of quartal harmony outlines a formal harmonic structure based on the use of the
interval of a perfect fourth to form chords. The fourth, thus, substitutes for the third as used in
chords based on major and minor thirds. Although the fourth replaces the third in chords,
quartal harmony rarely replaces tertian harmony in full works. Instead, the two types of
harmony are found side-by-side. Since the distance between the lower and the higher notes of
a stack of two perfect fourths is a minor seventh and this interval inverts to a major second,
quartal harmony necessarily also includes these intervals.

Analytical difficulties[edit]

One possible interpretation of a quartal chord: fourth suspension, resolving to dominant seventh and
tonic 6/4 chord

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A quartal chord composed of the notes C F B may be regarded using traditional theory as
a C dominant seventh chord (with an omitted fifth) in the midst of a 43 suspension, or as
C7sus4 (see suspended chord), where the fourth does not require resolution. Fsus4, a

suspended second-inversion chord, would also be a plausible label. Extending quartal chords
to four or more notes generates still more possibilities of a similar nature. The four-note chord C
F B E can be interpreted as a C minor chord with a minor seventh and embellishing
fourth (Cm7add4 or Cm11), or as an inversion of an E-flat major chord with a secondsuspension and embellishing sixthEsus2(add6), among other interpretations.

Traditional resolution of suspensions to a major triad and to a minor triad

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The question of which strategy of analysis is advisable is hard to answer since it is refined by
the particular details: given one interpretation, and the progression of harmony through the
preceding and following chords, and the overall musical development, is there a
comprehensible and audibly functional meaning to the interpretation? It is important to question
whether these suspensions, chromatic chords and altered chords are resolved as part of the
functional harmony or whether they remain non-functional and unresolved.

History[edit]
In the Middle Ages, simultaneous notes a fourth apart were heard as a consonance. During
the common practice period (between about 1600 and 1900), this interval came to be heard
either as a dissonance (when appearing as a suspension requiring resolution in the voice
leading) or as a consonance (when the tonic of the chord appears in parts higher than the fifth
of the chord). In the later 19th century, during the breakdown of tonality in classical music, all
intervallic relationships were once again reassessed. Quartal harmony was developed in the
early 20th century as a result of this breakdown and reevaluation of tonality.

Precursors[edit]

The Tristan chord

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The Tristan chord is made up of the notes F, B, D and G and is the very first chord heard
in Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde. The bottom two notes make up an augmented fourth; the
upper two make up a perfect fourth. This layering of fourths in this context has been seen as
highly significant. The chord had been found in earlier works (Vogel 1962, 12;Nattiez 1990,
[page needed]
) (notably Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 18) but Wagner's use was significant, first
because it is seen as moving away from traditional tonal harmony and even towards atonality,
and second because with this chord Wagner actually provoked the sound or structure of

musical harmony to become more predominant than its function, a notion which was soon after
to be explored by Debussy and others (Erickson 1975,[page needed]). Beethoven's use of the chord is
of short duration and it resolves in the accepted manner; whereas Wagner's use lasts much
longer and resolves in a highly unorthodox manner for the time. Despite the layering of fourths,
it is rare to find musicologists identifying this chord as "quartal harmony" or even as "protoquartal harmony", since Wagner's musical language is still essentially built on thirds, and even
an ordinary dominant seventh chord can be laid out as augmented fourth plus perfect fourth (FB-D-G). Wagner's unusual chord is really a device to draw the listener into the musicaldramatic argument which the composer is presenting to us. However, fourths become
important later in the opera, especially in the melodic development.
At the beginning of the 20th century, fourth-based chords finally became an important element
of harmony.

The Mystic chord

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Scriabin used a self-developed system of transposition using fourth-chords, like his Mystic
chord in his Piano Sonata No. 6. Scriabin wrote this chord in his sketches alongside other
quartal passages and more traditional tertian passages, often passing between systems, for
example widening the six-note quartal sonority (C F B E A D) into a seven-note
chord (C F B E A D G).
Scriabin's sketches for his unfinished work Mysterium show that he intended to develop the
Mystic chord into a huge chord incorporating all twelve notes of the chromatic scale (Morrison
1998, 316).

Measures 24 to 27 from Mussorgsky's "The Hut on Fowl's Legs"

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Quartal harmony in "Laideronnette" from Ravel's Ma mre l'oye. The top line uses the pentatonic
scale (Benward & Saker 2003, 37)

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In the 1897 work Paul Dukas's The Sorcerer's Apprentice, we hear a rising repetition in fourths,
as the tireless work of out-of-control walking brooms causes the water level in the house to
"rise and rise". Quartal harmony in Ravel's Sonatine and Ma mre l'oye would follow a few
years later.

20th- and 21st-century classical music[edit]

Composers who use the techniques of quartal harmony include Claude Debussy, Francis
Poulenc, Alexander Scriabin, Alban Berg, Leonard Bernstein, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor
Stravinsky, and Anton Webern (Herder 1987, 78).
Schoenberg[edit]
Arnold Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony Op. 9 (1906) displays quartal harmony. The work
begins not from tonal harmony, but instead begins with a fictitious [clarification needed] tonal centre: the
first measures construct a five-part fourth chord with the notes C F B E A distributed
over several instruments. The composer then picks out this vertical quartal harmony in a
horizontal sequence of fourths from the horns, eventually leading to a passage of triadic quartal
harmony (i.e., chords of three notes, each layer a fourth apart). [citation needed]

Six-note horizontal fourth chord in Arnold

Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony Op. 9
Vertical quartal-harmony in the opening measures of Arnold
Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony Op. 9

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Schoenberg was also one of the first to write on the theoretical consequences of this harmonic
innovation. In his Theory of Harmony (Harmonielehre) of 1911 he wrote: "The construction of
chords by superimposing fourths can lead to a chord that contains all the twelve notes of the
chromatic scale; hence, such construction does manifest a possibility for dealing systematically
with those harmonic phenomena that already exist in the works of some of us: seven, eight,
nine, ten, eleven, and twelve-part chords... But the quartal construction makes possible, as I
said, accommodation of all phenomena of harmony" (Schoenberg 1978, 406407). Other
examples of quartal harmony appear in Schoenberg'sString Quartet No. 1.

Quartal chord from Schoenberg's String Quartet

No. 1

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Quartal harmony from Schoenberg's String Quartet No. 1
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Webern, Ives, and Bartk[edit]

For Anton Webern, the importance of quartal harmony lay in the possibility of building new
sounds. After hearing Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony, Webern wrote "You must write
something like that, too!" (Webern 1963, 48; "So was mut du auch machen!"[citation needed]) Shortly
after, he wrote his Four Pieces for Violin and Piano Op. 7, using quartal harmony as a formal
principle, which was also used in later works.[citation needed]

Introduction to Ives's "The Cage", 114 Songs (Reisberg 1975, 345).

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Uninfluenced by the theoretical and practical work of the Second Viennese School, the
American Charles Ives meanwhile wrote in 1906 a song called "The Cage" (No. 64 of his
collection, 114 songs), in which the piano part contained four-part fourth chords accompanying
a vocal line which moves in whole tones.[citation needed]
Other 20th-century composers, like Bla Bartk with his piano work Mikrokosmos and Music
for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, as well asPaul Hindemith, Carl Orf and Igor Stravinsky,
employed quartal harmony in their work. These composers joined Romantic elements with
Baroque music, folk songs and their peculiar rhythm and harmony with the open harmony of
fourths and fifths.[citation needed]