On Mar 20, 1:46=A0pm, "Fiona Abrahami"
<fiona@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> "Jerry Kohl" <jeromek...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote
>
>
>
> >"Tom K." <tkor...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >> "Fiona Abrahami" <fiona@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
message
>
> >> > Much of my harmonic thinking these days seems to revolve around
highe=
r
> >> > tensions, and I rarely build a diatonic chord in a composition
withou=
t
> >> > including a ninth and thirteenth (and 11th where appropriate) -
> >> > non-diatonic intervallic structures are another thing, but even
then
> >> > I'm
> > > into big chords these days.
>
> >> > Generally, having decided my melody and bass notes I'm taking the
mod=
e
> >> > of
> >> > the moment, re-arranging it as a stack of thirds to get my 13th
chord=
> >> > and
> >> > then deciding how to voice it - which includes whether it will be
> >> > rootless
> >> > and whether to include the 5th and 11th.
>
> >> > My question to you guys is simply one of terminology, what is the
> >> > easiest,
> >> > most understandable name for a stack of thirds up to the 13th? Is
the=
re
> >> > an
> >> > existing term? Or do we have to invent one, Septachord, perhaps?
Urgh=
,
> >> > that sounds like a disease. A Septad? Like triad, that sounds a bit
> >> > better.
>
> >> You could borrow from pitch class set theory and call them: "Ordered
> >> collections of the cardinal number seven", but I suspect that's not
qui=
te
> >> what you're looking for:-) What's wrong with (as you mentioned above)
> >> "13th
> >> chord"?
>
> >> And, of course, another issue is voicing since if you stack the tones
i=
n
> >> 2nds rather than 3rds, you'll have a tone cluster.
>
> >Agreed on all points. "Thirteenth chord" is the only term I have ever
> >heard and, yes, the voicing is doubtless more im****tant than the pitch-
> >class content.
>
> >However, a fine point about Fiona's suggested alternatives: "triad",
> >"tetrad", "pentad", etc., as well as the "-chord" constructions use
> >Greek stems, not Latin ones, so the form for seven-membered sets would
> >be "heptachord" and "heptad".
>
> Ah, Greek not Lating, that's an im****ant bit of knowledge, duh, oh well,
I=
> never did do classics.
>
> But I like the sound of heptad, that's what I was looking for, thanks.
You're welcome. I've never "done classics" either, but I happen to
work in a university Classics Department office, which perhaps makes
me a little more aware of these things than otherwise would be the
case. As it happens, "heptad" does make an occasional appearance in
the music-theory literature, usually with reference to the diatonic
scale, specified as the "diatonic heptad". One of my favorites along
these lines, however, is the term for the eight-tone set of pitch-
cl***** that correspond to the tones of musica recta in chant theory
(that is, all of the natural note plus B-flat, which can also be
imagined as the major scale plus sharp 4, and other configurations),
termed the "master diatonic octad". It sounds like the name of a mad
scientist from a children's cartoon serial!
--
Jerry Kohl
"L=E9gp=E1rn=E1s haj=F3m tele van angoln=E1kkal."
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