tetrachord

tetrachord
tetrachordal, adj.
/te"treuh kawrd'/, n. Music.
a diatonic series of four tones, the first and last separated by a perfect fourth.
[1595-1605; < Gk tetráchordos having four strings. See TETRA-, CHORD1]

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music
      musical scale of four notes, bounded by the interval of a perfect fourth (an interval the size of two and one-half steps, e.g., c–f). In ancient Greek music the descending tetrachord was the basic unit of analysis, and scale systems (called the Greater Perfect System and the Lesser Perfect System) were formed by joining successive tetrachords. Only the outer notes of each tetrachord were fixed; the position of the inner pitches determined the genus of the tetrachord. The basic form was the diatonic genus (e.g., a–g–f–e); its modifications formed the chromatic (a–f♯–f–e) and enharmonic (a–f–e+–e♮, with e+ being a pitch between e♮ and f) genera. The Greek theorist Cleonides (c. 2nd century AD) discusses the tetrachord and its genera.

      In Western music, the tetrachord is an ascending series of four notes. Two disjunct tetrachords (those without a common tone), each with the interval arrangement of tone, tone, semitone, combine to form the major scale. Thus the tetrachords c–d–e–f and g–a–b–c′ form the scale built on c.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Tetrachord — Tet ra*chord, n. [L. tetrachordon, Gr. ?, from ? four stringed; te tra (see {Tetra }) + ? a chord: cf. F. t[ e]trachorde.] (Anc. Mus.) A scale series of four sounds, of which the extremes, or first and last, constituted a fourth. These extremes… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Tetrachord — (gr.), 1) ein viersaitiges, musikalisches Instrument; 2) ein auf vier Saiten erzeugter Accord, welcher eine Distance von 21/2 Tönen hatte. Daher tetrachordisch, beim T. vorkommend …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • Tetrachord — (griech.), eine Skala (Stufenfolge) von vier Tönen, s. Griechische Musik, S. 328 …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Tetrachórd — (grch.), ursprünglich ein Instrument mit 4 Saiten; dann eine Folge von 4 Tönen, die Grundlage des altgriech. Tonsystems …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

  • Tetrachord — нем. [тэтрахо/рд], англ. [тэ/трекоод] tetrachordum греч лат. [тэтрахо/рдум] tetracorde фр. [тэтрако/рд] tetracordo ит. [тэтрако/рдо] тетрахорд …   Словарь иностранных музыкальных терминов

  • tetrachord — [te′trə kôrd΄] n. [Gr tetrachordon, musical instrument < tetrachordos, four stringed: see TETRA & CHORD2] Music a series of four tones contained in the interval of a perfect fourth tetrachordal adj …   English World dictionary

  • Tetrachord — Traditionally, a tetrachord is a series of four tones filling in the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion. In modern usage a tetrachord is any four note segment of a scale or tone row. The term tetrachord derives from ancient… …   Wikipedia

  • Tetrachord — Ein Tetrachord (altgriechisch für „Vierton“) ist eine Viertonfolge mit dem Rahmenintervall einer reinen Quarte. Viele Tonleitern lassen sich als Zusammenfügung von zwei gleichartigen Tetrachorden beschreiben; der Abstand zwischen diesen beiden… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Tetrachord — ◆ Te|tra|chord 〈[ kɔ̣rd] m. 1 oder n. 11; Mus.〉 Hälfte einer Oktave [<grch. tessares, tettares „vier“ + chorde „Darm, Darmsaite, Saite“] ◆ Die Buchstabenfolge te|tr... kann in Fremdwörtern auch tet|r... getrennt werden. * * * Tetrachord  … …   Universal-Lexikon

  • tetrachord — noun In music a tetrachord is any set of four different pitch classes. See Also: interval, dyad, trichord, hexachord …   Wiktionary

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