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Tetrachord
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In music theory, traditionally, a tetrachord (Greek: o, Latin: tetrachordum) is a series

of four notes ("chords", from the Greek chordon, "string" or "note") separated by three smaller
intervals that span 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, not necessarily related to a particular
system of tuning.

Contents
1 History
1.1 Ancient Greek music theory
1.2 Pythagorean tunings
2 Variations
2.1 Romantic era
2.2 20th-century analysis
2.3 Atonal usage
3 Non-Western scales
3.1 Indian-specific tetrachord system
3.2 Persian
4 Compositional forms
5 See also
6 Sources
7 Further reading

History
The term tetrachord derives from ancient Greek music theory, where it signified a segment of the
Greater and Lesser Perfect Systems bounded by unmovable notes (Greek: ); the notes
between these were movable (Greek: ). It literally means four strings, originally in
reference to harp-like instruments such as the lyre or the kithara, with the implicit understanding
that the four strings produced adjacent (i.e. conjunct) notes.
Modern music theory makes use of the octave as the basic unit for determining tuning: ancient
Greeks used the tetrachord for this purpose. Ancient Greek theorists recognized that the octave is a
fundamental interval, but saw it as built from two tetrachords and a whole tone.[1]

Ancient Greek music theory

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Ancient Greek music theory distinguishes three genera (singular: genus) of tetrachords. These
genera are characterized by the largest of the three intervals of the tetrachord:
Diatonic
A diatonic tetrachord has a characteristic interval that is less than or equal to half the total
interval of the tetrachord (or approximately 249 cents). This characteristic interval is usually
slightly smaller (approximately 200 cents), becoming a whole tone. Classically, the diatonic
tetrachord consists of two intervals of a tone and one of a semitone, e.g. AGFE.
Chromatic
A chromatic tetrachord has a characteristic interval that is greater than about half the total
interval of the tetrachord, yet not as great as four-fifths of the interval (between about 249 and
398 cents). Classically, the characteristic interval is a minor third (approximately 300 cents),
and the two smaller intervals are equal semitones, e.g. AGFE.
Enharmonic
An enharmonic tetrachord has a characteristic interval that
is greater than about four-fifths the total tetrachord
interval. Classically, the characteristic interval is a ditone
or a major third,[2] and the two smaller intervals are
quarter tones, e.g. AG F E.

Two Greek tetrachords in the

enharmonic genus, forming an
enharmonic Dorian scale

Whatever the tuning of the tetrachord, its four degrees are

named, in ascending order, hypate, parhypate, lichanos (or
hypermese), and mese and, for the second tetrachord in the construction of the system, paramese,
trite, paranete, and nete. The hypate and mese, and the paramese and nete are "unmovable", fixed a
perfect fourth apart, while the position of the parhypate and lichanos, or trite and paranete, are
movable.
As the three genera simply represent ranges of possible intervals within the tetrachord, various
shades (chroai) with specific tunings were specified. Once the genus and shade of tetrachord are
specified, their arrangement can produce three main types of scales, depending on which note of
the tetrachord is taken as the first note of the scale. The tetrachords themselves remain independent
of the scales that they produce, and were never named after these scales by Greek theorists.[3]
Dorian scale
The first note of the tetrachord is also the first note of the scale:
Diatonic: EDCB | AGFE
Chromatic: EDCB | AGFE
Enharmonic: ED C B | AG F E
Phrygian scale
The second note of the tetrachord (in descending order) is the first of the scale:
Diatonic: DCB | AGFE | D
Chromatic: DCB | AGFE | D

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Enharmonic: D C B | AG F E | D
Lydian scale
The third note of the tetrachord (in descending order) is the first of the scale:
Diatonic: CB | AGFE | DC
Chromatic: CB | AGFE | DC
Enharmonic: C B | AG F E | D C
In all cases, the extreme notes of the tetrachords, E B, and A E, remain fixed, while the notes in
between are different depending on the genus.

Pythagorean tunings
Here are the traditional Pythagorean tunings of the diatonic and chromatic tetrachords:
Diatonic
Play
hypate
parhypate
4/3
81/64
| 256/243 |
-498
-408

9/8

lichanos
9/8
|
-204

Chromatic
Play
hypate
parhypate
lichanos
4/3
81/64
32/27
| 256/243 | 2187/2048 |
-498
-408
-294

9/8

32/27

mese
1/1
|
0 cents

mese
1/1
|
0 cents

Here is a representative Pythagorean tuning of the enharmonic genus attributed to Archytas:

Enharmonic
Play
hypate parhypate lichanos
4/3
9/7
5/4
| 28/27 |36/35|
-498
-435 -386

5/4

mese
1/1
|
0 cents

The number of strings on the classical lyre varied at different epochs, and possibly in different
localities four, seven and ten having been favorite numbers. Larger scales are constructed from
conjunct or disjunct tetrachords. Conjunct tetrachords share a note, while disjunct tetrachords are
separated by a disjunctive tone of 9/8 (a Pythagorean major second). Alternating conjunct and
disjunct tetrachords form a scale that repeats in octaves (as in the familiar diatonic scale, created in
such a manner from the diatonic genus), but this was not the only arrangement.
The Greeks analyzed genera using various terms, including diatonic, enharmonic, and chromatic.
Scales are constructed from conjunct or disjunct tetrachords.

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Didymos chromatic tetrachord

16:15, 25:24, 6:5

Play

Eratosthenes chromatic tetrachord 20:19, 19:18, 6:5

Play

Ptolemy soft chromatic

28:27, 15:14, 6:5

Play

Ptolemy intense chromatic

22:21, 12:11, 7:6

Play

Archytas enharmonic

28:27, 36:35, 5:4

Play

This is a partial table of the superparticular divisions by Chalmers after Hofmann.[4]

Variations
Romantic era
Tetrachords based upon equal temperament tuning were
used to explain common heptatonic scales. Given the
following vocabulary of tetrachords (the digits give the
number of semitones in consecutive intervals of the
tetrachord, adding to five):
Tetrachord Halfstep String
Major

221

Minor

212

Harmonic

131

Descending tetrachord in the modern

B Locrian (also known as the Upper
Minor Tetrachord): - - -
(b-a-g-f). This tetrachord spans a
tritone instead of a perfect fourth.
Play .

Upper Minor 1 2 2
the following scales could be derived by joining two
tetrachords with a whole step (2) between:[6][7]

The Phrygian progression creates a

descending tetrachord[5] bassline: -
- - . Phrygian half cadence:
i-v6-iv6-V in c minor (bassline: c
-b-a-g) Play .

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Component Tetrachords Halfstep String

Resulting Scale

Major + Major

2 2 1 : 2 : 2 2 1 Diatonic Major

Minor + Upper Minor

2 1 2 : 2 : 1 2 2 Natural Minor

Major + Harmonic

2 2 1 : 2 : 1 3 1 Harmonic Major

Minor + Harmonic

2 1 2 : 2 : 1 3 1 Harmonic Minor

Harmonic + Harmonic

1 3 1 : 2 : 1 3 1 Double Harmonic Scale[8][9] or Gypsy Major[10]

Major + Upper Minor

2 2 1 : 2 : 1 2 2 Melodic Major

Minor + Major

2 1 2 : 2 : 2 2 1 Melodic Minor

Upper Minor + Harmonic 1 2 2 : 2 : 1 3 1 Neapolitan Minor

All these scales are formed by two complete disjunct tetrachords: contrarily to Greek and Medieval
theory, the tetrachords change here from scale to scale (i.e., the C major tetrachord would be
CDEF, the D major one DEFG, the C minor one CDEF, etc.). The 19th-century
theorists of ancient Greek music believed that this had also been the case in Antiquity, and
imagined that there had existed Dorian, Phrygian or Lydian tetrachords. This misconception was
denounced in Otto Gombosi's thesis (1939).[11]

20th-century analysis
Theorists of the later 20th century often use the term "tetrachord" to describe any four-note set
when analysing music of a variety of styles and historical periods.[12] The expression "chromatic
tetrachord" may be used in two different senses: to describe the special case consisting of a
four-note segment of the chromatic scale,[13] or, in a more historically oriented context, to refer to
the six chromatic notes used to fill the interval of a perfect fourth, usually found in descending bass
lines.[14] It may also be used to describes sets of fewer than four notes, when used in scale-like
fashion to span the interval of a perfect fourth.[15]

Atonal usage
Allen Forte occasionally uses the term tetrachord to mean what he elsewhere calls a tetrad or
simply a "4-element set" a set of any four pitches or pitch classes.[16] In twelve-tone theory, the
term may have the special sense of any consecutive four notes of a twelve-tone row.[17]

Non-Western scales
Tetrachords based upon equal-tempered tuning were also used to approximate common heptatonic
scales in use in Indian, Hungarian, Arabian and Greek musics. Western theorists of the 19th and
20th centuries, convinced that any scale should consist of two tetrachords and a tone, described
various combinations supposed to correspond to a variety of exotic scales. For instance, the

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following diatonic intervals of one, two or three semitones, always totaling five semitones, produce
36 combinations when joined by whole step:[18]
Lower tetrachords Upper tetrachords
311

311

221

221

131

131

212

212

122

122

113

113

Indian-specific tetrachord system

See also Carnatic rga and Hindustani classical music.
Tetrachords separated by a halfstep are said to also appear particularly in Indian music. In this case,
the lower "tetrachord" totals six semitones (a tritone). The following elements produce 36
combinations when joined by halfstep.[18] These 36 combinations together with the 36
combinations described above produce the so-called "72 karnatic modes".[19]
Lower tetrachords Upper tetrachords
321

311

312

221

222

131

132

212

213

122

123

113

Persian
Persian music divides the interval of a fourth differently than the Greek. For example, Al-Farabi
describes four genres of the division of the fourth:[20]
The first genre, corresponding to the Greek diatonic, is composed of a tone, a tone and a
semitone, as GABC.
The second genre is composed of a tone, three quarter tones and three quarter tones, as
GAB C.
The third genre has a tone and a quarter, three quarter tones and a semitone, as GA BC.

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The fourth genre, corresponding to the Greek chromatic, has a tone and a half, a semitone and
a semitone, as GABC.
He continues with four other possible genres "dividing the tone in quarters, eighths, thirds, half
thirds, quarter thirds, and combining them in diverse manners".[21] Later, he presents possible
positions of the frets on the lute, producing ten intervals dividing the interval of a fourth between
the strings:[22]
Ratio:

1/1 256/243 18/17 162/149 54/49 9/8 32/27 81/68 27/22 81/64 4/3

Note name: C
Cents:

C
90

C
99

C
145

D E E
C
168 204 294 303

E
355

408 498

If one considers that the interval of a fourth between the strings of the lute (Oud) corresponds to a
tetrachord, and that there are two tetrachords and a major tone in an octave, this would create a
25-tone scale. A more inclusive description (where Ottoman, Persian and Arabic overlap), of the
scale divisions is that of 24 quarter tones (see also Arabian maqam). It should be mentioned that
Al-Farabi's, among other Islamic treatises, also contained additional division schemes as well as
providing a gloss of the Greek system as Aristoxenian doctrines were often included.[23]

Compositional forms
The tetrachord, a fundamentally incomplete fragment, is the basis of two compositional forms
constructed upon repetition of that fragment: the complaint and the litany.
The descending tetrachord from tonic to dominant, typically in minor (e.g. AGFE in A minor),
had been used since the Renaissance to denote a lamentation. Well-known cases include the
ostinato bass of Dido's aria When I am laid in earth in Henry Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, the
Crucifixus in Johann Sebastian Bach's Mass in B minor, BWV 232, or the Qui tollis in Mozart's
Mass in C minor, KV 427, etc.[24] This tetrachord, known as lamento ("complaint", "lamentation"),
has been used until today. A variant form, the full chromatic descent (e.g. AGGFFE in A
minor), has been known as Passus duriusculus in the Baroque Figurenlehre.
There exists a short, free musical form of the Romantic Era, called complaint or complainte (Fr.) or
lament.[25] It is typically a set of harmonic variations in homophonic texture, wherein the bass
descends through some tetrachord, possibly that of the previous paragraph, but usually one
suggesting a minor mode. This tetrachord, treated as a very short ground bass, is repeated again and
again over the length of the composition.
Another musical form, of the same time period, is the litany or litanie (Fr.), or lytanie (OE spur).[26]
It is also a set of harmonic variations in homophonic texture, but in contrast to the lament, here the
tetrachordal fragment ascending or descending and possibly reordered is set in the upper voice
in the manner of a chorale prelude. Because of the extreme brevity of the theme and number of
repetitions required, and free of the binding of chord progression to tetrachord in the lament, the

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breadth of the harmonic excursion in litany is usually notable.

See also
All-interval tetrachord
Diatonic and chromatic
Jins
Lament bass
Tetrad
Tetratonic scale

Sources
1. Thomas J. Mathiesen, "Greece I: Ancient, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second
edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan Publishers, 2001): 6. Music
Theory, (iii) Aristoxenian Tradition, (d) Scales.
2. John H. Chalmers, Jr., Divisions of the Tetrachord / Peri ton tou tetrakhordou katatomon / Sectiones
tetrachordi: A Prolegomenon to the Construction of Musical Scales (http://eamusic.dartmouth.edu
/~larry/published_articles/divisions_of_the_tetrachord/), edited by Larry Polansky and Carter Scholz,
with a foreword by Lou Harrison (Hanover, NH: Frog Peak Music, 1993), 8. ISBN 0-945996-04-7.
3. Chalmers 1993, 103.
4. Chalmers 1993, 11.
5. "Phrygian Progression" (http://classicalmusicblog.com/2007/08/phrygian-progression.html), Classical
Music Blog.
6. Marcel Dupr, Cours Complet d'Improvisation a l'Orgue, 2 vols., translated by John Fenstermaker.
Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1962), 2:35. ASIN: B0006CNH8E.
7. Joseph Schillinger, The Schillinger System of Musical Composition, 2 vols. (New York: Carl Fischer,
1941), 1:11214. ISBN 978-0306775215.
8. Joshua Craig Podolsky, Advanced Lead Guitar Concepts (Pacific, Missouri: Mel Bay, 2010): 111. ISBN
978-0-7866-8236-2.
9. http://www.docs.solfege.org/3.21/C/scales/dha.html
10. Jonathan Bellman, The "Style hongrois" in the Music of Western Europe (Boston: Northeastern
University Press (http://www.nupress.neu.edu), 1993): 120. ISBN 1-55553-169-5.
11. Otto Johannes Gombosi, Tonarten und Stimmungen der Antiken Musik, Kopenhagen, Ejnar Munksgaard,
1939.
12. Benedict Taylor, "Modal Four-Note Pitch Collections in the Music of Dvok's American Period", Music
Theory Spectrum 32, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 4459; Steven Block and Jack Douthett, "Vector Products and
Intervallic Weighting", Journal of Music Theory 38, no. 1 (Spring 1994): 2141; Ian Quinn, "Listening
to Similarity Relations", Perspectives of New Music 39, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 10858; Joseph N.
Straus, "Stravinsky's 'Construction of Twelve Verticals': An Aspect of Harmony in the Serial Music",
Music Theory Spectrum 21, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 4373; Tuire Kuusi, "Subset-Class Relation, Common
Pitches, and Common Interval Structure Guiding Estimations of Similarity", Music Perception: An
Interdisciplinary Journal 25, no. 1 (September 2007): 111; Joshua B. Mailman, "An Imagined Drama
of Competitive Opposition in Carter's Scrivo in Vento, With Notes on Narrative, Symmetry, Quantitative
Flux and Heraclitus", Music Analysis 28, no. 2/3 (JulyOctober 2009): 373422; John Harbison and

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Eleanor Cory, "Martin Boykan: String Quartet (1967): Two Views", Perspectives of New Music 11, no. 2
(SpringSummer 1973): 204209; Milton Babbitt, "Edgard Varse: A Few Observations of His Music",
Perspectives of New Music 4, no. 2 (SpringSummer 1966): 1422; Annie K. Yih, "Analysing Debussy:
Tonality, Motivic Sets and the Referential Pitch-Class Specific Collection", Music Analysis 19, no. 2
(July 2000): 20329; J. K. Randall, "Godfrey Winham's Composition for Orchestra", Perspectives of
New Music 2, no. 1 (AutumnWinter 1963): 10213.
13. Brent Auerbach, "Tiered Polyphony and Its Determinative Role in the Piano Music of Johannes
Brahms", Journal of Music Theory 52, no. 2 (Fall 2008): 273320.
14. Robert Gauldin, "Beethoven's Interrupted Tetrachord and the Seventh Symphony" Intgral 5 (1991):
77100.
15. Nors S. Josephson, "On Some Apparent Sketches for Sibelius's Eighth Symphony", Archiv fr
Musikwissenschaft 61, no. 1 (2004): 5467.
16. Allen Forte (1973). The Structure of Atonal Music, pp. 1, 18, 68, 70, 73, 87, 88, 21, 119, 123, 124, 125,
138, 143, 171, 174, and 223. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-01610-7
(cloth) ISBN 0-300-02120-8 (pbk). Allen Forte (1985). "Pitch-Class Set Analysis Today". Music
Analysis 4, nos. 1 & 2 (MarchJuly: Special Issue: King's College London Music Analysis Conference
1984): 2958, citations on 4851, 53.
17. Reynold Simpson, "New Sketches, Old Fragments, and Schoenberg's Third String Quartet, Op. 30",
Theory and Practice 17, In Celebration of Arnold Schoenberg (1) (1992): 85101.
18. Marcel Dupr, Cours Complet d'Improvisation a l'Orgue, 2 vols., translated by John Fenstermaker
(Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1962): 2:35. ASIN: B0006CNH8E.
19. Joanny Grosset, "Inde. Histoire de la musique depuis l'origine jusqu' nos jours", Encyclopdie de la
musique et Dictionnaire du Conservatoire, vol. 1, Paris, Delagrave, 1914, p. 325.
20. Al-Farabi, Kitbu l-msq al-kabr, translated in French by Rodolphe d'Erlanger, La musique arabe,
1930, reprint Paris, Geuthner, 2001:5657.
21. Al-Farabi 1930:58.
22. Al-Farabi 1930:16579; Liberty Manik, Das Arabische Tonsystem im Mittelalter (Leiden, E. J. Brill,
1969): 42; Habib Hassan Touma, The Music of the Arabs, translated by Laurie Schwartz. (Portland,
Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1996): 19. ISBN 0-931340-88-8.
23. Chalmers 1993, 20.
24. Ellen Rosand, "The Descending Tetrachord: An Emblem of Lament", The Musical Quarterly 65, no. 3
(1979): 34659.
25. Marcel Dupr, Cours complet d'improvisation a l'orgue: Exercices prepares, 2 vols., translated by John
Fenstermaker. Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1937): 1:14.
26. Marcel Dupr, (1962). Cours complet d'improvisation a l'orgue, 2 vols., translated by John
Fenstermaker (Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1962): 2:110.

Further reading
Anonymous. 2001. "Tetrachord". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second
edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
Rahn, John. 1980. Basic Atonal Theory. Longman Music Series. New York and London:
Longman Inc.. ISBN 0-582-28117-2.
Roeder, John. 2001. "Set (ii)". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second
edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.

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