Alpha chord

The alpha chord and its derivation from the alternating eight steps. Audio sample ^{? / i}

The alpha chord is a specially constructed, symmetrical eight-note, in which all notes of an alternating eight-step pattern occur. It consists of its two small zaxes , each of which forms a diminished seventh chord . If these seventh chords are built on top of each other and there is a whole tone gap between them , the alpha chord is created. The name was coined by Ernő Lendvai .

This chord did not appear in its distinct form until the 20th century, there especially in the music of Alexander Scriabin and Olivier Messiaen , such as the Turangalîla symphony ; but especially with Béla Bartók . The beta chord , the gamma chord and the delta chord can be derived from the alpha chord .

Whether the alpha chord can be viewed as such in isolation or only understood in a functionally harmonic context is, however, controversial.

Web link

Explanations of the chords related to Bartók and Kodály and the Fibonacci sequence

literature

• Zsolt Gárdonyi , Hubert Nordhoff: Harmonics . Möseler Verlag, Wolfenbüttel 2002, ISBN 978-3-7877-3035-3 , p. 211 ff .