Pentachord

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A pentachord (from the Greek penta "five", chordé " string ") is a " sound tool " with five strings, but above all a five-step section from a seven-step diatonic scale . One speaks of the major pentachord (the first five steps of the major scale) and the minor pentachord (the first five steps of the minor scale). In modern mathematical music theory is the word pentachord for five-membered sets (combinations) of pitch classes ( pitch classes ).

The diatonic pentachord

The musicologist Willi Apel points out that the pentachord not only systematically but also historically occupies an intermediate position between the ancient Greek tetrachord and the guidonic hexachord - as pentachordum it plays a central role in the early medieval textbook Musica enchiriadis .

A frequent use of the pentachord can be recorded in the formation of themes and motifs in Western music (see Johann Sebastian Bach , Theme of the Fugue in C minor in the Well-Tempered Clavier, Part II). Equally characteristic is the narrow crossing of the pentachord up, down or in both directions (see Johann Sebastian Bach, theme of the fugue in G minor in the Well-Tempered Clavier, Part I). Many nursery rhymes are also limited to the tones of the pentachord ( e.g. Hänschen klein and hum, hum, hum ) or just exceed it. The special importance of the pentachord in piano education is explained by the structure of the human hand with its five fingers.

The word pentatonic means something else: no five-step sub-areas of seven-step ladders, but ladders that are a total of five steps.

The pentachord in pitch-class theory

In the pitch-class theory by Allen Forte composition are relevant sets (combinations) of pitch classes (pitch classes) as tetrachords, pentachords, etc. referred hexachords. The pitch-class theory is primarily used to analyze pieces of free tonality and free atonality , but is also used in the field of serial music . So were piano pieces II and III of Karlheinz Stockhausen tested for pentachords out.

literature

  • Pentachord. In: Willi Apel: Harvard Dictionary of Music. Reprint of the revised and expanded 2nd edition. Heinemann, London 1976.
  • Scales, modes, and systems. With two sections on pentachordic structures in ancient Greek music theory. In: John H. Chalmers: Divisions of the Tetrachord. A Prolegomenon to the Construction of Musical Scales. Edited by Larry Polansky and Carter Scholz. Frog Peak, Hanover NH 1993, ISBN 0-945996-04-7 , pp. 95-97 ( online , PDF; 663 kB).

Web links

  • Pentachord in the online music lexicon of musikwissenschaften.de, accessed on May 27, 2020.

Individual evidence

  1. F. Riewe: Concise Dictionary of Tonkunst . Bertelsmann, Gütersloh 1879, entry “Pentachord”, see Pentachord in the online music lexicon of musikwissenschaften.de, accessed on May 27, 2020.
  2. ^ Willi Apel: Harvard Dictionary of Music. Reprint of the revised and expanded 2nd edition, Heinemann Educational Books, London 1976, entry “Pentachord”.
  3. ↑ On this also Malte Heygster and Manfred Grunenberg: Handbuch der relative Solmisation. Schott, Mainz 1998, p. 106 (where the word pentachord is used) and p. 142 (with information on its use in piano lessons).
  4. ^ Allen Forte: The Structure of Atonal Music. Yale University Press, New Haven and London 1973.
  5. For the piano piece II, see Herman Sabbe: Die Einheit der Stockhausen-Zeit… New possibilities of understanding the serial development based on the early work of Stockhausen and Goeyvaerts . In: Heinz-Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn (eds.): Karlheinz Stockhausen. ... how time went by ... = Musik-Concepts Heft 19, Munich 1981, pp. 5–96. For piano piece III see David Lewin : Musical Form and Transformation. Four analytic essays. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York 2007, in it the 2nd chapter ( Chapter 2. Making and Using a Pcset Network for Stockhausen's Piano Piece III , pp. 16-67).